Good ole Sun

When looking for solar photographs to post here today, I was surprised to find I shot one in January 2022 and another almost exactly a year later -- in January 2023! Winters here tend to be cloudy so the chances of my shooting any astrophotos are low. Sun is emerging from the "quiet" portion of its activity cycle and presenting observers with more features to look at. Recently, most of my Solar shots have been made using a DSLR camera equipped with a 400mm/800mm (with 2X telextender) telephoto lens and white light solar filter. There's virtually no setup involved in photographing Sun this way so if there's a sunny day and sunspots to see, it's easy to get out and do it! The orange color in the first photo below was digitally added, tinting an otherwise grayscale picture. The more intense orange photos, shot in 2023, gain their color from a glass solar filter which seems to add some contrast to the several sunspots visible. Ironically, I am taking a liking to the grayscale photo at the bottom of this page -- one of the deep orange photos I, ironically, processed to remove the color! In that picture some more subtle details can be seen in Sun's photosphere. I'm hoping I can use a telescope for solar imaging this summer as the telephoto lens images are heavily-cropped from the full-frame files and lack some of the quality I expect to see a proper long focal length telescope deliver.

A break in the cloudy/rainy/snowy weather here afforded me the opportunity to see the Sun January 19! It turned out there was quite a bit happening on our nearest star. Two large and very active regions (AR3190 is especially prominent) and smaller sunspots scattered across the solar disk made for interesting viewing -- through a purpose-built solar-safe filter.

 

Further adventures with a computerized telescope

When we have a few expected clear nights strung together, I try and get out with telescope and/or camera to enjoy the night sky -- such as it is in modern towns. And so it was that Thursday I set up the "new" Sky-Watcher mount with the intention of practicing polar and stellar alignment.

In order for a computerized equatorial telescope to aim at the celestial targets one seeks, it must be sitting level, it needs to know: where it is (latitude and longitude), what time it is -- down to the second, the location of a couple of bright stars, and have its axis of rotation perfectly aligned with Polaris -- the North Star -- actually a specific point in space near Polaris! If you get all of those right, computerized mounts are great; you simply tap into a control device what you want to view, tap another button to tell it to "go-to" the target, and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, motors whir, the telescope moves, and in a few moments you're enjoying wonders of the universe. If you get everything right. If you don't get everything right, it's frustration and mosquitoes in the dark.

Waiting for Dark. The telescope sits atop its very demanding computerized mount, and sports a new finder telescope.

So Thursday night I managed to get the polar alignment better, probably, than I have ever before. I was using a telescope control app that seemed to occasionally get the location wrong and that's a big deal. Eventually I was able to get the telescope to approximately locate objects and got decent views of Jupiter and Saturn before calling it quits -- there was a lot of struggle involved. I put the weather cover over the scope and headed in.

Friday night was cloudy. I needed the rest anyway.

Saturday night saw hazy skies, glowing from ground-based light pollution but with cloudy nights ahead, I uncovered the telescope -- already polar-aligned -- and was particularly meticulous about date and time entry using the hand controller instead of the phone app. After a bit of trouble finding alignment stars in the soupy sky, I enjoyed seeing the message saying setup "COMPLETED."

From then on, the system worked "as advertised." So I keyed in Jupiter, and Saturn, followed by a number of other objects. Photography wasn't the primary objective -- conquering proper setup was -- but with the telescope balanced for use with a camera, what the heck! I was glad I had the camera at the ready because many of the objects I wanted to view were not visible by eye in the milky sky. Time after time the scope pointed at the objects of interest. Wonderful! It's been years since I had a go-to telescope work as well as this.

The field of view allowed the Perseus Double Cluster to be recorded in one camera frame. I was using my Canon EOS 6D Mark 2 DSLR mounted at the telescope's prime focus -- it's essentially using the telescope as an 1,800mm telephoto lens.

Perseus Double Cluster. A pair of open star clusters in one field of view.

One of my favorites, Messier 82, showed faintly in an image (also not shown here) and was invisible to the eye on account of light pollution. The pairing of M81 and M82 is one of my favorite galactic sights though a telescope; I'm going to need better skies or a different location to see them again!

My photos, though certainly not spectacular, revealed more galaxies than I'd yet seen in my lifetime. Barnard's Galaxy (not pictured here) was revealed by the camera. I shot a photo of the star Mirfak because I thought it would be pretty with diffraction spikes. When I viewed the image on my computer, several small streaks with central bulges showed up -- distant galaxies in the background

Star Mirfak sports diffraction spikes making it seem to shine brighter. The spikes are caused by support vanes within the telescope affecting the light pattern focusing in the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

Mirfak and the Galaxies? It's unlikely the circled objects are galaxies but I am at a loss as to what may have caused the artifacts; other objects bright and dim do not look like those.

