spoke to alignment of BDT

NightWaves made a comment on my barn door tracker YouTube video.

As long as the hinge is polar aligned I don't think level is required.  Just a habit from using an AZ ALT with degrees for adjustments.  If not going the fine adjustment route tapping might work.  I've got the cheat of a heavy duty Celestron tripod with fine tune adjustment on it but no bubbles.

I replied.

Indeed, I do not worry about level.  I do not have bubble levels on the barn door.  But I do worry about the precise polar alignment with increasingly long exposures.

Hope that helps.

imaged Orion (Bradford)

Quick processing of an image for each of the two sets of Orion.

All with Canon 40D, kit 18-55 lens at f/5.6, 30 second exposure, ISO 800, in-camera noise subtraction, shot RAW, daylight white balance, manually focused, controlled by Backyard EOS. Atop custom barn door tracker with alt-az base and Mamiya tripod. Lens heated. Filter removed.

9:38 PM. Aimed south-south-east so to include Sirius. Camera upright. Light pollution from Newmarket. Not polar aligned in any way.

You can see the Great Orion Nebula, 42 and 45 Orionis, ι (iota) Ori, Meissa, Collinder 69, et al. The open cluster NGC 1981 north of 42-45 is obvious when you zoom in. There's just a hint of Messier 41 below Sirius. Lepus is in the trees.

9:57 PM. Aimed south-south-west so to embrace Pleiades. Camera inverted. Polaris in the finder scope.

Taurus is lovely. A few of the double stars are visible within, like θ (theta) 1 and 2, σ (sigma) 1 and 2. Orange Menkar is peeking through the branches on the right.

In these photos, Betelgeuse looks the same magnitude as Bellatrix, maybe even a touch brighter.

I didn't realise it at the time but the lens was at 24mm. I wanted 18. That's why I couldn't seem to fit everything...

Both images slightly enhanced in Digital Photo Professional 4.6: brightened, boosted contrast, dropped the shadows, boosted saturation, rotated as needed, scaled.

Good transparency, good seeing, humidity low at 42%, air temperature around -11°C.

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Got a good result, finally, from stacking.

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Identified objects in the photo.

imaging run details

Headed out back with all the gear. Big metal tripod with hex plate. Barn door tracker with alt-az base in box with controller and polar finding sheet. Camera with kit 18-55 lens but no battery grip so to reduce bulk and weight. I had previously installed the DC coupler. TV table and astronomer chair. Big gauge extension cord and GFCI power bar. Bits and bops (flashlight, weather station, eyeglasses straps, red eyeglasses, red keyboard light) in a carry-all.

Fired up the catalytic hand warmer. Took two tries with a candle. Worked well despite the old fuel. Toasty! It is awesome. Lots of layers, of course. Winter coat. New thematically appropriate constellations hoodie (though not a human could see it)! Maybe for the first time, three layers on the legs: underwear, pyjamas, and baggy jeans. My delicious -100 boots!

Forgot the netbook and wireless mouse on the first run.

Moon, crescent, just above the western trees; Venus, falling, warming, tangled in the branches.

Considered a light shield, to block the annoying street light from Frederick. Nothing available...

Hooked everything up. Very quick tripod and BDT setup. Did not sight Polaris... I know!

Tonight, I decided to try the in-camera noise reduction dark removal. Alan Dyer does it.

Started imaging tests using the Canon EOS Utility. Just on auto-pilot. Gave up during focusing trials when I couldn't see anything in the live view.

Fetched dew heating equipment. Cup warmer heater with custom cord, Kendrick controller, NOCO lithium battery with custom CLA adapter. Later my custom nichrome wire wrap. The cup warmer heater is too long with the lens at 18mm, cutting into the frame, visible.

Took the sky filter off the lens.

9:20 PM. Started using Backyard EOS. Frame and focus. 30 second shot.

The focus controls didn't seem to be working... Manually focused! [ed: Dew strap stiction?]

Beep-boop. Histogram looked OK. At 100% zoom level the focus looked OK. Stars looked round! Huh.

