The Amateur Astronomy Page

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I did some searching in this Off Topic area to see if there has ever been an amateur astronomy page on AAPK to discuss the subject, list upcoming events, post astronomy related pictures, and discuss equipment. I was not able to find anything so I am proposing to start such a page. I bring with me a long past of sky observing from the age of 6 onward, my fist time looking at the dark rural skies of South Dakota in the 1950s with my dad and seeing the Sputnik go over our heads in October 1957. I am strictly an amateur, having never had any formal education at it, only reading books and actual observing. I have built a series of telescopes in the usual fashion of each one being bigger than the previous one (known as aperture fever). Now days I have only "store bought" equipment of modest size to accomplish all I want to do. I was the President of our local amateur astronomy club from 2004-2010. Now days I don't do so much night time astronomy as I do day time astronomy. I have a couple of telescopes with solar filters and do sunspot photography and special events. Any interest in this subject or would that be too far off the beaten path?

My equipment, on left Meade ETX90 90MM Maksutov Cassegrain on tripod with glass solar filter, on right Meade LX90 8" Schmidt Cassegrain on field tripod connected to Canon Xsi DSLR to feed video out to a monitor and take stills thru the solar filter.

Also useful are binoculars, common 7 X 35 Swift on left and 20 X 80 Orion Megaview astronomy binoculars on the right.

[Steve Warden]

I've never done any study of astronomy, but I am certainly in awe of the heavens our Lord has created.
Really too much light pollution to see much of the stars here in Jersey, but had a great view from my parents' house in Maine over the Christmas break. I'm hoping someday to get a view with zero light pollution!

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This is a typical sunspot photo taken with the equipment shown. The diameter of the solar disc is approximately 864,000 miles, so you can see the sunspot shown is many hundreds of miles across. Note the somewhat blotchy appearance of the suns surface in this photo. High thin clouds and smoke from forest fires in Canada last summer (when this was taken) produced this effect. The solar filter material used is Baader, a German made product that produces good contrast and a white appearance of the solar disc. The sunspots are the dark patches and dots.

[deo-pa]

I might stop in now and again OC if you started an astro page, though it might be tough to get a critical mass here. I've been inactive since we moved to Boston about 18 months ago as the viewing here leaves a lot to be desired. That said, I've been threatening to introduce the grandchildren to astronomy by some moon observing... kids always get excited by those views. Maybe your postings might get me motivated.

Dennis
Orion 127mm Maksutov-Cassegrain

[Doc B]

I find pictures of the various things in our sky very interesting! I live near the city...where viewing is very limited. I have some property, 60 miles south of town...where I go, most weekends. I love nothing more, than a crystal clear, cool evening, where the stars are amazing. I never really realized the Milky Way was something you could actually see! Love sitting out watching for satellites and meteors. I have an app, on my phone (Star Walk 2) that is pretty neat. You point the screen around the sky and wherever you point your screen, it shows you what is in the sky there. You can even point it to the ground and see where the sun and other objects are, on the other side of the earth. I don't know anything about astronomy; but, would enjoy any pictures you can show us!

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UPCOMING EVENT REMINDER
Most people have already heard that there will be a total lunar eclipse this coming Sunday night, January 20, 2019. An eclipse is always interesting to see. The total lunar one coming will show the moon bathed in a red orange color that makes for some neat photos. We will see this all over North America. Back in the day when I was doing astronomy club programs, several of us club members had set up telescopes on the sidewalk outside of the downtown science museum that we worked with on these public programs. The lunar eclipse that we were observing was on a week night and the total portion of the eclipse stated just after midnight. The science museum had done some advertising of the event and we had a good crowd of people there to witness it. There was kind of a disturbance involving a woman with a 6 year boy in tow, and club members directed her to talk to me as I was the club president at the time. The woman approached me, said "Hi" and then proceeded to chew me up one side and down the other. She absolutely could not understand why I had scheduled an eclipse so late on a school night, her 6 year old was having difficulty staying awake at what was now about 12:30 AM. Not much I could do to try to explain things to her.
The last total lunar eclipse seen in the US was in Sept. 2015 and the next one will be coming in May 2021.
Two very good websites to read about astronomy related news and events are those of the two astronomy magazines:
http://www.astronomy.com
http://www.skyandtelescope.com

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I got a shot of this large sunspot this morning. First time we have seen the sun in days here. Note that the solar disc shown is about 865,000 miles across. So the sunspot is many thousands of miles across in itself. Taken with a Canon xsi coupled to a Meade ETX90 Maksutov, and Orion glass solar filter.

