Home Forums RAC Main Forum General Discussion Observing tonight?

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  • #11642
    jlmanatee
    Participant

        I was extremely disappointed in my astrophotography efforts last night.  Unlike the excellent motorized barn door tracker Bernie was working with, mine is manually operated and was slapped together in about 30 minutes.  I call it Mr. Shakey.  My next one will be an "awesome" motorized double-arm.  🙂  I'm still gathering parts.  In any case we both suffered from dew on the lenses and I pulled up stakes about 10:30.
        In an effort to redeem myself, I recommend you to my best moon shot and excuse myself as I've only been at this self-abusive hobby for about a month.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/101302104@N06/9974867113/

      #11643
      Dean Johnson
      Participant

        Dear Jim,

        I understand COMPLETELY your frustration with astronomy. That is why I have kept at it for 50 years.

        Have you seen the movie, 'The Outlaw Josie Wales'? If you have, remember the scene where Chief Dan George uttered the line,

        "ENDEAVOUR TO PERSEVERE".

        Best of luck in all your astronomical pursuits, and may you always have AGNFA!

        #11644
        ellenvega
        Participant

          On my way to work Sunday morning (at 5am) the winter constellations were BRILLIANT.  Orion and Sirius were in full glory and Jupiter and the Moon weren't too far off from one another.

          Hankering for another long star-gazing night….

          #11645
          jlmanatee
          Participant

            Last nights prime focus efforts at Keller were rewarding, though I have a lot to learn about post processing. 🙂

            M31 10-14 second light frames, 5-14 second dark frames.  Canon XSi, 800 ISO and CPC 800 @ f/10, alt/az mount

            http://www.flickr.com/photos/101302104@N06/10062976906/in/photostream/

            #11646
            bernie engels
            Participant

              Very nice, Jack!  I would like to talk with you more about astro photography (I was hoping to try again this weekend, but the weather doesn't look promising at all).

              #11647
              Dean Johnson
              Participant

                Nice photo, Jack! 8)

                Tonight looks good, at least down here in Spring Grove, and I am heading to the Flatin Farm for the Uff Da Fest Stary Party. I know its a long way, but if anyone is interested, you're always welcome.

                I called Eagle Bluff, but no answer.

                Clear skies to all who observe!

                #11648
                Dean Johnson
                Participant

                  Hello astonomy fans! Stup and I went down to the Flatin Farm. I got there first and just as I set up my tripod, a brief rainshower fell. I covered up the SkyView Pro with my parka and retreated under the van's hatch. Then the Sun broke through and a rainbow appeared. I couldn't help but think of Audrejean since this was the first time out there since her memorial service.

                  The Uff Da Fest Party was well attended…by 3 people, me, Stup and Logan Deschler made his patented late appearance when we were packing up. I got my binocs back out and showed him the Alpha Persei Association, the Pleadies, M13, M22, Andromeda Galaxy and Alberio.

                  Stup and I played "pocket astronomy" all night. High thin clouds came drifting by just like buses on a schedule. We looked at a lot of "the obvious stuff", but I was able to show him 'Mirach's Ghost' (Beta Andromeda and eliptical galaxy NGC 404). He had never seen that before.

                  It was ACNFA (A Challenging Night For Astronomy).

                  #11649
                  Dean Johnson
                  Participant

                    Hello astronomy fans! I went out last night to see if I could spot Comet ISON, but Jupiter took center stage.

                    While Mars, Regulus and Comet ISON's position was rising, I looked at the King of Planets and noticed a shadow transit taking place. Two of Jupiter's moons were to the east and one to the west, all very close. Callisto was way off to the east (90 degree stardiagnol), about 5 planet diameters away.

                    The three closest moons were within one planet diameter. While I was looking at Ganymede's shadow transit, the Moon on the other side (Io? Europa? Help me on this) disappeared into shadow! It went into eclipse! It was the first time EVER that I had seen a Jovian moon shadow transit accompanied by an eclipse of Jupiter's shadow. WOW!!

                    David Coset showed up shortly thereafter and I showed him Jupiter. Now the two moons to Jupiter's right in my FOV were very close and ANOTHER shadow appeared! It was SO fun!

                    Comet ISON will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

                    Friday night will be a triple shadow transit event for North America, the first one since March of 2004. I don't think we'll see it. Oh well, last night was definately AGNFA!!