Couldn't remember how to zoom in with the app! The quick buttons in the interface are "fit" or 100%. And when combined with full screen, it helped. Had to dig around in the documentation... I was over-analysing it. Don't use the Ctrl key. [ed: Oops. Total forgot about my discovery in May 2017!]

Really wanted Pleiades in the frame. Couldn't angle the camera at the pitch necessary given the ball head, and the hollow. Just the way it's designed. In a normal terrestrial application it would be fine, the camera could be pivot from horizontal to vertical, 90°, straight up. But my straight-up was 45° (more or less), whatever my latitude was.

Checked the settings, lens at f/5.6, body at ISO 800, RAW format, power level OK. Too bad BYE doesn't indicate AC power input rather than just a full battery. Was happy overall, so ordered a 12 of the images.

The battery looked weak for the deep red flashlight.

9:28. Checked the Oregon Scientific portable weather station: 42% relative humidity, air temperature -10.5°C. No wind... Moon was down, of course.

The estimated finished time looked wonky. Oh. Then it corrected itself. The app appears to initially calculate it at the beginning of the run. 2 minutes from the start? No. Now 9:38, 13 minutes from now. Right. 12 shots at 30 seconds would be 6 minutes times 2 for the darks would be 12 minutes total. Looked OK.

Zoomed in to a very high level. The focus was maybe off a little. Whatever.

Amazingly, the stars looked round. And I had not done a polar alignment, in any formal way. I just plunked down the tripod and mounted the BDT, aimed over the roof. That was it. I must have gotten very close... Lucky.

Noted the title bar in BYE: 3.1.16. Wondered if there was a new version.

9:34. Wondered how to get Pleiades... Couldn't tilt any more. Flip it?

I was feeling some time pressure. Chris had said the conditions were to change. My quick glance at the predictive sights show clouds rolling in after midnight. No clouds visible now. Skies looked really good!

(Bet that were having fun on Glen Major...)

Two more shots. At 11 of 12.

9:40. Inverted the camera! But, as I suspected, it created a balance problem. The altitude-azimuth base of the BDT wanted to flop open. The current rubber band (bands?) was weak and/or broken.

Adjusted the BDT alt-az. I put Polaris in the field of view of the finder (but not in the centre). It wasn't there at first but remarkably I was getting no visible trailing. Presumably it would be even better now. That said, I hadn't done co-axial tests...

Went inside for a big elastic. Amazingly, I found one! One centimetre wide band, strong, good condition.

Samsung, f/1.9, 1/25th, ISO 200, 4mm (27). The Up Side Down!

Tried a test shot in the new configuration.

Learned if you roll back the number of exposures in the BYE imaging sequence and it goes to zero (which by itself is odd), it clears the camera settings!

9:54. Image downloaded. Histogram looked good. Hit the 180 button in BYE. Got the Pleiades, but just barely. Turned the camera a bit more. Another test shot. Rotated some more.

Camera temperature was reporting at -6. Wow.

Nice framing! Checked focus—it was fair, not perfect. Programmed 12 shots.

10:00 PM. Saw the bug in the estimated finished time again. Not 2 minutes from now; should be 12. After first shot, waited for the noise reduction, downloaded, paused. As it started the second image capture, the estimate recalculated. Due around 10:13.

Went inside to ask Rhonda a favour. She let me use her Samsung smartphone camera (SM-a520w) with flash so I could take some set-up shots.

Samsung, f/1.9, 1/33th, ISO 160, 4mm (27). Frozen dew. Elastics everywhere. Big rubber band holding the motor plate down.

10:09. Checked an image. Framing looked good. Histogram looked OK, although fewer light pixels [ed: Less Newmarket light pollution while aimed to the south-east.] Camera temp was now -2, from -6, showing it was warming in the shooting process.

10:11. Worked on image 9 of 12. Backyard conditions: 42%, -11.7, precipitation tomorrow, air pressure dropping. Low humidity but we must have been at the dew point.

Discovered I forgot to cap the BDT finder. Oops.

Two to go. Stars didn't seem as bright. I wondered if the lens was fogging.

Started packing up. Stoopid neighbour's dog started freakin' out. Lame.

Beep-boop. Lens was fine. Capped everything. Bagged the camera.

Shot set-up photos.