A first viewing and new fascination of mine is the Saturn Nebula: a planetary nebula around 5,200 light-years distant, which resembles planet Saturn in shape only. It's a beautifully complex cloud of star-stuff that photographs in vivid color. Its image via DSLR is disappointingly small and required much cropping to see in any detail. I was delighted to capture a bit of its complexity and I'll be visiting the object repeatedly for viewing and photographic challenge.

The Saturn Nebula. Clouds of stellar material glow, the aftermath of the death of a star. The oval shape of this planetary nebula resemble an unfocused image of real planet Saturn.

I also captured my best image, to date, of globular cluster Messier 2 -- a beautiful ball of stars 55,000 light-years away. Capturing the brightest stars is easy but the cluster, one of the larger globular clusters known, is composed of around 150,000 stars. The cluster looks like a pretty fuzz ball by eye, photographs reveal some of those thousands of stars, and the best images look like diamond dust.

Messier 2 -- a large globular cluster of stars -- is found in the Aquarius constellation.

Flashes were lighting the sky to the south and east and clouds were beginning to flow in. A distant thunderstorm was drifting in my general direction. I called it a night at about 12:30 a.m., and tore down the entire setup stowing it in case of stormy weather.

It was a very good night, this further adventure in astronomy, giving me hope I've finally worked out the kinks and can more fully enjoy the experience.

A weak image but a personal best

Messier 101 -- The Pinwheel Galaxy -- in Ursa Major. The spiral and star clouds just emerging from the background. DSLR camera at prime focus of 1,800mm FL Cassegrain telescope. A first attempt that shows great promise.

All right, I know this is a weak and maybe ugly image of a beautiful gem of the night sky but to me it represents great promise. This was a target-of-opportunity imaging attempt I made after shooting comet photos. I keyed in M101 (for object no. 101 in the famous Messier Catalog) on the telescope's control pad and with loud whirring the telescope swung up and to the north. Peering through the eyepiece at stars in a light-polluted sky, I manually moved the telescope ... was that a little cloud in space, or a floater in my eye? Back again, yeah! Barely visible, but it's there! That's what a galaxy looks like through a small telescope: a little, dimly-glowing cloud. I shot a test image and sure enough, there's something there. I shot a series of images, a series of "darks" -- covering the telescope and recording the electronic noise of the camera's image sensor -- and called it quits for the night. So, after processing I got what you see above. I know I need to boost the camera's ISO (sensitivity) and maybe the exposure time for each image. The image shown here is, however, the best photo I've ever made of an object outside of the Milky Way -- the spiral arms show, star clouds and all. I know now I can do this and I hope the next attempt will actually be beautiful for others to see!

The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy

Farewell to a comet

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) the night of July 24, 2020 via DSLR camera at the prime focus of an 1,800mm FL Cassegrain telescope. Photo by James Guilford.

Friday night, July 24, 2020, offered possibly the last best chance for me to see and photograph Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). The comet was nearing its closest approach to Earth but was speeding away from our Sun as it headed toward the outer Solar System -- it was closer to us but dimming!

I met up with other astro-folk and photographers at a Medina County park. This time, having made photos capturing the scenic beauty of the comet in the night sky, I traveled with telescope and computerized mount. I wanted to see what "close-up" detail I might capture in the comet's nucleus and tail.

The old Meade-branded mount fired up and, to my surprise, I quickly achieved good alignment using a compass and "eyeballing". The recently-discovered comet wasn't in the computer-controller's database so I selected a spot as near the comet as I could and manually moved the telescope for aim.

Through binoculars I was readily able to spy the comet, though it was noticeably dimmer than a week earlier. A companion and I both were sure we caught a naked-eye glimpse of the object through averted vision. It certainly did not reflect in the park's lake waters.

So I shot a number of image series, experimented with various ISO settings, and shot a few images in "portrait" orientation in case I might record long cometary tails. That's not what I got.

The camera recorded/rendered C/2020 F3 with a vivid green nucleus with a diffuse, reddish tail. Through the telescope I could see the greenish tint so I knew that was real and to be expected in the images. These close-up images are not what I expected but, I think, not bad; they serve as a farewell to a comet that brought a good deal of excitement to the amateur astronomical community in general and to me in particular.

An exceptional Observe the Moon Night

Our First-Quarter Moon on International Observe the Moon Night, as seen through the Stephens telescope at 9:04 PM EDT. Iphone SE at eyepiece.

Stephens Memorial Observatory, Hiram College -- Our October 5 Open Night was the local event of the International Observe the Moon Night — an annual occurrence meant that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of our Moon and its connection to planetary science and exploration. Over the course of the night at Stephens Memorial Observatory some 34 happy and inquisitive visitors attended and were treated to beautiful and unusual views of Earth’s Moon and planet Saturn.

