Ain't she a beaut!

ShootingStars was out for first light Valentine's Day weekend. It was great! I had a mini star party with friends up in Ridgecrest.

We looked at Mars, Saturn, Vesta, Orion Nebula and Pleiades on Saturday night.

Mars was excellent in the scope. I used the 8-24mm zoom at first. At 85x it was a orange sherbet ball. At 254x you could see the South Polar Cap. Finally I switched to the 10mm guiding eyepiece with and without ED Barlow. (203 and 406 power). Then I added a red #25 filter. Woohoo - the markings came out! Most prominent was the band just north of the polar cap. I identified Maria Australis (band), Erythraeum, Acidalium-region complex, plus Syrtis Major and the Sinus Sabeus-Meridiani complex later with Sky and Telescope's Mars Profiler. The planet was high and seeing was excellent even though we set up on a parking lot (probably because it had cooled enough by 830PM).

Just for fun I popped in the 2mm SkyWatcher eyepiece given to me over the holidays by Wil. It was over 1000x and the planet was a bowl of orange sherbet blur but the cap did stand out.

Saturn was still too low for good seeing but my companions liked the olive on the toothpick appearance of the nearly edge-on rings. Occasionally you could see the gap between the planet and rings. The ring shadow was the most prominent detail.

I tracked down Vesta near Gamma Leonis (Algeiba). It passed right between the double star on the night of Feb 16-17. (I looked at it that night from San Pedro in a FirstScope, confirming the motion. I felt just like Heinrich Olbers!)

I changed to the 2" diagonal and Ultima 32 and we looked at Orion Nebula. Positively lovely colors of the stars in the Trapezium and great detail in the cloud at 64x.

Then we finished the party on the Pleiades, which overflowed the 70-degree eyepiece field. Too bad I didn't pack my focal reducer.

I forgot to take pictures of the scope - I guess I got carried away with the observing - so I did that the next day against the beautiful local scenery.

ShootingStars is an old Celestron scope from the early 80s that I rescued. It was filthy, completely neglected, the mount was in pieces. I decided to put the OTA on a new Celestron SE mount back in 2008. I completely disassembled the OTA and cleaned it by the beginning of 2009, collimated early in the year, got the SE mount arm, jumbo finder, got the vinyl wrap done in the spring then...the China eclipse trip intervened. Broken foot intervened, Life is what happens while you are making other plans.

The dovetail bar was the next issue. I had an aftermarket bar on a mounting plate. It didn't have a lot of travel for pushing the scope forwards for better balance. Plus I had to cut away my bezel to accommodate the mounting plate. So next, I bought a Celestron orange dovetail bar. Hector very kindly mounted it custom with a low-profile adapter to fit the old-school tube's different mounting holes.

The result of all this is a beautiful mix of old and new that I'll use to enjoy and share the sky with my friends and others.

 OK, I did some counting: 34 names on the FirstScope!! My first estimate by a spiral approximation
method was 38....

 Wow, that thing is like the Jefferson cipher wheel (as seen in National Treasure or the Da Vinci Code)! 

Many names are repeated in different scripts and at different relative positions. 

Galileo, Hubble, Romer, Cassini, Kepler, Huygens, Cannon, Flamsteed, S. Jansen,
Einstein, Schiaparelli, Dobson, Eddington, Hewliusz, Laplac(e), P. Janssen, Halley,
Lippershey, Giaconni, Aristotle (Greek), Tycho, Copernicus, Newton, Jansky, Messier,
Newton, Metius, plus 6 others in foriegn scripts I cannot read. I can read Greek.

Anyone count differently? KK says over 30.

Can anyone read the Chinese characters or the Cyrillic?

The latest accessory in the DarkMatters DIY FirstScope line: The Collapsible Dew Shield!

Yes, it's necessary to have one - at least in coastal California. The foot-long tube will dew up after a couple of hours in the marine environment of Seal Beach, Point Vicente, etc. It happened at the very end of Galilean Nights back in October.

So, to prevent that from happening again, I went to Michael's craft store and spent a buck for the 12x36 sheet foam. It's closed cell and about 3/32" thick, cuts easily and is available in colors including flat black. (I've used it before with other materials to make a tube cap for an 8" SCT - good stuff!)

OK, measure the tube diameter, multiply by 3.141259, add fudge for overlap.
Roll your own! And use another favorite material, Weldwood rubber contact cement. Apply, allow tackiness (about 2-3 minutes), bond, and cure overnight.

