Beginning the year with Comet C2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)

In January the big deal in astronomy, at least for amateurs, has been seeing and imaging Comet Lovejoy -- technically: C2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). The comet was a (barely) naked-eye object under the clearest skies but its appearance was glorious in the best images made of it. In the best images a long, smoke-like tail streamed off a globular head or nucleus against a beautiful field of stars. The most distinctive feature of this visitor to the inner solar system, however, was its green appearance, seen in even the crudest of photographic images -- mine included!

Weather has been largely uncooperative for comet-watching from Northeastern Ohio with most nights in January being impossibly cloudy. On the rare clear night, temperatures were usually in the frigid teens; enough to scare off all but the bravest, most hardy observers and imagers. On one cold night I noticed the sky was clear of most clouds; bands of cloud were drifting across from north to south. It looked like I might have a limited opportunity for photography. I quickly set up my camera, 400mm lens and tripod and tried some imaging hoping that, without tracking, I could pull something from my efforts.

Comet Lovejoy is the lovely green "fuzzball" located left of the center of this photo. Canon EOS 50D: ISO 1250, f/5.6, 6 sec., 400mm (600mm equiv.), January 16, 2015 @ 11:02 PM EDT. Photo by James Guilford.

Comet Lovejoy was easy to find with binoculars located, as it was that night, directly "down" from The Pleiades star cluster in the western sky. I could even make out the comet's faint smudge in the viewfinder of my single-lens reflex camera; the comet was at or near its brightest for this apparition! After perhaps a dozen shots at different shutter speeds and refocusing a time or two, I fled indoors and stowed my gear to let it warm to room temperature. Looking at the tiny images in the camera's internal LCD panel, I was hopeful. I was disappointed later when, reviewing the images on the computer's mammoth screen, I could see star trails that would cause me fits.

The image shown above resulted after a lot of effort, seeking the best way to remove star trails from the image. In the telephoto view, the stars "moved" significantly in the six seconds of the exposure. Using Photoshop, I masked out most of the trails and, in so doing, lost much of the image brightness and many dimmer stars. I immediately wished I'd have taken the time and frostbite risk and set up, at the very least, one of my telescopes' mounts with tracking capability.

Simulated view of C2014 Q2 and star field showing it amongst stars at the edge of constellation Aries as they appeared at the time the photographic image was made. All are "minor" stars without common names. Sky Safari +

So, I learned (and re-learned) a couple of things that I hope to remember and act upon:

• Longer focal length magnifies the apparent motion - don't get greedy, a 200mm lens would have made a better photo in this case; I could have included The Pleiades!
• Set up the telescope tracking drive if there's any opportunity to do so! A good alternative (that I intend to pursue) is a simplified "star tracking" device intended for cameras; I'm considering three available devices that are faster to set up than telescope mounts.

C2014 Q2 won't return for about 8,000 years so, while I'm sad I didn't get better photos of my own of that lovely visitor; I'm happy to have seen it with my own eyes!

Partial Solar Eclipse - October 23, 2014

Pre-Eclipse Test Image showing Huge Sunspot Group

Partial Solar Eclipse of October 23, 2014. After days of analysis and agonizing over whether to stage a public event or go out on my own, I decided to be a spectator myself and try and get some good images. From where? I decided to use fishing pier located in Avon Lake, Ohio to observe the sunset partial solar eclipse. I was hoping to get images of the eclipsing sun sinking colorfully on the western horizon, reflecting dreamily in Lake Erie waters. When I arrived there were few people around but I saw a line of cars arriving at the parking lot. I hustled my equipment down to the pier and staked out a corner so as to be out of the way.

A Portion of the Fishing Pier Crowd Watching the Eclipse

Soon the pier was packed and, at the expected time, I spotted the dark edge of the Moon encroaching upon the Sun's bright disk. I shouted to the crowd, "It has started!" Folks quickly faced sunward and, holding their sun-safe viewers, looked and agreed... "Look! I can see it!" I was shooting with a 400mm telephoto lens mounted to a 2X lens extender on a cropped-sensor camera giving me about 1000mm of telescopic goodness. I'd tried the combo out earlier in the day and got very good results.

Dark Disk of Moon Encroaching Upon Cloud-Streaked Sun

The evening's seeing, however, wasn't as good as that of midday; the Sun was low in the sky (more atmosphere), there was a fairly stiff breeze (vibration and atmospheric turbulence), and there were thin clouds. Still, while not as sharp as I'd have liked, the presence of a huge sunspot group and some cloud effects along with the eclipse made for dramatic images.

Eclipsing Sun Sinks into Lake Clouds Ending our Day

The eclipsing Sun sank into lake clouds before giving us sunset colors but I didn't regret staying til the (cold) end. As eclipse watchers started heading home, someone asked if they could see my images, review them in the camera's tiny LCD panel. I obliged and soon collected a little crowd. Some had arrived late and hadn't seen any of the event. It was heartening to have seen the excitement of fellow viewers and to have shared the wonder of this partial solar eclipse with them.

