8;35 pm until ?
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
George has the imaging setup running and we are in a warm control room
What fun.
I ran outside and looked at m42 outside through the binocular telescope and then through his c14. It's only about 4 degrees out.
M42 looked nice through the little binocular telescope, but it looks so much brighter with the c14.
He had the field reducer on it. With a 7mm eyepiece and 2500mm as the focal length we had 350 power at the higher power when looking at it. That brought it close enough to see two additional stars in the trapezium or six stars altogether.
That was enough for direct viewing. We came back in and I warmed up a bit before leaving.
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I ran outside and looked at m42 outside through the binocular telescope and then through his c14. It's only about 4 degrees out.
M42 looked nice through the little binocular telescope, but it looks so much brighter with the c14.
He had the field reducer on it. With a 7mm eyepiece and 2500mm as the focal length we had 350 power at the higher power when looking at it. That brought it close enough to see two additional stars in the trapezium or six stars altogether.
That was enough for direct viewing. We came back in and I warmed up a bit before leaving.
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Sorry but it's freezing out and I didn't clear off the dome
It's the kind of evening where you grab a pair if binoculars or a small telescope, bundle up and run outside for a brief look at Jupiter or perhaps Jupiter and then m42.
It's not a kind if night where I would bundle up try to clear the dome and hope it would open while I wait and huddle by the heater.
I've heard the transparency is good for imaging. I was going to travel to a friends house and take some telescopes out there. I figured we'd look briefly from his dark sky site for maybe 20 minutes then watch movies.
Then another friend called me back. I caller George to chat about weather conditions then he invited me out to his place to so some remote imaging. Remote imaging is where you sit inside and control the telescope from a warm room. Tonight remote imaging sounds a lit better than sitting inside the observatory. When I loaded up the car today with some equipment my lungs hurt from the cold air.
In other observing news I woke up early at about 5:30am I ventured out in the cold to look at Saturn this morning. I couldn't stay out long and had to check out Venus as well. Venus looked so bright this morning I thought at first it was a jet aircraft or helicopter.
I stayed out maybe 20 minutes and my hands started to grow numb and hurt from the cold. I wasn't wearing any gloves and the near zero degree temperatures may it a brutal viewing adventure. I was happy to get back in a warm house and go back to bed.
Saturn looked wonderful but my scope wasn't cooled off and perhaps some haze made seeing less than ideal. A 40mm was fine the 15mm showed some degrading if the image not a lot of detail in the 1500mm focal length nexstar 4se. The 8mm was showing only a large fuzzy planet. Venus seemed much better for some reason. It almost looked like I'd see surface detail when viewing it with the 40mm. The 15mm if course would not show surface detail, just a larger ball of gas which is half illuminated by the sun.
Here's a shot of the cloud and sky conditions near sunset.
Clouds will increase after midnight tonight.
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It's not a kind if night where I would bundle up try to clear the dome and hope it would open while I wait and huddle by the heater.
I've heard the transparency is good for imaging. I was going to travel to a friends house and take some telescopes out there. I figured we'd look briefly from his dark sky site for maybe 20 minutes then watch movies.
Then another friend called me back. I caller George to chat about weather conditions then he invited me out to his place to so some remote imaging. Remote imaging is where you sit inside and control the telescope from a warm room. Tonight remote imaging sounds a lit better than sitting inside the observatory. When I loaded up the car today with some equipment my lungs hurt from the cold air.
In other observing news I woke up early at about 5:30am I ventured out in the cold to look at Saturn this morning. I couldn't stay out long and had to check out Venus as well. Venus looked so bright this morning I thought at first it was a jet aircraft or helicopter.
I stayed out maybe 20 minutes and my hands started to grow numb and hurt from the cold. I wasn't wearing any gloves and the near zero degree temperatures may it a brutal viewing adventure. I was happy to get back in a warm house and go back to bed.