It goes on the tube and extends about 5" out. I didn't want to make it longer because then it vignettes the light to the scope.

Fashionistas take note: color-coordinated.

And now for the coolest part - it flattens out and goes right into the camera bag I use to carry the FirstScope!

To use it, I just pull it out and work it a bit to get it back into round and voila: dew-free observing!

I still have left-over foam that I'll use this weekend for a C-5 solar filter sleeve.

Keep looking up!

Dark "McGyver" Matters

Yes, it was a busy weekend. Galilean Nights and FirstScope Solar Days!

 I've done it - added a solar filter to the FirstScope kit.

How did he do it? Cost nothing!

I had an old Synta 21088 solar filter for a 102mm scope like the Omni 102.

It was too big to fit over the FS tube directly, so.... I scrounged and found some foam padding of the closed cell kind that I use for camera bags. I curled up the sheet and dry fit it into the rim of the filter, then both together over the front of the FS.

Voila! A perfect fit!





Now, rubber cement. An hour later I was observing the sun using the FS handheld through a window.

Sunday I got more serious, after reading about the (biggest) spot group (of the spotless year 2009) on the sun -  spot 1029.

I got my little Slik, the FirstScope in its Lowe bag, a couple of eyepieces, Barlow and the new filter.

Setting up outside on the ocean bluffs (windy!), 25mm at 12 power did not show more than a hint.  20x (15mm) was better - I could see the bigger spots in the group. Pop in the Barlow. 40x did the trick - NICE! Plenty of detail and very satisfying.

The wind caused some vibration in the lightweight setup. I dampened it by using one hand to hold the scope and one pressing down on the top of the tripod leg attachment.

Now I have a portable solar observatory. Binomite - WATCH OUT!

Twilight descended and two objects came out of the dusk. The moon and Jupiter, just the same as it was for Galileo 400 years ago.

 BUT he was not 200 feet from the surf at Seal Beach on a pleasant Saturday night!

Galilean Nights: a hundred or more people, I was there, KK was there, Alt-D was there. Plus about 10 others from either Celestron or just amateurs.

I had three scopes to fit the theme of  GN: the GalileoScope, the FirstScope MG, the Onyx. I wanted to make it a visually aesthetic experience from a historical perspective So all my scopes were manual - the only non-electric or non-electronic scopes there. No batteries required.

 The GalileoScope was used on a tripod in its Galilean mode - the 18x Barlow eyepiece. Whew - everyone including me had a taste of how difficult is was in those days! 9-degree apparent field meant it was like trying to find the Moon and Jupiter through a black drinking straw. I had it on a slo-mo Alt-Az head which made the almost continuous recentering easier. Plus focusing was difficult, too as the scope is push-pull (arghhh!). Mr. G did wonders discovering what he did, but it's no surprise that his only deep-sky discovery was the Milky way is composed of stars. I can't imagine him scanning the skies with that thing like a Messier or Herschel!

Next in history's line up is (was) the FirstScope Newtonian reflector. Isaac Newton of Principia Mathematica fame invented this one. I had it on a Velbon head Flashpoint tripod with the McGyver mounting system. We were able to re-orient d the tube for kids to look with this system. Great views of the lunar craters and Jupiter and the four Galilean satellites. Everyone loved the Celestron 8-24mm zoom eyepiece I used with it.

 Then the ultramodern sexy black Onyx on the Voyager mount. People could look through the Onyx at 16x with the 32mm Ultima and have a four-and-one-half-degree field. Or see the crisp detail with the ED Barlowed 21mm X-Cel. Yes, we've made some progress with optics in 400 years. What were the satellites arrayed in the Onyx - why Io, Europa and Callisto on one side and Ganymede on the other.

Plus all the GOTO stuff nearby. 6SE with binoviewer - thanks KK! - Alt-D with the whopping CGE Pro 1400 Edge HD. Jupiter was awesome at 173 power in this scope, dew on to corrector plate or not!

And the vintage scopes there were cool, too. Totally impressive over the old Meades and Celestrons was the PRISTINE PERFECT Classic C1-4 with everything original and working perfectly. Plus Mike had the best anti-dewing technology of the evening, so he was still going at 10PM when the rest of us packed it in.

Cool star party, cool people and well-behaved canines and kids. Just don't forget the blow dryer when you're that close to the beach! Mr. G didn't have to worry about that at all.

