Jupiter in the Lion's Den

Jupiter is just such a fun, friendly target. Big, bright, and dynamic it is a consistent performer. For me from the vantage point of my driveway this apparition amid the stars of Leo is fast running its course - the giant planet will soon be lost in the neighbor's oak by the time it emerges in the twilight.

So after my successful Mars imaging the next clear night I opted to try to grab a session with Jupiter. And it did not disappoint - right there lining up for a transit was the Great Red Spot! It probably transited around 9:31 pm EDT on the evening of June 14th, which interestingly was off compared to the one on-line prediction I could find (what's up S&T - why did you ditch your calculator?)

I also did a little eye time after the videography. The spot was pretty dark, a bit more red than in prior years. But for certain it has shrunk - it's clearly evident compared to how it looked a decade ago. Will it still be there in another 30 years? Hopefully the arrival of Juno soon will shed some light on the dynamics of this long lived Jovian storm.

Jupiter June 14, 2016 9:30 EDT

Mars Finally Poses

Mars has to be one of the most fascinating objects. Shy in that it only lines up for a good appearance once every couple of years, and then only for a few weeks. Even then the disk is small, requiring study to tease out the details.

But then the effort pays off - albedo features, ice caps, dust storms, clouds - no other planet offers such an array of Earth like features. This spring in late May Mars came to opposition in Scorpius - but the weather had been pretty overcast and wet. Added to that was Dave & Laura's wedding, so Mars would need to wait!

In a sad moment of hurried home repair I backed into my venerable 6" Dynascope and managed to snap loose the finder scope from the OTA. I was crushed, but at least the scope was still serviceable. So the first week in June I get the opportunity - set the scope out, get the laptop and video camera - somehow manage to target Mars without a finderscope. But wait - where's the USB cord? Noooo!! Nothing but bad luck, Mars holding on to its secrets.

Amazon shopping that evening for a good USB cable. And then - the laptop dies - or more accurately the fan in the laptop dies. More opportunity slides by as I await my repair, the red planet all the time receding from its closest approach.

Finally the conditions align again - a clear night, USB cable, laptop, everything I need. This time despite a tense moment when the video camera was not recognized at first I pull it off, reeling off a string of AVI files. Even on screen I can make out the polar cap in the south and various albedo features - looks like Mare Acidalium there hugging the polar region.

The Registax works its magic, and I am delighted with the outcome. All the effort is worth it - I have an image that is far and away my best ever of 4th rock from the Sun. Now if the weather cooperates maybe I can score one more session before Mars recedes too far to make details discernable! That's the problem with an addiction, you always want that next hit.    

Mars - June 10, 2016 10:45 EDT

Mercury Transit - 2016

When I noticed earlier this year that the US east coast was in a good position for the May 9th transit of Mercury I made sure to put some placeholders into the work schedule - before work and around lunch time. One of the best perks of having a WFH ability is to take advantage of stepping away for an hour to run some errands - or catch a transit of the Solar System's innermost planet. A couple weeks prior I had purchased a filter for the Vixen (which has the added bonus of being yet another piece of paraphernalia in the tool chest for the August 2017 eclipse). However, we were in quite the rainy/overcast mode for weeks before so it seemed as though it'd be a missed opportunity.

The forecast indicated that the prospects would be best in the morning and then likely steadily deteriorate. The transit was due to start at about 7:10 a.m. with the Sun only about 10 degrees above the horizon. That would be challenging given the horizon.

I set up the Vixen and got the camera ready a little before 7. The sky had some clear sections but it looked like it was going to gradually worsen with high, thin clouds moving in. At first it seemed that a position just outside the front door would work, but the window of opportunity between trees proved to be inadequate. Finally the sunlight breaking at the end of the driveway guided me to a spot where I had a reasonable chance to observe for 20-30 minutes.

By the time I got the Sun targeted the transit was underway. And what a blank looking disk Sol exhibited - just one unimpressive sunspot formation to be seen. And there, at about the 11 o'clock position, was that unmistakeable circular pinprick of a shadow. I ran off multiple shots at a range of exposures, then spent a little time inspecting the minute ball using the 20mm eyepiece.