Unusual? The earliest visitors arrived just as the telescope was set to go … with the sky still bright with twilight. The Moon appeared light and against a power-blue sky background instead of the usual darkness of space. Saturn, invisible to the eye in the bright sky, was also viewed through the telescope in surprising detail. It was gratifying to be able to locate and view Saturn before dark and surprisingly, I was able to observe cloud bands on the planetary body and the Cassini Division within the ring system. This is only the second time I've viewed planets before dark -- the first was Jupiter which was located and offered for viewing by an astronomer friend using his own telescope. Saturn was pretty easy to find this night owing to how close it was to the Moon in the sky.

Zooming in on the previous image: That dot in the center of dark-floored crater Alphonsus is its central peak. Over the course of two hours sun rose over that pinnacle making it brighter, and other features began to emerge as we watched. Alphonsus slightly overlaps the crater Ptolemaeus.

After darkness fell enthusiastic visitors took turns looking at a crater and watching a mountain peak become illuminated at sunrise on the Moon! It was a fine night appreciating a sight too often ignored: the wonder of Luna, our nearest neighbor in space. After shutting down the observatory for the night I paused in the front yard and looked up. The sky was dark and clear of clouds that had occasionally played havoc with our viewing. Floating high overhead was a trace of light, a path across the sky... the Milky Way.

Return to astronomy

Half of the Perseus Double Cluster (NGC 869). September 19, 2019. Photo by James Guilford.

I suppose one cannot return to something one hasn't left. Some storm chasing kept me busy for much of the summer. Late twilight and heat kept me indoors most nights. Still, with weather settling down, cooler evenings, and sunset coming earlier I've been looking to further explore the night sky.

We live in a small city with big light pollution. The light dome over our area has grown steadily over the past decade and from our backyard most northern stars lower than Polaris are completely obliterated by artificial light. To the south, the view is probably similar to "suburban" light pollution levels which is to say, bad but not impossible.

Lately I've been using my new telescope in imaging experiments. This week, unlike earlier recent efforts, I was able to get the telescope mount aligned well which allowed its computer to find dim objects in our bright sky. I was able to visually observe Jupiter (with Great Red Spot front and center), Saturn, the M15 star cluster, the Perseus Double Cluster, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Vixen VC200L on Meade LXD75 Computerized Mount - Waiting for Dark.

Attaching my Canon EOS 7D Mark 2 to the new Cassegrain reflector, I shot images of several deep sky objects. Vibration and tracking were issues, as was achieving camera focus. Working around those challenges as best I could, I made multiple images of the Ring Nebula (M57) and one of the clusters in the Perseus Double (NGC 869).

Looking at the camera's built-in LCD panel that night, I was astonished... I could see color in the Ring Nebula! Visual observers, using smallish telescopes, usually see no color in the Ring; film and electronic sensors readily collect enough photons to register color. Still, a very happy surprise to me! So I shot a series of prime focus images of the nebula. The Perseus Double was also visually attractive so I shot that as well. About 10 seconds for each of those. Efforts at shooting M15 failed: the telescope didn't track well enough to produce round stars in the exposure time set -- possibly too long an exposure. Efforts at the Andromeda Galaxy were okay with hints of the extensive star clouds showing in my images but much more photon collection will be needed to build an image.

The Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra. Photo by James Guilford.

Astrophotography of deep space objects can be extremely technical. The learning curve on an excellent product like PixInsight is more like a cliff than a curve. I searched and found a software that is excellent for me at my relative beginner level -- Starry Sky Stacker (SSS). The SSS has the important basics for good astrophotography, and has an easy-to-learn image processing process with little frustration. So, to get started producing and learning, I used SSS to align, stack, and integrate the images for both NGC869 and M57 with results pleasing to me.

Over the coming weeks and longer, I'll be assembling more equipment and skills and with luck, by spring, will be producing decent space pictures beyond the Sun and Moon.

Images Recorded: September 19, 2019

Vixen’s First Light

It wasn’t much on ceremony but last night’s First Light for my new Vixen VC200L was a success. I think I’m going to get a lot of use and enjoyment out of this scope.

Vixen set up on the patio in 29°F night air, about to endure its First Light checkout.

After a bit of fussing with the Meade LXD-75 mount, I was able to align the mount and punched in the commands to aim at the Great Orion Nebula. Now, that choice for First Light may seem pedestrian but Orion was beautifully positioned, the seeing was only so-so, and heck, it’s a beautiful sight!

The scope swung obediently to the correct area and after a slight manual nudge to center it, M42 came into view. The view through the eyepiece was filled with ghostly fog, filaments and voids began to appear as my eye picked out the details. Nestled in the floss were the four brilliant stars of the Trapezium. As I mentioned earlier, seeing was but fair and light pollution made it all the worse so contrast between sky and nebula wasn’t high; still, given conditions, it was an impressive start.

I tried to find other deep sky objects but with no success. Lousy seeing seemed to be getting worse. So, though high overhead, I punched in my request to GoTo The Pleiades.