First, take a look at the hardware to be assembled:

This is the scope, an old dovetail bar (from a 4SE) plus two dive straps from Sports Chalet (6 dollars)

Next, adjust and buckle the straps around the tube. Initially you'll leave about a finger's width of looseness to slip in the bar.

Slip the bar in with the narrow side against the tube under one strap.

Now slip the bar into the dovetail clamp on your mount. Here it is an Astro-Tech Voyager. Tighten the dovetail clamp.

Pull the other strap over the other end of the bar and tighten the straps. OBSERVE!

A tripod works too, because the dovetail bar has 1/4x20 taps.

Here I use a quick release plate and screw it to the dovetail bar after slipping both sides of the strap over the bar.

Voila! A tripod-mounted FirstScope.

All this without drilling any holes. Same straps will hold to many EQ mounts, like the PowerSeekers.

Next FirstScope adventures: solar filter! rings!

I finally got the pictures done - I took a thousand and have placed about 600-700 online in two albums.

All kinds of interesting stuff - China itself, fellow eclipse chasers, quest for the tidal wave, Purple Mountain Observatory, ancient astro instruments, modern Synta plant (that's where a lot of Celestrons are made), etc.

Check it out!

 
Summer in East Central China and the prospects for the longest total solar eclipse for more than 100 years. An irresistIble trip for the astronomy, the food, people, scenery and Shaoxing wine.

Part I covers Shanghai Days, Jiaxing, Mission to Moganshan, Eclipse Nightfall Jiaxing, OOPS!, Hangzhou West Lake Story, Huangshan Shi orr is it Tunxi? (what's in a name?), Huangshan.

Part II covers Nanjing, Purple Mountain Observatory, On the Road to Suzhou, Synta Factory Suzhou, Zai jian China!
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/ProfessorPhoto/China2009InTheShadowOfTheMoonPartIShanghaiThroughHuangshan#

http://picasaweb.google.com/ProfessorPhoto/China2009InTheShadowOfTheMoonPartIINanjingThroughZaiJian#

Hello, everyone!  

What a trip it was - 14 days, meeting many very nice people, both locals and foreigners, visiting Shanghai and 3 provinces, the Synta telescope factory at Suzhou, Purple Mt. Observatory at Nanjing.

And of course, the total solar eclipse!  

That part of the adventure began with preparations here in the US, resulting in two complete photo rigs and approximately 20 lbs in photo gear. Everything was packed into one Jetpilot wheely bag of medium size plus a smallish Gregory Advent backpack. I had no troubles with the airline's size and weight restrictions.  

At LAX, I met Bob, Mike and Alan, fellow eclipse chasers who were on the same China Eastern flight to Shanghai. We swapped a few stories and plans.  

After a long 13-14 hour flight, I landed at Pudong airport, cashed a traveler's check into Yuan, managed to get my cell phone working and found a hotel. Then I had a hair-raising taxi ride from the airport to the People's Park area in Shanghai. Darting about and eventually ahead of all traffic, my 20-something Chinese driver drove like a bat out of hell, cutting from the right to the left and in between buses, trucks and traffic at about 80mph. He passed all others, including his fellow cabbies. I made it to Hotel 168 in one piece and had a good night's sleep.  

The next day I walked towards the Bund and the river when lo and behold I spot Alan at a sidewalk cafe. Mike joins us and we all spend the rest of the day having (what else?) Coronas, great Chinese food and fun sightseeing in central Shanghai.  That night I meet Australian videographer Anthony and his Chinese girlfriend Carrie. We share a very nice meal and plans at a restaurant off Nanjing Dong Lu. They plan to shoot high-def video of totality happening over iconic Shanghai structures. He's well-equipped, carrying several cameras and tracking mounts for the event.

Monday I move on to Jiaxing via train form the south bus station. My second taxi ride to the station was merely normal and the driver used a GPS to find his way. I check in to the Fortune Hotel, where I meet several other chasers, most notably Ron and his Chinese guide Jing.  

My plan to go mobile for the eclipse has its first setback. The hotel cannot locate an available English speaking driver or cabbie for me.

The second setback is learning that even knowing the language has not helped. Jing has called every number in the hotel's directory of local guides and drivers and she had no success at lining up anyone either.  

