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Captured by
Erwin Forbragd

M33 in Triangulum

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Posts Made By: Thomas Dey

July 22, 2016 06:54 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Solar Disk 7-19-16

Posted By Thomas Dey
Nice! Just thinking: Sol's mag field flips each cycle, so a "Full cycle" would be 22 years. Saturn's rings "open up" for us twice per orbit = twice in 29 years. The things we wait for. Tom

July 23, 2016 09:17 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Rainbow over Hawaii Island

Posted By Thomas Dey
Cool! I notice the 2nd bow shows best backing away or looking at the thumbnail! 1972 got into a heated argument with physicist prof George Sherman over whether the bows could be characterized (predicted) with geometrical optics only; he insisted quantum mechanics was needed. We're now both older, wiser and not as wise-ass any more...

July 24, 2016 04:20 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

Rainbow over Hawaii Island

Posted By Thomas Dey
OK guys, here's my submission from 1986. It's a snapshot of a projected slide. Note the streetlights! Tucson was trying Mercury (left-OUCH), Shielded HPS (center-Hmmm) and LPS (right-RIGHT). Dave Crawford was of course pushing for LPS but sigh ... people didn't like the yellow. I was designing LPS but it only got used in Europe. Nuts. Don Quixote.

July 25, 2016 03:19 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Cyguns Mosaic (4) Panes color

Posted By Thomas Dey
Thanks; beautiful! Just last night I was scanning that area with giant binos + Night Vision + 12nm Ha. Sketched what looked like dark nebls around Sadr. Your image helps ID what I saw. I don't know if that is dark nebl, gaps in the emission or combination. The very narrow band is certainly revealing of stuff we normally can barely see. COMMENT: I have edited what was a comma to be a semicolon... YIKES!

July 30, 2016 09:28 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Galaxies around M57

Posted By Thomas Dey
Oh Boy - now I gota look for thay "nearby" nice spiral. Was touring Bootes two nights ago it's loaded with galaxies. Your image makes it look easy but...

July 31, 2016 07:44 PM Forum: TeleVue

Wasp Nest

Posted By Thomas Dey
Years ago I got one of those mud wasp things in my TV 2" Big Barlow. Cleaned it up and works fine again. The lens came out easily, otherwise it would have been near impossible to clean well. Observatories are subject to all sorts of attack here: Wasps, hornets, mice, spiders, bats. Latest visitor is a skunk... Now I have tight covers on everything and check often.

August 7, 2016 01:37 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Unusual Trail - Barnard 86

Posted By Thomas Dey
More capture info would help (efl, field scale, etc.) Contrails commonly volute like that. Small orbital frags are also common and would not be in public domain. I've been using Night Vision on my 16-inch binos lately; the meteors and space junk scooting by are prolific. Like one piece of something every few minutes thru a half-degree field!

August 8, 2016 04:54 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Unusual Trail - Barnard 86

Posted By Thomas Dey
I enjoyed collecting "artifacts" 5 min f/2 exposures. Used to have my "roof-cam" running for a year and a half all night every night FLI 6803 with a 24mm lens looking straight up thru a good optical window. Planes, satellites, Iridium flashes, cosmic rays, aurorae, fireflies, meteors, one sat fuel dump (?!), comet pieces (!) and (alas) NO UFOs. What we always are hoping for with this survey stuff is something astronomical, unpredicted and transient! Problem is getting around to sifting thru the copious data. I'm hoping to resurrect that cam again with a 100mm f/2 but my wife doesn't want me to put it on the roof of our new house - DRAT! Some auto-sort software would help a lot. PS geosync sats are fascinating because they are rather dim and move about 15 arc-sec per sec ralative to the stars. Tom

August 10, 2016 08:02 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Question about shipping refractor

Posted By Thomas Dey
Mark, FYI, here's as (old) ad right from this site: http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=405555 Zeiss is indeed right up there for quality and reputation. When I ship high-end stuff, I either buck up and build custom crate myself, of pay the UPS Store to do the packing and shipping. They (UPS) are expensive but good. And seems to me that insuring it with them provides another level of care in transport! Tom

August 12, 2016 04:20 AM Forum: After Dark

Perseids Now

Posted By Thomas Dey
I was only out for 15 min around midnight EST with scattered clouds 50% cover otherwise good dark skies. Only saw one... Good luck! Tom

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