Samsung, f/1.9, 1/17th, ISO 1250, 4mm (27). My workstation among the Baffin Island boot tracks and bunny hoof prints. That's not a star; it's the ridiculous street light from a block away.

10:25. On the move.

readied to image

A couple of days ago people started talking about the clear skies expected on Wednesday night. All my weather indicators echoed this, including the new Rainmeter weather widget.

I started working a plan. Not in the mood for double stars, I settled on photography. I'd try to capture the Orion constellation. I would be able to get more experience with the barn door tracker. I'd be able to measure (to a degree) the brightness of Betelgeuse.

Happily, I resurrected SkyTools 3 on the John Max computer. It looked like I'd be able to get Orion, plus other stuff, with the kit lens zoomed wide. If I was lucky, Sirius in one corner, and Pleaides kitty-corner.

Sunlight stretched across the snow in the backyard as I ground my coffee beans this morning. That was a good sign. But later Chris V said clouds would move in. And I saw the Clear Outside site reflected this, conditions turning around midnight. No worries. I readied to head out after dinner.

Binary Universe: charts of the sky

Received a notice from RASC national office that the February 2020 Journal was ready for download.

Enjoyed Jeff's fantastic image of the North American Nebula. Enjoyed Rick Staniewicz amazing parhelia image. The articles by Beckett and Percy I look forward to reading.

In my Binary Universe column I discuss Cartes du Ciel. I tested version 4.2 on my Windows 10 environment. A rich planetarium application with some planning capabilities, mount control, and features for variable and double star observers. Cartes du Ciel for Windows, Mac, and Linux is completely free.

bringer of light

Fished out the slab phone, confirmed it was the correct human signing in, tapped the Google Calendar is my life, started a shiny new entry, and tapped the teenie mic icon on the virtual keyboard. I orated, "Don't forget to write about this month's double stars." The pocket-able somewhat-intelligent computing device thought I said "Don't forget to write about this month's devil stars." Indeed.

spotted Levy and Abraham

While doing some Messier Marathon research, I came across Chris Vaughan's 2019 article on Space.com. And then I watched the embedded video. Ha, spotted David Levy. And later Roberto Abraham, at the David Dunlap Observatory no less.

thanked John

On watched my barn door tracker video, John Dean posted on YouTube "Great presentation Blake!" I thanked him.

Winter Hexagon overhead (Bradford)

Stepped off the bus and immediately Sirius caught my left eye. Fairly elevated, not too much scintillating.

As I cut through a dark parking lot, the southern sky opened up. Orion, high up, Auriga higher still. I had to crane for the Pleiades. Took in the whole hexagon. Fantastic, majestic, huge. Lovely with no Moon.

The stars to the west seemed dim. Was there high cloud? Not enough stars to pick out constellations.

Betelgeuse looked very close to Bellatrix in terms of brightness. At one point, I thought brighter. Most of the time it seemed the same. Definitely better than Saiph. Definitely better than Mintaka. But then I thought the same magnitude as Alnitak and Alnilam. They are both 1.7.

Flip dark winter chill.

read AN DS article

Spotted an article over at Astronomy Now on colourful double stars in Cassiopeia. w00t! It's a nice little piece with attractive graphics. Good suggestions. Checked if I've seen them—yep.

gauged Betelgeuse

Eyeballed Betelgeuse, alpha Orionis, again. Again I thought it to be the same magnitude as Bellatrix. So around mag 1.6.

received 6th graders (Richmond Hill)

We received a school group to the David Dunlap Observatory. I headed to the site early to check on things and attempt repairs of two of our loaner telescopes. Paul arrived on time so we headed to the dome to prep. Ian W and Nancy arrived some time later. Amazingly the skies cleared so I put the 74 on Uranus and radioed Ian that we were ready. Despite the cold temperatures, the grade 6 kids were enthusiastic with good questions. Sounded like they enjoyed their visit. Tres bien.

processed RY Mon in colour

Processed online variable star RY Mon in colour. Worked with the data collected on 9 Jan '20.

Used the processing features from BGO.