After a good bit of whining and whirring (the mount has never been quiet, some say it sounds like a kitchen blender) a few brilliant stars appeared in the eyepiece. Not what I was expecting while using a 25 mm eyepiece, I realized magnification was higher than I was used to — this scope has an 1,800 mm focal length. I’m going to have to get a longer focal length eyepiece or two if I want to see larger objects like The Seven Sisters or, for that matter, the Orion Nebula.

I did notice a touch of nebulosity around some of the brilliant stars of The Pleiades and I don’t recall ever seeing that before and I’ve looked at that star cluster frequently over many years. Thank you, Vixen!

The final effort of the night was to attach a camera to the telescope and try a quick first image through the new optics; that didn’t work. I’m not worried and will figure that out later.

For now, the VC200L provides a solid platform, beautiful imagery, in an easy-to-handle package. I’m looking forward to going out on a better night and enjoying a fresh look at the cosmos.

It seems to fit

Vixen VC200L on Meade's LXD-75 Go-To EQ Mount

So, it all fits together!

The new Vixen scope seems to get along just fine with my old Meade LXD-75 EQ mount. Getting the right counterweight balance is proving a bit tricky as the VC200L is so much lighter than the refractor and I've only two nine-pound counterweights --nothing lighter-- to fit on the mount. We'll make do. The motor drives seem to have no problem with the scope (again, it's lighter than the refractor) and the whole assembly seems to be more stable with the (yet again) lighter load. If the weather forecast comes to fruition, we'll go for First Light tonight! Right now it's partly cloudy but the blue sky that does show is hazy.

Something New has been Added!

My Beloved "Monster" Meade AR-6

Don't get me wrong, I love refractor telescopes! Since the time my grandfather gave me a 3-inch "spyglass" (actually, the best telescope I owned for a long time), to my 6-inch refractor "dream scope," I've only owned lens-type telescopes,

Thing is, my long-tube Meade 6-inch refracting scope is a monster: I love the contrast of the images it presents and it simply requires no maintenance. But setting it up and using it are difficult. For one thing, it's heavy, and hoisting it up to the top of its mount and securing it there is tricky. I haven't dropped it. Yet. Aligning the scope to known stars and even looking through the telescope at objects high in the sky are neck-aching tasks: as the lens points evermore skyward, the eyepiece lowers closer to the ground!

So, for some time, I've been considering a reflector. Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes (SCT) are probably the most popular configuration in serious amateur astronomy. But they are big, and they are heavy, and their "corrector plate" outer lenses are subject to significant dew issues. A Cassegrain telescope seemed to be the answer.

Oh boy! Something great arrived this morning. Annie's excited, too, can't you tell?

Right after Christmas 2018, in an act of blind optimism (optimistic our skies would eventually offer some cloudless nights) I ordered up my first reflector. It arrived today, January 2, 2019. I have high hopes!

Vixen VC200L - So Pretty

The highly-respected company Vixen Optics of Japan is the maker of my new 8-inch OTA. Cassegrain design does not include a corrector plate -- it's open at the skyward end of the optical tube which reduces weight and the dew-collection issue. The whole thing weighs in at 12 pounds!

I'll attach this scope on the big Meade's go-to mount and see how it goes.

Tomorrow night is predicted to be mostly clear of clouds; first light?

Not much to show for it but it was fun trying!

Quite frankly, 2018 was not a good year for my astronomy interests. So very many nights were cloudy. I don't know whether the clouds are the result of climate change or what but it seems to me we've had fewer and fewer clear nights as the last several years have passed. That and, perhaps a bit of laziness, has kept me from posting much here.

At any rate, we did have a clear night in December.

Star Chart for December 18, 2018, showing the position of Comet 46P

I'd been reading articles about Comet 46P/Wirtanen and how it was making one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years "...the brightest comet of 2018." It certainly wasn't a spectacular, or even very prominent comet: bright, with a long glowing tail. Others' images showed a small, pretty, green glowing ball. Still, a comet's a comet and most of us don't get to see that many in a lifetime, so I thought I'd give it a try. The trouble was the weather. We, in Northeastern Ohio, have been experiencing an unusually long stretch of cloudy and overcast days and nights and the night of Wirtanen's close approach (Dec. 16/17) was no exception. The night of December 28, however, was to be clear but (there's always a but) the Moon would be bright and not far from the comet's position in the sky. You've gotta go with what you've got so I set up my ancient but solid Orion telescope mount managing very good polar alignment.

Camera will Piggyback on Telescope on Ancient Orion Mount with Simple Motor Drive

 
Piggybacking a big DSLR camera atop a telescope, I waited til 10 PM so that Wirtanen would be high overhead where the atmosphere is thinnest. The night was cold --about 24ºF-- but quiet. As feared, that Old Devil Moon had lit up the sky making dim celestial objects invisible. And waiting til my target was near the zenith may have made sense technically, aiming the camera straight up was literally a pain in the neck. Thank goodness the camera has an articulated LCD panel so I could examine results without having to twist my neck or move the camera.

Warp Speed? Er, Camera Zoom Lens Slipped During Exposure!

