Vern’s Weblog

Main belt asteroids 6-Hebe and 15-Eunomia are currently in the constellation Capricornus. Both are bright (visual mag 8.2 and 8.8 respectively) and easy to find by comparison with a star chart. (Asteroid 1-Ceres is also in Capricornus but is too low behind my neighbors trees).

Equipment used was Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid StellacamII video camera (9/14 gain, integrate 128, medium gamma).  Dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked with Registax3, brightness adjusted, crop, and animation created with Photoshop Elements2. Sky was clear; temperature was 60°F; turbulence was 5/10; transparency was very good; location was Louisville, CO;

Comet 4P/Faye is currently in the constellation Pisces and is about visual magnitude 12.3 which is right at the limit of my current technique. To get much dimmer I’ll need to make improvements in PEC and adjust tracking rate so the Stellacam II can integrate on a relatively stationary object.

Equipment used was Celstron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Sky clear (for a change!), temperature 55°F, very good transparency, no wind, turbulence 5/10 at Louisville, CO. 

Four image mosaic of Mare Crisium and Crater Cleomedes along the terminator.  Images taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. From my backyard in Louisville, CO betweem 2:30 and 3:00 am MDT this morning. Sky was clear, no wind, turbulence 7/10, 50% humidity, 64°F, and excellent transparency.

Lunar crater Langrenus is an awesome sight in a good scope when the air is steady and lots of power can be used. A couple high central peaks can be seen in the below image as well as a number of its terraced walls.

Image taken at 08:39 UT from my backyard in Louisville, CO, with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. 100 seconds of video, 1/32 sec shutter, 15 fps, 75% brightness, and 30% gain. The sky was clear, temperature 64°F, turbulence 7/10, 50% humidity, and transparency excellent.

Currently traveling though through the constellation Ophiuchus is the large, main belt asteroid (225 km in diameter) called Herculina. This one was easy to spot, it matched up with the star field on my notebook exactly.

Image acquired from my backyard in Louisville, CO between 05:10 and 05:42 UT with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera (Gain 9/14, Integrate 128, medium gamma). Sky was clear — first clear night in two weeks, no wind, temperature 68°F, 40% humidity, transparency excellent, turbulence 6/10. Moon quite low in the southeast, didn’t appear to affect images a whole lot.