There was a loud knocking sound in the house that woke me up. That's a different story, but I was fast asleep and heard this knocking and yelling which is unrelated to astronomy. I don't know if I was dreaming or what, but I felt like I was in a REM dream-like state. The clock said, 4:30AM or something like that, as my vision was fuzzy and I tried to fall back asleep. Then more noises. . . so I finally woke up a bit at about 5AM. I took a quick look outside, and it was fairly clear outside. I decided to make a quick attempt to open up HJRO and perhaps get a video clip of Comet Panstarrs which is perhaps still a good photographic target. I kind of muddled around the house and started to gather a few items, not having an observing kit planned. I decided to grab the Canon EOS, the Stellacam and an eyepiece bag. I also grabbed my Toshiba PC which could control and record stills and video from the Canon EOS or Stellacam.
Perhaps I could get video of the comet with the Stellacam. . . it seemed early enough out.
It was cold out and my snow pants were in the car already pre-chilled. I decided to stop at Tim Horton's drive through to get a hot chocolate.
I decided to grab a bagel and cream cheese as well from the drive through. Then quickly pulled up in the parking lot and started eating the bagel and put out a quick post to some FAAC members in case some were up and around the area and felt the need to go out and take a look up this morning. I don't know many of the FAAC member's schedules, some might be up early in the morning on their way to work and some who are in the area might have a chance to quickly head out and join me. . . at least that was my early morning logic.
Last night I was going to ask a few FAAC members if they wanted to do solar astronomy for the school system, a kind of impromptu outreach, but I was so busy and had to leave early and was feeling a little under the weather. I decided to wait and see. Now it was morning. . . rather than stay in bed and get more REM sleep, I was out dreaming of getting that perfect Stellacam video clip that we would process and finally I'd have a low light video clip of the comet.
Arriving at the observatory I decided to open the gate and drive up close to the observatory. The moon was starting to look a bit worse. It's full now and opposite of the sun. It was about 20 degrees above the horizon, which means the sun was about 20 degrees below the eastern horizon, all things being equal. "What time does the sun rise?" But also what time is the sun 15 degrees below the horizon, because generally speaking when the sun is one hour below the horizon there is sky glow. Ideally I'd be there a little earlier and be able to setup and have some time to be ready.
So I opened up the observatory. I had two jackets on but no snow pants and could feel the cold chill in the air. The air was still but seemed to be full of a frost like dew.
I couldn't tell if haze or some thin clouds were covering the moon, I guessed it was a bit of clouds perhaps moving north. . .
I started up the mount after uncovering the telescope. I took the Stellacam and my ipad into the observatory, but left my eyepieces in the car. I left my hot chocolate in the car as well.
The computer would not quickly connect to the computer, because the cable wasn't plugged into the computer that attaches to Windows. I was a bit puzzled by the computer cable that was left hooked up to the computer, it was a camera control cable. I should have realized it was for routing Stellacam signals into the computer. I didn't know if the C14 was set up for the Stellacam focus or an eyepiece. I should have remembered it was setup for the Stellacam, but that wouldn't help, because that would be a very narrow field and the mount and Sky Software wasn't likely going to point to Panstarrs correctly, for a small field of view. I needed to use the Stellacam on the refractor. I could perhaps get a view of the comet with the C14 first, and then mount the Stellacam on the Meade and setup the Meade's focus for the comet. But the comet would be faint and I would have to focus on something else first. Most targets might fade quickly for focusing as the sky started to grow brighter. I could aim at the moon, but it was way over in the west and that meant moving the dome and I still didn't have the Stellacam mounted on the telescope. I'd have to run cables. That would take time. I wanted to use the ONE good extension cable to hook up the heater because it was cold inside and I was really feeling that chill of the 36 degree air with moisture in it.
I felt like I walked into a dairy cooler from the old days when I worked at a convenience store. Those coolers were moist with air, cold and chilly. I felt like a chilled bottle of milk inside HJRO.
I turned on the Heating pad on the chair and finally connected the computer to the mount and told it to go Panstarrs. The C14 moved toward Panstarrs. The comet was further north and higher than I expected it to be. The sky was getting brighter and brighter. I put an eyepiece in and looked and saw nothing but blue sky.
I didn't know if the eyepiece was in focus and if Panstarrs was even in the field of view. I told the scope to goto a nearby bright star, near the comet so I could find that and sync the computer software called "The Sky" to the nearby star. This would allow accurate pointing to the comet. The star was found and I had to move the mount with the control paddle to the star and get it in the field of view. Still a blue sky. The mount was pointing to the star, but the star was out of focus, because it was setup for the Stellacam. I refocused the star, fine tuned the alignment and "synced" the software. Now it was off to the comet.
I had a 33mm SWAN eyepiece in the telescope's focuser. The comet wasn't visible. I could see a nice bright blue sky. Then taking a second look, I could see the comet. I felt like I could feel the ice crystals flying off the comet filling my lungs with icy air. . . but it wasn't from the view. The comet looked like a simple faint star, no tail was visible. The icy feeling was literally from the cold damp air filling my lungs.
Because I couldn't see a tail and the sky was glowing brighter and brighter, it was unlikely I could setup the camera or stellacam in time to get a photo of the comet and it's tail. I would have to setup the camera or the Stellacam. And setting up the Stellacam would take some time, because I'd have to focus the Meade, align the meade with the smaller target area provided with the small image chip on the stellacam. The chances of seeing the tail with the Stellacam were zero.
So I ended up running outside and taking a few stills with my iphone showing the glowing sky conditions. I took a photo of the moon, but it was poor, so I won't post that here. The moon was covered with thin clouds and haze. The morning haze will likely burn off with the morning sun as it rises. I was feeling cold and very chilled by that time about 6AM. I didn't hook up the IR heater and that probably wouldn't have helped, because my lungs were feeling like they would fill up with ice and the IR heater won't heat the air, just object surfaces. I don't know if I want to open up or chance opening up this morning, due to the could air and conditions.
So I locked up and left HJRO. I drove over back to Tim Horton's to sit down write this blog entry and get the camera photo for the blog entry.
So I don't have a photo of the comet this morning to post. Just this photo of the observatory and the sky as it was starting to glow, when I saw the comet inside.
I'm heading back home for a morning nap. Maybe I'll catch up with that comet in my dreams.
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