Summer Solstice

Wednesday Dec 22 - summer solstice 2016 was a beautiful clear evening, enjoyed beside the brazier with melted marshmallows and the family.
Clouds were starting to gather on the horizon as I dragged out Dobby for a quick look at Venus.
Transparency turned out to be not great once looking through the scope, but it was still possible to focus enough to produce a sharp edge on the partial disk of the planet.
That made it interesting when sharing with the family, who were not expecting to see the planet in a half illuminated phase, and we had an interesting discussion as the kids remembered how moon phases worked from their science classes this year.

Summertime!

Orion is back in the sky, the evenings are warm again and the mosquitos are out like I haven't seen for a long time!

Time to drag dobby out on the door-step again and check out my favorite molecular dust complex, see if I can find some faint fuzzies, and get some shots of some nice clusters with my soon-to-be-developed mobile-phone-astro-photography-holder.

On a tangent, I got to speak to someone from the local council Sustainability office about street light replacements and dark-skies considerations.  Unfortunately, dark-skies is not a consideration at all - unless there is some endangered frog, moth or other critter involved.  Apparently the local (Aus) research is pretty thin as well, so it might be interesting to do some looking around myself, just to see.

Hopefully some nice photos for the next post.

The chances of ESA landing on Mars...

...Are a million to one, it seems.

OK, that may be a bit harsh. But Schiaparelli is still not responding and may have gone Beagle on us.

*Update*

Worse than Beagle, it cratered.  Looks like some sensors went out of alignment and it thought it was already at zero altitude when it still had hundreds of meters to go - so it jettisoned the parachute, fired the retros only briefly and then hit Mars at about 300 kph.  Still with a lot of retro fuel on board.

Big-badda-boom.

MRO found it a couple of days later and got some photos...link

Still, looks like the orbiter is going to be a success, and Schiaparelli was a proof-of-concept mission for the landing process, so all data is good data in this case.  Just have to hope ESA get everything right for the big landing in 2020. 

International Observe the Moon Night

October 8th is International Observe the Moon Night, so although unable to make it international - I did observe the Moon from near the front gate this evening.

Despite days of cloud cover, we actually had a fine day today and I was able to see a lovely quarter moon this evening once it got dark, with clear skys directly above.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the telescope outside until later in the evening, by which time another cloud bank was starting to drift over the horizon, and the whispy leading edge of it was already starting to obscure the Moon.

Undaunted, I still spent some time observing using my 30mm, 17mm, 8mm and 6mm eyepieces and the Lunar filter.  Once the cloud started thickening up, I no longer required the filter.

I also snapped a few pictures with the phone held to the EP, which are displayed here...

This is my first official observation of the Moon where I've started crossing off items from the Lunar 100.  This evening accounted for :

Map #34 - Lacus Mortis - A strange crater with rille and ridge
Map #72 - Atlas dark-halo craters - Explosive volcanic pits on the floor of Atlas
Map #20 - Posidonius - Floor-fractured crater
Map #10 - Mare Crisium - Mare contained in large circular basin
Map #28 -Hipparchus - First drawing of a single crater

 

Details taken through the 6mm eyepiece.  Looked great, but was loosing detail due to the thin cloud drifting in.  These craters don't feature on the L100 list.

Then the cloud really rolled in and that was it for IOtMN.

Philae! There you are!

Hey there, little guy - so that's where you got to!

Rosetta, with only a few weeks until it will be 'landed' on the comet itself, has successfully photographed the Philae lander.  Philae was identified in the photos three days ago, here is the official ESA report:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Philae_found

 This is way cool.  I hope ESA releases another cartoon video about this phase of the Rosetta/Philae adventure.

Here's some links to the other videos:

Once Upon A Time...
#WakeUpRosetta
Preparing for #CometLanding
#CometLanding
Living with a comet

 Great examples of science communication :)

Goobye Philae!