Starting out, I adjusted the camera settings so as to not overexpose due to lunar and terrestrial light pollution. It turns out those first two exposures were very useful. Then I blindly aimed the setup and shot about 10 exposures at wide angle. I re-aimed and shot 10 again. (For best results, astrophotographers often shoot more than 10 times that many exposures of the deep sky.) Then I tried zooming in, hoping greater magnification might isolate my quarry. I peeked at the camera's LCD panel for a preview. Oh. It looked like we had jumped to light-speed! The zoom lens, pointing straight up, had slowly slipped from around 85mm to 24mm during the multi-second exposure. It's a really good lens, a Canon L-Series, but I normally don't point it up like that. Gotta get myself an 85mm prime (non-zoom) lens. The lens did hold at 105mm so I shot a few exposures at that focal length. (Note: This post, written in December 2018 was added here after I purchased and received a new telescope. Interestingly, the OTA cost about the same and maybe a bit less than a high-quality 85mm lens!)

Orion’s Belt (Three Stars Near Top) and Sword with Glow of the Famous Nebula (Near Center)

 
Feeling I'd done what I could to record a comet invisible to my eyes, I aimed the camera at constellation Orion's belt and sword region now just above the trees, made a few exposures, and with cold fingers packed it in.

Riding the Telescope, the Camera’s View of the Sky. Think that’s a Comet in the Upper-Left?

As it turns out, I think I did image the comet but with all of the challenges and some inexperience at shooting "faint fuzzies," the results were less than impressive: a hint of a glowing ball is all I got of dear, departing Comet 46P. The camera recorded far more stars than I could see in the far-less-than-perfect sky.

Annotated. The Lens Flare looks Better than the Comet

I did get a fairly nice shot of Orion, which helped make the effort worthwhile.

Otherwise, not much to show for it but it was fun trying!

In the months since the "Great American Eclipse" total solar eclipse of 2017, life has been busy. Aside from conducting a few public observing nights, I've done little with personal astronomy. There was a beautiful conjunction of Moon, Venus, and Mercury that I observed and photographed one cloudy evening (March 18, 2018). Mostly, I've been observing and photographing weather. If you can't beat the clouds, enjoy them!

March 18, 2018 conjunction of (left to right) Moon, Venus, and Mercury over Letha House Park (west), in the Spencer, Ohio area. Clouds threatened to hide the event but cleared enough to lend mystery to the scene.

At any rate, last night (July 8) presented a decent opportunity to set up my big refractor in the backyard and take a look at the cosmos. The sky was clear, temperature and humidity pleasant, and I had no distractions.

The shed that must serve as my "observatory" and the big Meade (6-inch) refracting telescope. I set the scope up in the early evening and left it outdoors in preparation for nightfall. 

Unfortunately, with no permanent setup for the mount, north alignment for my telescope is usually off by a bit and last night was typical. The telescope's computerized "go-to" system was able to aim the telescope close but not directly on my targets; I needed to manually fish for each object I wanted to observe. I also wanted to do some photography experiments and a slightly out-of-alignment equatorial drive is not a good thing for imaging! I found that I could get reasonably round star images if I set the DSLR for an exposure of 20 to 30 seconds and covered the objective lens for the first five seconds after the shutter triggered in order to dampen out vibrations. I've got to see if I can use "live shooting" in place of the regular mirror/shutter combo to prevent camera vibrations!

Still, I did observe several objects and here are a few impressions:

Jupiter: By the time the scope was ready to use, the "King of Planets" was descending into neighboring trees. I had but a few minutes of almost decent viewing. I had hoped to see the shadow of moon Io on the planetary disk but could not resolve it. The best I could make out was Jupiter's most prominent cloud bands with Io floating not far from the planet's limb.

Messier 4: The globular star cluster in constellation Scorpius was, sadly, faint and somewhat indistinct in our light-polluted sky.

Saturn: Not as sharp-edged as I'd hoped, I could barely make out the Cassini Division but could discern the planetary disk in relief over the planet's ring system. I could also see some cloud bands, though not distinctly.

Mars: Mars is nearing opposition and is brilliant and red. I was easily able to observe the planet as a disk but, due to a global dust storm, couldn't make out any surface features -- well, maybe a shadowy area at the center of the disk but certainly not anything beyond that.

Messier 25: Photographic only. The open star cluster made a decent test to refine exposure and vibration-dampening techniques.

Messier 22: A bright globular that showed up, even in the viewfinder of the DSLR, it also provided a good photographic test target. The photo results were far from "stellar" (pun intended) but showed some promise.

Time passed quickly, the activity was thoroughly engrossing, and I packed it in at about 1:00 AM EDT. It was a good night.

Messier 22, a globular star cluster. A beginner's deep-sky effort, I'm happy to have reasonably round stars and to be able to see some of the many thousands of stars present in the cluster. 