During the time I had multiple neighbors ask what I was up to, and the clouds carried out their threat to occlude the event so that by 8:30 I was back at my home office desk and ready to start the day. This is one of those events that is hardly spectacular yet for an astronomy wonk something you want to catch, highlighting the scale of our Sun compared to one of the smallest planets.

Mercury - tiny dot at about 11 o'clock

A Harvest Moon Eclipse

With this month's lunar eclipse favoring the east coast of the United States - the Moon well above the horizon at mid-totality before midnight on a Sunday evening - I was hoping for some clear skies so that I could put the 80mm Vixen through its paces. However, the weatherman had other ideas. I kept checking every 15 minutes or so once the eclipse had started shortly after 9 p.m. but conditions were overcast.

Finally a little before 11 p.m. I saw one or two postings on Facebook from folks who were saying they could see something. I stuck my head out the window and sure enough the clouds had broken up enough to reveal a coppery Moon hanging high in the eastern sky. While not practical to set up the Vixen I grabbed the camera, telephoto lens, and tripod and headed for the back yard.

Lunar Eclipse in Pisces with High Thin Clouds

The view was fantastic - a fairly dark eclipse I would say, with a color range from darkish red-brown to the copper colored edge nearest the limb of Earth's shadow. I really felt at home with the DSLR this time in manual mode, firing off a range of photos and adjusting them based upon the near instant feedback displayed on the LCD. The clouds continued to try to take back possession of the evening but not before I was able to secure a few memorable shots.

The one thing that I have to say - I am so tired of all this "Super Moon!!" junk in the papers and social media. And the fact that we had a "super" Moon undergoing eclipse - well one would think that it was as rare as a Venus transit. It was a great eclipse to be sure, but the slight difference in the Moon's size as it was near perigee was more of an academic footnote than of any real visual consequence.

Urban List: M13

Observation

Object: NGC 6205 - M13 - Great Cluster in Hercules, The Wall
Deepsky Catalog: NGC 2000
Log Type: Urban Sky
Date Observed: 9/8/2015  03:15 UT
Object RA: 16h 41.687m
Object Declination: 36d 27.58833'
Object Type: Gb
Constellation: Her
Magnitude: 5.9
Size: 16.6
Locate Method: Star Hopping
Observing Location: Tomney Residence - Front Driveway
Object Rating: A
Primary Equipment Used: Vixon ED80sf (80mm f/7.5)
Power/Magnification Used: 30x
Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Clear / Deepsky Mostly Stable
Detailed Observing Notes: Nice wide field view of M13 including the two neighboring ~6th magnitude stars (SAO 65508 and 65481) - the former actually exhibits some orangish tone in the view. M13 appears symmetrically round and pretty even in illumination, no striking brightening as at the core which was a little unexpected and possibly due to small aperture. Size is about 4' and there is no resolution, even with averted vision. Very nice object even if only 80mm of aperture in play..

Photography

   Equipment: Vixon ED80sf with Meade 2.0x Barlow, Canon Ti3

   Total of 8 - 60 second images stacked in DeepSkyStacker

Almost Heaven

The Perseid meteor shower is without doubt one of the more reliable displays of shooting stars. I have fond memories of setting the alarm for 2 a.m. as a teenager to catch the view from our lawn, lying in wait for that next superlative streak of light that would make me call out a shout of approval to the heavens above. I also have great memories of Stellafane visits during the Perseids, especially when either son would make the trek with me to Vermont.

This year was one of those fortuitous alignments of new moon and Perseid peak. My plan was to attend Stellafane to try some photography and visual observing using the Vixen. The weather gods were not cooperating, offering possibly a clear night Thursday but not many prospects beyond that. Unfortunately one can only gain an early Thursday entry if you had put your money down and pre-registered.

In contrast the forecast looked pretty good for West Virginia near Spruce Knob. I did a quick check of the North Mountain Vacation Rentals site to see if any cabins were open, and to my delight I saw that there was a Wed-Thr vacancy. Deb and I visited there last fall but the weather did not cooperate at all for any observing that trip, but I knew the cabins were nice and the owners very hospitable to star gazers. When I called Patty, one of the owners, right away she inquired "So you coming here for the meteors?"

