Posts Made By: david elosser

Last night, June 18th, I'm sure most of you got a chance to catch the lineup of Saturn, the crescent moon, and Venus. I decided to try something different. My Stellarvue F50 finderscope has eyepiece interchangeability. The 7th magnitude white dwarf HIP 45894 was going to be occulted by the dark side of the moon, so I put in a Meade 5000 series 5.5mm plossl. This gave me 36x. Image quality was very good, with no ghosts or glares to hinder me. With steady air, I could see 45894 with direct vision. The dark side of the moon was easily visible. I could put the sunlit side just out of the field of view to preserve dark adaptation. But as the occultation was about to happen, the air suddenly went bad on me. The white dwarf faded in and out so I could not catch the exact moment. Given the circumstances, I'm going to chalk this one up as a victory.

The air was steadier over Jupiter though. Around 10:20 EDT Io was about to be occulted by Jupiter. It was less than 3 arc seconds from the limb. I could see Io through the F50 as a bright dot just touching the limb of Jupiter. A few minutes later Io dissolved into Jupiter through the F50 so I switched to my SV102ABV to follow it the rest of the way. The air was mostly steady and at 128x through binoviewers I resolved Io into a tiny airy disc and watched it slowly disappear behind the gas giant. I looked down at my watch to record the time but Murphy was looking over my sholder again. The watch battery was too weak to illuminate the dial! :C Oh well! It was still a very rewarding evening.

David E
SV102ABV with Stellarvue F50 9x50 RACI

Good luck everyone! My wife, WA4AXW will be using cw on any band she can get her cranky Tentec to load on. Be on the lookout for her

David E

Transparancy and seeing were well below average, but over the course of two hours I managed to eek out these details (I am a bit ameteurish at sketching). I was using a 8" Zhummel Dobsonian with Stellarvue BV1 binoviewers at 120x and 170x. The NEB was by far the most prominent band. I could identify two south temperate bands, one of which faded out on the eastern side. I saw a very large flat white oval in the SEB. It doesn't show accurately in my sketch, but just to the west of that oval was an interesting "bridge" running northward from the SEB into the NEB. Other than that, there was not much detail in the EZ. I saw no color except for a ruddy color band on the north side of the NEB. The color was remarkably prominent, showing up well with no filter or with a yellow-green filter. The observing session lasted from 2130-2330 EDT (0130-0330 UT. The sketch represents what was seen at around 0300 UT.)

David E

Thanks for looking! Taken with Fuji S5200 set at ISO 200.
David E

This one will mow 1/2 acre in 5 minutes flat! Taken at a local lawn mower pull last year.
David E

That photo is sweet Dan! If I use my averted imagination I can just see the ashen glow!
David E

It's Here! A brand new motorized mount for refractors, so new you have to get on the waiting list. It's a tracking mount for any size refractor. Powered by a hit-and-miss engine (made in China), it is guaranteed to track any target accurately anywhere in the world. No set-up is neccessary. Just attach your scope, push the button and the mount does all the rest. And if we ever do colonize the Moon or Mars, there's an Extra-Terrestrial Tracking Disgronificator (ETTD) sold separately. Hurry, before they all get gone!
David E






Some assembly required.
Batteries not included.
Void where prohibited.
Contains flammable parts.
Contains inflammable parts.
Not recommended for children under the age of 12.
Not recommended for adults over the age of 50.
Price, when determined, does not include tax, tags, license, tarrifs, postage, handling, value added tax, port of entry, commission fees, and insurance.
Not available in the state of Washington.

Must be molting season for Cardinals. This balding female showed up today. So far I havn't seen any bald males.

David E

This plant grows everywhere in central NC, and probably many other states as well. The plant is actually quite edible, young stalks used to be a delicacy in the first half of the 20th century.

David E

Caught this little microscopic animal feeding in standing water from my back yard. It has a stiff but flexible outer sheath, open at both ends, and a more fleshy body it can push in and out of each end. I think the larger end is the "mouth."
David E