Early Monday morning I went to HJRO and shot a photo of mars and the beehive cluster

I woke up early Monday morning and noticed it was still clear outside, but hazy. I went outside to see if I could view Mars and the beehive cluster. I used my vixen binocular telescope which isn't really a wide field telescope, but should offer 2 degree field of views pretty easily. They were to far apart, so I pulled out an f4.2 four inch telescope. With the 32mm both were barely inside the field of view, a 40mm eyepiece worked a little better. The Canon t1i on the Meade with the t mount seemed like it might get the teo objects in. Maybe the beehive and mars were to far apart. I decided to give it a try.

So I quickly loaded up and headed to the observatory. The inside of the dome was moist. There was a lot of haze and moisture in the sky. I was able to get a photo, but had to turn the camera so the 3/4 frame sensor could get both objects in the field of view.

There are some flaws in this photo.

And I'm not even trying to edit or tweak this photo, because of it's flaws.

There are some halos around mars, like spikes that may look like a diffraction pattern exists.. It's as if the side of the telescope was blocked by the part of the shutter or something. Perhaps causing the spike. The stars might be a bit out of focus as well I didn't have much time and was in a hurry as I got there late in the morning.

Mars in in the top right hand corner. The beehive cluster also called M44 is near the bottom and partially cut off. The beehive cluster and Mars will get closer and closer until mars will appear in front of the beehive cluster next Saturday morning. You have to be up around 4am to see them both as they rise very early in the morning.

Right now, if it was clear out you could see these in wide field binoculars or a wide field telescope. Something like an f4 reflector with a 40mm eyepiece. This photo was shot with a Canon t1i Eos camera mounted on the Meade 80mm f6 refractor with a t mount. A wider field telescope or a camera with a bigger full frame sensor would have shown a wider field of view. By the end of the week if we have clear skies we will have a better view.




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HJRO will be open tonight

The observatory is open tonight.

If you enter the small gate beware of construction materials and walk to the fence by the track. Then follow the sidewalks to the observatory.

Try to avoid the dirt by avoiding the grass.

An alternate route in would be to come in the fate by the tennis courts. If you drive in please park off the grass and away from the fence like other cars there so we can back out if we need to run an errand.

Kids bring your parent(s) if you want to visit as this is not a class or teacher sponsored event.

Jupiter rises at about 10pm but we won't have a decent view of it until 11pm or so.






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Hfcc club visit page 2

Brian Kutcher brought two telescopes.





He's looking through an Orion F4.9 Newtonian telescope here. It showed some pretty impressive views.

He also had his Celestron C8 setup as well.





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Hfcc visit page five photos

A shot inside the observatory, with only the red lights showing some of the visitors inside.

Below is one of the frames of a flash shot from my 3d camera. This is not a 3d photo however, just one of the frames.

I may post a 3d anaglyph later, the iPad can't import the 3d photos directly using the camera connection kit and I'll have to use my home computer to get that setup.



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Hfcc visit photo page 4

At 3200 iso with a five second exposure the moon almost looks like the sun over their heads. Above her shoulder below the street light is the planet Jupiter.








Here's another photo(above) that could stand a bit of rotation and cropping. I'm just sending this out on the blog as it appeared in the camera. No photo retouching on this one.

Looking at Jupiter below.

Notice the lower panel on the shutter is down, so the c14 inside was looking at something else, probably a galaxy or star cluster.


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Hfcc club visit, more photos page 3

I know I should have framed these a little more level. I'll have to rotate these a little if we plan on putting them in a newsletter.

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Shots from tonight's visit by Hfcc astronomy club

We had six Faac members and four scopes operation at one time.

About a dozen to fifteen people out tonight.

Here's some photos taken at 3200 iso and five second exposure.


Focus is set on stars so subjects close might not be as sharp as stars in the sky.




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Will be at Kensington Metropark tonight

Hopefully we will have some clear skies for some observing but there is a tent and covered vendor area.

Lots of astronomers and telescopes should be there.

Last night we had nothing but rain but it was still fun to chat with others about astronomy. I spent much of the evening chatting about astronomy imaging with a fellow member of the Faac club, Larry Hoffman.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dgs/kensington/

Link with information if you happen to be in the mood to drive by Kensington metro park and check it out.




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