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.

Bad forecast, a good night

It was a beautiful day and the forecast called for a clear night with good seeing. Ugh-ugh! I had decided to take my 6-inch Meade to the CAA Observatory at Letha Park in Medina County and meet up with some friends there for a night of celestial beauty -- nights like the one forecast don't often come around when we can take advantage. So Saturday evening I headed to the southwest. As I was driving I noticed a sheet of thin but substantial clouds hanging on the western horizon. If they were moving, they were slow. I was first to arrive on site and, as others followed, we watched and worried as the thin layer edged overhead. By the time a few stars had appeared the cloud sheet had thinned but it was still there.

My LXD75 behaved itself this time -- no connection problems between the handbox controller and the mount during setup and not a single blip all night! Polar alignment was off a bit but the GoTo control put me close enough to, with a little fishing, find Saturn. Saturn looked pretty good, even at 133X with a bit of banding and the ring shadow visible on the planetary body. Lower-power views showed several moons. The sky never did get very dark, thanks to the thin clouds, and seeing varied from fair to poor. Again with the GoTo system getting me close, I was able to fish M104 --the Sombrero Galaxy-- from the skyglow. Same with M81 & M82 --Bode's and the Cigar Galaxy-- showing in the same low-power view; not as beautiful as I remembered but pleasing anyway. The Sombrero looked like a long, thin star cluster rather than the appearance of a diffuse cloud we see when we visually observe many others through a small telescope. Mars, now very distant, was a bright dot at low power and a squirmy "star" at high power and definitely not worth looking at. I saw my first Iridium flare --sun reflected off a communications satellite-- and spotted a satellite coasting through my telescope field of view. Several people saw meteors, one seen through a telescope!

In all a good night with friends and a fine shakedown operation after a long, long time away from my own big telescope and it was good not to have electrical problems. Overall, I was especially pleased with how well my telescope performed compared with others' this night! I need to use it more often and under better skies! Dew and chill sent us home at around midnight.