Sunday, November 15, 2015

Andrew Bell 1959 - 2015

I learned last week that one of the attendees of the Barcroft Star Party, Andrew Bell, passed away.  If you look at the previous posts, you'll see a picture of Andrew's fine 24 inch scope.   And there's also a picture of him at night looking through his scope.   It was through his scope that I was able to see Einstein's Cross for the first time.   He also was working on a very useful observing system that allowed you maximize your efficiency when viewing deep space objects in a given part of the sky.  I hope that work gets published.   Though I knew he was fighting a serious illness, I didn't know he had less than 3 months.   He was planning a trip down to observe through Jimi Lowrey's 48 inch scope in October.  

Rest in Peace, Andrew.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Grandview Campground and Barcroft High-Altitude Star Party (Part 3 of 3)


One of the first things you do when you get to Barcroft is to check your blood oxygen levels.
The picture shows 86% which is low.  But it actually jumped back to 89%-90% a few seconds later.  At 12,500 ft, I was over two miles up from sea level.  And I felt a little light-headed for a couple of hours.   I deliberately took my time to setup my equipment and I became winded when I had to lift my 3 deep-cycle batteries.   Otherwise I felt okay.  No nausea, no tingling in my fingers or toes,
and only occasional headaches at night.   (Click to enlarge the photo.)



The site is dominated by the main quonset hut building which was lined with solar panels.  This larger building is where we ate, slept, showered, and hung-out.  Smaller, partly delapidated buildings littered the area.  I was a little sad to learn these other buildings were basically abandoned structures from prior university-funded projects.   I guess the budgets never included any provision for taking down the structures or for handing off  the equipment to other researchers.  Something is wrong with how university-funded projects are handled after their original research ends.  It reminded me of how the Hubble Telescope, a very capable and still-functioning instrument, will simply burn up in the atmosphere when its funding expires.

On the right side you can see the area where the telescopes were setup.




Here is a shot straight down "Telescope Row" with Mark's 20 inch Teeter in the foreground.



The other side of "Telescope Row" featuring Andrew's 24 inch dob.



You know things were getting serious when we had to sign a waiver upon arrival.



One of the more important areas in the facility was the kitchen.



We spent a large chunk of time in the dining room.  I suppose it was the tables and the proximity to the WIFI that drew us together.  I didn't get any pictures of the upstairs area, but there were comfy couches in a TV room in addition to the pool and ping-pong tables.


Dinners were served buffet style every night.  One night we had a vegetarian-esque dinner of pasta.



I never slept well while I was there.  In an effort to keep the area dark, a resourceful gentleman had put aluminum foil over the window.   But I found that the foil would "breathe", moving in and out, during the night and that would create an annoying racket.  I did partially get used to it, but I would get startled awake every morning by the sound.   I typically got 3-4 hours of sleep.  A couple of afternoons I took a nap which helped immensely. (Note to self:  Bring earplugs.)



Luckily, there were enough bunks so that you could use the top bunk as a staging area for your equipment or your personal gear.    There were bunks upstairs so that if the star party hit max capacity, I think everyone could still use the top bunks as a storage/staging area.

During the week, I found time to do two hikes.  On one hike I simply followed the trail to see an abandoned observatory that was maybe 1/3 mile away from the research facility.




On the second hike, I went with a couple guys and climbed Mt Barstow which is just above the facility.  It required that we go off trail and forge our own path.   There were tons of marmots and it was annoying navigating their droppings.


White Mountain Peak from Mt Barcroft.



What about the nights?   I stayed 5 nights at Barcroft and we had 2 good nights, 2 okay nights and 1 awful night.  There were fires to the west and to the northwest which seems typical for California.  On some nights, you could smell the smoke in the air.   I was able to collect decent data on M16 and NGC 7293 on about 3 nights.  There was always something interesting to see in the scopes that were there.







I had 4 observing highlights on this trip.  The first was spotting the globular cluster, G2 (Mayall III) in M31 with Vijay in his 15 inch scope.  (I had previously only seen it with my old 18" Obsession.) The second was finally seeing Einstein's Cross through the 24in dob.  It took awhile to hunt it down and initially I misidentified a faint mag 14 star for it.   We also had a quick view of the Draco Dwarf which was mostly impressive due to how easy it was to find.  And last, while it wasn't a successful observation, I enjoyed looking for Pease 1 in M15.   It was NOT a "pease a cake".  :(   (We were trying for Pease 1 in a 18 inch Obsession that had questionable collimation.) 

