Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Astronomy

Astrophotography Practice

Waxing Gibbous

It is only 404 days until the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017. I have started thinking about what sort of equipment we will need to record the events associated with a solar eclipse.

Last night, I took the photo of the moon, seen above, with my Canon SL1 and a 300mm lens. That’s the bare minimum needed (along with a solar filter) to capture sun images. It did a pretty good image (without the filter) of the waxing gibbous moon last night just before 10PM Arizona time. The settings were: 1/4000 sec exposure, F-8, ISO 6400 and 300mm focal length.

The image above is satisfactory, but not as good as it could be. So, to facilitate further experimenting with the camera and astrophotography, I ordered a telescope adapter kit which offers several good interface options between my DSLR camera and my older Meade ETX90 five inch telescope.

The full moon will be next week and I’m hoping to have the camera/adapter/telescope interface figured out by then. More experimentation to come.

12 Jul 2016 by Astronomy Photography

Summer Solstice

Solstice

According to the clock here, summer officially started just a few minutes ago when the sun reversed its northbound travel (as seen from Earth) and will be heading southward again with the days getting shorter. June 20th daylight hours/minutes is 14:25, the longest day of the year.

Once again, I borrowed the screenshot graphic from Archaeoastronomy.com showing the frame from the animation where Earth passes through the summer solstice point in its orbit. The graphic shows the four seasonal starting points along with the four cross-quarter points of ancient significance.

Our summer weather is already here with yesterday and today’s highs above normal, hitting 116 yesterday and probably close to that again today. Damsel and I are cool and comfy inside our beautiful air conditioned territorial cottage.

20 Jun 2016 by Astronomy Environment

The All American Eclipse

The Great American EclipseAlthough the event is over fifteen months in the future, we ordered our special eclipse shades from Rainbow Symphony last week. This week, they showed up with the poster depicted at the right as a bonus. We ordered twenty-five pair of shades and plan on handing them out to family and friends as the event approaches.

Earlier, we made our reservations for an RV park near the centerline of the path of totality in Casper, WY. I’m sure the campgrounds are going to fill up very quickly as this is certain to be the most important and popular celestial event in our lifetimes. As spectacular as the Annular Eclipse was that we witnessed four years ago in Page, AZ, this one is certain to be more impressive, weather permitting.

The good thing about this eclipse is that nobody in the entire lower forty-eight has to travel more than a few to several hundred miles to get to the band of totality. Our trip, as currently planned, takes us over a 1,035 mile route with some extra miles due to sight seeing side trips along the scenic route through Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Image: All American Eclipse Poster; click to enlarge.

13 May 2016 by Astronomy Environment Wanderlust

May 9, 2016 Transit of Mercury

My efforts to photograph the Mercurial transit of the sun today were less than optimum; the diminutive disk of the small planet did not resolve well with my Canon SL1, 300mm lens and a $10 solar filter. Moreover, looking at the sun through Eclipse Shades was a bust; you couldn’t resolve the planet at all.

But, all was not lost – thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s images on the internet, I captured several screen shots to combine into the animation below. The sequence starts when Mercury is almost at mid-transit (I did not want to get up at 4 AM) and continues to the point where the shadow is barely touching the east limb of the sun. I find it very interesting that the sunspots at and above the equator move to indicate the solar rotation over the few hours it took for the transit.


09 May 2016 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

Last Great Sunspot for a While?

AR 2529

According to several on line resources, we are probably headed toward the minimum end of the current eleven-year solar activity cycle. Giant sunspot AR 2529 looming toward the right limb of the sun may be the last large spot for a while as solar activity diminishes.

I took my Canon EOS Rebel SL1 out to the courtyard equipped with the 75-300 mm telephoto lens and an inexpensive solar filter to capture this image of AR 2529 before it fades as it circles out of view. Camera settings: 1/3200 sec., F5.6, ISO 6400, 300 mm focal length.

16 Apr 2016 by Astronomy Photography Science

Vernal Equinox

Vernal Equinox

I got this screen capture this morning over at Archaeoastronomy.com which has probably the best depiction of the orbital stations of the Earth relating to seasonal changes. The animated graphic nicely illustrates the concept of the Earth passing through the eight stations as it orbits the sun.

Coincidentally with the advent of spring, one of the hedgehog cacti I wrote about yesterday has two flowers open this morning. Damsel took this image of one of them. Click on the image to enlarge.

Hedgehog Cactus Flower

20 Mar 2016 by Astronomy Environment Flowers Home & Garden

Fireball over Wickenburg

fireball.jpgDamsel and I were out in the courtyard to watch the overflight of the International Space Station this evening. It was still pretty light out and I wanted to see if I could see Sirius in Canis Major as a gauge for the predicted magnitude of the ISS at -1.9. Sirius is magnitude -1.46, a little less bright than the satellite.

Image: Similar fireball photographed over Russia.

When I turned my attention eastward to look at Sirius, a bright meteor streaked across the sky, bright white initially and turning to orange and breaking into fragments as I watched. It was gone by the time I called to Damsel to come and look. This is the first fireball meteor we have seen in Arizona and the first one I, personally, have seen in over 20 years of looking up. The image in this post is not of the event we witnessed tonight, but a stock image of a fireball seen over Russia in the past.

In scanning local news reports, I have not seen any mention of this event. The good news is that Damsel and I both saw a nice ISS pass which makes three out of four in this recent series of evening passes. One was rained out earlier in the week.

We like to keep looking up. The stars here are usually spectacular and we see the Milky Way most clear nights.

04 Feb 2016 by Arizona Astronomy Something Shiny Space Rocks

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