Archive for January, 2023

3 results.

winter is coming? winter is here!

Jan25
by kevin on January 25, 2023 at 13:24 and modified on January 25, 2023. at 13:24
Posted In: life the universe and everything

And every year we have told ourselves we will complete the Library Project. For ten or more years now!
But this winter, we have started. We have even completed some segments of it!
Kim has the Gardening section indexed and sorted on the shelves.
We are also working on the Art section (possibly also finished now) and the big one, the Science section.
There is a treasure trove of books to be sure. Many over a hundred years old. True classics! Many more signed by author.. that we did not even realize at first.
But the bigger take from this is that they will be:
1) indexed
2) sorted on shelves
3) duplicate removed.. and boy do we have a lot of duplicates!

oh yes.. the science fiction library.. it too will be updated! Soon!

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Jupiter 20230107

Jan09
by kevin on January 9, 2023 at 12:57 and modified on January 9, 2023. at 13:03
Posted In: astronomy


The first imaging session of the 2023 season! It’s actually been almost 4 weeks since the last one of 2022… cloud cloud cloud.

So, this is Jupiter, the best of about 32 runs Saturday evening. Jupiter has already past the highest altitude and was setting into the evening sky. The moon Callisto is in the lower right and the Great Red Spot made an appearance as well.
seeing was poor. transparency was poor, full moon was up and there was a good wind from the North gusting from 12-20kph, which actually moved the scope around.

As seen on the image annotation, this 180 second run is the best 10% of 15K frames, with Jupiter’s altitude of about 33 degrees.
An lastly: a compiled GIF video

The last imaging run of the evening was ruined by the gusting wind blowing the telescope right off camera. This was about 00:50 UTC = 19:50 EST. There were a few clouds going through the field of view at times and they were sure lit up by the Full Moon.

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2023 arrives with cloud

Jan03
by kevin on January 3, 2023 at 15:24 and modified on January 3, 2023. at 15:29
Posted In: astronomy, life the universe and everything

Welcome to 2023, the year that is one older than the last.
2022 ended with a 2 or 3 day blizzard (we lost track inside the house). and now, in 2023 the grass is green the snow has melted but it is still cloud covered.

2022 saw Kevin complete 46 imaging sessions.
I hope to hit 50 imaging session in 2023.
I hope to complete my RASC Solar System Imaging Certificate.
I hope to complete my RASC Explore the Moon Certificate.
I hope to renovate the Serenity Observatory by rotating it 90 degrees CCW. Currently the building rolls off to the East, but still blocks the horizon above the treeline. This was too painful this past year when planetary objects appeared but could not be imaged before the clouds rolled in.

That’s about it for 2023 goals so far!
ok.. maybe a few more..
we currently run and operate:
a weather station
a superSID system
a RadioJOVE system
a raspberry pi based Allsky colour camera system
an older PC based Allsky monochrome camera system

We hope to add to it!
Perhaps one or more of the following:
* a data logging Sky Quality Meter like this one: http://unihedron.com/projects/sqm-lu-dl/
* a raspberry pi based seismograph like this: https://raspberryshake.org/
* a true 360 degree allsky colour camera, higher resolution and faster frame rate
* a global meteor network camera system like this: https://globalmeteornetwork.org/?page_id=136
* a hydrogen line radio telescope system like this: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/low-cost-hydrogen-line-telescope-using-rtl-sdr/

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