Part 1: Prepare to Meet Thy Total Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017

Yes, the northwest is going to be blessed with another total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 !
The last one was Feb. 26, 1979, the path of which crossed over the Goldendale Observatory (info) just outside of Goldendale, Washington (map).

At that time, my wife and I were living in Sunnyside, Washington (map)   and we made the one hour trip to get in the path of the eclipse. Our aim was to get up to the observatory for the big event. But we were turned away at the lower gate: all the major news networks had taken up position at the observatory (map) and there was "no room in the inn" for us normal folk.

So we drove around Goldendale looking for an "less than ideal" spot, which turned out to be the parking lot of the high school. We set up our little Astroscan scope that I had jimmy-rigged onto an old equatorial mount and attached my Pentax K1000 camera to it with some good old Ekatchrome slide film.

That's my still beautiful wife at the scope

with her VW bug we both miss!

Anybody remember this?

Or these?

Well, just before the beginning of totality I noticed some clouds building up on the north side of the Sun. I looked up at the observatory and... it was in the shade of those clouds! All the networks were unable to see the Sun at totality! We were in the best position after all !

I shot away and we enjoyed the moment!

The images were great! There were Baily's Beads and a prominence, too ! (the photo here is not my shot but exactly like mine)

But I forgot to "bracket" my exposures (that means vary the amount of light via shutter speed selections) and I missed capturing the corona. Here is what it would have looked like...

Anyway, just as totality ended those very same clouds covered our view of the Sun.

We stowed the gear, jumped into the car and headed to Yakima where there was a one hour film processing store to get our film developed. (Who remembers that too?)

Ah, for digital photography back then! I would have noticed my need to bracket and been assured of proper exposure "on the fly"!

So.... I am going to be better prepared for next year's total solar eclipse so that I vary my exposures and capture it in ALL of its incredible beauty!

In fact, I will have at least 3 DSLR cameras capturing the event: one recording it as a movie, another capturing the wide field view including the landscape, another on an equatorial mount closeup!

So, get prepared!   Be sure to check out Part 2: Prepare to Meet Thy Total Solar Eclipse on August, 21, 2017

Joined the Bend Astronomy Meetup group

It was a fairly cloudy night when about 10 amateurs gathered in downtown Bend, Oregon to chat about our common interest in astronomy. It was my first opportunity to attend one of these "meetup's" and it was great just hanging with others of like-mind. It is called the "Bend Astronomy Meetup."
I brought my NexStar 4SE mount with my Bushnell scope mounted on it and though the moon was covered with a high, thin layer of clouds we were still able to see it.
But I also brought along my Mallincam Micro Ex astrovideo camera with a small 5" color monitor so that all could see what astrovideo was all about.
And, yes, it got a lot of "WOW"s !
The goto mount did a fair job of keeping the Moon in view (I just did a "solar system" auto alignment using the Moon) and I was impressed by that! It was one of the reasons I purchased the NexStar 4SE in the first place.
Sadly, we all seemed to have forgotten to take some pics to remember the gathering by...
Anyway, I also presented to the group gathered some information on an effort by The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse Experiment (aka CATE) which is an effort to document the next solar eclipse here in the United States on August 21, 2017. I hope to be able to get some volunteers for this unique event to help me with my part in it.

Review of my new Celestron NexStar 4 SE

I sold a number of my older telescopes just before Christmas in order to purchase a Celestron NexStar 4SE telescope. I wanted a "grab-n-go" telescope with a sturdy tripod mount that also could be used in both equatorial and alt/az mode... but also with an acurate "go-to" computerized capability.
The Celestron NexStar 4SE seemed to fit the bill nicely.

I used to own one that I got used from off of craigslist but it did not have the tripod or the equatorial ability so I sold it off and used the funds to help purchase an older Celestron C8 (orange tube).

Ah, the good ole' days

Still, I missed the ability to "grab-n-go." So, just before this last Christmas, Astronomics notified me of a special that Celestron was doing. If one ordered the NexStar 4SE before New Years Day then one could get the "whole meal deal" for $50 off including FREE SHIPPING for just $450 !

I was MOTIVATED now!

So, older scopes sold, I ordered mine!

The shipping was FAST from Astronomics and the box BIG! Upon unpacking the scope and putting it all together I knew it was what I wanted.

Then came the clouds... days and days of clouds. Weeks and weeks of clouds.

Then a brief break ! Yea!

But I immediately noticed that something wasn't quite right. The stars never focused to a definite point... instead they would get close and then the star point would flare off... hmmm. I first thought it was because the scope didn't cool down sufficiently... but after it did the flaring continued.

So I took a visual look down the scope from the rear and saw the problem: the optics were not aligned... not even close to centered.

You can see the center "donut" is more like an eye than a true circular donut in appearance.
This defect is amplified when focusing on a star... or anything for that matter. Hence the flare...

I first thought it was just a primary mirror alignment issue but when looking at the front end of the scope it seemed that the secondary mirror tube seemed out of alignment, too.

