Image of the sun through Solarscope Ltd. Solarview50 h-alpha telescope. No spots visible at all in white light so I didn’t bother taking an image, nothing to show other than a blank disk. A couple reasonable size prominences visible on both the west and east limbs. Also, a couple large dark filaments were visible near the southwest limb. The sun has been very boring lately.
I finally got around to processing the images of M101 taken early Sunday morning around 01:18 MST at Crow Valley Campground near Briggsdale, CO. The image is a bit noiser than it should be as I stopped the exposurers due to some clouds. Temperature was about 8 degrees, no wind, occasional clouds, and turbulence was fair (5/10) most of the time. Stack of 23, 8.5 sec second exposures taken with a Stellacam2 video camera attached to 0.33 focal reducer on the Celestron Nexstar11.
Last evening I met up with fellow amateur astronomers at the Crow Valley Campground near Briggsdale, CO. It was quite cloudy when I arrived about half an hour after sunset. We spent a couple hours talking about good times last summer and making plans for possible star party trips to the Texas Star Party, northwestern Nebraska, Mt. Evans, CU Mountain Observatory, and our favorite, Fox Park, Wyo. The sky cleared shortly after 8pm. It was fairly cold, around 8 degrees F, but fortunately very little wind.
I set up the 300D to take some time exposures, but was quite dismayed when I remembered that the batteries were still in the charger back at home! Fortuanately, I had brought along the Stellacam2 so I set it up on the Celestron Nexstar11 with a 0.33 focal reducer. I was quite pleased to discover that I could set the gain very high (12/14) and still not have much background noise. Normally I can only set to about 8 or 9/14.
Around 00:30 I took this image of M51 and its companion to the north NGC 5195.
At the same time I was imaging this, my friend Gary was looking at it in his 30 inch dob nearby. It was really cool to compare the views. M51 is an awesome object in his 30 inch. The spiral arms are absolutely amazing to trace and dark lane extending below NGC 5195 is very apparent. The image on the notebook from the Stellacam2 is pretty stunning as well. The image is much noisier, but the same structures can be seen. Still though, it just can’t compare to the view through a large scope at dark site.
As soon as Shaw Heights Middle School star party was over, I rushed home and set up the scope in the back yard to take advantage of the clear skies and some very good air turbulence. The first image was taken around 11 pm and is a stack of about 1200/1800 frames. Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Phillips Toucam 740 (Pro). Temperature was 35° F., clear sky, turbulence around 7/10, and no wind.
After processing the first couple videos, I decided to take some more. Atmospheric turbulence had improved a bit in the meantime. Some clouds had moved in but did not interfere with Saturn. I think the equatorial zone, south equatorial belt, and south temperate zone are little better defined in this image. Also, there is finally a hint of the south polar cap.
Last evening I packed up the scope and met fellow members of LAS at the Shaw Heights Midddle School star party in nearby Westminster, CO. We often provide telescopes for local schools who do star parties in the spring and fall. This was the first time we have done so in winter; we had some doubts whether anyone would show up in the cold. The weather was wonderful, temperatures in the 40s, clear skies, no wind – not dark though, Westminster is quite close to metropolitan Denver. About 60 kids and about as many parents attended the event which was coordinated by Laboratory for Space Physics in Boulder. Lots of interest and good questions from both the kids and their parents. There were even -4 and -7 magnitude Irridium flares just 2 minutes appart to wow the crowd.