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Douglas Rollain

M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

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Posts Made By: Jerry Mason

May 28, 2011 02:24 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

Sequoia National Park - Tokopah Falls

Posted By Jerry Mason
Fred Lusk said:

BTW, from Fresno, there are three national parks within easy day-trip distance: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia. Among our major cities, only Seattle is similarly blessed. Otherwise, there isn't much more for Fresno to brag about. smile

Fred

Hey no fair!

From OC it's only 4.5 hours to Sequoia NP, 2 hours to Joshua Tree NP, 2 hours to Channel Island NP, 4.5 hours to Death Valley NP, 3 hours to Mojave National Preserve, 4 hours to Lake Meade National Recreation Area, 7 hours to Yosemite NP and 7.5 hours to Grand Canyon NP. Of course you need good traffic to make the times listed above.

June 5, 2011 01:15 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

El Capitan at Sunset

Posted By Jerry Mason
Beautiful!

June 4, 2012 02:14 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Upcoming transit of Venus

Posted By Jerry Mason
Robert Howe said:

For the upcoming Venus transit, I am having trouble determining where in the telescope field the first contact will appear. Transit web sites show illustrations but are these reversed for a telescope, flipped for a diagonal, etc? I will be viewing nearly straight up to the zenith from Waimea, HI, using a Televue 85 and a Coronado 60 each with a Canon DSLR attached. A large website is giving what I think are nonsense data for my location

RH

Hello Robert,

I don't know if anyone answered your question or not but according to Fred Espenak and NASA's web site (I sure hope that's not the "large website" giving spurious data which you are referring to) Venus will enter the Sun's disk from the North East. See Espenek's diagram here: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus/Sun2004+2012-2.GIF and attached below. My Starry Night software confirms this. As I am sure you are already aware, if you turn off your clock drive then the Sun will drift to the West and you can infer N, E and S.

Like a star chart, N, W, E & S are given from your perspective -- as if you are holding the chart up to match the Sun in the sky. North will tilt as the sun moves from the Meridian to the Horizon. The diagram assumes you are not using a telescope or diagonal.

Good luck tomorrow!

Jay Mason

July 16, 2012 03:55 PM Forum: Comets

comet in Lyra?

Posted By Jerry Mason
Good catch Justin!

According to Starry Night Pro it looks like you may have snapped a shot of 17.68 magnitude Comet LINEAR (C/2012 K5).

Attached is a screen shot showing LINEAR C/2012 K5 near where you captured your comet. Thanks and ALL credit must be given to Imaginova Canada Ltd. and all rights belong to them (Starry Night Pro -- please don't sue me for posting this).

Jay


Justin Fuller said:

Hi all,
Can anybody help me identify the object in the photo I've attached? I've crudely pointed to it. A quick scan on the Minor Planet Center and a google search of "Lyra Comet" hasn't turned anything up. Thanks for anybody that can help me smile

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