H-alpha and Calcium-K (Blue Mountains)

Ralph and I set up Toronto Centre's Coronado PSTs on dual-arm clock-driven mount. Used my blue extension cord with the one provided. Borrowed Phil's adjustable height chair. Used my Black Cloak of Doom to afford better views, particularly the deep violet of the Calcium PST.

The mount altitude was wrong. We need an Allan key from the work room to fix it.

The Sun was not nearly as active as last week unfortunately. Few flares. And those were small.



(if only the Sun had been so entertaining)

Everyone had a hard time with the K-line. Very hard to see any detail.

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I looked up rise/set times, careful this time to consider the midnight/morning hop.

• Sun sets 9:01 pm
• twilight begins 3:31 am
• Venus sets 11:08 pm
• Mars sets 11:45 pm
• Saturn sets 12:15 am
• Moon rises 5:25 am
• Sun rises 5:47 am

I noted some other particulars...

• Moon is 9° from the Sun
• Moon is 6° from Alhena
• Beehive is 5° from Mercury
• Regulus is 1° from Venus

Most of this info I gleaned from the S&T Almanac.

Double-checked the ISS pass(es) for the evening.

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Fiddled with Dietmar's new iPod to get the Carina Software astronomy application to work, to show different views as we moved it. We came to realise that the unit he has did not have the Compass feature active. So while it could detect location (by some mysterious means), it did not have a magnetometer to detect direction. Too bad.

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Started the planting of the Dutchman's Pipe...

Made rainbows with the hose...