It will be clear out tonight but the observatory will be closed

We will be doing t point modeling for the mount tonight and put in a new star model in the Gemini mount as well. This setup is much more refined than setups we've had in the past at the Hector J Robinson observatory.

The Gemini model can be altered and more stars can be added during other sessions. This allows us to setup the mount and make alterations later if we have visitors. But the t point model has to go in during the single observing session. You can't modify it later, you have to do it all in one session. The more objects we add the better the model and more accurate the scope will aim and track. We have a really good aligned mount now, so we will focus on the t point model tonight.

It's going to be a very busy day for me tomorrow, so I won't have time to setup telescopes outside for visitors. So basically the observatory is closed to visitors tonight.

I'm showing a photo of the sky today. It's not an astrophotograph of course, but just a photo of the cloud cover at this time.

The nice thing about this setup once we are finished with it will be the ability to take much better astrophotographs with the Gemini mount. It would be nice to get a photo of the more recent comet visitor that is below cassiopia at this time. It's getting close to the double cluster if I recall the positional movements correctly.




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A few Faac astronomers

A few of us were at the observatory tonight to do work.

I arrived late. George Korody was already there and Tim Dey was there as well.

They worked on the drift alignment. George and Tin did most if the work, actually all the work. I basically watched and learned, which means I tried to throw out witty remarks and for the most part failed tonight as u was cold and didn't really warn up much during the observing or alignment times. It was mostly alignment work.

We took a quick look at Jupiter and tested the pointing accuracy looking at a few objects. M15, Sirius, the ring nebula, etc. The stars they chose for drift alignment, actually I forgot to note them down. But by the end of the session the alignment was complete. We didn't have time for the t point model, which is a more accurate model. We need to cold start and start the alignment process. They also looked for the latest comet that is making it's return and supposedly near 5.5 in magnitude but this is dispersed. The bright skies made it impossible for Tim to see the comet naked eye through the telescope.

George has a lot if good advice. I was happy to be there but to tired to be much good.

We also mounted a new f6.3 field reducer for the c14. This gives the c14 a wider field of view and an effective focal length of about f7 instead of f11. Meaning lower power but wider fields of view and it provides a flatter field if view.

That's it for now.

I'd show a photo but I was to tired to setup and get a good one. Hopefully we will have good viewing and have the scope in much better working order in the next few days.


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There us a lot of haze out today

Quick photo from my workplace window



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The new iPhone 4 is pretty nice

This is my first blog entry using a new iPhone 4.

Not much happening with astronomy at the observatory due to bad weather.

More to follow later.


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Visitor at the obsrvatory

Andrey visited tonight.


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Hoepfully the weather and the scope mount will stabilize

We have been having some minor problems and not much in the way of clear nights lately.

We have had some problems wit the mount. These have been due to some pointing errors and also at time the mount will runaway. That's a strange term so I'll explain it. The mount doesn't run down the street, but when it's moving the telescope toward a star under computerized control, the mount will at times miss it's target or lose track of the target and continue moving out of control until it reaches a point where the mount reaches a safety limit.

Safety limits a locations where the mount moves to far and the counterweight are too high or the telescope could hit the mount. So the build in boundary in the computer goto controller will stop the telescope from crashing into the pier or the mount itself, but the controller is non responsive and the mount has to be rebooted. This is the nature of a runaway, the mount runs away out of control and we lose control over it.

To fix this we reprogram the star model or cold star and reprogram mount settings. There's other diagnostics involved as well, mostly trial and error and reading up and studying suggested solutions from other Gemini mount users that have a similar telescope mount.

So we've been having a few members come out to do diagnostics and also we do a little star gazing, but not much. We at times get a bit carried away and look at a few objects of interest because something may be out and the sky might be decent for a short time.

So I haven't been inviting the public out much on this blog the past week. The main reason is diagnostics and the mount, but also the sky conditions are often bad and haze and clouds are moving in. Well spend some time trying to simulate or recreate a pointing error and other times briefly looking at some object like Jupiter while there's a break in the clouds.

Frankly I don't want to tell folks to come by and then have them watch a boring diagnostic session or perhaps get in the way of core group members who are working on the mount. And if sky conditions are really mixed and iffy, (if iffy is a good term to use here?) I don't want to invite a lot of people and club members and have them drive out and then show them a cloudy sky and just sit here hoping for the clouds to clear. I've spent about five hours this week under totally cloudy skies when forecasts were for clear skies.

So we are still here.