                    #11650
                    Jeff Newland
                    Participant

                      Sounds like you had quite the night Dean.  To whet your appetite for ISON, here are some images people are taking of it.
                      http://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=ison
                      If you look at some of those, I can see why you had trouble trying to find it the other night.  🙂
                      Like this one with it next to Mars:
                      http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=87652&PHPSESSID=bf8gt9jhp3upfuq41hfqn7r5j6

                      #11651
                      Dean Johnson
                      Participant

                        Wow. Thank you Jeff. Now I don't feel so bad.

                        I was going to get up early again last night, but finally sleep deprivation got the best of me and I didn't wake up till 5:45 a.m.

                        I'll try again as soon as I can, but next time, the parka, gloves, coveralls and warm boots will need to go along. I hope to see some of you tonight for astronomy day, weather providing.

                        #11652
                        Jeff Newland
                        Participant

                          I think I'll try to follow your lead Dean.  If I wake up sometime between 3 and 4 I'll hopefully get up and head out to Keller and see if I can find ISON.  🙂

                          #11653
                          Dean Johnson
                          Participant

                            Good luck Jeff. God Bless you buddy.

                            #11654
                            Jeff Newland
                            Participant

                              Thanks Dean, not sure, but I may have seen it.. Maybe.  🙂  Heaven's Above wasn't working last night, so I didn't print off their chart, but I printed off Calsky and a couple of the photos.  The photos didn't help much, but the Calsky chart showed it a little down from Eta Leonis and just off the corner of a triangle of stars below Eta.  I guess on a line something like halfway between Mars and Eta.  There was an arc of stars to the right that it appears ISON probably went through.  I found a dim line of 3 stars and something faint and fuzzy off the end of those 3 stars.  I looked at that for quite awhile.  Wasn't sure if it was a 'fuzzy' or some dim star that I just couldn't bring into focus.  I tried a few different eyepieces, but still didn't get much from it.  I had my 12 inch and used 8.8, 11, 14, 19 mm eyepieces.  Still wasn't sure if that was ISON or not.  After I got home, I became more sure that it may have been ISON.  Heaven's Above was up and looking at the ISON chart there, it looked like what I was seeing.  I could see the arc of stars and then see the 3 dim stars and off the end them, there was ISON and that is where I was seeing that fuzzy object. So…  maybe..  🙂

                              Otherwise, also a great night out there.  Jupiter and Orion nice and high.  Quite dark, less cars on the road.  Mars and Regulus were very low to start, so I was looking at other things.  Messiers for the morning:  1, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 35, 36, 37, 38, 78, 31, 32, 33, 110, 81, 82, 103.  Definitely AGNFA!

                              However…  some bad news.  It looks like they may have messed up Keller as an observing site.  They have been in there and trimmed all of the trees around the parking lot and trimmed them good!  Wow!  Couldn't believe it when I got there.  It is all opened up.  Since the trees are trimmed, there is nowhere to hide from the yard light that is across the road.  After setting up, I moved my vehicle between the scope and light so I could get some protection from the light.  Sadly doesn't look too good.  🙁

                              #11655
                              Randy H
                              Participant

                                Regulus doesn't clear my neighbors trees until 5am. So I got the 18" reflector out to take a peak at ISON. My two go-to planetarium programs did not agree on its position, but I did finally locate it visually with the 27mm Panoptic. Very faint! Used averted vision.
                                I then took some pictures and a video of the comet. The comet moves probably less than an arcminute in the 19 minutes I was able to shoot before the sunrise was too bright. The video is condensed down to 19 seconds. I will attach a low-resolution copy.
                                Jeff, does this fit with what you saw? Only the brighter stars in this video would be visible.
                                Anyway, it's out there!


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                                #11656
                                ellenvega
                                Participant

                                  I'm pretty sure I saw it this morning, also.  4:55am, with my 8-inch Orion scope and a Meade 20mm super wide angle eyepiece.  Very, very faint but definetly something there.  I used this starchart from Astronomy.com, it's crossing a dark spot in the next night or 2:

                                  http://www.astronomy.com/observing/sky-events/2013/10/comet-ison-brightens-before-dawn

                                  Its got a long way to go to rival the moon.  😀

                                  Randy, that looks nice!  What I saw wasn't that clear, but it was in the same location.

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