Posts Made By: Paul Maxson

Does anyone know what the path of visibility will be for the next Venus transit (2012 I think)?

I had gotten a little behind in processing images, but here are images from the evenings of May 27, May 28 and May 29.

http://tinyurl.com/2bbha

http://tinyurl.com/2zl82

http://tinyurl.com/3er43

Next we have an image of Venus...probably my last before you folks east of me get to watch it creep across the sun (I'm expecting lots of pictures!! *G*)

http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Venus/Venus0528txt.jpg

And finally a few of the moon.

Plato
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0529-1plato85.jpg

Clavius
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0529-3clavius90.jpg

Copernicus
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0529-2copernicus85.jpg

Hadley Rille
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0527-3Hadley85.jpg

The Alpine Valley
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0527-9alpine-3x-89.jpg

finally Tycho
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Moon/Moon0529-4tycho92.jpg

All shot with the 9.25" SCT under decent conditions. All the lunar images shot at F/21 except the Alpine Valley which was shot at F/30. These were shot on May 27 and May 29.


Paul Maxson
Check out the processing exercise webpage
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/exercise.htm

Jupiter from last night, May 30. It was very breezy, heck...it was windy. The image was struggling to stay in the FOV. I didn't realize how much torque the wind would cause on a C 9.25. I should find a wind break of some sort for these evenings. Otherwise, the seeing wasn't terribly bad for a day that reached 100 degrees. (It's going to hit 105 today!!)


http://tinyurl.com/2yo9f

Paul Maxson

http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/index.htm

I had a number of good things working last night...the seeing was better and the wind was calm. Also, I used a NIR filter and a contrast enhancer. Finally I imaged at 5 fps instead of 10 fps. I think I squeezed as good an image I could under the circumstances. It's always nice when the GRS is visible too.

http://tinyurl.com/yq5et

Paul Maxson

I am about to lose my Jupiter window...it's getting over my house and trying to image Jupiter when the temp is over 100 degrees, falling fast and over tile roofs is a losing battle. Still, there is some good detail to be captured. Last night's image was only fair.

http://tinyurl.com/367rw

Paul Maxson
Home of the Image processing Exerecise
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/index.htm

I guess the seeing wasn't too bad last night and there was a nice
transit of Io on the surface, actually both the shadow and satellite
are visible.

http://tinyurl.com/2x92u

Paul Maxson
Home of the Processing Exercise
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/exercise.htm

Seeing was marginally better last night, so I gave Jupiter a shot. The results are not up to what I want, but given the location and weather, it not too bad. I included a prime focus image with satellites because it was an interesting alignment.

http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Jupiter/2003-2004/June04/Jupiter0611txt.jpg

http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/Jupiter/2003-2004/June04/Jupiter0611txt-prime.jpg

You may have to weave the links back together, apparently tinyurl was so busy I couldn't get a shorter link, sorry.

Paul Maxson
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/index.htm

Seeing wasn't too bad considering everything, and the GRS looked nice visually.

http://tinyurl.com/3dqf2

Paul Maxson

Well...that got your attention!! I was installing a set of Bob's Knobs on Friday when to my surprise, in the tube assembly I found a dead june bug! It must have flown in when I had the eyepiece area uncovered to let heat out. I remember a while back seeing something flutter in the webcam while imaging the moon...thought it was a bird or moth but it went away and I forgot about it.

Anyway, I was wondering how I'd get the dead critter out. I didn't want to remove the corrector plate (I am totally NOT mechanical), and the thought of sending the OTA to Celestron at a price of shipping, and at least $100 to get it removed wasn't very inviting either. Time for radical action!! I found that the extender tube from my vacuum cleaner would just fit down the rear hole. I thought I'd give that a try. Sure enough, I turn the cleaner on and I hear a "click" sound of something being sucked into the vacuum cleaner. Looking into the OTA I found the june bug gone, as well as the various body parts that had already fallen off...in addition the inside of the tube assembly looked cleaner than I remember.

The best I can guess is the tube assembly is fairly air tight and when I turned on the vacuum it sucked the air out of the ta and took the june bug and anything else loose with it.

I'm not sure I'd suggest this on a regular basis, but like I mentioned...it was time to try something radical.

Paul Maxson
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/index.htm

I want to get a dew cap/lens shade for my C925. I am thinking of the aluminum Astrozap or the plastic Celestron cap. I do not want one of the flexy type caps. The aluminum cap is about 3 times the plastic cap. Anyone have experience or thoughts of the pluses and minuses of the Astrozap cap?

Thanks!!
Paul