spotted Canadian content

A Google alert directed me to an article at Vice magazine entitled How to Take Stunning Pictures of Space at Home. Apropos given the new normal. Certainly I've been enjoying some more astronomy from the backyard. As I read the article, I noted some people I know and have actually met, including Dr Parshati Patel. She actually took some lovely photos from my old stompin' grounds near and around St Thomas. Cool!

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Curious, reading this, now... given where I am now.

noted Stellarium 0.20.2 shortcuts

Performed testing with Stellarium 0.20.2 on Windows 10.

This is an update of my keyboard and mouse shortcuts listing. This reference is for Windows and Macintosh computers.

The "notes" column to the far right with numbers are keyed to the footnotes. For example, 1 is used to indicate newly added or recently changed items.

controlling the surroundings					*
show Location window		F6		Fn F6	4
toggle cardinal compass points	—	q	—	q
toggle ground and buildings		g		g
toggle ground fog		f		f
toggle atmosphere or air		a		a
toggle sky glow/building lights		Shift g		Shift g
ground (mountain) labels		Ctrl Shift g		⌘ Shift g
return to "home" (start-up) view		Ctrl h		(none)	2
controlling the sky - deep sky
toggle stars		s		s
toggle star labels		Alt s		Option s
toggle constellation lines		c		c
toggle constellation boundaries		b		b
toggle constellation labels		v		v
toggle constellation artwork		r		r
toggle asterism lines		Alt a		Option a
toggle asterism labels		Alt v		Option v
toggle ray helpers		Alt r		Option r
toggle DSO/nebula labels		n or d		n or d
nebula background images		i		i
toggle quasars		Ctrl Alt q		⌘ Option q	3, 5
toggle zodiacal light		Ctrl Shift z		⌘ Shift z
toggle Milky Way		m		m
toggle digital sky survey		Ctrl Alt d		⌘ Option d	6
exoplanet labels, indicators		Ctrl Alt e		⌘ Option e	5
show Sky and Viewing Options		F4		Fn F4
single constellation mode
remove previous constellations		w		w	7
show all constellations		Alt w		Option w	1
the sky - solar system
toggle planets and Moon		p		p
toggle planet and Moon labels		Alt p		Option p
toggle planet markers		Ctrl p		⌘ p
toggle planet orbits		o		o
toggle star-lore planet names		Ctrl Shift n		⌘ Shift n
toggle planet trails		Shift t		Shift t
toggle planet surface labels		Alt n		Option n	9
toggle meteor radiants		Ctrl Shift m		⌘ Shift m
toggle meteor radiant labels		Shift m		Shift m
controlling lines
toggle altitude/azimuth grid		z		z
toggle equatorial grid		e		e
toggle ecliptic line		, (comma)		,
toggle celestial equator		. (period)		.
toggle meridian line		;		;
toggle horizon line		h		h
changing image presentation
flip horizontally		Ctrl Shift h		⌘ Shift h
flip vertically		Ctrl Shift v		⌘ Shift v
equatorial or azimuthal mode		Ctrl m		⌘ m
look to east (or n, w, s)		Shift e		Shift e
look up to zenith		Shift z		Shift z
look to NCP		Alt Shift n		Option Shift n
look to SCP		Alt Shift s		Option Shift s
zooming
zoom in		PgUp or Ctrl Up Arrow		Fn Up Arrow
zoom out		PgDn or Ctrl Dn Arrow		Fn Down Arrow
zoom in or out slowly		Shift with keys		Shift with keys