Eclipse: Tired, dirty, and happy

The Sun at Maximum Eclipse - 2:32 PM EDT - Note Sunspot at Lower Left

Yesterday (August 21) millions gathered along a thin path crossing the continental United States to watch a total eclipse of the Sun. Those with favorable viewing conditions along the path of totality enjoyed an amazing sight and experience. Totality fell close enough to a west-to-east center line across the continent that at least a partial eclipse was visible to anyone with access to clear sky.

Since, with some self-doubt, I had decided not to travel to the path of totality, I organized the Hiram Eclipse Watch event. With the support of the Hiram College Physics Department, it took place on the campus of the college.

I set up two telescopes: a six-inch Meade refractor with a Baader Planetarium Safety Herschel Wedge, and a 90mm Meade refractor with a Thousand Oaks glass/metal filter. I also went equipped with my Canon EOS 50D camera, 400mm telephoto, and 2X teleconverter (>1,200mm focal length equivalent), and white light film filter. Physics staff ran a Lunt Ha scope and an experiment recording temperature and solar energy changes during the eclipse.

Progressing Toward Maximum - Silhouette of the Moon Moves Across the Solar Disk

Summarizing, despite last-minute worries over cloud cover, we had clear to partly-cloudy skies for the duration of our 80-percent partial eclipse. An estimated 375 visitors came out to share the experience, and by all reports had an excellent time. Some families even brought blankets and enjoyed a picnic on the lawn in the shade of old trees!

Detail from Above - Look Along Moon's Edge and Notice Bumps: Lunar Mountains and Ridges in Silhouette

It was very hot and fairly humid and I labored in the sunshine erecting and operating the telescopes, rationing out eclipse viewing glasses, explaining the eclipse event and solar features, and making a few photographs of my own. By the end I was dripping with sweat and very tired but had to rush home to process and upload a photograph of maximum eclipse to a newspaper.

By the end of day, I was was tired, dirty, and happy.

The (Ravenna) Record-Courier - August 22, 2017 - Page 1

Moon and Milky Way

Milky Way and the Moon - the "Tea Pot" of Sagittarius and constellation Scorpius are visible on opposite sides of the central tree. The bright star above Moon is Arcturus.

The Cuyahoga Astronomical Association hosted a public star party the night of Saturday, July 29. While I did not take my telescope to the event, I was happy to have attended and brought my camera setup. I spoke with several people, answering questions about the night sky and pointing out a few areas of interest. I was also able to observe planet Mercury through one of the club's telescopes. The tiny world was in a crescent phase - the first time I've witnessed that (Mercury can be very difficult to observe due to its proximity to the Sun and obstructions along the local horizon.). Aside from viewing Jupiter and Saturn via others' telescopes, my main interest was trying out my camera and lens setup on the Milky Way.

Moon - July 29, 2017

Light from the waxing Crescent Moon and from the nearby city of Medina made the Milky Way's star lanes appear as misty clouds but they were more noticeable in photographs. I hope to return some time soon, on a moonless night, and make a few more efforts at local Milky Way photography before human-made light pollution makes it impossible.

A small meteor streaks through the wispy clouds of the Milky Way. July 29, 2017.

Sadly, not much observing to report over the past months! The demands of "real life" helped distract me from the night sky. Weather - cloudy and rainy skies - have provided the worst issues. That is, if you ignore the fact that the handbox controller failed hobbling my six-inch Meade refractor! I was able to locate and purchase a replacement for the failed handbox and a recent test showed it to be an improvement; it's better than the original!

Most of my observing attempts have been through Open Night events I hosted, or attempted, at Hiram College's Stephens Memorial Observatory. The big refractor there isn't computerized but its nine-inch objective lens gathers plenty of light and is very contrasty. The sky in Hiram, on a clear night, is darker than in the cities allowing the Cooley Telescope to deliver excellent views... when weather permits!

Highlights of the year, so far, were observations from Stephens...

On May 20, on a night threatened by cloudy skies, I observed Jupiter and its Galilean Moons. The best sight of the night, however, was seeing the Great Red Spot rotate into view from Jupiter's limb. Cloud banding was also seen: the equatorial bands and traces of other atmospheric features.

The night of June 24, following evening storms, Jupiter would have been visible from Hiram but quickly dropped behind neighboring trees. Hit of the night was excellent viewing of M57 - the Ring Nebula. The view was clear and bright where usually the ring appears as a dim "gray donut."

July 22: Partly- to mostly-cloudy skies after daytime storms allowed brief decent viewing of Saturn. The seeing was unsteady but I was able to glimpse Titan and several of Saturn's smaller moons, the Cassini Division, and some atmospheric banding! The rings were tilted at an open angle allowing optimal viewing.

See the weather theme?

And that's pretty much it! Recent years and, particularly, last year and this (so far) have seemed increasingly cloudy at night. I'm hoping my efforts to improve observing from home will allow more opportunistic viewing; future efforts may include building a tall, permanent telescope pier or purchase of a new telescope of Cassegrain design ... the long refractor's eyepiece demands neck strain as I point the scope higher towards the zenith to avoid serious light pollution here!

