Sunday, May 20, 2012

Partial solar eclipse, 5/12

Well I woke up this morning and took a look at the oklahoma meso-net satellite image wondering if I would be able to see the partial solar eclipse today. I was hopeful because despite a bad forecast, some folks were predicting a clearing of central oklahoma by the time of first contact. I sat on the edge of my seat all day, and around 1805 local, I saw the first blue sky patches. My original intent was to join the fine folks at the OKCAC for their viewing at windsurfer point on lake Hefner. Due to low gas in the tank, I opted for a more local viewing area. I drove out to my local lake and parked near the water treatment plant. This location had the best view of the western horizon.

I fired up the laptop and the inverter and the inverter bit the dust. I was able to get the scope aligned and tracking thanks to a gracious 4 minute long sucker hole. With the scope tracking well off the power tank, I tried to tackle the problem of the power inverter. I plugged it in straight to my car and started it, but the inverter was toast. This was unfortunate, I was not able to do any imaging and there was not a power plug in 300 yards of me. Literally burning daylight, I opted to stay at that location and try to image afocally with the iphone camera. Not the best, but it did not let me walk away empty handed. As it turned out, the pics that I got were all I was going to get this evening. A cloud bank rolled in and blocked my solar view all the way through sunset. I was bummed, but even the crappy afocal pics were pretty surreal. Worth it? You bet!








Sunday, May 13, 2012

Couple solar images from today..

Man, the sun was amazing today visually. I wish I could have captured the eyepiece view. AR1476 was huge, and prom activity was pretty nice too. I didn't break out the mallincam, just stayed with the tucsen imager. Here are the best from today's lot. Solar activity like this has me drooling to see what I can accomplish with the resolution of a monochrome imager such as the Imaging Source DMK41. I think I have reached the limit of performance with the Tucsen imager.




Saturday, May 12, 2012

Dammit Celestron!

Now that I have enough money for a CG-5 advanced goto equatorial mount, it appears they are discontinued. Huge backorder at some retailers, complete removal from the product line at others. Nothing to replace it apparently but whispery rumors of a new and improved (and likely more expensive) version.

This sucks, and it leaves me in the same predicament as when I wanted a neximage cam. 

So I have decided to take the plung and plop down 630 dollars for the DMK41 camera by Imaging Source. It is a monochrome camera, so I will get full resolution during solar imaging. I will still need to purchase a LRGB filter set and wheel for doing color planetary work. More of a pain in the butt, but the images look much better in RGB imaging.

Looking forward to upping my game with planetary/lunar/solar imaging. Will buy equatorial mount and autoguiding setup come tax time next year.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Public Solar Viewing at Science Museum Oklahoma

Had a great time today. The Oklahoma City Astronomy Club held a public solar viewing session today as part of the "Space Day" festivities at the Science Museum Oklahoma (formerly known as Omniplex). I brought out the Lunt 60 to participate in the event. Solar activity and weather were cooperative, and it was worth the sunburn and heatstroke to see the wow factor as kids and adults alike viewed the sun in both white light and hydrogen alpha filtered scopes. A good time was had by all, and the sun was ablaze with a very large feathery hedgerow prom that lasted through the morning into early afternoon. It was also a pleasure to meet the other OKCAC members and I can't wait to do it again!