Prepping for the transit of Venus

I spent some time this morning experimenting with solar photography. On June 5, the transit of Venus will take place and since the next one after that won't happen for another 115 years, I thought I should try for this year's! I'm an impatient person. I discovered to my dismay that the very expensive, modern-design, Herschel Wedge won't work for photography with my "big" telescope -- the six-inch, 1,219mm Meade LXD75. I could not crank the camera "in" close enough to achieve focus with the wedge in place. Rats! I'm going to make quick queries to see what I can do to resolve the issue if I'm to use the wedge any time soon ... and June 5 is soon!  So with the telescope still set up in the mid-morning sunshine, I removed the wedge and covered the telescope's objective lens with the very inexpensive AstroZap filter made using Baader AstroSolar film. I connected my trusty (and light-weight) Canon Digital Rebel XT to the scope's eyepiece holder and made several bracketed exposures. Later I discovered the results were very good though not quite as good as shots made with my Canon EOS 50D and Canon 400mm telephoto. The difference in quality may be attributed to seeing conditions --the images were made days apart-- but either setup will do just fine for recording the upcoming historic celestial event. Now all we need is clear skies on that day!

Image Notes: Canon Digital Rebel XT attached to a Meade AR6 (1,219mm refractor) for prime-focus imaging, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec., image cropped and converted to monochrome. Solar filter: AstroZap white-light, film.

Saturn shines!

The day was warm and the sky was very clear on May 19. Of course, a thin veil of clouds began to cover the sky during twilight as I opened Stephens Memorial Observatory for a public night. We were to view Saturn. It wasn't until some time after 9:00 PM when Saturn and star Spica began to show through the twilight. Saturn did not disappoint and the view improved as darkness came. The sky also improved after dark. Rather than start with our beautiful but very low-power (about 30X) eyepiece I began running the telescope at 104X and received beautiful views of the ringed world, about a month past its opposition. Then I decided to try a 2-inch University Optics eyepiece that would deliver 222X and the view went from good to extraordinary. All evening long, along with 25 guests, enjoyed images of Saturn that included three moons (including Titan, fairly close in) colored cloud bands, the shadowy "C" ring against the planetary disk, and the Cassini Division! The crowd was lighter than expected so I had little else planned for the evening but for a look at rapidly-departing Mars. The Red Planet was disappointing as usual though, at 222X, there were hints that we might have made out a polar ice cap and some shadowy surface markings, but for unstable air that caused Mars's image to shimmer. So we stayed on Saturn for most of the rest of the time. After the final guests departed, I turned the big scope to the east and northeast to practice finding M13 and the Ring Nebula. A little fishing produced gorgeous views of M13 -- the great star cluster in constellation Hercules. The Ring (M57) was trickier to find but I got that too. The Ring looked far better at low magnification appearing dim and diffuse at 222X. M13 was stunning at both high and low magnification. I packed it in at about 11:30. We'll be able to show off Saturn and M13 with ease to guests on Friday of Alumni Weekend followed on Saturday by the June Public Night. I forgot to mention to visitors ... Saturday is named after the god Saturn -- it's "Saturn's Day."

Sunday, May 13 dawned reasonably clear and so, with cloudy skies anticipated, a few rushed photographic observations were made of our Sun. Solar astronomers of every ilk have been excited lately by the Sun's visibly increased activity. Active Region1476 (a huge sunspot group) dominated the solar disk and astronomers' attention though it had been joined by several smaller but notable sunspots. I decided to use my beautiful new telephoto lens to try and capture images of the solar disk and my efforts were rewarded. The image wasn't perfect and I know I'll eventually get better images but it's the best solar astrophoto I've done to date! Besides the sunspots large and small, visible in this photo are granulation and other disturbances -- the chromospheric network -- in the solar atmosphere. Notes on the photography: Canon EOS 50D, ISO 400, f/8, 1/1,250 sec., 400mm Canon telephoto, AstroZap white light film solar filter, May 13, 2012 at 9:15 AM. Sky was generally clear but this shot was made through a persistent, thin cloud trail left by passing aircraft.