Posts Made By: Kim Colter

I did see what I would call a fireball at 0353 local time. That meteor left a smoke trail between Leo and Orion that lasted about 60 to 75 seconds in the moonlight. My non scientific determination of the peak seemed to be about 0446 local time (1046 UT). I didn't count numbers but did count "thousand one, thousand two,...) after a meteor and at the peak was averaging one every four to five seconds. Once saw 5 in the air at once. Two or three in the air at once happened frequently.
It is interesting to note the response of various members of the household to being told that the peak activity was occurring. 11 year old daughter had great enthusiasm and watched for about 20 minutes before going back to bed as peak began to subside. My wife came out after I awakened her when she had just gotten back to sleep, grumbled a bit about the 11 year old not coming in to get her--she lasted about 10 minutes and seemed underwhelmed. The 14 year old daughter who left instructions to be awakened only if it was "raining stars" rolled over and said, "I want to stay here."
I don't think they will roll a wheelchair out of the nursing home in the middle of the night 30+ years from now--grateful to have seen this shower.

Made another attempt at Abell 7 on Saturday night. Beautiful transparency. Surprisingly good seeing for November in the Midwest--the jet stream must have moved just east of us. 40 inches of aperture. Sky commander working well on other objects. OIII filter in the lowest power/wide field eyepiece I have--a 2" 30 mm with 85 degree field of view. Nada. Three observers all struck out. Anybody seen this sucker? I tried to find this the last time when I saw it on the Keppel and Sanner Deep Sky Observing card for Lepus--most of the things that are listed there are locatable with this much aperture. I know it is large and dim but I see other dim objects. Suggestions?

This time of year I wait for a night when it is clear all the way to the horizon and drive east of town to a spot with an excellent southern horizon just as Spica is culminating right before dawn and see if I can spot omega centaurii through 80 or 100 mm binos about 4 degrees above the horizon. Saw it this AM for the first time this year.
I like to swing the binos up to Hercules and compare the size of M13 to that of omega. Always reminds me of a dime compared to a quarter.

Anybody watching these Jovian moon close encounters? With a refractor on the driveway this AM I watched two of the moons separated by about 1 arc second (compared to adjacent double star in Leo said to have 1.1 arc second separation that looked about the same.) This was at about 1035 UT. One can clearly see the difference in size of the Gallilean moons when they are juxtaposed like this. Seeing was surprisingly good for the Midwest in winter--I could see detail within the great pale spot. The Sky and Telescope web site lists the times for multiple eclipses and occultations of Jovian moons in the next few months. Should be nice at WSP in the Florida Keys where the subarcsecond seeing occurs with some frequency.

I have been visiting this seeing forecast site frequently over the last five months. To a first approximation it has done a good job of predicting what seeing conditions will be like. In my experience it does a better job of predicting what seeing conditions will be like than it does predicting whether it will be clear or cloudy for my area. Comparing the seeing foecast map of the US to the jet stream map of the US leads me to think that the location of the jet stream is the single biggest factor in the prediction made. In September and October 2002 the Midwest was frequently in the medium and dark blue during the pre-dawn hours and the actual seeing at the eyepiece was exquisite on these occasions. The maps seem to evolve from a forecast to a record of what the seeing conditions actually are. On several occasions I have checked the seeing forecast for 0900 UT for my area, found that the prediction was for mediocre seeing, observed anyway and found that the seeing seemed better than than, gone back and checked the map for 0900 on that date and found that the "retrospective map" now indicated moderately good seeing. It is sometimes a useful tool in deciding whether to observe on the front or back end of a particular night. I would be interested in the experience of observers in other areas with regard to these forecasts.
Kim Colter
Washington Missouri

Is there any compendium for deep sky objects in the southern sky that rivals the Keppler and Sanner Deep Sky Observing Guides for the northern sky? Maybe some of our mates in Australia and New Zealand can weigh in on this one for us.

Anyone have experience with mounting a large bino (100, 120 mm objectives) on a dental chair? I have access to a dental chair. Parallelogram mounts, even the UA style, put my neck in an intolerable position when looking toward the zenith. I think I'm going to try something with the dental chair but would like to avoid reinventing the wheel if someone has already solved this problem. Thanks.
Kim Colter
Washington MO

I have been looking at the Canadian website that forecasts predictions of seeing conditions for North America frequently for the last 4 or 5 months. When my portion of the Midwest is in the light or medium blue I have experienced some really splendid planetary observations and splits of close doubles. September and October brought most of these days in the Midwest but there were a few in December and January. More recently I have been glancing at the Southwest and Florida on the same maps. I often see much of Arizona in medium or occasionally dark blue. When I have been at the Grand Canyon I have experienced very dark and very transparent skies, but not steady skies. Has the planetary seeing in Arizona over the last couple of months been excellent? I wonder if medium blue seeing for Arizona means the same Pickering number that medium blue seeing means in the Midwest or the Florida Keys--anybody have any experience with this? Have the apo owners in Arizona had seeing conditions that will support mags of 50X per inch of aperture? If so I may start looking for real estate...

Finally found this comet 2/12 AM using 180 cm refractor after looking three mornings with binoculars and not finding it. Near head of Draco right now and well placed in the predawn sky. I could see it faintly in 11X70 finder. Probably would have found it with binos if binos had been on a mount. Not very big, gives the impression that it is coming directly at the observer, not much tail.

A question for owner/builders of binocular newtonian scopes:
Do you notice any image degradation secondary to heat from your own body radiating across the optical axis of the binoscope when the OTA is configured so that the observer is looking into eyepieces that "face" the mirrors? This configuration is the one that is offered in the JMI 6 inch binocular Newtonian.