Open Night at Stephens: May 24

Some 45 visitors of all ages came out to observe through our telescope on this clear Saturday night with good seeing! While many may have been drawn by the opportunity to see Mars, sadly the minuscule Red Planet put in a poor showing compared with last month's. Mars and Earth are rapidly parting company and the extra distance, plus only "good" seeing conditions disappointed. Those who stayed a bit longer, however, enjoyed very good views of Saturn with several of its moons. Traces of color banding in Saturn's atmosphere were visible and the Cassini Division could clearly be seen; the planet's tilt displayed the rings excellently. We were one week from Saturn opposition which also helped! Finally we viewed the globular star cluster M13 in Hercules and it was a grand sight -- blue diamonds set on a field of white diamond dust -- the first time I've been able to show off that wonder through the vintage scope!

Open Night: Mars beautiful, few see it

The night of April 26 was an Open Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory. Mars was the featured object along with a couple of star clusters, that moonless night. I feared a big crowd -- Mars can really pack 'em in -- but over the course of the night only eight visitors came. Those who did visit, however, had the best telescopic views of planet Mars that I have ever enjoyed! Seeing conditions were only "good" but Mars was at opposition only a little over a week earlier. Through the 9-inch refractor we could easily see shadowy forms on the surface of that tiny, distant world with a trace view of a polar ice cap. The seeing conditions worsened as the evening wore on and I could not find the star cluster promised (M3 - the "Beehive") to save my life! The visitors drifted away as we closed early due to increasing cloudiness. This night I wish we would have had many more visitors so that I could have shared the remarkable view!

Testing, testing...

In about two weeks (on Tuesday, April 15) there will be a total eclipse of the Moon, visible in its entirety across the continental U.S. It has been a long time since I've seen a great lunar eclipse but, if the weather cooperates, this should be a good one. As it happens, totality -- the deepest part of the eclipse -- will take place in the wee hours around 3:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time. It will be tough to stay awake for the whole show since I am firmly-imprinted with a daylight operating cycle but I'm excited at the prospect of seeing this eclipse. I decided to take advantage of the thin crescent Moon to get a little practice and some test shots of it with very little illumination. I used my tripod, Canon EOS 50D camera, and 400mm telephoto in my experiments and, by and large, am pleased with the results. (Shooting through thin clouds made it look like my lens was fogged up but it wasn't ... I checked!) In the photo the nighttime portion of the lunar disk is illuminated with bluish "Earthlight" and, along the brilliant terminator, we can see a rough edge caused by partially-lit craters. The eclipsed Moon will be floating in Earth's shadow and our planet's atmosphere will color the light reaching it. During totality our Moon should be tinted some shade of orange or red (it varies depending upon the content of our atmosphere) and will be very dark. For the eclipse I plan on setting up my six-inch Meade refractor and attaching a digital SLR camera directly to it, making it a 1,250mm telephoto lens! If this all works out (again, completely dependent upon the weather) I'll be exhausted but happy by the time dawn arrives that Tuesday.

Crescent Moon with Earthlight Image by James Guilford, April 1, 2014: Canon EOS 50D, ISO 800, f/5.6, .5-second, 400mm.

One of those nights

August 17 Waxing Gibbous Moon after Everyone Went Home

It was one of those nights: the subject of our Open Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory was mainly Earth's Moon. The sky was partly-cloudy with clearing in the northwestern sky appearing to be progressing to the southwest. It was incumbent upon me to show up at the observatory since often the Moon shines through thin clouds or openings and can be seen through the telescope.

I arrived at Stephens about a half an hour early and actually followed a couple up the path to the building -- they were visitors who were, it seemed, more interested in the telescope than in the Moon. Well, that's fine, we're always happy to show off the Cooley Telescope. They watched as I uncovered the big refractor and prepared it for whatever the evening might present. Meanwhile the sky did not clear.

Over the course of the night, with official opening at 9:30, we had 16 visitors! This was somewhat surprising considering that, during most of that time, the Moon was a featureless disk or a dull glow in the cloudy sky. As thin spots in the overcast came we would cease upon the opportunity and get fuzzy views of the Moon and a few craters, not much else. Then we would wait as heavier cloud cover floated over.

Of course at around 11:00 PM, with a die-hard young couple our last visitors, the sky finally cleared and Luna showed forth in all its glory. The telescope delivered its usual amazing views of Earth's nearest neighbor in space, but to only three of us. Yes, one of those nights.

Photo Notes: The waxing gibbous Moon at 11:22 PM, August 17, 2013 as photographed through the Cooley Telescope at Stephens Memorial Observatory. Handheld afocal (camera held to eyepiece) photograph using a Canon PowerShot G11, ISO 400, f/8, 1/500 sec., image darkened to bring out detail. Photo by James Guilford.

Hiram Camera Watches Skies all Night

Back in the spring of 2011 I learned that NASA was seeking new locations to become stations in their All-Sky Fireball Network. Knowing the nighttime skies over Hiram can be excellent, I thought addition of a local network station would be a great thing: it would allow viewing of local phenomena often missed by human eyes, and would contribute to real ongoing micrometeorite research. Making the station happen, however, was not so simple.

