Sample of hazy and cloud conditions

Looking at the moon, of course with this log exposure the moon looks really bright and is overexposed.




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Can you see part of the big dipper above the telescope?

Of course I'm in a blur effect with this self timer photo. As the photo is being exposed I'm taking a seat to look at the moon.

The photo was taken with a Canon t1i, 13second exposure, 800 iso setting.

I'm using the camera tripod for the binocular telescope. The camera is just sitting on a Celestron Nexstar tripod.




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Last minute view at moon with binoscope

Woke up late and headed out to take a look at sky conditions. Conditions are marginal at or near horizon with some passing clouds. Like a bowl. Just looked at the moon and took a few shots of the binoscope by the observatory to get some kind of photographic record.

The moon at 36 power through the binoscope looks to flicker a bit almost like a tv image. Contrast and details are still amazing with two eyes. Really love this for lunar viewing. Now I'll have to pick up some moon filters for this. Later before I left I tried taking a quick look at the moon throughout my little Bushnell F4 4 inch telescope,using a 32mm eyepiece. The little bushnell gave an extremely wide field view at a much lower power. I could fit six moons inside the field of view, that is to say six moons across with the little F 4 rich field. The little scope had a wider field than the higher powered and narrow field Vixen binocular telescope. View thought the binocular telescope was of course much more pleasing.

Picture of binoscope and observatory at night to follow in later posts. Really nice light breeze and moist air, still humid and warm out but almost ideal except the sky isn't perfect but rather a semi hazy bowl. I didn't take any pictures of the rich field 4 bushnel telescope in action.

Sitting by the football field two kids yelled out of their cars as they drove by. Looks like some kids are out and enjoying the night cruising this evening.

No mosquitoes, but I stayed on the black top and sidewalk.

I'm leaving the school now to grab a late night snack. I probably won't return tonight becuse I had a long day and I'm ready to get some sleep after the food run.

There us a bright star less than a half a moon behind on the dark side. Probably was oculted/covered by the moon earlier. Very visible through the binoscope and the background looks jet black.


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Looking at the moon at lake Erie metropark

At the nature center, moon looks really nice through the binoscope.



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Tonight I'll be at lake erie metropark

At the nature center for beginners night for astronomy.

I also may split my nights observing and travel to island lake beginners night.


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I was at George K's house observing via computer

Notes from last Saturday and Sunday morning:

The faac club had a few outings announced, one being at the novi sports park in Northville Mi.

Bit due to a variety of reasons I was the only one to show up at the sports park site. Clouds had threatened and many were bisy with other last minute projects. Trying to salvage some viewing and not waste the trip without some socialized star gazing I gave George a call. George was up but not observing however he mentioned he could be observing in about 2 minutes of I wanted to stop by.

Hours and hours later George was showing me his computer programs and imaging software we were surfing the net, he was imaging and showing me many images as we talked about just about any subject and maybe every subject about astronomy, it's all kind of a blur now.

I wondered at that time how many hours George could stay up? He was energized when on the subject of astronomy and maybe I could have been more energetic but I was out the night before at the lincoln park hector j Robinson observatory until 3 am.

I finally after most of the night made it back home, at about 5:50 am. Jupiter was brightly shining and a I felt re-energized from the drive back and decided to try out the binocular telescope in this planet.

I had so much fun I spent a what seemed to be as hours at the scope. But it was closer to being one hour. Maybe the rem sleep states approaching was changing my perception of time itself, or maybe it was just the view.

Finally
Daylight was taking hold and the sky was lit up still the scope shows great views of the planet.

Jupiter and the sun had risen, Jupiter was far away front the sun was a treat to look at while daylight had arrived. I was really happy to see the performance of the scope. It would be even better had I two sets of televue plossls instead of the set vixen provides with the scope.

The field of view in the binocular telescope is wide enough to easilly keep tracking an object even with a simple mount. A big plus for showing others.

As the sun rose thin clouds seemed to roll in more and more.

The clouds were thin and didn't affect my veiwing much the telescope seemed to look through the thin cloud layer that we had. The clouds were not very thickbut I was still surprised how well the scope performed in marginal conditions. It should be a real treat when looking at the moon.

Photo observing chair and bino telescope below.


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I'm out at the Novi sports park tonight

Sorry the observatory won't be opened tonight, at least it won't be by me.

Sky conditions are party cloudy with thin clouds in some areas and only average transparency. Yesterday late the sky was much better.

I was driven out of the park by mosquitos, because I left my repellant at home.

Had to go to a store and take a break, getting repellant. Probably bite eight times and I was moving around trying to break down the scope and get out of there.

Photos may follow later if I get anything.


Greg


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