Observing with Street Lights

Observing with Street Lights
Dark sky sites not always necessary to see the Milky Way (This image was taken ouside of a B&B in Julian, CA)

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Eclipse odds and ends; Upcoming Mars conference at UCI; No utility blackout due to the eclipse; OCA Dave measured the temperature during the eclipse; Astrophysics of white dwarf/red giant binaries; Little tripod

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, this week has been preoccupied with unpacking from our recent Yellowstone and Casper, WY eclipse trip and trying to catch up with the homework.  So, let's just review the upcoming calendar of events and news items and then look at some interesting eclipse ambient temperature data and finish with some astrophysics odds and ends.

Friday, August 25, 2017

More eclipse photos; ISS transits the moon during the eclipse; Looking for planes transiting the sun; New 10-18mm wide angle lens; Some astrophysics homework; Search for life on planets

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this week following the last two weeks of travel and conferences and the eclipse has mostly dealt with news items and looking over other images and discussion of the eclipse and actually trying to get back on schedule with the astrophysics study courses.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Hooray, Part 2 of August 21 total eclipse with night sky and solar images; Finding close star Regulus; How did Eddington get star images close to the corona?; When is your next eclipse?

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we are back at the observatory after a fantastic time going through Yellowstone National Park and then spending four days at Astrocon 2017 conference in Casper, WY and then to top that off, staying there to observe the night sky and the total solar eclipse on August 21.  Wow, what an experience for we two first time total eclipse viewers.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Hooray, Part 1 of photos of our first total eclipse observed in Casper Wyoming!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,

Well this has been a marvelous day in Casper, WY, where we experienced our first total eclipse.  The sky was mostly sunny with a few thin clouds moving in after totality.  We got some good images with the 300mm telephoto which will be shown after we return to the Observatory where we have a PC and Photoshop, so for now, all I can show is a few IPhone images.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Some Yellowstone photos and comments from Astrocon 2017; Georges Melies Eclipse movie

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,
Well we are offsite this week at Astrocon 2017 in Casper, WY, with 940 other amateur astronomers hearing about all aspects of eclipses from the standpoint of the science and the photographing of them and plain old just emotional experiencing them.  Some comments about that are presented here, but first let's look at a couple other of my favorite images from our journey through Yellowstone.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Visited Yellowstone, but had only stormy skies; Ham radio useful there and maybe on eclipse day; Astrocon 2017 opening day in Casper; Hoping weather forecast in Casper changes

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, Resident Astronomer Peggy and I have spent four wonderful days exploring Yellowstone National Park and then drove down to Casper, WY, for the four day Astrocon 2017, Totality - Feel the Shadow, conference, after which we hope to see the total solar eclipse from there.  But before gong into that discussion we should check the calendar of upcoming classes and events and some other eclipse viewing suggestions.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Packing for Wyoming for the eclipse; Exploring cataclysmic variables with edX.org astrophysics course; IBM gets to 16 qbits; Astronaut Peggy's looking out the window

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we have been busy packing our bags for Wyoming, so not much more astronomical observing will be done this week.  I have had a chance to watch a few more of the Astrophysics: The Violent Universe free internet course at www.edX.org and thought everyone might be interested in a bit of discussion of cataclysmic variable stars.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Practicing taking photos of the eclipse; Eight more eclipse planning lessons learned; HST asks for AAVSO assistance; Tracking the sun drift with a non-tracking mount; Dilbert and quantum mechanics

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well August 21 and the eclipse is fast approaching.  This post covers a practice session to get all the bugs out the proposed eclipse observation plan using just a manually tracked camera and tripod.  Many lessons learned are presented and it was certainly a good thing to do this practice before eclipse day.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

More eclipse planning lessons learned; Measuring the attenuation of eclipse viewing glasses; Hooray, the weather finally enabled another round of Polaris movement measurements!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory


This post covers how the attenuation of solar eclipse glasses can be measured and also, how the weather finally cooperated and some additional measurements of the movement of Polaris were found.  Additionally, a couple of lessons learned about planning for the upcoming eclipse travel are presented.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Homebuilt crosshairs for astronomy with DSLR Liveview; Weather delays Polaris measurements; Planetary Protection Officer?; Quantum weirdness and shut up and calculate; Another GR textbook; DC power cable adaptation (kludge) for Ioptron mount

Greetings from Palmia Observatory


Well, we have been anxious to get back outside and make some position observations of Polaris.  These observations are going to have to be a little more precise than the previous ones.  In order to get a little more precise in adjusting the camera pointing angles after identifying where Polaris is with respect to the north celestial pole, let's use the homebuilt crosshairs, so we can better identify the camera frame center and make adjustments from that center.