Saturn looked wonderful but my scope wasn't cooled off and perhaps some haze made seeing less than ideal. A 40mm was fine the 15mm showed some degrading if the image not a lot of detail in the 1500mm focal length nexstar 4se. The 8mm was showing only a large fuzzy planet. Venus seemed much better for some reason. It almost looked like I'd see surface detail when viewing it with the 40mm. The 15mm if course would not show surface detail, just a larger ball of gas which is half illuminated by the sun.
Here's a shot of the cloud and sky conditions near sunset.
Clouds will increase after midnight tonight.
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Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tomorrow many faac members will be at the lake Erie metro park nature center
Many Ford Amateur Astronomy Club members will be at the Ice Daze event.
It's at lake erie metro park south of Detroit. The hours of e event is from 10am until 10pm. Visitors will still have to pay standard metro park sticker fees, but once your in the park the event is free.
If the sky is clear we will have telescopes there for public viewing. If it's cloudy we will still have some telescopes and astronomy items on display.
Drop by some time if you want to chat with one of our astronomers. For viewing you will want to be dressed warm.
The telescopes will be on display inside the nature center if we aren't able to view due to weather conditions.
In HJRO news I picked up a broom with a long handle to clean off the dome. A grant request is being worked on for more equipment that might enhance the observatory capacity. We will see how that goes.
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It's at lake erie metro park south of Detroit. The hours of e event is from 10am until 10pm. Visitors will still have to pay standard metro park sticker fees, but once your in the park the event is free.
If the sky is clear we will have telescopes there for public viewing. If it's cloudy we will still have some telescopes and astronomy items on display.
Drop by some time if you want to chat with one of our astronomers. For viewing you will want to be dressed warm.
The telescopes will be on display inside the nature center if we aren't able to view due to weather conditions.
In HJRO news I picked up a broom with a long handle to clean off the dome. A grant request is being worked on for more equipment that might enhance the observatory capacity. We will see how that goes.
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Sunday, January 9, 2011
I texted this out to some friends
Oh man the moon is awesome tonight though the binocular telescope, it's great. The relief position of the terminator line. Spectacular.
----
Additional note:
Conditions are not that great but the moon makes up for less than perfect seeing. I expect clouds in and off tonight and plan on leaving around 8 pm but returning later in the evening aa well. I'll put out an update.
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----
Additional note:
Conditions are not that great but the moon makes up for less than perfect seeing. I expect clouds in and off tonight and plan on leaving around 8 pm but returning later in the evening aa well. I'll put out an update.
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We will open at 6 pm tonight, but there is snow and ice around the observatory
It's cold out and it will be getting colder as the month progresses. If you wish to observe I'd suggest dressing as warmly as possible and wear a lot of layers. You can't dress to warm when your observing and this is especially true in the winter.
We will be open but there is light snow and ice around the observatory on the walk. Dress warm and wear something that is suitable for walking in light snow if you are interested. Beware of ice near the door, I dontknow if I'll have time to shovel the snow away.
We should be open from 6pm until 8pm. We may be open later meaning we may break for a late night trip for hot chocolate or snacks nearby and return for more observing if things go well and the sky conditions are good.
I spent some time getting snow to melt off the dome. There's a chance we will use telescopes outside if we have a problem with the shutter. We may do some observing outside with a binocular telescope looking at the moon.
This is not a student event
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We will be open but there is light snow and ice around the observatory on the walk. Dress warm and wear something that is suitable for walking in light snow if you are interested. Beware of ice near the door, I dontknow if I'll have time to shovel the snow away.
We should be open from 6pm until 8pm. We may be open later meaning we may break for a late night trip for hot chocolate or snacks nearby and return for more observing if things go well and the sky conditions are good.
I spent some time getting snow to melt off the dome. There's a chance we will use telescopes outside if we have a problem with the shutter. We may do some observing outside with a binocular telescope looking at the moon.
This is not a student event
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