C/2009 P1 ( Garradd )

Observed this comet on August 29 and September 12 with the 14 inch.  Noticed appreciable brightening (from around Mag 10 to Mag 8).  Lots of skyglow and scatter here in Indiana (our typical summer haze), so I could not see the tail.  Over 2-3 hours, motion of the comet against background stars was easily noticed.

Equipment

Oak Hollow Observatory has the following equipment:

Scopes
Meade 14 inch LX-200 ACF
Meade 10 inch LXD-55 Schmidt-Newtonian
Meade ETX-125
Meade ETX-90
Coronado PST

Imaging
SBIG ST402ME
Lifecam HD
Nikon D40

New Images

We were lucky to have some clear (though cold) weather over the holidays here in Indiana.  The modified webcam seems to work very well with the PST and I hope to be able to post some of the solar images I took over the next day or two as I get them processed.

New Imager

I just completed work on modifying a Lifecam HD to work as an astroimager.  The work involved removing the front lens and reassembling the camera in an eyepeice extension tube.  You can find detailed instructions on how to do this on the web.  It looks a lot harder than it is. The hardest part was getting the lens assembly off the circuit board; the screws are very stiff.  My standard mini screwdriver did not have a long enough shaft to give the leverage I needed to get the screws out.  I managed to borrow one with a long and thick plastic handle; it worked very well.  My tests with the cam imaging interior objects with a camera lens indicate that the imaging chip does well in low light and noise seems to be well controlled, especially for a CMOS imager.  Stay tuned for details on testing; so far, the weather is not cooperating (of course).

And before I forget--seasons greetings to everyone who stops by this blog!

Winter!

The weather continues to be awful here in Indiana.  Snow and cloud!  No chance to get the scopes out and look around.  I am excited by a book i just read about amateur detection of extrasolar planets.  It sounds as if it could be a really interesting project!

Sun pix for December 10

I think I am getting the hang of imaging a little better. I have found that confocal imaging seems to be the only way to get a digital DSLR to work with the PST.  I have tried the mod of unscrewing a barlow lens from its tube and screwing it onto the bottom of the eyepiece adapter.  I can get close to focus this way, but I hit the end of travel on the PST focuser before I actually achieve it.  I hope to be able to adapt a webcam soon and to experiment with it.

The pix below were taken in burst mode and processed in Registax and the standard Windows photo processing package.  I have a much better package of my own, but I need to install it on my (relatively) new laptop.  Click on each image and you'll see a bigger view.

The first image has been enhanced to show surface detail.  Notice the detail around active area 1131 and the filament about this area.  The "orange peel" texture of the sun's "surface" is fairly well displayed.

The second is processed to show maximum detail of prominences on the edge of the solar disk.  As with other images I've posted, much more detail was visible with the eye than is displayed here.

Sun pic

Here's an unprocessed pic of the sun taken confocally. The filter was tuned to show surface detail rather than prominences. Spot 1131 is clearly visible, with 1133 above and to the right.  Note the structures around 1131.  Temp when this pic was taken was 18 degrees F--pretty darn cold, but worth it.  Much more detail was visible with the eye, including a large filament between 1131 and 1133.