Astronomy

December 2, 2024

Donna, a neighbor, came by to learn how to use her now-functional scope. Demonstrated a few of the basics: Collimation, achieving focus, and aligning her finder sight (a simple Celestron red-dot). Got acquainted with Starsense, Celestron’s proprietary push-to app. I was fairly impressed with it, alignment was a breeze and it consistently got us close enough to place the object in the eyepiece at low magnification. Jupiter was the only planetary target visible, and Donna was able to find it without any guidance from myself or from Starsense. Too bright for M31 and too early in the night for M42. I showed her a couple of eyepieces that she may want to upgrade to: my 8-24mm zoom, and 7mm planetary. Thoroughly appreciated her eagerness to learn, and I’m glad I could help support her in learning the hobby. Hope to see her at more neighborhood observing events in the future.

Having enjoyed the push-to functionality of Starsense, I’m planning to design and print a magsafe phone holder for my dob, with the intention to use Astrohopper to attain the same functionality. A magsafe-compatible metal ring should work well, set in a 3D-printed bracket attached to the tube. Either neodynium magnets or thermoset threads should work.

October 18, 2024

Invited the neighborhood for some early evening astronomy by the flagpole. Very solid lineup of targets tonight, with Saturn the star of the show. Pleasantly surprised by the number of people out walking who stopped for a view – Had at least a couple of people around the scope for a couple of hours straight. Seems like a post on the neighborhood Facebook group can encourage a good group of folks to come out. Around 7:30, we watched a Falcon 9 “jellyfish” from a launch out of Cape Canaveral. A first for me, and all attendees. Plan to do many more of these, weather permitting, though foot traffic will be much lighter as it gets colder.

October 6, 2024

Brought the dob out to the flagpole around dusk. An imperfect night with wind off the water, but a beautiful evening to be outside. Plenty of people out walking stopped for a quick tour of Saturn and Jupiter and their moons. I knew I’d have some foot traffic, but surprised by how many people were out after dark. One father was so impressed he promised to return with his kids, and brought the whole family for a view just before I packed up. A great night of outreach and conversations.

April 8, 2024

Traveled to Dallas, TX to visit friends and witness the total solar eclipse. Pessimistic cloud forecast from 10 days out through the morning of. Approx 75% high cloud cover in hours leading up to eclipse, declining to 50% around 1pm. Partial eclipse began at 12:23pm local time, often blocked by the cloud over. As totality grew nearer, clouds continued to dissipate, with the Southern sky clearing just in time for totality to arrive at 1:40pm. A diamond ring blinked away, preceding four minutes of darkness with a brilliant corona, in-line with the simulations performed by Predictive Science Inc. A massive solar prominence was visible on the Southern edge, a red ruby among the inky blackness and luminous white of the eclipse. Venus and Jupiter were visible to the West and East of the Sun, respectively. At 1:44pm, following 3 minutes 40 seconds of totality, the presence of Bailey’s Beads prompted us to replace our eclipse glasses and finally take a breath.

November 19, 2023

Completed six nights of near-consecutive observations of Jupiter’s Galilean moons.

Observation dates: 11/10/23, 11/11/23, 11/12/23, 11/14/23, 11/16/23, 11/18/23.

Overcast on 11/13, 11/15, and 11/17, but with the weather lately 6 days of observing out of 9 feels like an accomplishment.

November 18, 2023

Sidewalk astronomy in Portsmouth tonight with NHAS – Great turnout. Clouds cleared at 6 as predicted by ClearSkyChart after a rainy and overcast day, glad we made the go call for tonight’s event.

Started on Jupiter, with surprisingly good seeing conditions given the recent cloud cover. Showed Jupiter to several passerby, most of whom were able to recognize the cloud belts and the three moons within the FOV of my 7mm (Europa, Io, Ganymede).

Saturn appeared from behind the church steeple and I switched my focus there. As always, a crowd pleaser. One family came back to the group after their dinner as promised, and I’m glad I was able to give them a nice view of the rings. Spent a brief period on the waxing crescent moon, but soon returned to planetary viewing. Observed from 6 – 8:30pm.

Came home around 11pm to a surprisingly high Orion, and decided to give the nebula a go before calling it a night. Set up in the driveway, and captured a much nicer view than last week thanks to some extra altitude and more transparent skies. Well worth the effort. Peeked at the Pleiades for a moment while I was in the neighborhood.

Late-evening views of Jupiter were underwhelming given the altitude of the object and impressive views earlier, though I did recognize the furthest moons with the naked eye. Could somewhat resolve Callisto, and a smudge of light from Ganymede and Europa between Callisto and the planet itself.

Decided to try for Andromeda and was pleased to find it quickly even with the streetlights on. Averted vision was a huge help here, perhaps the most it’s ever made a difference for me. Still need a solution for balance at both high and low altitudes other than the bearing adjustment – Adding counterweights to the Christmas list. Also need to improve securement of the RACI/Telrad mount, as it falls out of alignment due to vibration. Felt or rubber may help insulate that, but there’ll be plenty of time for modifications during Jan/Feb. Great night all around.

November 14, 2023

I was informed by Rich DeMideo of NHAS that I missed an Io transit just past midnight on 11/12/2023. This was disappointing to learn, as I aim to capture a transit, and seeing was evidently good enough to capture it visually. I’ll have to find a resource and perhaps set reminders on my calendar to give myself opportunities to observe this and other events.

Found this tool from Sky & Telescope magazine, showing locations of Jupiter’s moons for a given date and time.

Note (11/17/2023): SkySafari Plus app provides info for upcoming TOES for a selected body!

November 12, 2023

Brief and cold session tonight, just long enough for a view of Jupiter and its satellites. Worth considering giving the scope more time to come to temperature, even for these brief sessions.

November 11, 2023

Enjoyed showing people at the bonfire Jupiter and Saturn on my second consecutive night of observations.

November 10, 2023

Observed Jupiter, Saturn, Pleiades, and Orion Nebula from Little River Park in Lee, NH. Was pleasant to meet Ed Norton and check out his Seestar and imaging setup. First night of logged observations of Jupiter in pursuit of Solar System Observer Award. Orion low in the sky, though this will change in the coming weeks.