• split (the special combined exposures)
• for each, cropped (95, 95), rotated (180), removed gradient 
• made a colour image (registered and combined)

Yep, very red.

processed Caldwell 54 in colour

Processed Caldwell 54 aka NGC 2506 in colour. This is the image data captured on 9 Jan '20.

Used the processing features from BGO.

1. split (the special combined exposures)
2. for each, cropped (95, 95), rotated (180), removed gradient 
3. made a colour image (registered and combined)
4. adjusted colour balance (120,100,80)
5. saturated (200)
6. cropped again (95, 95)

It's a colourful cluster.

imaged Caldwell 54 for fun (Halifax)

The Burke-Gaffney Observatory captured photons from Caldwell 54. An open cluster in the constellation Monoceros. Looks to have many colourful stars within.

Green filter only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; east is left.

Big! Many fine members. Seems almost like there are two channels moving up and north.

I also collected red and blue data with the same parameters.

This is also known as NGC 2506 and OCL 593 and Melotte 80. Collinder 170 and Raab 67. It's also on the Herschel 400 list.

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Assembled in colour on 11 Jan '20.

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Wikipedia link: NGC 2506.

imaged red star RY Mon (Halifax)

Sent the BGO robotic telescope to the red star RY Mon after examining the RASC Calgary list.

Luminance only, 2 seconds subexposures, 12 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; east is left.

Look at that little gaggle of stars!

Also gathered RGB data, 6 seconds each, 12 frames each.

Aka HIP 34326 and TYC 05381-0403 1.

The B-V is 4.0 and the V magnitude 8. I look forward to processing this in colour...

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Assembled in colour on 12 Jan '20.

imaged fast moving LDS 873 (Halifax)

Ordered BGO to image LDS 873. This is a faint but fast binary star in Pisces. 70 year period. I hoped the magnitude 11.4 and 12.9 stars would both be visible...

Luminance only, 2 seconds subexposures, 12 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; east is left.

Also gathered RGB data, 6 seconds each, 12 frames each.

Also known as HIP 4927. SkyTools says the primary star is TYC 01195-0960 1 but I had to use 1195009602 with the 'bot.

This is a tight pair. SkyTools says 3.23". That's close to the limit for this system. The software shows the B star to the west, nearly due west. I can't see anything... Did a deep give into all the channels.

Is the seeing a factor? The CSC predicted the seeing at 1/5 or bad. Or am I working below the limits of the rig?

visited NGC 7814 for fun (Halifax)

The Burke-Gaffney Observatory robot imaged NGC 7814. An edge-on galaxy in Pegasus. First viewed this target on the evening of 8 Oct '16 from the backyard. Wanted to get a better look.

Luminance only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; east is left.

Not a great image with that nasty gradient. But you can still see that thin black line, that lumpy dust lane cutting through the middle of the galaxy. Interesting.

This galaxy is also known as UGC 8 and Caldwell 43. It's also on the Herschel 400 list.

It is near Algenib. Not that bright star at the top-right; that's HD 225001.

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Spotted faint LEDA 1504510 to the north, just above star Tycho 1178-0738-1. Tiny round little fuzzy.

To the east (left) there is the obvious oval, somewhat bright, of galaxy PGC 259.

LEDA 1500064 is to the south-west, near the bright stars SAO 91677 and 91676.

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Wikipedia link: NGC 7814.

checked brightness of Betelgeuse

Pulled up the brightness chart or light curve for Betelgeuse. I inverted it with GIMP.

My quick visual Mark I eyeball assessment was not too far off.

The dynamic up-to-date graph is available at the AAVSO. Check it for the latest observations and measures.

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Still dropping, as of 5 Feb '20.

followed Sirius (Bradford)

It was partly cloudy. From the bus stop to home, I followed bright Sirius. The nearly full Moon was headed toward Orion, up and left of an orange star (Aldebaran). In fact, the Moon had taken up one of the corners of the Winter Hexagon. Couldn't see the Pleiades in the bright and wispy sky.