I can't say with absolute assurance that I could see all the constituent parts of Einstein's Cross.  I could make out 3 constituents with a fourth one occasionally popping into view.   The reason I'm not certain is that the star that I originally mistook for Einstein's Cross appeared to break apart into smaller point sources.  The 'star' I'm referring to is the top of the "Reverse 'L'" in the image below.
I think mag 15+ stars can fool you into thinking they are something else.  But after a second stare at the Cross, I realized it first appears as a tiny globular cluster with a bit of haze that would occasionally resolve into an imperfect triangle/cross.

In any event, I took a short 2 minute exposure of Einstein's Cross with my Canon T3i through the Tak 102 and I'm including the shot with some notes for anyone desperately needing another reference image whilst hunting it down.   It's a large JPG so it may take a minute to appear on slower connections.


The trip was a lot of fun.  The dark, transparent skies beg for big dobs and "bucket list" objects to observe.   My darkest SQM reading was 21.8.  Which makes it comparable to Grandview.   But I only have a sample of 5 nights.  I'd be willing to bet they get SQM 22+ nights up there.

Astrophotos from the trip are in progress, but I'll need a month (or a year)  before I get them up on the blog.

[Click to go back to Part 1]

Grandview Campground and Barcroft High-Altitude Star Party (Part 2 of 3)


8500 ft.  I spent one night at Grandview Campground.  I used my sleep mask quite successfully until some jerk on the southern side started his diesel engine.   It was around 6:30 am.    As the campground is bowl-shaped sounds travel really well.   I'm not totally sure WHY the owner of the truck had to run his diesel engine constantly, but it didn't stop until around 8 am when he pulled out of the campsite.

By the time I headed to the restroom at around 8 AM, it looked like around 1/4 of the campers had left.  I packed up slowly and I was ready to depart around 10 AM.

I drove to the eastern side of the campgrounds to have a look and took this meaningless panorama.  You can see why site 18 is so important.   If you get a large group of Yahoos at that site, then game over.  (Click to enlarge the pic.)



If you continue up past Grandview Campground, you will eventually end up at the Ancient Bristlecone Forest park.   I've been there before and it's definitely worth checking out if you've never visited.

Right after the Ancient Bristlecone turn-off, the pavement ends.


Overall, the dirt road to Barcroft is reasonable and any careful driver can navigate it.   You do need to drive slowly and carefully.   I occasionally stopped to remove particularly sharp and nasty rocks in the road.



There were times I felt I was driving on the set of Bonanza.



The Road to Nowhere?


Well above 10,000 ft.


After about an hour and a half of dusty road, I can barely spot Barcroft in the distance.   The iPhone shot doesn't quite have the resolution to make out the buildings in the left side of the picture.


Eventually, you will hit this parking area right before the final gate up to Barcroft.

This is where climbers to White Mountain (one of California's 14'ers) start their trek.





Sunday, August 23, 2015

Grandview Campground and Barcroft High-Altitude Star Party (Part 1 of 3)


I was disappointed with our Van Vleck adventure this year.    In previous years, we've generally had four completely clear and usable nights out of 5 or 6 nights.   I've become more ambitious, desiring to bring out more subtle and wispy details in any particular target; but this means that I need to spend multiple nights on one target.   Unless I've collected a couple nights already on a target, two nights amounts to only 10-20 usable frames.   I'm trying to collect at least 60-70 frames per target.

Because of the poor weather at Van Vleck, I decided to look for a place to get in a couple more nights of data in August.   Initially, I considered Mt Pinos in southern California.   But as I searched further for darker places, I came across Grandview Campground, near the Bristlecone Pine Forest park, in the Inyo National Forest.   At around 8500 ft, it would be higher than Pinos and the fact that it was in California meant it should be out of the monsoon flow that shoots out of Mexico and into the desert southwest.

During my search, I came across a web page for a high-altitude star party at Barcroft.  At 12,500 ft, it sounded like an incredible event.   AND it had power!   This is important since my possible trips to Pinos or Grandview would require that I run a generator at least 6 hours to completely recharge batteries.   So after some emails, I joined the East Bay Astronomy Club, and registered for the high-altitude star party.

As per the webpage for the event, I decided to spend one night at Grandview to help acclimatize myself to the altitude.  The drive to Grandview is about 9 hours from Flagstaff.   And even though that's only 3 hours less than driving to Van Vleck, it felt considerably easier.  