Waiting for dark

Wow! It has been a long time since my last post, nearly a year! I'm going to have to review the past year and catch up. For now, I'll simply record the fact that this year looks good for personal observing. Today I set up my big personal telescope to make certain everything was present and in working order. I tested the Safety Herschel Wedge by looking at a somewhat hazy Sun. Then I parked the scope, now waiting for dark. Only "fair" seeing conditions are expected tonight, and we've plenty of light pollution. Still, the big scope is set up for testing after a long time in storage. If alignment is good enough I'll mark the ground where the tripod feet rest! #astronomy #telescope #meadeinstruments

The 6-Inch Meade all set up for Tonight

LATER THAT NIGHT: How did it go? Pretty well. The scope worked great but the operator.... let's just say that it's pretty important to tell the telescope control system what the current MONTH is if you want it to point the telescope accurately! If you enter "June" as the month when it's actually April, you're in for plenty of frustration! I missed that simple data point several times. Ugh! Once manually aligned, the scope found objects pretty accurately without precise polar alignment. Through light-polluted, hazy cloudiness, I observed Jupiter with Io emerging from behind, saw the beautiful stars of M44 - the Beehive Cluster," saw the Hercules Cluster - M13 - as a fuzzball (no individual stars), and experimented with several eyepieces. I need a couple of really good eyepieces. Finished up around midnight, tore down and stowed the scope. Now it's off to bed!

2016 Transit of Mercury

Mercury's Transit in Progress: Mercury is the tiny dot at the lower-left. Smudge near the center is a group of sunspots. Photo by James Guilford.

I've been quite remiss in keeping up this online journal. No excuses; I have simply neglected the work! This week, however, we were treated to a fairly rare space event though the weather interfered a bit!

May 9: Our Solar System doesn't care about our local weather. When something rare and interesting like today's transit of Mercury across the solar disk takes place, it happens and there are no "rain checks." And so it was this morning when the day dawned clear to partly-cloudy allowing us to glimpse the beginning of Mercury's trek only to have the show stopped by rapidly encroaching clouds progressing to solid overcast!

Transit of Mercury: Mother Earth's atmospherics begin to block the view! Photo by James Guilford.

At the predicted hour Mercury appeared as a tiny dot, silhouetted in the lower left-hand quadrant of the Sun's bright disk. Using protective filters, observers on the ground watched as the small dot slowly moved inward from Sol's limb. I used my trusty Canon DSLR camera paired with a 400mm telephoto lens to see and record Mercury's trek. During my brief photography session I occasionally used a 2X telephoto converter with the 400mm and swapped between an "orange" glass solar filter and a white light solar film filter.

NASA's GOES East spacecraft shows how much of the U.S. was blocked from seeing the 2016 Transit of Mercury.

Here in Northern Ohio, transit watchers were treated to the beginning of the show and could have seen its entirety but for the clouds; the transit started after dawn and ended in the afternoon. Much of the nation missed out entirely, however, with cloud cover already in place at dawn!

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft, is unaffected by Earth's pesky atmospherics and its technology produces some very dramatic images. One of my favorites shows Mercury about to cross between the satellite (us) and the Sun's glowing photosphere; the planet has the active solar atmosphere as backdrop. Planet Mercury is 3,030 miles in diameter, not much bigger than Earth's Moon, and looked every bit as tiny as it is compared with our nearest star!

The View from Space. Credit: Data courtesy of NASA/SDO, HMI, and AIA science teams.

The transit of Mercury took place over several hours. For us in Northern Ohio, the transit began at about 7:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time with the Sun barely up. Midpoint of Mercury’s passage was at 10:57 AM, and the transit ended at 2:42 PM.

The orbits of the inner planets are tilted with respect to each other making difficult the perfect alignment needed for a transit.

Because of the orbital inclinations of the inner planets, the alignment needed to produce a transit of Mercury happens only about 13 times per century making even a glimpse of the event something special. After today's, the next transits of Mercury will take place in November 2019, November 2032, and November 2049.

At least we won't have to wait for so long as we must for the next transit of Venus -- that happens in December 2117.

Impressive train of sunspots

Train of Sunspots, November 4, 2015

An impressive train of sunspots has been making its way across the face of our nearest star this week. In the photo above: Designated AR2447 (small group to the left), AR2443 (bigger and darker, near center), and AR2445 (far right), the "Active Regions" have the potential of unleashing flares. In fact, AR2445 was the source of a flare that caused this week's "northern lights" sighted across northern latitude locations around the world. Unfortunately for hopeful aurora watchers in Northern Ohio, the nighttime displays were not strong enough to give more than a tantalizing flicker on the horizon to observers on the shores of Lake Erie.

Now rotating over the Sun's limb, AR2445 won't be aimed at Earth for a while -- if ever again -- but AR2443 has potential for high-energy flares.