Betelgeuse looked the same brightness as Bellatrix. [ed: Which is mag 1.6 according to Stellarium.]

attended CAO meeting

Attended the meeting for the Carr Astronomical Observatory organising team (at the DDO). First face-to-face committee meeting in a while. We plowed through a lot of stuff in 2 hours!

fixed the projector

Headed to the DDO earlier. Good thing I wasn't on the clock as the buses were all messed up. Tidied up the RASC office some more. Tested the wifi bridge. My notes were good but the service is spotty. Found the projector lamp assembly that Chris had located. Looked brand new to me so I installed it in the east projector in the dome and fired it up. Back in business! Was ready to have a go at the big Dob but then people started arriving.

plotted moon elongations

woo hoo! At first I didn't think there was a tool specifically for Mars. But a bit of creative searching, and I found it! Like what I've done with the outer gas giants, I used the Tracker Tool, version 2.6, PDS Ring-Moon Systems Node (tool link) from SETI. (It is not listed in the web interface menu...)

Wow. They are zippy! Deimos appears to be just over 1 day. Phobos looks to be 2 or 3 times a day!

Slowed it down a bit...

There. That'll be handy for a given evening...

Oh boy. Phobos is gonna be tough, never more than 1 planet diameter away!

considered Mars 2020 show

Got to thinking about the conversation with Rhonda. Did a big of digging into the next apparition of Mars.

A few quick key facts. Opposition will occur on or around 13 October. It will cross the meridian (or over the south cardinal point) at midnight on that date. Approximately, it will rise at 5:50 PM and set at 6:35 AM. Visible all night long. The red planet will be bright at magnitude -2.6. It will be 0.4 astronomical units (AU) away i.e. 60 000 000 kilometres. Or to put it another way, less than half the Earth-Sun distance. While still below the ecliptic (the path of the planets and the Sun) line, it will be pretty high in the sky. At midnight it will be above 51 degrees in altitude or elevation. That's very good news. In the summer of 2018 it was only about 20° up.

That's all data I culled from using Stellarium on the web (link).

(Actually, this whole time is gonna be awesome for planet viewing as Jupiter and Saturn will be putting on an incredible show as well.)

I also visited the ALPO site for information. In fact, I had a look at the heliocentric chart for Earth and Mars. This was the main discussion point. I was trying to explain to rho that Earth drew close to Mars about every 2 years but there was a longer cycle of interest where, due to Mars unique orbit, that there were periods where it was better for us. I couldn't remember that period but I thought it something like 20 years. ALPO says it's 15.8 years.

From Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers web site, I took in the Mars page. It had been updated by Jeffrey Beish in March 2016. I noted Figure 2-3, the chart showing the maximum apparent diameter of Mars. Yep, peaking in the fall of 2020. Not quite as high at 2003 but still pretty good! Between 23 and 25 seconds-of-arc.

Examined table 2-3 listing future apparitions of Mars. Found the 2020 data:

• opposition date: 13 October
• diameter in arc-seconds: 22.3
• closest approach: 6 October
• diameter in ": 22.6
• distance in AU: 0.41

A general search thanks to Google helped me find a heliocentric chart with annotations for 2020. I was surprised that the one on the ALPO site wasn't marked. That said, the chart shows Ls, is the planetocentric longitude of the Sun along the ecliptic of Mars's sky. And the various tables refer to Ls. 

Oh. Hold the phone. I found a different page, one specifically for the 2020-2021 apparition of Mars. And it has an updated and annotated chart (see Figure 2). Noted the radial line marking 2020, from Earth's October orbit through Mars's January season.

Still, while I'm happy to find the updated chart, I thought I'd make my own, a bit cleaner, and astronomer-friendly...

This is a top-down view of the inner solar system. The planets orbit counter-clockwise.

The inner blue ring shows Earth's orbit, nearly circular, and nearly perfectly centred on the Sun. Earth's months are inscribed. The outer orange ring shows Mars's orbit. The Martian seasons, in the northern hemisphere, are noted. You'll note the orbit is elliptical so at times Mars can be half the distance from Earth. The Line of Apsides shows the points of closest approach (250°) or when Mars would be distal (70°).

Opposition times are marked with the red radial lines. The past 2018 event is noted—you can see it occurred in July, where the ecliptic is low for those in the northern hemisphere. Also noted is the "great" 2003 opposition where the event occurred right on the proximal Line of Apsides! Mars was 0.37 AU or 55.8 million klicks away and rose over 25" in size. That's why it was such a big deal.