quickly zoom in/out		mouse wheel		mouse wheel
zoom close to selected object		/ (slash)		/
zoom out fully		\ (backslash)		\
zoom very close to planet		/ twice		/ twice
set field of view (FOV) to 180°		Ctrl Alt 1		(none)
set FOV to 90°		Ctrl Alt 2		(none)
... through ...		...		...
set FOV to 2°		Ctrl Alt 8		(none)
set to 1°		Ctrl Alt 9		(none)
to ½°		Ctrl Alt 0		(none)
panning
quickly pan celestial sphere		left-drag		drag
pan right		Right Arrow		Right Arrow
pan left		Left Arrow		Left Arrow
pan up		Up Arrow		Up Arrow
pan down		Down Arrow		Down Arrow
pan a small amount		Shift Arrow-key		Shift Arrow-key
controlling time flow
set date/time to now		8		8
set time rate to zero		7		7
increase time flow		l (lower case L)		l
decrease time flow		j		j
run time at normal rate		k		k
increase time flow a little		Shift l (that's L)		Shift l
decrease time flow a little		Shift j		Shift j
drag for time		Ctrl drag		Control drag	10
flip time direction		0 (zero)		0 (zero)	1
time with mouse wheel
increase/decrease by minutes		Ctrl		⌘
increase/decrease by hours		Ctrl Shift		⌘ Shift
increase/decrease by days		Ctrl Alt		⌘ Option
increase/decrease by years		Ctrl Alt Shift		(none)
controlling "regular" time
show date/time window		F5		Fn F5
forward 1 hour solar		Ctrl = (equal)		⌘ =
backward 1 hour		Ctrl - (hyphen)		⌘ -
forward 1 day solar		= (equal)		=
backward 1 day		- (hyphen)		-
forward 1 week solar		]		]
backward 1 week		[		[
controlling sidereal time
forward 1 day sidereal		Alt = (equal)		Option =
backward 1 day		Alt - (hyphen)		Option -
forward 1 year sidereal		Ctrl Alt Shift ]		⌘ Option Shift ]
backward 1 year		Ctrl Alt Shift [		⌘ Option Shift [
working with objects
select an object		left-click		click
centre on selected object		spacebar		spacebar
toggle tracking of object		t		t
deselect object		right-click or Ctrl Spacebar		⌘-click or  ⌘ Spacebar	1
display search dialogue box		Ctrl f or F3		⌘ f or Fn F3
go, i.e. travel, to a planet		Ctrl g		⌘ g
toggle angular measurement		Ctrl a		⌘ a	5
copy object info to clipboard		Ctrl Shift c		⌘ Shift c	1
add custom marker		Shift click		Shift click
remove custom marker		Shift right-click		Control Shift click
remove all custom markers		Alt Shift right-click		Opt. Ctrl. Sh. click
working with satellites					5
configure artificial satellites		Alt z		Option z
toggle satellite display or "hints"		Ctrl z		⌘ z
toggle satellite labels		Alt Shift z		Alt Shift z
controlling the screen
toggle night (red light) mode		Ctrl n		⌘ n
toggle full-screen mode		F11		F11	8
toggle toolbars/menus, i.e. GUI		Ctrl t		⌘ t
save screenshot to disk		Ctrl s		⌘ s
toggle planet selection marker		Ctrl Shift p		⌘ Shift p
close a window/dialogue box		Esc		Esc
controlling the application
show configuration window		F2		Fn F2
show help/about window		F1		Fn F1
show script console window		F12		(none)
keyboard shortcuts window		F7		Fn F7
show Astro. Calc. window		F10		Fn F10
show Bookmarks window		Alt b		Option b
show Exoplanets config window		Alt e		Option e	5
show meteor settings window		Ctrl Alt Shift m		⌘ Option Shift m	5
show meteor search window		Ctrl Alt m		⌘ Option m	5
quit from Stellarium		Ctrl q		⌘ q