Photo credit: James Guilford. Canon EOS 7D II: ISO 400, f/11, 1/1250 sec., 400mm lens with Astrozap film solar filter, heavily cropped, November 4, 2015, 2:22 PM.

September 27 "Supermoon" Total Lunar Eclipse a Challenging Event to View

Beautiful in its Own Way - Full Moon Peeking through Heavy Clouds - 8:21 PM EDT

The much-anticipated total lunar eclipse of September 27, 2015 was a challenge for me, a big disappointment for many others. The night started out with a thick layer of clouds floating overhead, a few breaks (known as “sucker holes) visible here and there. I was pretty sure I would see nothing. In fact, conditions in Hiram, where I had planned a public eclipse viewing event, were expected to be so poor I had to cancel the event (it apparently rained there during the midpoint of the eclipse).




"Supermoon" Emerging from Pre-Eclipse Clouds for a Moment - 8:56 PM EDT

Enough openings appeared, however, that I got my tripod and cameras ready just in case. I’m glad I did! When it did appear, the Moon was slightly larger and somewhat brighter than it might otherwise have been: the eclipse took place during a perigee Full Moon, a so-called "supermoon." A perigee total lunar eclipse is a fairly rare event and isn't to be seen again until the year 2033.





Totality at 10:43 PM EDT: Within minutes of moment of greatest eclipse (10:47)!

By standing on my balcony, watching, camera pointing to where the Moon was behind the clouds, I was ready for the brief appearances it would make. The passing breaks in cloud cover often allowed only a few seconds of relative clarity for photography. I was able to see most stages of the eclipse and capture some reasonably good images, considering the conditions ... there never was a time when I had truly clear sky!

Totality Ending - Eclipsed Moon at 11:20 PM EDT - Dot(s) to the right are stars of constellation Pisces.

The hours of watching seemed to pass quickly and before I knew it, the event was ending. We are privileged to have the opportunity to see only a few total lunar eclipses in our lifetime so it’s best to make the most of each one!

Clouds give way to stars, right on cue

This is Alumni Weekend at Hiram College and, as is becoming traditional, Friday night we hosted a special stargazing event for alums. Recently the weather has been mostly-cloudy, rainy, even stormy and Friday was no exception. It appeared stargazing would be canceled due to cloudy conditions but, because a few alumni may have wanted to simply visit Stephens Memorial Observatory, I opened the place. Good thing I did. As the first group of visitors arrived -- excited, even raucous mostly older folks -- the sky to the south cleared and Saturn manifested himself! And so, as visitors came and went, we presented decent views of the Ringed World until the scheduled closing time of 11:00 PM. Wouldn't you know it, the sky clouded over and Mother Nature put an end to the show herself and on time! Approximately 44 visitors, including a group of about eight current college students, got nice views of Saturn and some of its moons.

The next night was a scheduled Public Open Night at Stephens and, true to form, a storm system had spread clouds across the Great Lakes Region. I was pretty sure skies would be too cloudy for Saturday night stargazing but, remembering the previous night's experience, I opened the observatory as planned. Within minutes after opening the dome a small patch of relatively-clear sky was replaced by thick clouds rolling in from the north. I expected to close before anyone arrived. Nope. First a couple, then a family, then another group of folks arrived as darkness fell. Clouds still ruled the sky, so I talked about the telescope and the observatory and answered some questions.

I took regular peeks through the open dome, hoping for a "sucker hole" in the overcast. After a while a bright star appeared directly overhead, peering through. Visitors excitedly pointed at a few dimmer stars as they made an appearance. Finally, in the southern sky, Saturn! Thinking cloud cover might interfere at any time, I ushered folks quickly to the eyepiece for some very nice views of the planet. We were able to see the Cassini Division, some hints of cloud bands in Saturn's atmosphere, and, again, a nice assortment of moons. It wasn't over.

Instead of clouding over, the sky cleared and we were presented with a sky full of stars and pretty good seeing conditions! I moved the telescope and quickly found the Hercules Globular Cluster (M13) overhead. The star cluster was glorious in the eyepiece. Viewed at about 129X, the globular filled the field of view with diamond dust and impressed viewers.

Next I moved the scope to view the Ring Nebula (M57) which, in the past, I have generally found easy to locate. That night, however, I fished and fished in Lyra and could not seem to find, what I call, the gray donut. Just as I was about to dismiss the last several visitors -- Voilà -- the Ring appeared in the eyepiece, bigger and brighter than I had ever seen it before! I was experimenting with a new two-inch zoom eyepiece by Baader Planetarium company and it really paid off.

It was well after 11:00 when the last of the approximately 20 visitors left but a fine and rewarding night indeed; a night that I had nearly written off as best spent watching old movies on TV.

On astrology, I always say...

At a recent observatory Public Night a visitor asked if I could recommend books on "astrology" and I told her no. There are, however, many excellent books on astronomy. As I always say, astrology is astronomy's illegitimate parent.