1529e 2013/02/21–22

1529e 2013/02/21–22 18:40 PST San Antonio Creek Drive Santa Barbara CA USA 9 ne

Mercury in twilight over UCSB campus.

Temperature = 15 degrees

1528m 2012/12/12

1528m 2012/12/12 07:00–07:10 EST Foxmead E window 9 ne 10x50b

Another beautiful morning here, but the Moon was too low and too skinny (1% illuminated) to be visible against the horizon haze and clouds. Mercury, Venus, and Saturn were nicely aligned.

Today is the first of the "end-of-the-world" dates this month.

Temperature = –1.2°C

1527m 2012/12/11

1527m 2012/12/11 07:00 EST Foxmead E window 9 ne

A beautiful conjunction of Venus and the waning crescent Moon, really close together, framed by Saturn to the right and Mercury to the left. The proximity between Venus and the Moon should make it really easy to spot Venus in the daylight sky later this morning.

Temperature = –12°C

2012/10/28

Meteorologists are predicting a major hurricane (Sandy) may hit Ontario in the next couple of days, so I decided to play it safe and bring in the Sirius mount. I also prepared the POD for a major storm, covering the telescope and disconnecting its power. The mount is still working well, no further error messages.

Temperature = 5.7°C

1526d 2012/10/01

1526d 2012/10/01 11:40–11:55 EDT Foxmead E pad 8 10cmrr

Sun: Observing with Bob's 100mm achromat, 25mm Kellner (60x) and 12.5mm orthoscopic (120x).  The image of the Sun is crisp and colour-free. I counted 14 spots in 3 groups for a sunspot number of 44.

There is a bit of vibration in the Sirius mount after touching the slew buttons, but the mount isn't snugged up yet because I want to do a polar alignment next clear night. I had to fool the mount into tracking the Sun by having it do a 1-star alignment on an invisible star, and then slewing manually to the Sun. Next time I will choose a star close to the Sun to align on, and then have the scope point to Mercury. It would be only a short slew to the Sun.

I wish this mount's computer allowed the Sun as a target. Maybe this is possible with a newer version of the firmware. Time to upgrade.

Temperature = 19.5°C

1525d 2012/09/30

1525d 2012/09/30 11:30–13:00 EDT Foxmead E pad 3 10cmrr

Finally attempting to set up and test Bob Sparrow's 100mm f/15 achromatic refractor, built by Ron Irving using a Vixen spec. objective:
http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/RNIrving_obit.html

Bob loaned this to me a while back but I've been having a hard time getting myself organized to test it properly. I set up the Celestron CGEM mount over a month ago on the concrete pad on the east side of our house. Today when I tried to mount the telescope, I discovered that protruding bolt heads on the dovetail prevented it from mating with the Orion saddle converter. So I carted the CGEM back inside and set up the Orion Sirius GEM instead. By the time I had everything set up and balanced, the Sun had mostly disappeared into heavy clouds. I waited for about half an hour, and then packed it in. Of course, the Sun immediately peeped out! However it looked dismal, so I did not try setting up again.

What I really want to look at with this telescope is Jupiter, hopefully in the next few nights.

Thanks to Blake Nancarrow, I think my CPC 1100 is back in operating condition, though there may still be an intermittent loose connection. On Blake's recommendation, I bought a new, more powerful (2.5 amp.) power supply.

Temperature 17°C

1524m 2012/08/23

1524m 2012/08/23 05:15–05:40 EDT Foxmead E window 8 10x50n ne

I observed Mercury again this morning. I spotted it in the trees at 05:32 and it cleared the trees at 05:36.

Temperature: 11°C