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Archive for June, 2008


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Star Party At Kitt Peak

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In Star Party, Telescope, Adventures
18Jun 08

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Anthony at Kitt PeakI had the pleasure of attending a small star party the other night on top of Kitt Peak in southern Arizona. For those of you not familiar with the name, it is home to the Kitt Peak National Observatory. We had a smallish moon to contend with throughout the night, but it was a wonderful experience nonetheless. Skies were amazingly clear and otherwise dark. The star party was organized as a side event for attendees of the International Dark Sky Association’s 20th annual general meeting which I was in town for.

We got a tour of the facilities which are home to a battery of telescopes ranging in size from small personal telescopes to the giant 4 meter telescope. Our portion of the star party had us under the dome at the visitor center (seen behind me in the accompanying image) taking in the sky with a 20″ RC telescope. Our “guide” showed us the planet Saturn, The Ring Nebula (M57), globular cluster M5 and galaxy M82. Each showed an amazing amount of detail… offered only to observers viewing under dark skies. Those of you under light polluted skies… sorry about this. You’ll need to arrange a road trip if you’d like to truly enjoy these objects.

On a related note, the accompanying image was taken by fellow dark sky warrior,  Lance Diskan. Lance is the founder of the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition. Given that Flagstaff has the distinction of being The International Dark Sky Association’s First Dark Sky City, it’s obvious that Lance carries some serious dark sky credentials. Lance and his team over at Flagstaff Dark Skies are working tirelessly to protect and preserve the dark, star-filled skies above Flagstaff. All sky watchers owe these guys a debt of gratitude, not just those in Flagstaff. Their accomplishments just go to show what a small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish.  I find it absolutely amazing that such a small portion of those who love the night sky actually do anything at all to protect it. This is a sad commentary on our society. We need more people like Lance to show up at planning commission meetings and tell them that we are sick and tired of the crummy lights that are regularly installed. If just a small number of folks showed up at each community, we could make some serious head way.

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Multiple Solar Prominences

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In Sun
17Jun 08

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Multiple Solar Prominences
I’ve been watching a number of solar prominences come and go in recent days. Several seemed worthy of imaging. Unfortunately, when I went to grab my camera, I was unable to locate my Scope Tronix adapter. This was a bother, but I was too lazy to do anything about it. Until today, that is. Today, the Sun was sporting two pairs of large prominences on opposite sides of the Sun. This was more than even I could ignore :)

I knew that my adapter couldn’t be far… it’s always kept with my astro gear… err… with my photo gear… err. Well… I tore through everything and, there it was… sitting right where I put it… inside the case for my Coronado Solar Max 40 :)

I brief play with focusing and I snapped the accompanying image. It doesn’t show all of the detail visible in the eyepiece. This is a shame as what I saw was quite amazing. Its also a shame because I’m aiming for much better. I’m still struggling with capture of the finer details in a number of types of images (planets & sun in particular). I suppose I’ll need to read up on things if I’m to overcome this (current) limitation.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717
* 1/100s at ISO400
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

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