Science Showcase Evening at the school

This was great fun - I love showing people stuff through the telescope.

Tonight the primary school had their Science Showcase Evening, where they had set up a heap of great science activities and displays in the classrooms and invited the kids and families back after school.  I offered to bring Dobby along in the hope that the evening would be clear enough to see something (at least the moon).

As it turned out, the morning's cloud and rain cleared by the afternoon and got better and better over the evening - lucky that.

I set up Dobby on the four-square courts out the front and started by setting up my sun box to check out any sun spots.  There were clouds on the Western horizon that limited the time available to demonstrate to a few passing people the smallish sunspots that were visible.  It was possible to make out just two small spots at the bottom of the image and another about a third of the way up from the bottom.  It definately is a quiet patch for sunspots right now.

Fortunately, the full Moon was rising just as we lost the sun behind cloud, so I swung Dobby around and started showing kids and parents the Moon as it rose.

It just occurred to me that I totally missed the opportunity to point out to people the optical illusion that makes the Moon look bigger when it is on the horizon - I could have demonstrated how it is the same size through the telescope when looked at later.

The Moon started faint against the sky, but quickly brightened as dusk set in.  With a decent target I started getting a lot more people coming to visit, and had quite a crowd for a while.  A couple of the kids showed some real interest, and one was full of great questions clarifying his understanding about the spin of the moon, where was the Sea of Tranquility, why did the telescope make the image upside down, and we had a short chat about his telescope at home (it seems it has dodgy lenses making some chromatic aberations) (fuzzy colours around the edges)

There was also a small stampede of teachers who escaped their rooms to have a look through the telescope when word got back that there were some interesting views of the Moon to be had.  This was great fun as there was a lot of excitement and some laughs as mobiles were held against the eyepiece to get photos (with some success!)

The evening finished at 6pm, before it got dark enough to see the planets - which was a shame because the sky had cleared beautifully and the sky was loaded with targets.  From the Western horizon there was Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, then right above us was Mars and Saturn, and then the very bright full Moon to the East.

So it was just a final few of the teachers who were able to stay back and check out Jupiter and Saturn before we all had to leave and lockup the school.  Jupiter was pretty good, although a bit blurry through the thicker air near the horizon.  All four Galilaen moons were visible in a neat row, but Saturn was gorgeous as always and blew a few minds.

 Last shot of the evening - just after looking at Saturn.  In the background Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are visible.  Unfortunately a blurry shot as I only had time to point n shoot the camera.

Juno is go for orbital insert

Tues July 5th 1130

Exciting!  Juno has started rotating getting ready to fire engines to begin orbital insert.
I've got my twitter feed pinging me messages every minute or so now, it's great being right in the loop on these great achievements these days!

Woo! Go Juno!

Nearly the end of June

Well, it's nearly the end of June and the few clear skies we've had have been when I've been busy that evening.

Winter is here. It's bloody freezing out there.

Managed to look up one clear evening and Mars is still looking great, I must get Dobby on to it again soon before it drifts further away.

Getting excited about 4th of July when Juno enters orbit around Jupiter.  Heard recently on a podcast that we can not expect to see pictures from it soon, though.

Quick look with the kids

Friday, 27 May.
Taking the opportunity of a break in the near-Winter weather that left the sky surprisingly clear, I dragged Dobby and the kids out onto the front step.
First I showed them Mars, which bus looking amazing.  I still can't see pale poles, but definitely can make out the dark patches of the plains.  The kids seemed impressed.
Then we moved on to Saturn, which got a couple of "wows".
The a small relocation to the other side of the pine tree to view Jupiter.

After that, the kids interest and cold tolerance had worn thin, so we all came back inside.

Only a short session, but worth it to share with the kids.

Mars at opposition

Took Dobby out last night and had a real nice look at Mars, one of the best views of the red planet I've ever seen.

Will attach a sketch

Used a few filters and actually they seemed to help!

Also checked out Saturn.