Tonight there will be a early break in the sky but it's supposed to be cloudy after the early evening hours. The core group will try to do some extensive changes to the mount and maybe really put in a great model, called a t point model. But it's likely that we will not even have time and cloudless skies long enough to get it all done tonight. We can only hope.

So if you see the observatory open early in the evening it's probably going to be open for diagnostics and we probably won't invite the public in.

If conditions are really nice and we are there and you see a telescope outside I may have a scope outside for visitors to peer through. Jupiter is a great target right now. Especially after 11pm as it rises higher.

There is also a faint comet that we have prig rammed into the sky software. It was magnitude 7 last week and supposedly an essay target to see, but we couldn't see it through the c14. We were able to bring it out very faintly on a photograph we tried to get. The sky glow and drift errors in the mount mass longer exposes impossible.

We got the best image with a mild sky glow filter that George brought along.

The comet is getting brighter but it's tail is not visible even in photos from George's observatory which has darker skies and better cameras.

Here's a photo of the comet, it's not very good and really just an attempt to see it and see if it's in the field of view. It's not a real astrophotography of real quality that most would work on and post but rather just a test photo from my canon t1i eos camera.

You'll want to click on the link photo and look for the small faint blob near the center of the photo. Can you see it? Not much to look at. More photos stacked with better processing would show a better image.

We took some photos of Jupiter between clouds as e clouds dominated the weather the past couple of times I was out there.



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No observing tonight

Today was supposed to be the first national observe the moon event. I would have done something for this event, but the weather didn't cooperate.

So I spent this evening editing the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club newsletter.

It's not ready yet but should be out by Monday. Here's a sneak peek of my computer screen and part of page 9 of the newsletter.

Hector J Robinson observatory
I have some photos from my iPhone in this months newsletter.

To see past newsletters google "FAAC Astronomy" and look for the Ford Amateur Astronomy website.

Here's a photo of the video monitor of the solar observing today.

Our stellacam 3 camera can take pretty decent video clips of the sun. We have a tv monitor that can show this.

The images we saw from the stellacam were I'm some ways better than looking through an eyepiece in the hydrogen alpha solar scope.

And the monitor looked better than this photo of the monitor.


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Richard visited the Hector J Robinson observatory today

Here's a photo I was able to take of Richard in front of the telescope with my Canon Eos camera. I'd send this to his email, but my last email bounced and wasn't delivered. So here's the photo Richard.

You can see this was when we were observing the sun through special telescopes and filters designed to allow one to safely view the sun.

Richard told me when he was young, some made safe glass to view an eclipse through. Of course we know now that the instructions they used to create safe glass at that time were wrong. You need to be extra careful and insure you have the correct setup to view the sun. When in doubt, stay safe and if you wonder it's better to consult with an astronomer to insure your using a safe method to view the sun.




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More visitors at the observatory

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Some visitors

Can you name this visitors


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Great time observing the sun

I didn't have a lot of time to observe the sun today after work.

I rushed to te observatory and announced Otto faac members and Tim Dey that I would be there.

There were many distinct features and promanences on the sun today.

Ed out technology guy from the school showed up as well he saw te observatory open. Soccer players were nearby from a visiting school. I asked Tim if Ed being present was enough school support presence to show the kids the sun. Tim went out and started inviting kids in to observe through the solar scope. We had some adults view the sub as well.

I had to close up. An older gentleman from the neighborhood arrived am we chatted a while. I told him I has to leave and might be back later. But my late departure meant I would not be able to get to a
Bakery in time.

So I called a friend who is in the club and asked a favor. Could he pick up preordered nake goods for me. He did, but then we talked and started looking attge faac video footage I shot and put together.

We went out to eat and he offeredany good editing suggestions and tips. We ran out of time. I'm tired and the sky is wonderful but I stayed up to late last night.

So I have to go to sleep,

I was trying to do to much and I won't be able to open the observatory tonight. Sorry guys.

Here's a photo of some of the kids today who looked thru the solar telescope at the sun.




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The test tonight

We tested goto meeting with the iPad


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Astronomy at the Beach was a lot of Fun Friday

I had a lot of fun as many did at Astronomy at the Beach Friday night. I was out until almost 1AM at the site. I didn't get home until 4AM.

I didn't spend any time watching the lectures. I like to attend and hear, but tried to get footage of telescope setups and talk the the astronomers at the beach. I also tried to quickly setup and show a few folks the sky through my binocular setup. Although my tripod is not very good for the binocular Telescope so I focused on only showing two objects.

I would have loved to look through more telescopes during the event, but of course you're either looking through other scopes, or showing your own. Or in my case, taking a few photos and some video clips. I tried to do a little bit of everything and that kept me pretty busy.

