VOLUME XXVI Number 5-6 May-June 2001
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The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XLII Numbers 3-4 March-April 2017 Fine Prominences by Kaylee UpdeGrave Pensacola State Student Kaylee UpdeGrave used her smart phone and the Lunt 60 and iOptron adapter to capture this chromospheric activity on February 23, 2017. Pensacon Prominence Ed Magowan captured this nice prominence while set up for public sun gazing outside Pensacon on February 19th with the Lunt 60 Ha scope. We had hundreds of guests spotting by to get our free AL eclipse glasses, photograph the sun, get star maps, and info on our upcoming gazes. We also had presentations on “When Worlds Erupt” space art by Merry Edenton-Wooten, and a panel discussion on Colonizing Mars on Saturday, February 18th at 5 PM in room C of the Grand Hotel. The Pensacon Floor in Bay Center “Where’s Waldo” Challenge …find Dewey and Ella Barker! Some of the many costumed guests who loved the displays at Pensacon. Ed Magowan and Mike Kinser set up Saturday morning for public observing. Ron Fairbanks helps guests spot Venus in daytime at Pensacon. Hundreds see Venus in Broad Daylight at Pensacon Here Venus appears about 33% sunlit and at mag. -4.6 on February 18-19, near greatest brilliancy and easy to spot under really clear skies on Sunday during Pensacon. We used a nearby street light pole to help everyone align on it in the mid day sky with their naked eyes, and many also photographed it through Ed’s scope. Many also used their AL eclipse glasses to see just how small the sun appears in the day sky, only .5 degree across, the same size as the disk of the moon, as we will witness most dramatically at 1:38 PM on Monday, August 21, 2017. Ed Magowan and Jon Ellard at Pensacon Here the Lunt 60 is set up on the SkyWatcher Virtuoso Mount for use with smartphone solar photography. They are using the iOptron Smartphone adapter so the public can capture solar activity. This tracking electronic mount is only $250 with a fine 90mm Makustov-Cassegrain OTA, two nice eyepieces, and a variety of photo mounts for digital SLR and smartphone cameras, and is able to use 8 AA batteries or 12V input for power. It can also be used with any Vixen dovetail OTA up to about 4 pounds in weight. A great value in a portable scope and mount for the August eclipse! Link to these at: https://www.telescopesplus.com/products/sky-watcher-virtuoso-90mm-maksutov- cassegrain- telescope?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=1962309892&utm_ca mpaign=CPCS%20- 20Telescopes%20PLAs%20%5BDesktop%5D&utm_content=All%20Telescopes%2 0Products https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1085660&gclid=CPnMiu- l3tICFQkDhgodFRYCeQ&is=REG&ap=y&c3api=1876%2C92051677682%2C&A=detail s&Q= The Quiet Sun by Nicole Gunter With solar max now three years behind us, in April 2014, the Sun is often spotless, so we take advantage of any spot or prominence that comes along. In this case, on January 24, 2017 AR 2628 is almost central. A nice prominence display is also evident on the northwestern limb. There have been many days lately that the disk was not only spotless, but also without any prominences, filaments, flares, or faculae. That this may be a long term trend is explored in this new S&T article: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/scientists-recreate-space- weather-400-years-maunder-minimum/ Nick Elliott Captures a rare flare on January 24, 2017 Emily Adams shoots a prominence on the opposite lime The Sun in Violet Light of Calcium K Line With even hydrogen alpha revealing little solar action, Wayne Wooten used the Lunt CaK filter on the Eon 72 to show more faculae (bright active areas around sunspots). He used 1/30 second exposure with his Canon SX 150 at 4X to capture the whole disk. Activity at this wavelength gives a forecast of more obvious later activity in both visible and hydrogen alpha images, but Wayne is frustrated that so far, while he has captured sunspots and faculae in the Lunt CaK, no prominences yet! Earthshine No telescope needed here. Wayne Wooten captures the slender crescent moon on January 29, 2017 with 12X zoom with Canon SX150, manual mode, 1/20th”. It was Leonadro diVinci who first drew and explained this reflection off the day side of the earth back to the night side of the moon a hundred years before Galileo. Vasanth Ramachandran’s crescent moon in daylight The crescent moon passed just south of Venus on the afternoon of January 31st, Venus was then at greatest brilliancy, and