A dust storm somewhere between Nevada and California.  (Click the pic to enlarge it.)



Here's White Mountain Road which splits off from Highway 168.


The entrance to Grandview Campground.


It's hard to tell from this perspective, but the campground was absolutely full.  I drove around the campground about three times trying to find a spot.

Finally, a lady came out of a campsite and mentioned that their large group had reserved two campsites and that I could possibly take the one next to theirs.   What a coup!

This is a picture of site 17, facing north.   All of the camp sites on the north slope up.   It's worth noting how close the tent on site 16 sits next to the site (left side of picture).   If you're planning to do astronomy here, you need to have a few buddies out here to take up adjacent sites.


Here's a view from the opposite side to show my truck and the southern camp sites.


Here's a picture taken a little while later looking east from the front of my truck.  The eastern horizon drops off into a scenic valley that reminds me of Death Valley.  But of course, I didn't take a picture.  There is parking area up to the right side, but I was told that it gets really windy for astronomy purposes.


Here's a picture looking across the field.   At night, this view would be dominated by two camp fires that burned until around 11 PM.  The Milky Way dominates the middle of this perspective from about 10 PM until 1 AM.   For some reason, there were idiots from the southern side wandering that middle brushy area until midnight.   They had bright flashlights and they would shine them on people.   :(


Just to round out the images, here's a view of the west.  You can spot a small dusty area in the center that corresponds to a rough road that leads to an abandoned mining area.  There were a couple of "unofficial" sites on that road, but they were taken when I checked them out.   Also, you wouldn't want to be on that road with your astronomy equipment as every vehicle brought up a dust storm every time they drove by.   The main dirt road curves to to the right, past a pit toilet, then either curves left back to the southern camp site or splits off further right to an overflow camping area.  The overflow area has around a dozen sites, but they are heavily treed and close together.   


Here's a crude drawing of the campground that might help future astronomy-oriented visitors pick a site.


Besides the aforementioned two camp fires and the idiots walking around with bright LED flashlights, it was actually a very good location.   From my discussions with a number of campers, the site was unusually busy due to the Perseid meteor shower.   I saw about 5-6 camp sites with telescopes.   And I discovered that the two sites (I think there are two sites) to my west were occupied by astronomers.  So, that was a nice surprise.  

SQM readings came in between 21.55 and 21.7.







Thursday, August 20, 2015

Van Vleck 3 -- Late Post

So, this year we tried Van Vleck in July.  Overall, it was nice to see the 'ole cabin in its rustic majesty again.



Every year, there seem to be more and more cables in the imaging rig.


I got the suite this time around.  But I found mice droppings on the top of the bunk bed in the corner.


The skies didn't seem to cooperate.   Out of five nights, we only had two that were mostly clear. One of those nights had a fair bit of haze that made the sky less dark than usual.   Most nights we had clouds and it was frustrating to shoot any sequence of images.


I was trying to collect substantial data on M16, the Eagle Nebula, and NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula.  I managed to squeeze about 40 x 5 min frames on M16.  I wanted to go deeper on the Helix so I shot 10 min frames.   I had some odd guiding issues with the Helix and I only grabbed maybe 10-15 okay frames of the Helix.  I haven't really reviewed the data carefully.   The Helix rises about the same time that the Eagle begins to set.  So I thought they would be complimentary targets.  However, the rig would always want to do a meridian flip by the time I was ready to shoot the Helix.   So, I believe the DEC balance was off enough to create issues.

So all of this is to say that I don't have anything to show in terms of astro-images.

A shot taken at 2:46 AM on one of the clear nights...


That's not dawn approaching.  That's Lake Tahoe/Reno.   :/

Monday, June 29, 2015

Crappy News

So, my data drive failed last week.   It included all my astrophotography work.   I just got an email from the data recovery outfit and there are deep scratches on the drive platter.   Probably unrecoverable.  

Like a dummy, I didn't backup the astrophotography files.    Ugh.  

I have to start from scratch.  (So to speak...)

Later:   I carefully searched and found about 80% of the raw files on two different laptops.  Which means I should be able to reconstruct the images.   I was thinking of buying PixInsight to process my images and this could be a way to re-see my images.   They can only get better at this point.  

The downside is that I've lost thousands of personal images. 