Thought about checking out the Moon, but it was too low and it was too cold to hang around any longer.

Curry and clouds - the Dark Sky night that wasn't

Saturday 7, May 2016

*placeholder entry*

We tried for a nice dark sky night, but the weather had other ideas - clouded in, for the rest... of... the...week!

Sheesh

Glimpsed a couple of stars in some small breaks in the cloud - but they went so fast I barely had time to slew the telescope around. 

Had a nice chicken curry though, and enjoyed the hospitality of T's in-laws, who are such nice people for letting us invade.

More details later.

The Caldwell Catalogue

Here's something I didn't know ... there exists a list of objects similar to the Messier Catalogue, but made with the amateur astronomer in mind. (As opposed to just being a list of fuzzies that are "not-comets")

This list is called the Caldwell Catalogue, and is named after its creator - Sir Patrick Moore (huh?  What-the?)  He used his other surname 'Caldwell', since the M for Messier was already taken.

This list consists of a better mix of interesting objects that are achievable for the amateur astronomer with moderate equipment, and deliberately includes an even mix of Southern as well as Northern hemisphere objects.  There are 109 of them, to give it the same flavour, with a mix of planetary nebulae, open and globular clusters, galaxies and nebulae.

I found this when I was downloading the Messier Catalogue from AstronomyLogs.com.  There was this other PDF there for the Caldwell Catalogue, and a quick trip to wikipedia cleared up the question.

So now I have a new list of objects to start collecting, well - the more Southern ones, anyway.

Getting cold out there

Friday, 8 April.  2230-0030

A cold cloudy day fined up during the evening and the sky was too clear to pass up, so another few hours on the front step was called for.

The transparency and seeing were great, I'd say about a 8/10 for both.

The obvious first target for the night was Jupiter.  At its highest point on the ecliptic in the North at the time.  These are some of the best views of Jupiter I have ever enjoyed, tonight the air was clear enough that the image in the 6mm ep was nice and still.  There was no GRS visible, but I could easily make out four bands across the face of the planet - one smaller and one larger in the North and South hemispheres.  As always the planet and moons make a spectacular image - tonight two on the left in close and two on the right out further, at about a 30 degree tilt.

I had a quick look around Leo for M95, M96, M105, M65 and M66 but couldn't find anything standing out easily so I'll park those as targets for the Dark Sky night planned for May.

Took a moment to check the collimation of Dobby by pushing the focus way out while looking at a star - the dark circle of the secondary within the blur of the primary mirror looked about dead centre so I'm thinking that it is fine.  The blur of the primary mirror seems to show some marks that could do with a clean.

Mars was next, as it stood out so clearly in the Eastern sky.  The 17mm ep showed a bright orange disk, but no detail was evident.  I then tried the 6mm ep and in the moments of stillness there seemed to be some shadows on the disk that hinted at surface detail.  Awesome.  No white on the poles evident, but I think they are small at the moment due to it being summer in the facing hemisphere.

 

Tried some of the filters; numbers #21, #12, #58A didn't do much other than alter the colour.  #80A made it worse, losing what detail there was, and #25 is way too red.  #56 turned the image green, but did seem to bring out a little more detail.

 

Hey, what is that brighter star a bit further down? OH!  That's Saturn!  I forgot that was going to be there.  What a beautiful view!  The 6mm ep gave an amazing view when the air settled down.  Although no bands are visible, the rings look fantastic and I love being able to see the dark line on the right of the image as the shadow of the planet falls across the ring where it goes behind the disc.  There was a faint line visible on the left of the rings that may have been the Casini division, but it was not that clear tonight.  