Notes:

1. Recently added or changed shortcuts.
2. On the Mac, the shortcut ⌘ h hides the app. This is an operating system shortcut.
3. On the Mac, the shortcut ⌘ Shift q causes Stellarium to quit. 
4. The operation of function keys on both Windows and Mac computers may require the use of a function or Fn key.
5. Keyboard shortcuts associated with a plug-in. They may not function if the plug-in is not active.
6. The digital sky survey layering feature refers to the display as a "hierarchical progressive" sky survey.
7. The "remove" constellation shortcut applies when "single constellation mode" is active, as triggered in Configuration, Tools.
8. The F11 does not work on iMac 21.5 and 2011 wireless keyboard.
9. Referred to as surface "nomenclature" labels. This marks detailed surface features on planets, for example, Olympus Mons on Mars.
10. On the Mac, only works when mouse is dragged horizontally. Only changes seconds.

Some shortcuts were omitted. Notably those for the oculars plug-in. And those to do with scripting.

Finally, of course, Mac documentation and keyboard labelling is inconsistent. We note the symbols below:

⌘ (cloverleaf) is the Command key,

      with the apple symbol on very old systems

⌃ (carat) is the Control key

⌥ is the Option (alt) or alternate key

⇧ (up arrow) is the Shift key

⇪ (up arrow with segments) indicates that the Caps Lock is used

fn or Fn is the Function key

Please report errors in the comments below...

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See my "top" list for a very short collection of most frequently used, most helpful, techniques. Handy if heading into a presentation.

tried Stellarium 0.20.2

Downloaded and installed Stellarium 0.20.2, the latest version, 64-bit, to the Windows laptop.

255 MB. It's not a small app anymore.

I like the camera sensor option in oculars. In particular, I like that you can see the sky surrounding the rectangle. They still mask the sky when using an ocular proper. Never liked that. The icons in the toolbar were refreshed. More consistent with the rest of the interface controls.

Had to change the celestial object information. Sometimes there's enough rows so to fill the display vertically. That's too much. Quickly set to "short" which shows but two lines. I'll need to spend some time customising 'cause something in between is practical.

Searching is enhanced. I like the Lists tab.

Sounds like they updated the user manual. Wow.

read Rod's shocking findings

I read Unk Rod (Mollise's) blog post (in June batch) about the major problem he had with his new-ish SCT telescope. Thinking grease was coming off the central shaft, he opened it up. The strange colour and pattern on the inside of the OTA was in fact the paint coming off! Wow. And apparently other users are experiencing this. A surprising mistake, which it seems the manufacturer is not owning up to. The other bizarre thing he discovered is that the applied glue to the corrector plate complicating removal. I immediately thought conspiratorial thoughts... He hammered things out (do not take that literally) thank the Universe but it is just another disappointment from Celestron.

finished FNGC gallery

Woo! I suddenly remembered I had an image to add to my Finest NGC gallery! After adjusting for image scale, I updated the online image gallery. With my new image of the open cluster NGC 6520, I have captured every item! Very satisfying to see every RASC Finest object there.

broke 1600

My double star count passed 1600, including the objects seen and imaged last week. That's kinda wild. The doubles attempted count now is over 1720.

PSA

Stop paying for stars.

The services that offer to sell you a star are the new snake oil salesmen.

You cannot officially buy a star and have your name, or you dead child's name, associated with it.

The only official body that names stars is the International Astronomy Union.

The people charging you money are evil, stealing from you, taking advantage of you.

Stop.

at it's peak

Received a neat message from Andy, variable star expert. 

I just ran a light curve at aavso.org and it looks like VX Sgr is right at its peak.  I don’t think many apps do live tracking of variable star brightness, it may be running with ancient data or they might not even bother.  Good catch, though.

I asked if this was nominal, the high brightness, or a blip. Shared my 16 Jun '20 image.

Cool.

I was using SkyTools 3 Pro through all this. Maybe I'll have a look in ST4V...

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Launched the new version of SkyTools Visual. Centred on VX Sgr. It shows a medium bright star. But in my photo, the variable is brighter than nearby HD 165689 (8.1). I'd argue it is a brighter by a hair than V4382 Sgr (8.0). It's definitely brighter than HD 165594 (8.0).

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Ha. Learned that HD 165689 is a double. It's sort of obvious now, looking at the image. The C star is to the north-east, well away. A is white; C is pale blue.

answered gears question

Bob Grueneberg posted a question on the Barn Door Tracker YouTube video.

You said in the talk that the full plans are available???  I'm curious where to buy the gears.

I replied.

My full build notes are here: http://computer-ease.com/darkskies/bdtwaab1.htm but please note I did not buy each individual component so I'm afraid I cannot tell you were to get the gears exactly.  The starting kit came from a fellow astronomy member and the kit came with motor, motor gear, main drive gear, curved rod, some electronic bits, etc. 

See my blog note http://blog.lumpydarkness.com/2014/10/reviewed-tracker-parts.html for more details and a photo. 

This is all based on Gary Seronik's design...  But I would think any hobby store would have the parts you need.  Motor gear has 16 teeth; main drive has 64 teeth.  That ratio is important. Gary says he got his from Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instruments.  You need to drive the main gear at 1 RPM.

