Informal Outreach at Windsurfer Point

While at the OKCAC meeting on friday, several folks asked what my saturday evening plans were. I advised that I had none, and they invited me out to windsurfer point on Lake Hefner where several club members were holding an informal star party of sorts. I waffled on the idea several times due to wind and clouds, but was glad I decided to go. The wind was atrocious and the sky was particularly hazy, from New Mexico wildfires I am told. I said hello to my friends and started setup a little to late, as the sun was setting when I got there. I got my scope setup and had a heck of a time getting alignment, as my finder's batteries had died. I did the best I could with the 40mm and hazy, light polluted sky. Did a two star align on vega and spica. Finally got the scope to cooperate, but the wind had picked up even more. Saturn was spectacular, but almost impossible to view due to the wind gusts. I broke out the DMK21 camera for some imaging, but wasn't able to attach a barlow. When attached, the wind gusts would move the target completely out of frame. I was very surprised, but I did get some almost decent data to stack. Here it is for what it is worth.

I played around with various targets, at one point slewing to the Ring nebula, M57. The skies were so bad I could just barely see it, but it was there and pretty obvious. I was really shocked to see it under the hazy, light polluted sky of the OKC metro, but it was there. Tried M51, but no joy. Could barely make out m104 with averted vision. Mars was a bright red ball, but has traveled to far away for any surface detail, at least with my modest setup. I enjoyed seeing everyone last night, the fellowship is worth as much to me as the observation. On a side note, the club pres. made me an amazing deal on a Celestron CG-5 goto equatorial mount. It has a cosmetic issue, a cracked declination motor cover. I can always replace that later, but the deal I am getting is too good to pass up. I am going to pick it up this coming weds. and can't wait. Seriously feels like week before christmas.

Venus transit, OKCAC watch party at SMO

Well the big day finally came and I managed to get off work at noon. I got home, grabbed  a quick bite and loaded up the truck. I arrived at the Science Museum Oklahoma parking lot at approximately 1530 to setup. I saw Mike and Wayne and we chatted a bit while I set up my gear. I was not prepared for the large crowd that gathered, at one time reaching about 200 at once. It was quite an ordeal, and it was estimated that attendance through the event was in the neighborhood of 500+. It was an amazing time! Seeing the wonder on guests faces was totally worth it. At any rate, I was able to get some of the video sequences processed to post some shots. From first contact, the weather held about 45 minutes before a cloud anvil put an end to clear viewing. Some of these shots were overexposed  due to trying to beat the clouds. DMK21 performed beautifully.

Little Blue Wonder, AKA the Imaging Source DMK-21

Well my friends, I finally bit the bullet and purchased what many imagers consider to be a "real camera" for solar, lunar, and planetary work. I got the USB2 version of the popular DMK-21 camera from Imaging Source. I initially wanted (and still do) the DMK-41 with the larger chip. An unforeseen and really maddening event sidetracked me and forced me to trim my camera budget a little bit. Still kinda pissed about it, but it is as they say, crying over spilled milk.

Funny story actually, I purchased the camera from OPT, same place I bought my Lunt 60 solar scope. Their customer service is just plain amazing. I asked for a shipping quote to see if I could get the camera delivered by tuesday, in time for the transit. They quoted me 90 dollars, and I thanked them but told them that it was a bit over my budget. I got a call back from Craig about a half hour later and was advised that they could overnight it at just at 60 dollars. I said "Deal!". Great folks over there.

Back to the imager. I have been wanting a monochrome imager for several months now. It is almost essential in imaging the sun in hydrogen alpha light. You see, in a regular color camera, there is an RGB microlens installed over every pixel in what is known as a Bayer configuration. Red and blue make up 25 percent coverage each, with green making up the other 50 percent. Since the bandwidth of h-alpha light is so narrow (.7 angstrom on my scope) and it resides in the red spectrum, only 25 percent of the resolution on the imager is being utilized. With a monochrome imager, I am now able to truly image in full resolution. Due to the size of the chip, the image is constrained to 640x480. I was worried that this would be far too narrow for large surface area targets such as the moon and sun. As it turns out, it isn't so bad. If I am careful and observant, I think I can get a full disk shot of the sun in a 4 panel mosaic. If not, definitely a 6 panel shot. I guess I will be learning how to stitch mosaics together. With the Tucsen imager, I was able to get the full disk on chip, but just barely. To be honest, I don't mind stitching mosaic panels together because the quality is so much better anyway.

I also plan on doing lots of lunar and planetary work with this sweet camera. I will need to save my money for an LRGB filter set and a filter wheel so that I can get true color razor sharp shots. Until this I will be doing lots of practice in monochrome. The capture software that comes bundled with DMK-21 is amazing. Everything to control the parameters of the shot as well as capture can be added to a set of toolbars for quick and easy reference and use. It is pretty rock solid and a huge improvement over the AMCAP software I have been using. Frame rate is lightening fast, and I usually average 45fps on my system. I did a quick session today under the sun to gauge this cam's performance and I am very very pleased. Judge for yourself. Lunt 60 single-stack/b600/ tilt-tuned solar scope and DMK-21. Close shots use an astrotech 2x barlow. Captured today between 2100-2130UT.

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!

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.

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.

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!