 

The final target for the night was M4, selected on the basis of being close by in Scorpio to where I was already looking at Mars and Saturn.  Another chance to work on my star-hopping skills, I did a bit of research out on the step on my phone checking out GoogleSky and FreeCharts.com to find the right series of stars.  It turned out to be quite dim in tonights sky, but I could make out the central bar structure as described in the star maps.  I found it first in my 30mm ep as a small faint group of stars, and then I zoomed in progressively with the 17mm, 13mm and 6mm eps.  All were still faint, but I could resolve the cluster of stars and the structure.  The 13mm seemed the best balance of seeing the whole cluster and best brightness. 

It was getting colder, so I went inside finally at about 12:30am.

Setting up an Equatorial scope

Sunday, 20 March

So, T has this 6" Reflector on a equatorial mount that needed some TLC and practice setting up - therefore this Sunday just gone we got together and had a 'learn everything you can about Eq scopes' session.

First up I had to correct my mis-remembering of the types of mounts - I had them backwards for some reason.  So to clarify, Alt-Az mounts are Altitude/Azimuth mounts giving your basic Up/Down and Left/Right motion like Dobby.  Equatorial mounts (or 'German Equatorial Mounts' as we learnt from YouTube) are the same but mounted on a third axis that is tilted to be perpendicular to the axis of the Earth.  The Altitude and Azimuth are then named the Declination and Right Ascension respectively.

After watching a few YouTube clips,we had all this down and were ready to look at setting up the mount. We worked out setting up the axis that pointed due South, and raised to about 37.4 degrees (for Melbourne), and found which knobs controlled the RA and Declination.  T had the great idea to label everything (as in the photos below).  We also worked out the balacing of the tube and the counter-weight and after all that it looked like it was ready for use.  Not as impossible as it first seemed.

We also decided that it was worth risking taking the primary mirror out for a cleaning, as it was pretty dirty.  I had already watched a couple of clips about this, so we (well, T had the screwdriver) undid the screws holding it in and carefully removed the mirror cap and then released the primary mirror from the cap.  We first tried using my air-brush to blow the dust and fibres off the mirror, but they had been there for a while and were not going to shift.  I then provided a large container of luke-warm water with a drop of washing liquid in it and some cotton make-up swabs.  T carefully and *very* lightly swabbed the surface of the mirror with the cotton.  A change of water was soon required, as it was full of floaties, and after a second swabbing the mirror was looking like new.  We dried it off with my airbrush, using the air-stream to  blow the water off the edge and evaporate any drops.  The result was spot and streak free. 

We then started discussing the inevitable collimation of the scope, and I observed that the primary didn't have a centring dot on it, so we made one using a rig of  two rulers taped together at right angles that allowed us to determine the centre and gently press a dot of black electrician's tape on to the mirror.  

Reassembly was simple, as was re-reassembly after we noticed a bit still needed to go in behind the mirror and had been left out.  Fortunately the secondary was still clean, so we didn't have to try removing that.

That left us with re-collimation of the mirrors.  Again, I had watched several YouTube clips about this and I had made a basic collimation tool with an old 35mm canister with the end cut of and a small hole in the cap.  Looking through it I could see the mirrors were out of alignment, but I couldn't see the collimation tool cap, which made it harder to align everything.  I blu-tac'd some aluminium foil onto the cap and that helped a lot.  Working together we adjusted the primary mirror until we could see the concentric circles we were told to expect in the YouTube videos and the paper instructions that came with the scope.  We also tried without the film tube and worked on the alignment by eye - literally, as we then were seeing our own eye in the reflection.  Hopefully this adjustment is as accurate as it seemed, as it looked pretty good.  When T gets it out on a night and checks a point source, we'll know for sure.

And that was it.  Mounted, cleaned and collimated.  A good afternoon's work!

Jupiter quickie

Tuesday, 15 March
With Jupiter in opposition I grabbed another chance to drag Dobby out on the front step at about 2200 for another look.

I couldn't spot the GRS tonight (get it?), just didn't time it right. Tried a couple of the filters to try to improve the contrast and enjoyed a long look at the bands.  87A seems to get the best results for my eye.

Wrapped up when clouds rapidly rolled in.   