the grouping in the clear afternoon sky allowed dozens of PSC students and faculty to step outside about 2 PM and spot both easily with the naked eye! Here the 90mm Mak on the Virtuoso is used to image the daylight view of the crescent with 12mm Plossl, .5X telecompressor, iOptron smartphone adapter, and his iPhone 6. We were also able to easily image the crescent Venus with the same setup. Vanessa McClough Captures the Pair at Sunset By now, the moon’s .5 degree per hour revolution around us is evident, as the moon is considerably east of their closest conjunction about 2 PM. Moon Occulted Aldebaran on March 4, 2017 A few of us went out to Big Lagoon hoping the clouds wouldn't be too much of a problem. They didn't look like they'd be going anywhere, but I trusted the Clear Sky Clock was off by its usual hour and sure enough the sky opened up. This shot was captured with my cell and David's Orion 8" Newtonian and my Orion 17 mm Stratus eyepiece. I'd estimate about 5 minutes before occultation. Skies stayed clear until 11:00 wrapped up then headed for home. --Dewey Barker Nicole Gunter’s Galileoscope captures the crescent moon Telescopes are more fun when you build them yourself. PSC student Nicole Gunter and her daughter Chloe made the Galileoscope from the kit, then tried if out on the evening of January 31st on the crescent moon. She bought her own iOptron adapter for use with her smartphone to take this photo. This view very closely approximates what Galileo showed the Curia at the first public stargaze at the Vatican in August 1609. Myron Almond catches a nice conjunction on January 31st As twilight fell on January 31st, Mars appeared just above the earthshine lit crescent, with Venus now well to the lower right of the pair. Venus has now retrograded between us and the Sun on March 25, 2017, and in early April rises before the Sun at dawn. Mars will lose its race with Sun and Earth and disappear behind the Sun as well by the end of April. But Jupiter is coming to opposition this month in Virgo, and Saturn will be out in the summer evening sky by June, so all is not lost! Venus in the Pines The crescent phase of Venus was obvious in binoculars as it retrograded between us and the Sun in late March. Wayne Wooten used 4X zoom with Canon SX150 here. Below the Virtuoso reveals how the turbulent atmosphere adds color to the cresent. The Straight Wall by Dean Covey Standing out nicely here, this famed lunar scarp is best seen within hours of first and last quarter moon. Dean combined a high resolution video camera and detail enhancing software to give us an image sharper than the human eye can see. We will get great shots of the first quarter moon at our Pavilion Gazes at Pensacola Beach this year, starting on the weekend of March 31-April 1st. Bring your smartphone for outstanding lunar topography! Chloe Gunter captures a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Early in the evening of February 10th, as many members were on their way to the monthly business meeting, the northern limb of the full moon was slightly darker than normal. The penumbral eclipse meant that the lighter partial eclipse shadow, or penumbra of earth, was over this upper left part of the full moon. Alas, it never reached the darker umbral shadow, and by the time our meeting ended, even this faint shadow was gone, as the moon revolved out of our shadow entirely. To put this into context for next August, we in Pensacola will lie in the moon’s fainter penumbral shadow, seeing only 82% of the sun covered. You must be about 400 miles north, along the much darker umbral shadow of the moon, to witness the corona and totality. Nick Elliott’s smartphone captures February’s Hunger Moon As our EAAA meetings are planned to be on the Friday closest on average to the Full Moons for a given year, we took advantage of clear skies after the February 10th club meeting to use the Galileoscope and iOptron adapter to portray the spectacular rays coming out of the Tycho impact, estimated to be only 80 million years old at lower right. Not sure, but at very top of this image, just a tiny bit of the penumbral eclipse may still be visible as a slight shading? The large bull’s eye crater ring at top is the famed Mare Orientale basin, about as tilted toward earth is it even gets. Marshal Coates smartphone shot the same night While Nick’s smartphone captured the rays nicely, Marshal’s phone did a better job of revealing some of the more delicate detail. Note how vividly the “Lady in the Moon” shows up, looking to the lower left here.