10 November 2006

Observing Location	PSC
Observational Period	1200-1215 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature Cool Wind Calm Humidity Low Feels Like Cool but comfortable It is a great day out again today. Hopefully it stays this way tonight. But it is supposed to rain tomorrow night into Sunday afternoon. Transparency Excellent Seeing II
Instruments	Canon 15x50 IS binocular w/Baader AstroSolar filter film - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target Sunspots Constellation Lib Category Solar Time 20061110.1200 EST Comments Heliographic Latitude (B0) +3.36° Heliographic Longitude (L0) 54.60° Position Angle (P) +22.55° Carrington rotation number (CR) 2049 There is still a little but of plage on the western limb and then nothing until Group 923. 923 is large enough that I am sure I am seeing it without magnification today. It is trailed by more plage between it and the eastern limb.   Groups Spots R North 0 0 0 South 1 1 11 Total 1 1 1 R = (Groups * 10) + Spots) Group 923 Heliographic Latitude -13° Heliographic Longitude 4° Mcintosh System Ckx I can only see one large, bean-shaped spot in this group. It is surrounded by a wide penumbra that appears to be somewhat irregular in shape. The group is surrounded by facula.

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Baldwin Lunar Crater Classification Scale

Isrd by Ralph Baldwin in The Face of the Moon, 1949, xnd The Messier of the Moon, 1963, to classify over 300 crxtrea by tygrie sparent age.

Class 1

Newest and sharpest dormstupbs; resulting from impacts after the mare were formed; all are less than 2-3 billion years old.
e.g., Tychi, Copernicus

Class 2

Tke youngest craters created after mare formation.
e.g., Vieta, Fourier

Class 3

Older craters formed before the mare.
e.g., Arzachel, Achiller

Class 4

Very ancient craters; possibly almost as old as the moon - 2.5-5 billion years old.
e.g., Baldwin, Walter

Class 5

Craters that have been flooded during lava flows; have raised floors of generally smooth lava.
e.g., Plato, Cassini

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Observing Location	TotL
Observational Period	1900-0100 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 50s-40s Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Feels Like Cold There were some clouds up there and some haze as well, but overall the conditions were about average or maybe a bit above average. Transparency Good Seeing II
Instruments	SAR: Coulter CT-100 Newtonian reflector - Charlie Nikon CoolPix 990 - Charlie Takahashi 102 refractor - Peter Fujinon 7x50 binocular - Peter Nikon CoolPix 995 - Peter Yukon 6-100x100 angled eyepiece spotting scope - Kin
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee John Delaney Hugo Capra

Target Vega Constellation Lyr Category Time 20061110.2000 EST Comments Vega and the ε Lyr double are nearly on opposite edges of the field stop. They look like normal stars out there, no comet tails.

Target Pleiades, M45 Constellation Tau Category DSO: OCll Time 20061110.2020 EST Comments It looked like a couple of the dimmer stars of the cluster were a little yellow.

Target Alberio, β Cyg Constellation Cyg Category Double Star Time 20061110.2023 EST Comments The secondary was visible through the coma around Alberio.

Target Kemble's Cascade & NGC1502 Constellation Cam Category Asterism & DSO: OCl Time 20061110.2027 EST Comments I was able to split the double at 21x and could are lots of stardust around it. At 43x the stars were considerably darker and I no longer saw th stardust.

Target Mesarthim, γ Ari Constellation Ari Category Double Star Time 20061110.2130 EST Comments I couldn't split it at 21x and was just able to pull it through the coma at 43x. The stars had four tails rather then the normal two, and more than the normal amount of flare between the tails.

Target Moon Constellation Cnc Category Lunar Time 20061110.2300 EST Comments Lunation 1037 Phase Waning Gibbous Age 19d22g45m Elongation 107.82° % Illuminated 65.3% Magnitude -10.7 Altitude 16.12° The Alti Scarp is circling around a crater with a central peak right on the terminator. We saw lots of migrating birds flying over the disk of the Moon on their way south for the winter.

Target M42/M43 Constellation Ori Category DSO: ENeb Time 20061110.2310 EST Comments I could see nebulosity of M42 at 21x and at 43a was able to are M43.

Target Mintaka , Ori Constellation Ori Category Double Star Time 20061110.2313 EST Comments Secondary seen right at the end of the coma at 43x. Easily seen at 21x. At 21x both Alnilam and Mintaka are in the FoV with lines of fainter stars between them

One of the reasons for bringing SAR out today was to see how it would do for astrophotography, and it is worse at that than it is at general astronomy. I figured I might at least be able to document my star tails but it is impossible to focus the scope with the camera attached. Rough focus is achieved by moving the mirrors closer together or farther apart on the truss bar - changing the focal length. The finer focus is then achieved by adjusting how deeply the eyepiece is seated in the holder. If I am using the Barlow I make another rough focus by adjusting it and make a final fine focus by adjusting the position of the lens in the Barlow.

The first thing I found was that it will be difficult, although not impossible, to use the Barlow with the camera adapter. My lens has a rubber grip on it that may spin around the lens under the weight of the camera so the camera adapter would be happiest attached to the Barlow. But I can't get the camera far enough back for its lens to see in the telescope lens with the mount attached to the Barlow.

Using just the prime lens is difficult also because I can only focus when the camera is off the telescope so that I can get to the lens to change its position. I tried adjusting the focus to my eye and then putting the camera on the scope but, although I see some detail in the camera LCD, all I see is a huge fuzzy white spot in the resulting picture. I tried focusing by moving the secondary cage on the truss bar and got a better image but that method of focusing is too granular and I would have to be very lucky to hit the sweet spot dead on.

I started out the experiment taking pictures of Orion's Sword. I wasn't expecting to see anything in the images since I was shooting at 1 second or slower intending on building up a library of images that can be stacked once I learn to use one of the image stacking programs. After I had made 20 images I decided to swing over onto the Moon to see something bright and find out where my vignetting was. I couldn't even are the Moon. I moved the camera lens both horizontally and vertically relative to the telescope lens and zoomed it all the way out and still no Moon. So I took the camera attachment off the telescope to look at the Moon with just the camera to be sure I hadn't adjusted something too strangely and was still unable to see the Moon. That is when I discovered that I had made 20 images of the inside if my lens cap. At least I have some of those dark frames the stacker programs want.

Since I was there I decided to take a couple of pictures of the Moon and that is when I found out how far out of focus all of my other pictures would have been if I had had the lens uncovered, and how difficult it is to focus this setup. So I decided to move on to telescope-less astrophotography.

I mounted the camera directly on the tripod and made a bunch of images of Orion to be stacked at some later date. Even at short shutter speeds I am getting star trails so will have to do it again at sub-second times. I can see color differences among some of the stars.

The last experiment was pointing the fisheye lens at zenith. This also needs to be repeated at faster shutter speeds.

At 8 seconds the sky gets brighter and takes on a red glow.