Vern’s Weblog

Archive for January, 2006

Saturn on Jan 23, 2006

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

Below is an image of Saturn taken early this morning, just after midnight (12:30 am). The Cassini division is showing up nicely now. Previously I could just see hints of it now and then through my scope. Brown bands on the planetary disk are easily seen (though they look reddish in the image). The image is still not as sharp as it should be. I re-collimated last night, but it looks like I may still be off a tad. Compare this image with one I took of saturn a couple years ago. Strangely, the rings look fairly sharp (the A, B, and C ring can be seen), but there is not much planetary detail. Seeing last night was good, probably 6/10, temperature was 24 deg. F, clear, and transparency was very good. Equipment used was my Celestron Nexstar11, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Phillips Toucam 740K (Pro). Camera settings were gain 25%, brightness 75%, 1/25 sec shutter, 640×480 format, 180 seconds at 10 fps.

Image of saturn on Jan 23, 2006

Posted in Astronomy, Planetary | No Comments »

The sun on Jan. 22, 2006

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

A small (class B) flare appeared in region 10848 as I was focusing the camera to take the h-alpha images. It didn’t stay bright for long. It totally faded away in 20 minutes. An interesting tree-shaped prominence was visible on the eastern limb as well. The temperature was 37 deg F with a clear sky, excellent transparency, and good turbulence(6/10). Images were taken with a Solarscope Ltd. Solarview50 h-alpha telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D camera. Camera was set at 1/400 sec at ASA 400. Stacked 18 frames with Registax3 and then wavelet filtered. Photoshop used to composite, colorize, and rotate the image.

Image of the sun in h-alpha on Jan 22, 2006.

The white light sun was interesting for a change! (It has been a while). I count 27 spots in region 10848. Equipment used was a Stellarvue A1010 refractor, baader filter, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D camera (1/250 sec at ASA 400, stack of 18).

White light image of the sun on Jan 22, 2006.

Posted in Astronomy, Solar | 1 Comment »

Excellent though Cold night at Pawnee

Saturday, January 21st, 2006

Last evening I drove out to the Pawnee National Grasslands near Briggsdale, CO to meet some astronomy friends at a semi-dark site. It was pretty cold, temperature around 10 degrees, but fortunately not much wind, only 1-2 mph most of the time, occasionaly 5. We were all well dressed for the cold, but 6 hours at low temperatures made everyone wish for another layer or two. We knew early on that the air was pretty steady when we took a look at M46 and planetary NGC 2438. Though quite low in the south, there was no scintillation at all. We each spent the evening logging objects on our target lists. I believe everyone visited 20-30 objects which is always much easier to do with clear, dark skies. Around 10 we stopped deep sky viewing to take a look at Saturn. It was absolutely amazing! Brown bands on the disk were very visible, the Cassini division was absolutely sharp and crisp – no sign of movement in fine detail even at the high powers. The air was as transparent and steady as I have ever seen. I’d rate the turbulence around 9/10, which is extremely rare for this area. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring along my notebook and webcam as I thought it would be too cold for the notebook and too breezy to do much imaging anyway. We all packed up at moonrise shortly after 11, cold but very happy.

Posted in Astronomy, Observing | No Comments »

The sun on Jan 18, 2006

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

Images of the sun on Jan 18, 2006. Beautiful day here in Colorado, temperature was 64 deg F, mostly clear, transparency was very good, turbulence was only fair (5/10). Some brightening visible around region 10848 in the southeast when viewing in Solarview 50 h-alpha scope.

Image of the sun in h-alpha on Jan 18, 2006.

With the Stellarview A1010 telescope in white light, I counted 7 spots in region 10848 in the southeast. I could not locate regions 10846 or 10847, though region 10847 shows up in the image.

Image of the sun in white light on Jan 18, 2006

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The sun on Jan 15, 2006

Sunday, January 15th, 2006

Images of the sun on Jan 15, 2006. A couple new regions emerged today. I count 7 spots in what I assume will be region 10847 (as soon as NOAA assignes it) at mid-disk and 17 in region 1046 in the north-west. Observed with Celestron Nexstar 11 with TV 32 mm Plossl. Sky was mostly clear, wind 5 mph, transparency very good, and temperature was 48 deg F.

Image of the sun in h-alpha on Jan 15, 2006

Equipment used to take this image was Solarscope Ltd. Solarview 50 h-alpha telescope, Teleview 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D camera (1/400 sec shutter at ISO 400 for disk and 1/80 sec shutter at ISO 800 for limb features). Images separated, aligned, wavelet filtered, rotated, colorized, and composited with ImagePlus, Registax3, and Photoshop.

Image of the sun in white light on Jan 15, 2006.

Equipment used to take this image was a Stellarview A1010, Baader solar filter, Teleview 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D camera (1/250 sec shutter at ISO 100). Images separated, aligned, wavelet filtered, rotated, and colorized with ImagePlus, Registax3, and Photoshop.