[Railsplitter]

This is cool stuff. Thanks for those pics, OC.

I was into astronomy for several years but I moved on to other hobbies. I have a Meade 8" Dobsonian that I started out with but then I realized that I prefer to observe planets so I bought a Meade ETX like yours. No tripod though. Fantastic little scope.

I bought a Meade 8.8mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece for it and I used that eyepiece almost exclusively because its wide angle feature kept the planet in the field of view longer than a standard eyepiece. Perfect magnification for planets too when paired with the ETX.

I've never ventured into solar observing but I used to love looking at Saturn. I took the ETX to work one morning and let some of the guys look at Saturn. They were all amazed that they could see the planet and its rings so clearly. One guy swore it was a trick and I never could convince him otherwise.

[samb1955]

Have you ever spotted a ufo?

[Quick Steel]

Enjoying your photos OC. The story of the lady with her six year old was priceless. I visited the Manila observatory where their major study is of the sun. Interesting stuff. All our looking at the sun was via monitors.

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Have you ever spotted a ufo?

In all the hundreds of times I have been out in dark sky sites looking at the sky, I have never seen anything I could not explain or identify.

[doglegg]

OC, a very interesting forum. Can't see much here in Dallas/Ft Worth. Been out to the McDonald Observatory a couple of times. It is interesting in itself. Thanks for the pic's.

[Railsplitter]

The vastness of the universe has always amazed me as it does most people. When I think about how big it is, I'm always dumbfounded by the shear size of it.

I'm going by memory here but I believe that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. So 186,000 miles is 1 light second. If we could travel at that speed it would take just over 1 second to travel from the Earth to the Moon.

At that same speed it would take 4.2 years to reach the nearest star besides our Sun. That's some serious distance and that's just the closest star. Some objects like Galaxies are millions of light years away. It would take millions of years to reach them if you traveled at 186,000 miles per second.

Mind boggling when you sit and think about it.

[Doc B]

Enjoyed the picture, OC!!!

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This is cool stuff. Thanks for those pics, OC.

I was into astronomy for several years but I moved on to other hobbies. I have a Meade 8" Dobsonian that I started out with but then I realized that I prefer to observe planets so I bought a Meade ETX like yours. No tripod though. Fantastic little scope.

I bought a Meade 8.8mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece for it and I used that eyepiece almost exclusively because its wide angle feature kept the planet in the field of view longer than a standard eyepiece. Perfect magnification for planets too when paired with the ETX.

I've never ventured into solar observing but I used to love looking at Saturn. I took the ETX to work one morning and let some of the guys look at Saturn. They were all amazed that they could see the planet and its rings so clearly. One guy swore it was a trick and I never could convince him otherwise.

We used to run into people like that when we had sidewalk astronomy club programs for the public. Some people would not believe in science or astronomy even when they could see the proof for themselves. If there is nothing in the Bible about sunspots or Saturn, then it doesn't exist. I can recall one time we were doing a public program and one of the local religious zealots who would frequently attend our programs mostly to argue against what his own eyes could see, tried to start an argument of science vs religion with those of us who had telescopes set up for the free program. As I was talking to this individual, who was telling everyone there basically that what we doing was a fraud as was all science, I could a hear a beeping sound coming from somewhere nearby. After I turned my head to try to locate where the sound was coming from, I realized that it was coming from the fellow doing the arguing. I asked him if he had a phone or pager that was making the beeping sound, and he stopped talking and lifted up his jacked to reveal that it was his insulin pump that was giving him an alert. He made some correction to it and the beeping stopped. "Now that is ironic", I told him, "you think science is all fake and here it turns out that science is the only reason you are even alive today." He just gave me one look and then he left.