Ah. That crazy night at York University...

Found the old 2003 perihelic apparition of Mars page on SEDS.

In all this searching, I also found the Opposition Cycle of Mars article. It talks about even longer cycles still as to how close/large Mars can be. 2003 was a really big deal.

The sad bit of news is that we're heading into the long 15-16 year cycle where Mars is moving away. Well, to be fair, for half that time. So that puts some emphasis on this year's apparition of Mars. Don't miss it. If you skip it, 2022 will be problematic: Mars will be further from Earth; and it will be December on our home world. And that will like scupper things for us in the northern hemisphere... So, again, view Mars this year!

Before I forget, planetary oppositions are not one-night-only events. So start enjoying the fourth planet in the summer, any clear nights you can. Go on high-alert in October. That will be the best time for visual observing and astrophotography. And if it's cloudy for much of October, it will still be OK to view and image in November.

I tried, without success, in 2018 to get the moons of Mars.

Stellarium says the tiny moons will be in the magnitude 10 and 11 range...

I'm pumped to tag Phobos and Deimos this year!

received proof

Oh. Received my February JRASC column for proofing.

listened for meteors

Wishfully hoped to see Quad meteors. From the interwebs: 4 Jan, the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower (40 to 120 or more per hour) is predicted to occur at 9:00 UT. So 4 local.

I even considered photographing with the BDT. I'd aim to Algieba, wake a 3:00 AM.

Clouded out. The weather from Clear Outside as of 2 Jan 2020, 15:13 had shown red across the board. Various sites as of 3 Jan 2020, 23:12, all looked bad. I decided to not set an alarm.

So, how about observing "online," using some online, real-time, frequency traces. Or listening to bounces of radio signals.

I found the LiveMeteors web page, turned the sound up, watched the scrolling graph for a bit, and listened for short ping and chirp sounds. On the left, in the screen snapshots below.

Then I found Meteorscan, the meteor detection and radio astronomy page. I liked the 3D graph. The notes at the bottom showed a typical meteor strike with a shark-fine shaped pattern. On the right, below.

From 4 Jan, almost 1:00 AM.

From 4 Jan, around 3:00 AM.

In my travels I stumbled across the Sky Scan web site with the Canadian meteor radio detection page. Lots of cool DIY stuff, how to get started, equipment needed, etc.

responded to BDT comment

Received another comment on my barn door tracker YouTube video. NightWaves gave some suggestions about levelling the base, bubble levels, tapping to get to polar alignment, etc. I noted that I do not worry about levelling the alt-az base precisely and I don't have bubble levels.

what's up article Jan 2020

My January skies article with graphic was posted on the Bradford Today web site.

I talk about Venus, the Moon, the Quadrantid meteors, Mars, perihelion, Orion, M42, the Trapezium, sigma Orionis, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Messiers 36, 37, and 38.

This piece is replicated in other regional papers including Orillia Matters, Collingwood Today, and Barrie Today.

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Nice comments on the Orillia site.

Kj said, "Keep these articles coming."

And Cathy M. said "I agree... it is great to read the paper and learn something new and uplifting than everyone complaining."

clouds (Bradford)

Clouded out. Fast moving clouds. Looked at the Moon with Celestron SkyMaster 9x63 binoculars. No stars visible. Yet another occultation not allowed...

saw Moon, Venus, stars (Bradford)

First observation for 2020. Clear!

During a brief walk, I noted the crescent Moon fairly high up and bright Venus in the south-west. Saw an orange star and tried to tag the rest of Orion. Oops. Found the belt stars much lower; so that was Aldebaran. After that reset I spotted Betelgeuse and Rigel and the three belt stars. Betelgeuse was indeed much dimmer than Rigel. To the north-west, I could see two stars of the Summer Triangle; but not Altair. Put my specs on and tried to tag some naked eye stars up and left of the Moon, particular 30 and 33 Piscium.

On the way back, I spotted fingers of clouds. They might scupper my attempts later...

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As of 7:30 PM, Clear Outside is saying it will be clear around 8...