So I contacted Celestron support and after a couple of anxious days I got an email stating that I could send it back to them under warranty via UPS. So I boxed the OTA (that is, the optical tube assembly, which is the actual scope itself, not the mount or tripod, etc) and have shipped it off to Celestron in California.

I will update my experience when the scope is returned... soon I hope!

Comet Calatina (akaComet C/2013 US10 Catalina)

Well, after about a three month hiatus, the skies cleared just enough on the morning of January 20, 2016 for me to capture Comet Catalina, just before the break of dawn (5:30 am to 6:30 am).

In the process of locating the comet a south-to-north satellite crossed just west of the comet (which is faintly in the lower right hand corner). What is interesting is the satellite track is fairly flat and straight until it passes the center of the image and then becomes progressively wobbly as it nears the lower right hand corner. This is not an artifact of the digital camera but is the rotation (flipping over and over again) of the satellite itself! I have photographed many satellites (quite unintentionally) and never have I seen this effect. (Taken with a Canon T3i, 135mm, 12 seconds @ ISO 12,800 set at f/5.)
Click on the photo for a larger image to view...

Also, in my search for the comet the International Space Station (ISS) passed closely (just not as closely) to the comet as well ! The three bright stars are part of the "handle" of the "Big Dipper" (aka Ursa Major). Yes, they have names! From top to bottom Alioth, Mizar (notice the little star just to the right of Mizar, it is Alcor, part of Mizar's triple star system) and Alkaid. The "bowl" of the Big Dipper is out of sight towards the top of this image. Can you spot the greenish blue comet? (Hint: near the top center of the photo, just right of the ISS trail.) Taken with a Canon T3i, 50mm, 22 seconds f/4 at ISO 12800. Click on the photo for a larger image to view...

Finally I was able, by steps, to increase the telephoto zoom lens until I was able to center Catalina in the screen. Then I set up my hand intervalometer to capture 60 - 1 second images using the Canon T3i set at 250mm, f/5.6 @ ISO 12,800.  The seeing (air quality) was not all that good with a lot of frozen moisture in the air (and some thin ice clouds all around) so capturing any kind of tail was nearly an impossibility. However there does seem to be a faint tail pointed away from the comet in the "10 o'clock" position. Click on the photo for a larger image to view...

While this image is nothing to "write home about" the amazing thing is that it was shot with a stationary camera (Canon T3i) on a tripod UNGUIDED. This is a "stacked" image made up of about 60 - 1 second exposures using the program "Deep Sky Stacker." The purpose of a lot of short exposures instead of one long exposure is that it minimized the graininess of high ISO settings (like this one pushed to ISO 12,800) and it decreased "sky glow". "Sky glow" can easily overwhelm faint details when one uses longer exposures (see the ISS photo above and compare it with this one... the ISS image was 22 seconds and the comet photo above is the equivalent of 60 seconds!) There is always a certain amount of ambient light in the night sky, most caused by human over-lighting of their property, and some caused by the refraction of light from the Moon or the Sun (just below the horizon.) So taking lots of "subs" (photos with insufficient exposure to bring out the subject matter) is the way to go!

UPDATE: The following image was created from 10 - 9 sec images @ ISO 1600 with a Canon XTI and a f/2.8 55mm zoom lens at about 3 am Dec. 19, 2016, stacked with Deep Sky Stacker. See if you can locate the comet (click on the image for a much larger display)! One thing is for sure, it is in a hurry! It moved a great distance in just one 24 hour period!

First Quarter Moon

Nothing special about this image, just the first I have taken with my Celestron Goto 8i SE scope. I am just getting used to it and learning how to use it with a Canon DSLR attached to it. This was taken in the alt-az mode which is a bother if any object in near zenith. The air was quite turbulent with thin clouds passing by so I probably overdid the "sharpness" setting in post-production.

Enjoy!

Northern Skies without guiding test

This image of the northern night sky was taken with multiple short exposures (30 secs) without guiding (just sitting on the tripod) with my Canon t3i and then processed with Deep Sky Stacker. Deep Sky Stacker is a program that will take astrophotography images of the same subject and stack them together to make it look like a much longer exposure. This one was about 8 images. You will see that the trees are blurred but the stars are not ! It helps bring out fine detail in the northern part of the Milky Way. With a little more post production (see next image) I made the Milky Way appear even more, but this was simply a test.

Note: if you click on this first image a larger view will be shown. Then if you use your left/right arrows on your keyboard you can toggle quickly between each image.

Using GIMP Levels:

Comments or questions are always welcomed (well, as least nice ones)!

Overhead View of our Milky Way Galaxy

This shot was the result of 5 - 30 sec exposures taken with a Canon t3i and a 10mm super wide angle lens at ISO 1600. I was out in the evening hoping to catch a Draconid meteor but to no avail. Still, with a few passing thin clouds I was able to capture the beauty of this part of our galaxy. North is to the left, south to the right. (click on the image for a larger view)

Comments or questions are always welcomed (well, as least nice ones)!