Jupiter in opposition

A hot Autumn night! It's the 9th of March, and yet it is still 30℃ out there at 1:30am!

Jupiter is in opposition, it is a beautiful night with great transparency, but the seeing leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of shimmer going on.
However, as I stared at Jupiter the seeing occasionally cleared enough to focus on the main bands and see some other cloud detail. I also was able to make out the Great Red Spot, which is great - I'm very happy with that. You get spoilt by the photos of the GRS, it doesn't as great or red from here.  But I'm still sure I found it and am calling that a tick!
Started with the 30mm to dial in the finder scope, the progressed to the 17mm and then settled on the 2x Barlow and the 6mm EP.
Also tried filters 89A, 86, and 22 with some success. I think 86 was the best at showing some extra cloud detail tonight.
The four moons were clear, one on the left of the FOV and the other three making a flat triangle to the right.
Mars was up, but lower on the horizon where the seeing was even worse due to the hot air.

Achievement unlocked! Five in a row!

Did it! Got out of bed at 5am and Weis and I viewed the cosmic wagon train of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and the Moon stretched across the sky.

As predicted by Stellarium

We even got a bonus ISS sighting at 0530 as well - well, Weis did, I was distracted fiddling with the camera and didn't realize what she had spotted.

When we first got out Jupiter was clear to the left of the pine tree, and then heading Eastwards there was Spica, then Mars, then the bushes and fortunately Saturn was on the other side of those.

Jupiter

Spica and Mars

Acturis and Saturn

 
We checked out Jupiter, Mars and Saturn with Dobby - I'm really enjoying the range of EPs I now have (even if they are simple Skywatchers) Used the 17mm, the 8mm and then the 8mm plus the Barlow on Saturn. Magnificent views as the sky continued to offer great seeing and transparency!  I would estimate the seeing as an 8/10 and the transparency could have been 10/10.

Jupiter was beautiful.  The bands clearly visible and the four moons clear with three on the right of the planet and one to the left.  No details were clear on Mars, but it was bright and very salmon coloured.  Tried a few of the filters, but they didn't help to reveal any extra details this time.  Saturn at high magnification with the Barlow and the 8mm was absolutely gorgous. 

I took a few photos using 6 second exposures, the best of which are below.  Some trailing is evident.  I set the ISO to 100, use manual focusing and let the camera determine its own apeture.

By now Venus and Mercury were rising, but Dobby couldn't get the right angle on those.So I took the finder scope off Dobby and used that hand-held to check out Venus.  Always like seeing the phases of Venus - this time it was gibeous.

Then a thin crescent moon rose and I snapped a bunch of photos as dawn broke, and it was clearly time to wrap up the observations and head back to bed to grab a few more hours of sleep.

Scorpio and Saturn

A great shot of Scorpio

Venus and Mercury over the house

Shot of the evening: Venus, Mercury and the crescent Moon

Another fine night

05/06 February
 
Finally the clouds have parted for a promised week of decent summer weather, and I've been able to get out for another Friday night with Dobby.
Being the same time and only a week after the last observations, much the same part of the sky was on offer. So I started with another attempt at viewing M41 in Canis Major. This time I started with the 30mm EP, and a better idea of where to look, and managed to find it promptly. Its a large object, a beautiful open cluster, that fills most of the EP.  Tried also with the 25mm  and the 17mm EPs, the 25mm gives a great view but the 17mm is too close, loosing the effect of the cluster.

I then returned to M42 with the 30mm.  I'm loving the FOV on this EP.  The seeing tonight is about a 9/10, very little twinkle happening.  I then tried the 17mm and 6mm with and without the Barlow, trying to make out more detail.  Mostly seemed the same, just closer.  Perhaps darker skies will help. 

M43 is another part of the same nebula complex, but I'm having trouble discerning it.  Either I can't see it from here, or I just can't tell the two apart.  More research is required, I'd say.