While the cost of camping at Stellafane was certainly less than a two night cabin rental there were other advantages to the change in plans. First, the drive was much shorter, about half what it'd be to Vermont. The drive is also without tolls, unlike the shortest route up to Springfield. And then there is the enjoyment of a cabin with indoor plumbing as opposed to a spot-a-pot.

Wednesday night started out partly to mostly cloudy but the forecast had indicated that it would clear off by midnight. So I put my feet up and dozed off waiting to see if the weatherman got it right. When I stepped out around midnight it was indeed clear, and the sky oh so full of stars. The Milky Way was bold overhead, making it hard to even pick out the cross of Cygnus. When a sporadic cloud would intrude it was a black hole in testimony to the lack of lights below to illuminate it. And almost immediately the Perseids began to punctuate the night. From my perch on the hill I probably caught about 30-40 through the evening as I worked on taking some shots of the Pleiades and M31 through the scope. Around 3 a.m. I tried taking a series of tripod mounted time exposures of the northeast but was not lucky enough to capture anything.

Awaiting Perseids

The next night promised to be a repeat, and as the twilight deepened my delight rose. I had changed my location so as to get a better alignment for the scope on this evening, and it paid dividends with better if not perfect tracking. From this vantage point I could take in Scorpius and Sagittarius, visiting the show pieces like the Lagoon, the Butterfly Cluster, M4, and others. The 20-30 second images were revealing detail, creating anticipation that the stacked end product would be a fine souvenir of the evening.

The Lagoon Nebula

As the evening wore on I turned my attention to the planetary nebula highlights of the Ring in Lyra and the Dumbbell in Vulpecula. I had hoped to be able to increase the magnification in my images with the use of a Barlow but was not having luck getting the focus, so I stayed with prime focus shots. When the Andromeda Galaxy cleared the trees I also gave it attention with a series of short exposures.

Globular M4

Dumbbell Nebula

At around 2 a.m. I noted that Aquarius had cleared the mountain and was visible. I had deemed that this was an opportunity if ever there was one to try to bag the elusive Helix nebula. The limiting magnitude had to be at 6 or better (able to see M13 naked eye), so it was possible to spot 5th magnitude υ Aqr which lies a little east of the Helix. Centering the star and then panning I was amazed at how readily I was able to identify the ghostly Helix in my field of view. Large and with a more vacuous center, not a lot of details at 80mm of aperture and 30x with no UHC filter, but still an impressive object. A simple sketch and then it was time to pack up in deference to the dew that was becoming more prevalent in the cool mountain air.

What a fabulous two nights! Comfortable accommodations, very dark skies, lots of Perseids on display, imaging success to some degree, and of course adding the Helix to my trophy wall of DSO. I really hope I can make this trek a couple times a year to enjoy this full splendor of the night sky above - it is almost heaven!

A Celestial Pairing

The media was abuzz the last week with the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky. It really was eye-catching, the two brightest planets coming so close together. Of course the media in its subtle secular way promoted this as a recreation of the Star of Bethlehem. But let's not digress...

The closest approach was on Tuesday evening. The mid-Atlantic has had a very rainy June - wettest month of June on record as a matter of fact. So the pattern has been clouds and more clouds, making for scant opportunity to follow the two planets drawing closer and closer. On Tuesday the skies to the west were pretty hazy, and the planetary pair were just able to pierce the shroud to be captured. At least I could say I saw it!

Venus (lower) and Jupiter June 30th

The next night was a bit better - not a wonderfully transparent sky but certainly clearer than a normal evening we've had lately. I got the camera onto the tripod and headed outside. The pair had grown perceptibly apart and had shifted into a side-by-side alignment, but still close to one another. I took my first dozen shots (that is so nice about a digital camera, immediate feedback and no worries about a cost associated with each camera click) when suddenly it stopped working! I quickly saw the issue - no space left on the card. Quick dash inside to load a new card and I was back in action.

Over the period of about 40 minutes I grabbed about 50 shots. One somewhat frustrating thing was that the part of the sky where they glistened must be a flight path - I had more than one shot polluted by a plane intruding into it - but nothing a little digital slight of hand won't be able to erase since the exposures were pretty short. Below is the shot that for me will go into the scrapbook when I want to remember this appulse. (Click for full view)

Venus and Jupiter July 1, 2015 10pm
Canon Ti3 18mm f/3.5 4 sec exposure