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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 3, 2012 - 11:43pm PT
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I made a systems check today in preparation for next Tuesday's Transit of Venus, and after working through a few technical issues, snapped a few photos of the Sun. Here's one taken this afternoon -- a few sunspots are visible.
I'd never photographed the Sun through a telescope before, nor had I used an ordinary SLR camera to take photos through a telescope. Here's the setup after all the bugs were worked out:
All systems are go for Tuesday!
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Cool.
I'm not much of an astronomer, but i make telescope mirrors.
Look at the next proj -
On Topic
http://atst.nso.edu/
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wildone
climber
EP
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Wow. What a great thread. I was very lucky to have the dad I had! We were in an astronomy club that was in Fresno (nearest club to us as we lived between Midpines/ Bootjack). They would get together quite often at Glacier Point, and set up some massive scopes. Big homemade refractors and reflectors, some on trailers. As for my dad, he had a 14 inch Meade schmidt-cassegrain with all sorts of bells and whistles. When he was really into it, I was too young to pick up much of it. Big regrets on my part, because he could have provided me quite the astral education. As it were, I was content to just hang out with him and look at what he wanted me to see when he found it. And accompany him on trips to observatories when we were on unrelated roadtrips. For instance, on our way to and from Philmont, we would stay in Flagstaff and go up to that observatory.
Which brings me to my present situation... He has passed on, and his scope is in my storage unit. I'd like to take it to the meadows this summer. Wish I knew what I was doing...
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Oh, I thought you said Supertacoids spaced. . .
I nominate Locker!
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 11:49am PT
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A bump for the Venusians!
Today's the day, and the LAST time to see Venus track across the face of the Sun until 2115. For those who can't get outside to see it, NASA.gov has a web page set up with links to a number of live, streaming views of today's transit (which will begin at about 3:05pm PDT for those on the West Coast)
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/venus_transit.html
I've got my telescope drive battery, and camera batteries charged and ready to go. I'll be blasting out of my office at noon to get things set up at a viewing location in the Angeles Nat Forest, about 40 miles north of L.A.; I'll be there from the beginning of the Transit until about 5pm and anyone is welcome to stop by for a view. Just get yourself to this spot:
lat 34.598103°
long -118.493869°
You'll need a high clearance vehicle, as the road is kind of messed up right now.
EDIT: Here's an aerial view of where the telescope will be set up.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Thanks - predictably, it's raining here. But maybe the transit will be shown on webcast on the NASA or an astronomy site.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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XX,
I am looking at components to do variable star and transient photometry.
How sharp are those SC's? I am looking at getting an Astro-Tech Ritchey-Creithan, The 12" is really pricy, but everything I have heard is great.
Their F4 Newtonians are supposedly exellent for imaging as well.
Either way, I am going to take it in the rear on the mount. I keep an eye on Astromart for deals.
As for astronauts, there was this one girl who I used to skydive with in Texas who did two shuttle missions. Man, was she hot. Me and my twisted buddies would eat all kinds of sick stuff to achieve the most disgusting farts, since farting on the way to altitude is so common with the drop in pressure (no hard data on that, though).
Once I stunk out 40 skydivers on a DC-3 with one tiny puff. I looked over and Mary Ellen Weber had her face buried in her helmet. So I have almost made an astronaut puke. Which I find a rare distinction.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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According to Astronomy Ireland, it will at 5am tomorrow morning here in Dublin, that is if we can the Sun. Met Eireann forecasts rain for tomorrow. The guy at Astronomy Ireland told me I can project it with binoculars onto a white sheet of paper, but my binocs are not that powerful. He added that it will about a 40 minute transit. And of course is the old white paper and pin trick.
http://www.astronomy.ie/venustransit.php
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 02:44pm PT
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@drljefe: I looked at the web site for the ATST -- wow! what an awesome project! I saw the photos of the beginning of the mirror base construction; I'd like to hear more about your involvement in the mirror making process. And if you could find a way to work a photo of Rosebud into the story, that'd make my day.
@wildone: I'm certain someone from a local astronomy club would be glad to help you drag your dad's scope out of storage and figure out how to get it going. Are you in the Sierra Foothills? There are some dedicated stargazers out there, though I don't know any of them personally.
@base104: SC's from makers like Meade and Celestron vary quite a bit in the quality of their optics. Celestron 11in. SCT's made in the early 2000s have a reputation for an excellent optical performance/price ratio. I have a 12in. Meade SCT and I would call its optical performance mediocre, but I needed it mainly to grab light from faint asteroids down to Mag 20; as long as I got an accurate and repeatable smudge on the CCD, I was happy. Incidentally, the optical tube for my 3.5in. Takahashi cost about 3x what I paid for the 12in. Meade SCT. An RC, from any of the better telescope makers should provide exceptional optical performance, but as you say, at a price. For an equatorial mount, made right here in the Sierra Foothills, check out Mountain Instruments in Auburn, CA; their stuff has an excellent performance/cost ratio.
Now, I'm headed out the door for an encounter with Venus :-)
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mauna Kea is better - in colour.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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20 minutes prep with duct tape, cardboard, and Series 9 4ND filter
projected on a piece of white cardboard and taken with a Minolta pocket camera
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2012 - 02:11pm PT
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The Venus transit images posted here on SuperTopo are really impressive -- I'm especially amazed by what Russ can do with an iPhone shooting through a telescope eyepiece.
Here's a composite image taken with my fancy-pants gear over about a 1-hr period (processed in high-contrast monochrome to bring out details in the sun spots)
Here's a single image, which seemed to have the least atmospheric distortion of all the images I took (about 750 shots total)
In this image I believe I've captured the mysterious Black Drop effect,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drop_effect
the origins of which are still not clearly understood:
Conditions at my chosen observing site were about as perfect as one could hope:
After disconnecting the camera gear I made sure I spent plenty of time looking through an ordinary eyepiece -- it made it a more "real" experience for me and I knew I'd never see anything like it again...in this lifetime anyway.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Awesome!
Very cool, too bad i was inside polishing a large optic all day...
Thanks for sharing those images.
Our involvement in the Solar Telescope will be limited to the polishing of the primary mirror- a 4m off axis parabola.
Even just the primary is a very involved and lengthy project and we won the contract because of our expertise with OAP's. When finished, it will be one of the most complex large optics in the world.
Just imagine the images we'll get from that telescope!!!
I am but an Optcian's apprentice working under a few renowned Master Opticians. Grinding and polishing large optics is surprisingly old school- a mix of art, trade, and science. I love it and am good at it(i guess...who knew?! No formal training or ed. )
Okay DosXx, here's da Bud
Behind the back shot of rosie heeling.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2012 - 09:15am PT
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That's fascinating and so cool, @drljefe! Getting to work on a 4m mirror with master craftsmen...it puts you in a very select group that includes people like Galileo and Newton, who made telescopes as well. So cool.
Thanks for indulging me with a shot of Rosebud :-)
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Cross posted from the Venus Transit thread:
Same set up as the eclipse.
C90 Celestron with an iphone on the eye piece
Edit for XX: wild huh? Lining up the eye piece with the phone lens is tricky to get it with no flare and nice and square. Besides that, very low tech and no retouch or anything. Point, shoot and post. Cool thread.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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I missed seeing the transit visually, and regret the cloudy skies that were responsible. I did see the last transit of Mercury just about 5 years ago, though.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 6, 2012 - 09:12am PT
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[the '99 pounds of plutonium' thread seems to be headed for an environmental debate, so I'm re-posting here]
Geeks score!
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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