The Network is a collection of automated cameras that watch the sky every night for incoming meteors, brighter than the planet Venus, called fireballs. Each station's local computer analyzes video in real time looking for signature flashes made by bright meteors. If a fireball is spotted, the video is captured and relayed to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for further analysis. "The collected data will be used by the MEO {Meteoroid Environment Office} in constructing models of the meteoroid environment, which are important to spacecraft designers," says a NASA statement.

The Fireball Network (about 2012) Before Hiram Came Along

I received the go-ahead to pursue the project from Dr. Laura Van Wormer, Physics Department Chair, and contacted Dr. William Cooke, the head of NASA's MEO, asking him about applying. The application form was astonishingly easy and from the beginning it was apparent we were a good potential site. I completed the form and waited.

Stations in the Fireball Network require an unobstructed view of the sky (360 degrees, nearly down to the horizon), a relatively clear dark nighttime sky, and infrastructure including high-speed Internet access; Hiram had all of those qualities, at least in some places. Hiram's ground-level Stephens Memorial Observatory is located on what today would be a residential lot in the village. The Observatory property is bordered by tall trees on the western property line and by houses and trees to the north and east, thus unsuitable for wide views of the sky. Nor does Stephens have broadband Internet. Buildings on campus, however, had different combinations of the three requirements!

The tallest building on the Hiram College campus that might afford a clear view of the sky, with roof space for a camera setup, and proximity to sheltered space for a computer, was the Colton-Turner Science Building. Colton is a very old building but the view from atop its mechanicals penthouse is amazing!

Panorama Shot from the Penthouse Roof Showing Hiram College Campus and Horizon

A long period of waiting was punctuated by occasional contacts with NASA and eventually we were told we were approved. There was, however, one little problem: the Northeastern U.S. was not covered well by the Fireball Network and there were no other stations close enough to work with us -- stations need to be not-too-close and not-too-distant from each other in order that their fields of view overlap and proper triangulation can be made of any meteor sighting. Triangulation allows for calculation of speed, distance, brightness, etc., all important to the research. Perhaps, as Dr. Cooke suggested, we could join the Canadian meteor network?

More waiting. Then suddenly, in October 2012, an exchange of emails began with Dr. Cooke's associate, Danielle Moser of the Micrometeoroid Environment Office. There were no other nearby applicants, she stated, did I have any suggestions? I provided a few but, apparently through her own research, Moser found other interested and qualified parties and the project was "on!"

The Weather Station atop Colton

Meanwhile I needed to find a suitable home in Colton for the Fireball camera host computer system. I had seen a weather station on the roof of the building and asked about whose it was; perhaps we could work together. Enter, Dr. Louis Oliphant, Chair of the Computer Science Department. From the start Oliphant was enthusiastically supportive of the camera project. He first suggested a small closet inside of the mechanicals penthouse. There was electrical power available, LAN connectivity, and close proximity to the roof, but I could only imagine that room, outside wall facing west, heating to oven-like temperatures in the summertime and killing the NASA computer. There had to be another place for the computer to live.

Technician Installing the All-Sky Camera High above Hiram

After much mulling over, and queries by Oliphant, a new space was offered up: a dumbwaiter elevator shaft. Good, but no wiring access to the roof and no windows for a GPS antenna. Nearby, however, was the answer: the corner of a little-used laboratory. The lab's "owner," Dr. Matthew Sorrick of Environmental Studies, was happy to allow the installation.

All-Sky Fireball Network Camera Sits Atop its Mast Waiting for Dark

So on August 13, 2013, after much delay, emailing, and a lot of head-scratching and searching, technicians arrived at Hiram College and set up the All-Sky camera system. Cables were strung from the roof down to the lab and through a window frame, the computer set up and configured for Hiram's LAN with help from Network Administrator Bryan Drennen, and the system tested. We didn't know when we might see the first results but were happy to have Hiram now an official observation station. It was a long process, a long day, and we were willing to rest and wait. As it turns out, we didn't have to wait long.

"First Light" for Hiram College's Fireball Network Camera - a Bright Perseid in the Western Sky!

The annual Perseids meteor shower had peaked over cloudy skies the past weekend but there are always stragglers. The Perseid shower is known to be rich in fireball meteors, again, those brighter than Venus. In that first overnight and under mostly-clear skies, the little camera picked up several fireballs, verified in coordination with the other new camera station at Oberlin College. Everyone involved was delighted.

The Fireball Network (August 2013) After Hiram and Partners Were Added

I am very pleased that Hiram played a big part in spurring expansion of The Fireball Network into the Northeastern region of the U.S.  From now on, we will not only watch the skies but watch for what our unblinking eye on the sky has seen. Meteor showers will become even more interesting.

Postscript: Not only am I thrilled and proud to have seen this effort through to fruition, to be listed with the fabulous historic Allegheny Observatory (thanks to NASA's recruitment of them) is a huge honor!