There are some excellent photos on the FAAC site that Greg Ozimek took. They capture a lot of the spirit of the event and are much more wide ranging than the memory video I took.

There's also a video that focuses on the WSU lectures on Friday night.

The link to that is as follows:

http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/index.php/article/2010/09/videowayne_state_visits_astronomy_at_the_beach

I will edit and submit some video for the FAAC show if they want to use any of it. The FAAC cable show producer was there and shot his own video, so it's difficult to say if he will be able to use any of the short segment or clips I might provide.

I need to do a voice over and put some music perhaps over some of the clips and will put a note about the video clips here when I have something ready for some YouTube viewing.

Everyone that was a visitor that I saw was really nice and they were all very kind and thanked us for letting them look through the telescopes.

As for Saturday, it rained. I don't know if they cancelled the Saturday event. I didn't go out there, one of the astronomers I know headed home at 4PM after attending a lecture that was only open for astronomers. He said it was raining buckets out there and he wondered if they'd cancel the Saturday event, because he doubted anyone would show up.

They had 3500 people attend the event on Friday.

Some of the Astronomers I know arrived late, and they setup late. There were fewer vendor tables this year than in the past, perhaps a sign of the tough economic times.

Tonight Astronomy At The Beach event will be at Kensington Metro Park

At the Maple Beach area starting at 6pm.

This is the biggest Public star party in Michigan with as many as 7500 people attending.

I'll be there tonight, with the skies hopefully cooperating.

I haven't decided what scope to take along. I may just mingle with the other astronomers, and take a peek through their telescopes. I want to shoot some video clips. I may focus on that and not setup any telescope at all.

There's a lot there. a portable planetarium, speakers on Saturday, vendors, and of course astronomers with telescopes trained on the sky.

Hope to see you there.

Saturdays weather has a 50 percent chance of rain, so for a better chance at looking up your better off going out there tonight.


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I'm likely going to be at the observatory from 10 until 12

Hoping to get in a couple hours tonight.

Will be working on the mount model if no visitors arrive, and I I'm working in the model with other members may be able to show visiters views through the binocular telescope.

If the sky is very overcast in Lincoln Park I may not stay there.

I've been very tired with aches in my muscles today.

It's cold out so dress warm if you plan on showing up.


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There is a good chance I'll be at the observatory at 10pm

There may be clouds, or partial clouds.

Im going to try to put in a new model.

There may not be a lot of good viewing tonight and it may be mostly work.

It might be better if FAAC core members show up if they have time and can read this post.

Other visitors may not find much to observe. We might be busy, so it's probably better if you don't plan on coming by for a great time observing. We might observe a few objects if the sky clears up and we get the model setup. I'll likely be there until 1am if the skies are clear and I avoid freezing. . . Lol.

Just realize we may be busy and have to show you something though a smaller scope.

If I'm alone at the observatory, I may be busy with the model.

Also it's cold out tonight, so if you stop by don't forget to dress for the cold.

The sky conditions are not supposed to be good, mixed clouds and poor seeing. But it may be good enough to put in a model. I'd rather do that work with marginal viewing and sky conditions and then have the mount setup for good nights and have it open for visitors.

Greg


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Visitor at the observatory

Joe knew Hector J Robinson


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Testing at the observatory

Test of goto meeting

I took the still in the wrong perspective.




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Went out near the river to view tonight

Fun time now to head for bed.


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Not much to report today

It's cloudy this evening.

I spent some time going over clips and photos I took last night as well as other astronomy photos.

With digital cameras you can take a lot of photos cheaply. But then of course you have to store and try to organize them for later use.

Probably 80 percent of my photos are not something I can use later. A lot of junk photos.

With digital you seem to be able to be a pack rat and store and horde almost every photo you've taken.

Of course that can get tone a huge problem, with many cameras as well. Digital point and shoot, slr styled cameras, images from an iPhone, and from camcorders aa well.

Photographers use database photo libraries, but still need to work to organize there photos.

For the apple computer iPhoto is a nice product but it will start to chock on some machines when you get over 10000 photos.

I probably have 30,000 photos but not all in a library. Digital astrophotographers take many photos of the same object to stack them. This makes storage and organization even more critical. One if my problems is I don't spend or have enough time to organize all these photos and I'm not even seriously into astrophotography yet.

I was primarily looking for photos related to the observatory tonight. Getting stills for a cable show segment. FAAC gas a cable show and I am putting together a little intro summary clip about the observatory.




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