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This is just a quick and perhaps late reminder to check out the triple moon transit tonight, Friday about 8 PM PST onward, on Jupiter.  This does not happen very often and should be great (unless the Santa Ana's really pick up).

Also having just completed the

Lick Observatory and photographing geostationary satellites

Yesterday I removed the ham satellite antenna from the mount and put the hydrogen alpha scope  back on.  I had high hopes of seeing the sun, but life events interfered.  It seems the gardeners wanted to use the parking lot for a staging area for raking and blowing and such.  So, after hours of delay, I decided to wait for night and make another attempt at catching some geostationary satellites.  While waiting I got an email from a long time OC Astronomer.  Bob sent a fantastic web list of photos of old and abandoned astronomical observatories.  Thank you Bob.  See the web page post below.  One of the abandoned sites is

Last post of 2014 and new Coronado Solar Scope and Astronomer Assistants

Well, this week has been a week of lessons.  Last time the images of Polaris and its companions was discussed.  There was learning involved there in how to capture the images, but the real lesson is in not assuming you know what you see, because it just might not be so.  Oops, I assumed the image of the star far to the left of Polaris was Polaris B and now it doesn't seem to be so.  Once I actually calculated the arc distance between Polaris A and Polaris B, the true situation was revealed.  The stars are really much to close together to be the star I assumed and picked.

The measured distance to the very close in star (shown in the previously displayed enlarged image) was re computed to be 16 arc.  My previous estimate was

Looking at the North Star (Polaris) for the first time up close and personal

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,

Well the dog's timing was just right last night.  After walking the dog, the cloud overcast was just such as I could barely make out what appeared to be Polaris.  It was hard to know for sure, since the Big Dipper was not visible.  Anyway, I set the camera and tripod up on

Opportunity to visit and look through the 60-inch telescope on Mt. Wilson

Greetings from the Palmia Observatory
 
This weekly update covers:
(1).  Opportunity for a night of observing at the 60 inch scope on Mt Wilson
(2).  Weather delayed photo imaging goal for Polaris, The North Star
(3).  Photo image of constellation Orion
 
First, The OCA is considering a night of observing at the 60 inch Mt. Wilson scope.  It's too early in the planning process to know exactly when or any of the details and what it will cost to rent the scope and operator, but it is important to get