Hope that helps.

I noticed the hits counter is over 3400! Wow.

checked the box

Did a deeper dive into the Washington Double Star database. Extracted the 12-18 hour data set and parsed in Excel. Over 30 000 entries.

Used an advanced filter. Learned some tricks for text substring techniques. Applied 64 constraints to make a box around the imaged zone (revealed with the full mosaic).

On the precise coordinates field, any coordinate starting with RA 192 or 1930 or 1931 or 1932 and with +20, 21, 22, or 230 for the declination. In other words, from RA 19h 20m to 19h 32m by +20° 0' to +23° 10' declination. Less than 8 square degrees.

Separation had to be greater than 1 and the magnitudes had to be less than 16. That gave me 47 items. Half of those will still out of range, in gaps, or not visible or not splittable. That left about 20 known doubles in the box...

HJ 886 (inside the open cluster NGC 6793)

SLE 939 (3rd and 4th stars of 886) *

SLE 940 *

TDT 1421 *

STF 2515 (a triple)

SLE 942 *

SLE 943 *

WSI 22

STF 3111

SLE 946 *

KPP 439 *

STF 2523 (a triple... well...)

KRU 8 (near Σ2523)

HLM 23 (near Σ2523) *

J 1221 *

LDS 1023

COU 516

I plotted all those... In general, all visible and splittable in my images.

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* Not in SkyTools 3 Pro, as an official double.

expanded the mosaic image

Updated the mosaic. This adds the images from Friday night, another 18 or so, atop those from the Thursday run. You can see the clouds coming on with the last image.

It was good to fill some gaps and expand the zone a bit.

With an overlay from SkyTools I was able to position the outliers.

I also brightened all the layer images to help one see them a bit better.

only found about a dozen

Compared the Interactive Atlas chart to the expanded mosaic, blinked it exactly. I had added all known doubles in SkyTools within a 5 degree radius. I removed all the out of bounds entries. The process also helped me fine-tune the locations of a couple of disparate images.

The amazing thing is that according to SkyTools, there are only about a dozen official doubles in the zone that I photographed.

Now I'm full expecting to find more in the WDS but still... it's kind of amazing to me.

more than a boatload

Wowzers. I analysed my Thursday night Vulpecula double star image, called Tycho 1612-753-1. And I found 18 undocumented doubles! What?! That's in the first image!

And I shot 18 images on Thursday night.

And I shot 18 more on Friday night.

That's 648 total possible double stars! Boom!

Be careful what you wish for...

Now, that said, I do think it won't be that... much. Thank the Universe.

That's because there's a lot of overlap in my images (which you can see in the mosaic so far). Also I think the image I started with is chockablock with doubles but some of the others are not, won't be.

Still... at half... that's over 300 double stars! Crikey.

identified more Vulpecula fields

Identified the images from the Friday night double star run. All times Friday late-night and early Saturday morning. All images RAW, daylight white balance, ISO 3200, 20 seconds. Darks not applied, so lots of hot pixels.

HD 182570 imaged at 23:47.

HD 183013 captured at 23:52. It's the bright star below centre in the image below.

[ed: Imaged HD 183013 with BGO on 25 July 2021.]

[ed: Did in fact capture the area, wide-field, with the MRO refractor a few nights before.]

HD 183013 at 12:56 AM. It's near the bottom edge of the frame below.

TYC 2138-183-1 imaged at 1:02.

HD 184173 photographed at 1:04.

Caught tight double COU 516 at the far west edge of the image. Too tight at 1.8" to split.

GSC 1613-636 photographed at 1:08.

TYC 1613-269-1 imaged at 1:09.

The top of the backwards L, on the west side of the image, that's double HD 344494 aka A 161. Whoa, with a sep of 0.20", it is definitely not splittable.

TYC 1613-569-1 imaged at 1:14.

GSC 2125-1477 photographed at 1:16.

GSC 1612-1177 imaged at 1:18.

HD 344319 is at the top of the bent line of stars at the right or west. That's TDT 1453 with an impossible sep of 0.60".

HD 344413 imaged at 1:21.

TYC 1612-761-1 imaged at 1:22.

