Missed the shot of a lifetime !

So I've been getting my solar gear out to shoot some h-alpha images.   But I wanted to really drill down on the SM60II scope to see if it was really garbage.   (I've had a lot of disappointing sessions with it.)   After a lot of finagling -- including taking it apart to examine the ITF and the etalon, I got it working "okay"  -- still less contrasty than the PST.

But around 3:07 pm, I was looking at the sun through the 8mm brandon, noticing some nice plages around a sunspot when a PLANE went through the middle of the sun!   You could clearly see the 727-esque looking private jet and the thermal currents as it passed right through. 

I've wanted to take that shot but alas I wasn't imaging.   Even if I put in a 1000 hours imaging, I bet I'll never get that shot again.   It was neat to see.

Anyways, my plan is to get up the Quark h-alpha on a 80mm scope next to the SM60 to see if there's a significant differennce.   The Quark setup will be 4.3x more magnified but it will still be a good test.  The SM60 should get me some decent full disc shots of the sun.  

In other imaging news, I think I'm done with my 30 nights on Jupiter.  My preliminary impression is that the seeing was worse than last year's Mars project.  I also shot myself in the foot by sticking with the 462MC color camera instead of RGB.   I was sorta burned out but also scared of screwing up the RGB technique.  I don't know, I should have pushed harder on this.   But next year should be dramatically better.

Finally a Clear (mostly) Night ?

 

So, in REALITY, it's currently 60% clear at 8:47 pm.   Astrospheric coincides with the CSC.   They also both predict above average seeing from 1 am onward.

My completely non-scientific eyeball look at the stars seem to indicate better than average seeing currently.

Weather dot com wins for cloud cover.

I'm going to start imaging at 10 pm-ish.   We'll see if the seeing predictions are even close.

 

 Hm...

[Next day:  The seeing was best around 10:30 pm which (definitely above average) but I didn't do any serious imaging until 11:30 when things started to worsen.   Light clouds rolled in occasionally to obscure Saturn and Jupiter but overall, it was average+.  CSC and Astrospheric were plain wrong.   I noticed that Astrospheric did update its info a little bit, upgrading from below average to average.   But both CSC and Astrospheric kept indicating there were cloudy to mostly cloudy conditions when it was obviously mostly clear to clear conditions.]

 

 

 

More Complaints and Stuff

 So, I'm on my 3rd consecutive night of "okay" imaging of Jupiter.  About 5 days ago, both Clear Sky Chart and Astrospheric were predicting periods of excellent seeing.  

Then about 12 hours before (like mid to late afternoon on the same day), the seeing would be downgraded to "above average" with occasional "average" periods in the night..   "Above average" is a a pretty nebulous prediction or forecast because in my experience that translates into "below average" to "above average" conditions.   It's never consistent.  The reason this is a problem for me is that I have a monochrome setup and a color camera setup.   The monochrome setup uses a RGB filter wheel and I have to refocus on every filter.   My current method (which I admit is pretty lame) is to use color marked lines on my focus knob that correspond to red, green, and blue focus points.   The problem is there is always slippage in the focuser which means after 3-4 runs, I have to focus based on what I see on the screen.  

When the conditions are "average" or worse, it's very hard to determine best focus for any of the filters because the image is so mushy and wavy that out-of-focus and correct focus seem indistinguishable.  If I know for certain that conditions are going to be variable, then it's best to stay with the color camera.   I don't usually refocus for 5-6 runs with the color camera.  

Which brings us to tonight...   the forecast was average to above average and I'm typing this at approx. 946 pm.   Visually the sky is okay for transparency, but the the stars are INCREDIBLY STILL.   Usually this translates into actual above average to exellent seeing for imaging.   BUT I'm sitting here listening to the Lymax cooler because I only setup about 20 minutes ago and I usually like to let the cooler run for 60 minutes.   I'm going to let it cool for 45 minutes and see if I can take advantage of this seeing.   I hope it stay around for a couple hours....

Later:  I wanted to mention that I've seen about 5-6 meteors per night which is unusual because I'm not looking for them.  Some of the meteors are definitely Perseids, but I'm also seeing random ones coming from somewhere around Cygus or Pegasus.  In any event, if it's clear, the Perseids may be very good this year.

