I'm going to try to open up tonight, probably from 12:30 to 2am

I don't know how long I'll be out.  I would like to go out and take a look at a few targets.  I'm actually thinking about taking one of my smaller telescopes and the C8 out to the observatory and toy with those for a while.  I'd take out the RASA (Rowe Ackerman Schmidt Astrograph) but weather looks like it will be getting cloudy and that setup takes to much time to setup.   I'm a bit tired as well, so I may be better off taking a camera and perhaps even using the  14 inside the observatory. 

I have a number of smaller telescopes that I use often at home over the past year now.  We will see how things go tonight.

I'll probably send out a bulk email to some people on a mailing list as well in case someone wants to show up.

Greg

Aother solar iamge added below.
 Below is a close up of a solar flare that was happening during the eclpse.  This was taken through a C9.25 telescope with an Airy Lab 9.25 HA filter setup.  The telescope is capable of taking very close HA images which is high resolution and very close and small cropped pieces of the sun.  Here we can see that the sun looks like a bit of a piece of a crescent, because this image was taken during the solar eclipse.

I also have a Lunt 100mm HA telescope which can show detail and zoom in, but will not get as close as this image or show the level of detail possible with this C9.25 special Hydrogen Alpha setup.

Test From my PC - will blogger allow photos now

I'm not very active with blogger or opening up the observatory much.  The reason for not being active with blogger is the interface seems broken and I can't see old photos or post new ones.  I haven't replaced this blog with another one, but I probably should and may do that if I start getting more active and open up the observatory more.   I haven't been opening it up because I just have a lack of time with family responsibilities.   Sometimes I will open up the observatory but usually it's so late at night that I'm not even putting a post out because I have to wait for the entire family to be asleep before opening.

It's easier to do observing from my home because it's not scheduled or announced for the most part and I can quickly break down the observing equipment at times.  If I open up and announce the observatory as b
eing open I will end up wanting to stay and if sick people at my house who are not feeling well need my help, I'll feel tied down to the observing session and not want to return home as it could be difficult.

Others from time to time will open up the observatory but not as often and I rarely hear of the opening before they open it up.

We were open for the total eclipse but of course we didn't see totality with our location.  Perhaps as many as 300 people visited the observatory but this is just an optimistic guess.  The crowd at any one time seemed a lot smaller and I'm making my estimate based on people coming to observe for a while and then leaving to go elsewhere.  We were pressed for time during the eclipse transit because our setup time was truncated.   People arrived earlier than we had hoped because a newspaper story said we'd be opening at 11am, rather than 12:30 in the afternoon.   And we couldn't setup equipment as early as some had hoped.  Some were talking about starting at 9am but the new track was being sprayed by a crew who knew nothing about the observing event.  They were told to quit by 11am.

We ended up setting up equipment and I brought five setups for the event, not counting handheld solar binoculars.  We had 4 pairs of solar binoculars and I had a solar binocular telescope setup as well.

I'll try to post a photo now, but I doubt it will show up.

Looks like the photo showed up from the PC.  So perhaps I can throw together more posts with images originating from the PC.

Test

No photos test.

I've been doing a little bit of astronomy when the sky was clear and have been focusing on using a new telescope and camera to take images.

I don't think this text blog message will post so this is a test.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A quick photo from home.

Been doing some testing of different pieces of equipment at home. This limits some of my observing time at HJRO.

Below is a sample test session the lunar image isn't very good. Because I setup the equipment very quickly and the camera wasn't square with the optical path. My attempts at sharpening the image were a little overdone as well.

https://flic.kr/p/JcDR3u


It takes a lot longer to put a post out in blog press on the iPhone now. This is because the site doesn't allow pictures to be easily uploaded. So I have to put them on Flickr.

Blog press used to be a wonderful tool for the iPhone and iPad but now it's pretty backward
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We will be opening up HJRO at 9:30pm tonight

I've been not updating this observing blog much. Been busy with family issues but also I've been getting involved in learning to use some new solar equipment I picked up.

We obviously, won't be looking at the sun tonight. We will focus on Jupiter, Saturn and especially Mars later in the evening.

Mars is closer to the earth than it has been in the past 8 years.

Hopefully we will have some good observing and perhaps we will get some decent photos through the c14.

Hope to see you at the observatory.

Greg

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another live view shot of the moon on the TV monitor at HJRO

2010 visitor at HJRO

Here's one of the nearby residents in Lincoln Park, who visited the observatory.  This guy used to visit the observatory way back in the 1970's as well.  So I've probably seen him as a visitor when I was in the old Junior High and now much later.  The observatory is open free to anyone who wants to stop by and visit.  Whenever we are open.  Of course the trick is driving by and finding us open on a clear night.