Checked out Jupiter again, looked great but still can't identify the GRS, if it is visible tonight.  Tried the filters again - looks like the Yellow and Light Blue are probably the best results tonight.

Then went looking for Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), but it was down behind the roofline for Dobby.  So I checked out the Jewel Box Cluster in Crux, which was beautiful with a small cluster of red/orange stars amid a cloud of tightly packed diamonds.  View through the 30mm, 17mm and the 13mm EPs.  The 13mm seemed best in this case.

Then I moved Dobby down the path towards the gate.  The street lights are brighter there, but I had my back to them to look South.  Now I could see Omega Centauri - I star hopped from B Centauri to E Centauri and then drifted a bit further on and could clearly see the fuzzy blob.  Using different EPs:

30mm - A cloud-like misty blob
17mm - Could start to resolve some stars
13mm - Not bright, but can see a magnificent cloud of stars
8mm - About full FOV now.   Absolutely awesome.

I'll have to revisit this object in a nice dark sky.

Logs and Filters

29 January 2016

Some cruising around the web during the week lead me to a site call Astronomy Logs, which has a stack of pdf files that are really nice log sheets that have maps and diagrams with spaces for recording observations. I've already downloaded the Messier catalog and a moon atlas and will return for the other catalogs on offer.
To my surprise Friday night cleared up beautifully after a rainy day, so I printed out a couple of charts and took Dobby out on the front step.

I started observations at midnight with Orion high in the sky, so naturally went to M42 first. The seeing was good and I enjoyed using the 30mm ep with and without the Barlow to view the nebulae.

That becomes my first Messier object officially ticked off using these new log sheets.
I then tried to find M41 (the little beehive cluster) in Canis Major, but kept getting lost trying to star hop up from Sirius using the log chart. I'm putting that down to being out of practice, so I spent some time on Stellarium the next day practicing.

Then it was time to move on to Jupiter as it had emerged from behind the peach tree and I wanted to spend some time on it before it disappeared behind the front bushes. (the pitfalls of front yard observations)

Great transparency and good seeing was an awesome way to welcome back the big guy for the first viewing since last winter. Using the Barlow and my 17mm ep I could see four distinct bands and the four moons neatly lined up to the right of the disc.  Even had the pleasent surprise of seeing a satellite pass through the field of view as I was looking through the 25mm.  Couldn't make out the GRS, either it wasn't showing or the viewing conditions were not quite right.

I then observed through all my colour filters to see what would bring out better detail. With the following observations:

Filter -            Notes
---------------------------------
80A                The blue improved the bands
21                   Not a huge improvement with this red
58A                Bands were quite well defined
25                   Waaay too red
12                   The yellow helped define the bands
56                   This green was ok
----------------------------------
 
As Jupiter slid behind the bushes it was getting on for 2am, and I had some hopes of coming out again at 5am for a quick look at the line of planets, moon and stars that is occurring this month so I backed it in and went to bed.
I then slept through my 0500 alarm, but a quick look outside at 0630 showed that some high level cloud had come over during the morning, so there probably was nothing to see anyway.
That's my first proper entry for 2016. My intention is to observe, log and make an entry at least once a month for the rest of the year.
Woot!

Clouds. Dammit.

So there is an alleged lining up of the five visible planets in the morning sky. Jupiter up high and then a line of Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury down to the horizon. Something that only happens once a decade or so.
So of course this week has been nothing but clouds. Australia Day morning there was possibly a break in the cloud cover, so I got up at 5am to check, but there still was patchy cloud and misty cloud in the gaps. Not working at all.
Just have to keep checking Skippy Sky and crossing my fingers for a break.

Planet Earth is blue...

David Bowie died yesterday. I'm sadder about that than I would have expected.
But Major Tom will continue to sit in his tin can, so there still is that.
And he will always remind me of the baby...

New year resolution

Welcome 2016!

This year, at least one entry per month - hopefully of an observation... weather permitting.