Ugh...this weather

So, it was looking pretty clear this past night and I set up as usual.   I took a 45 min break so the Lymax cooler could do its thing on the SCT.   When I stepped back outside it was 90% cloudy.  Jupiter was still visible but it was the old game of bright/dark as clouds moved through the view.   I waited a couple of hours -- checking every 20 to 30 minutes -- and caught a 10 min break in the clouds around 2 am.   I did some more waiting and I was ready to pack up at 4:30, but noticed Jupiter was visible through the clouds.  Checked the view on Sharpcap and I witnessed the elusive excellent seeing!   The problem was that clouds were racing across the planet so I had to play the awful game of raising and lowering the gain in Sharpcap so the histogram could stay around 70%.   It was painful to see all these great details in the equatorial bands be obscured by over and underexposure -- plus there was a thermal effect that caused an unusual amount of waviness.   But the underlying image was incredibly detailed.  I think I got maybe 12 minutes of Jupiter footage before the clouds thickened and erased my dreams of an excellent image.

Mostly Cloudy Forecast

 

Hm...  I guess I could have been imaging.  When the consensus is wrong (everyone predicting mostly cloudy to cloudy including a good chance for rain), I get particularly annoyed.

Wasting my time under cloudy skies ?

 

The only reason I'm trying to get data on Jupiter in these lousy conditions is because the seeing is above average.   Last night I battled and got some good Jupiter data.  But I never really had more than a 15 min window before it clouded up.  Tonight, I'm trying again.   If you're really trying to get good data on the planets during monsoon, I think you have to just go out and setup when Astrospheric and the Clear Sky Chart both forecast excellent seeing.

Back from the Dead?

Currently imaging Jupiter with the C11, TV 2x Barlow, ZWO ADC, QHY 462C.   The seeing was sorta mediocre at 1 am.   It's better.  On my current run starting at 2:45-ish am, I removed the optical window on the camera, then placed the QHY UV/IR filter at the threaded end of the TV barlow.   Since there will be a little less glass, I wonder if the image will be sharper?

[Updated:  It may be coincidence, but it appeared there was slightly more surface detail on the video footage taken WITHOUT the optical window.  I'm using the supplied QHY UV/IR blocking filter, but I'm going to try the Chroma luminance tonight.   I think I'm on to something here...]

Why aren't there more women on CN?

 Because of posts like this that appear regularly and the mods do nothing:

(from:  https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/740236-please-criticize-my-mirror-cell/page-2)

#29 stargazer193857

Voyager 1

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• Posts: 10,602
• Joined: 01 Dec 2013
• Loc: Southern Idaho

Posted Today, 05:11 PM

I think criticize and critique have different meanings. One is intended to put down, whereas the other is matter of fact.


As for the ring around your cell. I wonder how hard it would be to force air out that circular slot, scrubbing the boundary layer. A few guides would be needed.

#30 MitchAlsup

Fly Me to the Moon

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• Posts: 5,004
• Joined: 31 Aug 2009

Posted Today, 05:40 PM

stargazer193857, on 28 Jan 2021 - 3:11 PM, said:

I think criticize and critique have different meanings. 

Of course they have different meanings--it is just that women rarely see the difference 

 

stargazer193857, on 28 Jan 2021 - 3:11 PM, said:

One is intended to put down, whereas the other is matter of fact.

You first clause is accuraate, your second clause is not.

 

A critique is an analysis (generally) of a something written or stated. 

While it should be factual, it may only be factual from a given (sometimes unknown) vantage point or when some information is added from a 3rd party source.

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Also, the level of intellectual scrutiny here is pretty much at a 5th grade level.

I'm just trying to read an interesting thread on mirror cells and there's some off-handed "joke" involving race or women.  These jokes happen pretty regularly on CN and sometimes they get "erased" and sometimes, I'm sure a mod just laughs out loud and does nothing.   But if you start mentioning another peripheral subject, look out, they will admonish you and threaten to lock the thread.

Sometimes it feels like I'm walking into a 1960's office on CN.