Sunday, April 19, 2015

M82 and M81 with Holmberg IX and PGC 28731

This was a frustrating image to acquire and process.   Learned a lot of things, but the most painful lesson that I learned is that the neighborhood produces enough light pollution that processing the IFN (flux nebulosity) is intensely challenging.   The light pollution is not really evident in shorter 5 minute subexposures.  But it quickly raises its head when processing faint detail in longer exposures.   I suspect I need to gather 40+ hours of data to get much flux nebulosity in the north.   That means probably 8-10 nights of data.    Which in turn probably means it has to be done over 2-3 months.    The alternative, which is more appealing is to find a dark site where I can spend 4-5 nights.



Exposure details:
Dates: Feb 12,13,14,15,16 and 17.  
Exposures: 65 x 10 min exposures, 80 x 2 min exposures, 10 x 20 min H-alpha exposures.
50 Bias frames, 50 Flats, 60 Dark flats, 90 dark frames (for 10 min exposures only). 
ISO:  1600
Scope:  Takahashi TSA102S w/Televue .8x focal reducer/flattener.  
Camera:  Modded T3i with Astrodon UV/IR filter.
Mount:  Used AP1200.  
Misc:   Guided w/Orion 50mm guidescope and QHY5II-L autoguider, BackyardEOS, PHD2, Photoshop CC

I had a lot more flux nebulosity, but in an effort to combat light pollution gradients, a lot of
that flux got destroyed.   >sigh<

On a more positive note, I'm glad that I got some granularity in Holmberg IX which is right below M81.   And I'm glad to see I've got some detail in PGC 28731 (lower right) -- mainly that it is oval in shape and has a brightening core.  It's actually pretty large as far as PGC galaxies go.

You may note that I have 10 x 20 minute H-Alpha subs which were taken with an Astronomik 12nm H-alpha filter clipped into the Canon.   The H-alpha information allowed me to get that exploding red in M82.   And it's also responsible for the "measles" in the arms of M81.

Finally, the composition is about a 50% crop of the original.

Probably have over 80 frustrating hours of processing time in this image.  

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Flats - TAKE THEM AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SESSION

Well, I think I learned the hard way that you should take flats at the beginning of each session.   I setup tonight to continue to take more subexposures of M101 and for some reason the field is turned about 30 degrees!    I can't figure out how it happened.  

Rotating the focuser presents a problem:  the defects that the flat will correct (spots on the lens and the sensor) are partially unique to the orientation of the camera.   So, if I take flats now, some of the flat data will incorrectly correct for defects that are about 30 degrees off.  This will be interesting as I will need a week before I get to the data.


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

NGC 3628. Two steps forward and two steps back.

So I finally got out the big scope for a general shakeout and possible first frames of a longer project on NGC 3628, the Hamburger.


This was shot through the 8 inch f/6 reflector.   10 minutes, 1600 ASA.   Single frame with some curves, levels, and color balance adjustments in Photoshop.   It is the full-frame from the modded Canon T3i.   I actually took 6 exposures just to see if the guiding was up to snuff.   And it was.

The stars are warped around the edges of the frame due to coma inherent to reflectors.

To guide this setup, I have to use an off-axis guider.   Originally, I also had a Baader coma corrector (the MPCC) attached to the off-axis guider.  But I was getting warped stars which was really puzzling.  I was worried that it was guiding, but in fact, I finally deduced that it was the single screw on the focusing tube which was pinching the optics of the coma corrector.

I have to either switch coma correctors or get a new focusing drawtube.   It's always something.

And here's a crop of an image taken earlier with the coma corrector in place:


Those slightly warped stars come up in short 10 second exposures as well.  So that meant it wasn't guiding/tracking errors.   When I removed the coma corrector, that elongation disappeared.   Another possibility was that it was the scope optics -- luckily that wasn't the case.

[Update:  Will be getting a new compression ring drawtube for the focuser.   I plan to send the focuser to Moonlite Focusers for the replacement after I finish with the M101 exposures.]

Saturday, February 14, 2015

No Winter Star Party

So, I was planning to head down to the Winter Star Party in Florida, but it looks like that's not going to happen due to flu/cold/lameness.

I wanted to update the blog since the last few depressing posts.   In late December, I took the AP1200 mount partially apart -- specifically the RA gear and worm sections so I could regrease the gears.    I was getting so discouraged by the performance of the mount that I thought I was sold a lemon.   I worked with George at Astro-Physics to get missing screws for the motor covers.  He also had me update the hand controller which had a whiny buzzing sound.    I applied DeOxit D5 to the internal connections that had unpluggable wires.  This reduced the buzz by about 75%.   It's still there, but it's minimized.

