Dark Site to Explore

 There are supposedly some really dark sites in Utah for astronomy.  

http://jaysastronomyobservingblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/conger-springs-utah-dark-is-dark.html

Orion Telescopes No More ???????

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/89-Hangar-Way-Watsonville-CA/31232756/

 https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meade-and-orion-cease-operations-maybe/

 

Though they haven't been relevant for a decade, Orion Telescopes was the place I bought my first scope in 1984.   Cloudynights has a couple threads going but my own "lukewarm take" is that they just fell behind the times and as the market shifted to astrophotography, Orion just powered forward thinking that astrophotography was just a side-hustle compared to all the observers...  this attitude reflects their 1980's approach to the astronomy retail business.  Some people are decrying the waning interest in astronomy and that's sorta not accurate.  A lot of people really like astronomy but not a alot of folks want to drop 500 to 2000 bucks when they can just look at pretty astronomy pictures in their instagram feed.  Or they can go to a public star party and look through someone else's stuff.  The real excitement for newbies are the pictures and much of the older folks reacting to the demise of Orion still think that most people want to observe astronomical objects with their eyes.  I think at the very least they want a cellphone pic of what they are seeing.  The other VERY questionable thing about Orion is that they purchased the failing Meade Telescope company.   Meade's own product line is very dated and represents the state of astronomy circa 1995.  I don't know why they felt like they could absorb Meade and somehow "make it great again".  

My other sorta complaint/criticism is that their sales were so stingy.   Like 2-3% off on their mounts and telescopes.  I really dislike companies that offer trivially small "sales" on their goods.  It feels like an insult.   In addition, their astrophotography cameras never inspired any real confidence in terms of their reliability or future "repair ability."  They had an awful warranty service that was limited to the original purchaser only and when I had problems with my old Sirius mount, they just wanted to replace it instead of trying to fix it.  

 Finally, they really needed to partner up with some younger astrophotographers like Trevor of Astrobackyard.     They probably should have gotten rid of 70% of their "observing inventory" and shifted their emphasis to astrophotography.   That's where the small amount of money is going and with a good team, they could probably even bring some innovation to the market.

RIP Orion Telescopes.

UPDATE: I tried calling on the afternoon of the 16th.  No one answered sales or customer service lines.  :(

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself ?

 Where else?

These "ironic" posts happen so frequently that I don't think it's actually ironic anymore.

Jupiter from September 22, 2021

 Still working on old data.  Had tons of sessions of Jupiter but was really depressed or something.

Same equipment as previous post.  The detail is pretty crazy for East Flagstaff.  There's a ton of decent 3 min data so at some point I can run it through Winjupos. 

Another Jupiter with Transit

From the same night as previous lunar data.  8/25/2021.  Approx 2:52 am

C11 with QHY5-462C.  Probably Televue Barlow.

Stacked in autostakkert and wavelets in Wavesharp, some misc color correction in PS and PI.

Appears to be an IO transit and according to Stellarium, I'm off in time by about 30 minutes?  Closer to 3:20 am appearance in Stellarium.

 

Atlas and Hercules Craters

 

Captured on 8/25/2021 around 2:46 am Flagstaff. With the C11 and Qhy462c camera.  Unknown barlow but guessing Televue 2x.  Stacked best 12% (around 800 frames) of sequence recorded.   Stacked in Autostakkert and sharpend in Wavesharp with final color removal in PS.  Shot during waning gibbous moon phase.

This image is rotated 180 degrees to match a visual perception.  North is roughly up.  The darker crater in the upper right is a partial view of Endymion.

I was doing a catalog and survey of "rimae" based on Features of the Near Side Moon by John Moore.  Atlas is the large crater on the right.  Hercules on the left with little craterlets inside and on the rim.

Including a crop view.

I think these rimae in the craters are pretty cool to observe and photograph.

B72 Snake Nebula in Ophiuchus

 

Early May when I was down in Flagstaff, I was able to collect about 45 minutes of data on the Snake Nebula.  I had a health emergency on the second night that prevented me from collecting a ton of data.  Got 91 light frames at 30 seconds, 60 darks, 60 bias, 50 flat frames.  Shot with the AP92 on the HEQ5 pro mount.   Seeing was pretty average which means below average but transparency on the first night was excellent.  Processed mostly in Pixinsight but final touchups and cropping with Photoshop.  Camera was Canon EOS R and ISO was 3200.  And I used the .8 reducer/flattener from AP.   The image is about an 80 percent crop of the total stacked image.  .

I have been thinking of this target for ages and am happy I finally got it. 

Not sure what the dark nebulosity to the "left" is but it looks like a fanciful coat hangar.

 

 

 

 

Seeing wasn't great especially down in the south.  But the stars seemed mostly circular with a slight upper left to lower right elongation.  Again, pretty typical for east Flagstaff.

Here's a close-up crop of the Snake with some Bok Globule friends.  The thousands upon thousands of stars...