Tuesday the three of us try to see if we can move easily via bus and taxis to Moganshan, a high hill and national park maybe 70 miles from Jiaxing in the west and a possible eclipse watching site. It is a lovely park. Yet after 9-1/2 hours round trip, we realize that the possibilities of moving around Jiaxing on E-Day are remote. We are where we are and pray for good weather the next day. The forecast is for rain.  

So far on the trip, the weather had been generally good in the morning, with haze and clouds developing in the afternoons. The first evening in Shanghai featured a magnificent red sunset, while Sunday in the city had been hot and sunny. Moganshan was sunny with some hazy clouds.  

Wednesday dawns foggy. We meet at 645am and plan to scout out a couple of nearby local parks on foot for observing sites. We find a good spot quite nearby. At 8am, heading back to the hotel, the sun peeks out, encouraging us on our way. Alas, soon after we get to the hotel, rain begins, heavy and steady. All we can do is wait in the lobby, watching the torrent come down. As second contact nears, I take most of the gear back up to my tenth floor room and set up a tripod, photographing the city at intervals, watching it get dark and lights come on.  

At totality, I run downstairs and outside. The rain has lightened and the excitement of the nightlike darkness in the midmorning has gripped everyone.  

I run back upstairs. The sky lightens abruptly. Third contact. Ron calls, saying the sun is out. I look down at rooftops seeing people looking up with solar filters and sun goggles. Specular reflections glint off car windows.  

I dash downstairs with one camera, zoom lens and solar filter. At the front door, people are peering at the sky, catching glimpses of the partial eclipse through clouds. I manage to get off two shots before the clouds close again for good and the rain starts again as a sprinkle.  

I join Ron at the park. He is unluckier than I am and has not been able to get a shot of the sun. It refuses to reemerge and after 20 or so minutes, we adandon the attempt.  

Later in the day I take the bus to Hangzhou. At the taxi stand, I spot a man with a solar eclipse t-shirt and ask: "Did you see it?" "Yes, just one minute of totality!" So, there were a few people in the region who got lucky and saw the bad weather eclipse after all.  

I check into a very nice hotel right on West Lake and have a very good dinner of fish with lime grass. Ah, I'm in China and will have a good trip despite the eclipse washout.  

But the day is not over. As I head back to the lake and hotel in evening darkness, my foot is caught by something behind a row of scooters. I'm hurt! I stumble on back to the hotel and ice up what I learn later is a broken foot.  

The rest of the trip? That is many stories. In brief, I continue with my foot up Huangshan and loop back to Shanghai over the next eight days.  

Stay tuned for more on this adventure!

Here are my photo results from Eclipse Day, July 22, 2009, Jiaxing.

Time sequence: Eclipse Nightfall, Jiaxing

Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/07222009_Jiaxing.gif

Bleak weather after first contact.
Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/1_9674.jpg

After third contact, the partial eclipse comes out to play.
Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/2_9702.jpg

Post-totality partial eclipse.
Direct link for best view:
http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/3_9704.jpg

Zao shang hao!

I had no luck - just one picture after 3rd contact!

It is a long story - basically, I and two others pooled resources to find a good driver for E-Day, but failed to find one.

Wednesday in Jiaxing was foggy, then intense rain. It cleared briefly showing the solar disk around 8am, before first contact, then rain again. We had scouted out a local park to observe. First contact went unobserved in  a huge T-storm, I moved the C90 back to my 10-th floor room.

I set up my tripod to look out over the city, doing a series of the darkening and the lights coming on. Totality came. I rushed downstars to stand outside and see how everyone was doing. All were excited. It was very dark, heavy clouds, drizzle, plus the ultradeep lunar shadow.  I rushed back up to the tenth floor. The sky had brightened considerably in the 90 seconds it took me. My newfound friend Ron called, saying the sun had come out just after totality had ended. Sure enough, people had come out on nearby roof tops with solar filters in hand, lookng up. The glimmer of the sun could be seen in car windows. I ran outside the lobby, whirling and saw the crescent of the sun. I quickly pulled up my Canon 20D with 270mm zoom and snapped off shots. The sun came and went in the clouds. I got one shot that I could see in my postviewer before the sun disappeared completely.

Joining Ron at the park, we waited and waited for another clear window. Ron had not gotten any shots of the eclipsed sun. He did not get any. The sun never completely came out again until well after 4th contact, later in the afternoon.

More later. I was not lucky, but otthers never even saw any of the sun during the whole eclipse. At least I got a glimpse and the one shot.

More later on who did see the eclipse. Mostly, they were very lucky.