I ordered some gear grease, Aeroshell 33 MS, from a gentleman on the Astro-physics Yahoo list who had acquired a bunch of it and wanted to get some out to the public.   I don't know how old the older grease was, but it was this gooey green-brown gunk that was obviously applied way too thick.   There was tons of excess grease in the corners of the gear boxes and around the edges of the worm and RA gear.  I spent 3 nights with a pile of cut up t-shirts and toothpicks to get the worm and RA gear clean.   It took a lot of work and I found that the old gear had sand/grit in it, plus the grease had become partially solid in the deeper parts of the teeth in the worm and RA gear.   A lot of pressure with the toothpick was needed to get the gunk out.   I also found that the housing that protected the RA gear was pasted with grease on the inside.  But I really couldn't get at that housing without doing a much more serious tear-down of the mount -- which scared me.   So I merely took long strips of paper and fed it in the space between the RA gear and the housing and did the best I could.   Lots of old grease came out -- along with sand and grit.   But I knew there were sections that I coudn't get to.

Hm.....    Anyways, I applied the new grease very lightly so as to coat everything possible in a very thin application.   I could tell when I re-meshed the gear and worm that it was a better fit.   I worried a bit thinking that maybe the previous owner applied a ton of grease to hide some RA gear defect.   In a close examination, I noticed that there was some noticeable RA gear wear that corresponded to when the mount had the OTA near the bottom -- right before the point that a pier collision was about to happen.  I suspect I was seeing minor gear wear/damage resulting from numerous pier collisions.

At this point I could have done the Dec Gear and worm, but I wanted to test the results of my work.

Previous to the regrease, I was getting around 1 to 3 arc sec RA guiding in PHD2.   After the regrease, it improved to about half the guiding error (.5 to 2 arc sec guiding).   It was an obvious success.    But I also noticed weird stuff.   When the mount was WEST heavy AND the scope was on the east side, it guided especially well.   On the East side - regardless of the balance, the guiding got worse.   I also noticed that most of the time, the DEC guiding was consistently worse than the RA guiding which makes me think I need to go back and regrease the DEC gear and worm.   There should be an improvement.


So in other news, I picked up a Tak130D in a fit of madness.   After spending 4 nights with the TAK130D and my recently modded Canon 6D, I came away feeling disappointed and disillusioned.
The Tak130D is a fast (F/3.3) reflective astrograph.  The specs indicate a well-corrected field out to 44mm partly due to the custom hyperbolic mirror and corrector.    I found that with the 6D, I only really had about a corrected field to maybe 30mm.   The stars turn into cresent shaped blobs on the edges of the right and left sides.   But well before that point, they lose their sharp, spiky shapes.   The center area (maybe 12mm) is extremely sharp.  But there is a noticeable deterioration after that.

I now know why Dennis DiCicco recommended that it would be a good telescope for a APS sized camera.   There is a well-known review by William Castleman, self-declared expert on all things, who posts images that seem to be full-frame shots showing good correction to the edges.  But my 6D shots reveal that either: a)   Castleman actually cropped but "neglected" to mention that; or b)   Castleman fixed the image in post-processing without mentioning it; or c) my Tak130D is a poor sample; and/or d)  something is wrong with my 6D (see below).

I was really hoping the Tak130D would prove to be a cheap-man's FSQ106.   But it's not by a long shot.  

Anyways, I took 4 nights of shots with the Tak130D and 6D combo and found that my dumb modification to the 6D may need to be revisited.





This is about 40x3 min frames.   But what sucks is that this only about the central 1/3 area of the frame.   The actual area looks like this:



The awful vignetting is from a Astronomik UV/IR filter that sits above the sensor.   So many challenges, so many issues.   Meh.

I also gathered about 40 x 10 min exposures, but for some reason, Deep Sky Stacker doesn't want to process the images correctly.  I've tried for several days with lots of different settings.   It just doesn't work.   It's frustrating to take so much data and not be able to process it.

In any event, I'm reshooting the area with the Tak102 and the Canon T3i.    I've shot about 35x10 min frames.  I want to double that to see if I can get more of the faint IFN nebulosity which is hinted at in the the first image above.