[doglegg]

Not of the stars but a couple of pic's I got of the moon a couple of nights ago. Using my little coolpix 510.

[Doc B]

Amazing, the amount of detail, that you can pick up in that second photo, Doglegg!

[Steve Warden]

Amazing, the amount of detail, that you can pick up in that second photo, Doglegg!

Indeed!
Great shot, doglegg!

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That is a nice sharp full moon photo!

[Sharpnshinyknives]

I hope you keep posting on this thread. I have a telescope and it’s a pretty nice one. Haven’t figured out how to take photo’s of what I see through it.
One of the planets that I like looking at is Jupiter. It’s amazing how many of the moons you can see.
A bit surprised at the lack of sunspots. I thought that sunspot activity was suppose to be picking up after a very long period of low sunspot activity. Just a few years ago I read that for the first time in a long time there were no visible sunspots at all and that’s unusual. I sure wish all the climate alarmist would look at all variables that affect climate, like sunspots, and not just one.
Very interesting thread.
SSk

[doglegg]

Thanks for the knice comments. I'm neither an astronomer nor a photographer but I enjoy piddling. Looking forward to some real pic's from folks that are.

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I hope you keep posting on this thread. I have a telescope and it’s a pretty nice one. Haven’t figured out how to take photo’s of what I see through it.
One of the planets that I like looking at is Jupiter. It’s amazing how many of the moons you can see.
A bit surprised at the lack of sunspots. I thought that sunspot activity was suppose to be picking up after a very long period of low sunspot activity. Just a few years ago I read that for the first time in a long time there were no visible sunspots at all and that’s unusual. I sure wish all the climate alarmist would look at all variables that affect climate, like sunspots, and not just one.
Very interesting thread.
SSk

Solar minimum is coming in 2019-2020 according to Nasa. That is why the sunspot activity is declining. I have a telescope set up with a solar filter to watch the sunspot activity on a daily basis. The photo I posted above on April 13 was one of the largest I have seen in awhile, so the activity appears to be decreasing toward solar minimum. The solar cycle for this works on an 11 year cycle.

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An event that we have to look forward to on November 11, 2019 is a transit of Mercury. Because Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, (followed by Venus and then earth), there are times when we can see the planet Mercury passing in front of the sun across what we see as the solar disc.

The solar disc is about 864,000 miles in diameter, and Mercury is about 3032 miles in diameter. The sun is about 93 million miles from earth, and Mercury is about 36 million miles from the sun, to put this photo into perspective. The tiny black dot (arrow) is the the planet Mercury. Since Mercury orbits the sun every 88 days, many people ask why don't we see this every 88 days. The answer is that the orbit of Mercury is slightly tilted to the line of sight between us on earth and the sun. So Mercury usually passes just above or below the solar disc as seen from earth. This transit occurred on May 9, 2016 and I photographed this with a Canon xsi DSLR connected to my Meade LX90 telescope with a Baader solar filter.

Very rarely we get to see the planet Venus transit across the solar disc. The photo below is of the event which occurred on June 5, 2012. There were some high thin clouds that day to work around, thus the hazy look to the photo. Note the size of Venus in relation to the size of Mercury in the photo above. This is because Venus is a larger planet and is further from the sun (and closer to earth). Transits of Venus are very rare, the one shown in 2012 is the last one almost everyone living today will see. The next transit of Venus will occur on December 11, 2117. Photo taken with same equipment as above.

Sorry the photos are not the best. I had to photograph black and white copies of the events as I lost the original digital files in a hard drive failure of a previous laptop. But the idea is to show the scale and size appearance of the two planets as seen from earth.

[Quick Steel]

OC, your photos accomplished the mission. Wonderfully interesting.

[doglegg]

OC learned and saw something today that had never crossed my mind. Amazing, thanks for sharing.