TYC 1612-571-1 imaged at 1:26.

Fantastic stuff here! 

OK, left of centre, stlightly east, there's that isosceles triangle. The bright northern apex is double star HD 183014 aka STF 2523. A simple double with two equally bright stars, white to the north, pale yellow to the south. They look to be at a 45° angle compared to the image frame (but that's off by about 10 degrees). So the position angle is around 135? Plus or minus 10? Very close, touching, a snowman shape. ST3P says they are magnitudes 7.4 and 8.2 at a separation of 6.5". PA is 148°!

[ed: Oh. Look at that. I observed HD 183014/Struve 2523 in the past... Evening of 8 Aug '14.]

The bottom apex is double star HD 183058 or KRU 8. I just love the dim companion to the south-east. Maybe again 135—no, 145! Blue-white and pale orange. Many magnitudes different. ST3P Object Information says: mags 7.1 and 14.2, PA 135°, sep 7.0". Sweet.

The dim star at the mid-point apex is a double. But not splittable at 0.4". That's HD 344434 or A 2786.

There's an orange star a bit north of centre. WW Vul or LI 2. SkyTools says the B element is mag 16 so I don't think I'm getting that.

[ed: This is a little hard to see but there's a wide pair at a 45 degree just right of centre. Part of a triangle with a very faint object at the right or west. That's the double star KPP 439. ST3P thinks this is a single star called GSC 01612-0336. Very faint, oriented roughly east-west. Tight. The image quality is poor so it makes the two stars touch.]

[ed: Oh. Just learned that HLM 23 is the double of medium faint stars south-east of the lower triangle apex. I thought that was KRU... A is brighter, to the south-west; B is about 1 mag dimmer and to the north-east. Both are white. SkyTools calls the bright star TYC 01612-0316 1.]

TYC 1612-205-1 imaged at 1:28.

PPM 108934 captured at 1:30.

There's an obvious pair at the left (east) with equally bright pale orange and blue stars. Nearly perfectly west and east. That's WSI 22. I visually spotted them a couple of nights back.

The bright unequal touching pair is HD 182570 aka Struve 2515. A is white, B is pale orange. It's actually a triple. The B companion is the bright one merged with A. I believe C is visible, well away, due south, a dim orange.

TDT 1421 photographed at 1:33.

TDT 1421 is a very tight double with a faint companion, 1.0" separation. It's the dim star slightly right of centre. I cannot split it in the photo. The medium bright star toward the south-east is TDS 990. It's 1.1". So, again, no split happening.

At the far east edge of the image we have HD 344338. STF 3111 is a 2.5" double. It is rod shaped in the image. I think that's legit as the rest of the field shows round stars. But certainly they are indistinguishable.

Collected photons for HD 182421 at 1:36.

This image encompasses double HD 344315 also referred to as TDT 1416. Not split at 0.7".

Interesting that last shot. It has an orange cast. The light pollution from Newmarket bouncing off the incoming clouds?

Most were manually identified. Astrometry.net helped with one or two images.

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Oops. Forgot to include for review the image with NGC 6793.

This is centred near the bright star HD 344322.

The brightest star, heading east, is HD 182695. The double, aka COU 513, is not splittable at 0.2".

Now, finally, within the small open cluster, toward the north, there is the obvious close double. HJ 886. They seem to be equal in colour to me and about 1 magnitude different. The PA is just a few degrees from north, 5 or 10? ST3P OI says: 10.4 and 11.5, PA 47°, sep 9.3".

[ed: Dove into the WDS. The equally bright stars south of HJ 886 are now considered the C and D stars, SLE 939 AC and SLE 939 AD specifically. Cool! C is roughly south and D is south-east. C is about 5 or 6 times the AB split and D is a bit less than double C.]

[ed: With a nudge from the WDS, spotted the tight double north-east from the 886, inline actually. Very tight, black line, with B about two magnitudes dimmer and to the south, maybe about a PA of 200. That's SLE 940.]

[ed: Bottom-left quadrant of the image is a faint pair, A to the south-east. Touch wider than 886. Oriented around 310 degrees PA. They are a bit dimmer than 886. That's SLE 942. SkyTools calls this TYC 01612-1393 1.]