Archive for February, 2023

4 results.

The SCGO Science Library

Feb27
by kevin on February 27, 2023 at 15:02 and modified on April 6, 2023. at 12:52
Posted In: life the universe and everything

(not our library shelves)

After twenty years of knowing it needed to be done, and about 3 months of doing, and about 2 days of intensive time dedicated to it, we have completed the first pass at indexing, shelving and sorting the SCGO Science Library.

These are 1007 (at the moment) books ranging in all sciences and age that are mostly about astronomy and space, with a few others thrown in just to make it a bit eclectic.
The next step is to make another pass to ensue the alphabetization is as good as it will get, while also removing duplicates.

Removing dupes will be harder than it seems… do you keep the first edition or the 2nd edition? Do you keep the softcover or the hardcover? What if you have 6 copies (1st ed, 2nd ed, etc) ?
We will see.

Comments Off on The SCGO Science Library

M31

Feb15
by kevin on February 15, 2023 at 10:47
Posted In: astronomy

What else can one do whilst outside in PJ’s? Take images of other stuff too!

This is M31, almost directly overhead, looking through our maple tree branches illuminated by the red LED lighting in the nearby observatory.

As before, a tripod, Canon T7I DSLR, manually focus, manual shutter trigger, 10 sec at ISO12800.

Again there are a series of them that I can try and stack later along with the darks.

High cloud was coming in, transparency was average or below, seeing was average, no moon.

Comments Off on M31

Comet C/2022 E3 (ztf)

Feb15
by kevin on February 15, 2023 at 10:46
Posted In: astronomy

I think I am behind the lot of you, in that last night was my first look at Comet C/2022 E3 (ztf).

Kim was also out using the 20cm dobsonian telescope and let me take a peek. Hmmp.. small faint fuzzy.

My Mark I eyeballs just aint what they used to be.

So I brought out a tripod, the Canon T7I DSLR and the stock 75-300mm zoom lens, manually focussed, manually triggered the shutter and took a series of 10 sec exposures at ISO 12800.

This attached image is one of the last one I took as I was getting cold, outside, in pajamas 😄

That’s the Hyades and Aldebaran near the centre and a green fuzzy off to its left. The lens was at about 105mm and NO tracking remember!

I also took a series of darks and hope to try various deep sky stacking and processing software this week, just to see what the heck the rest of you are doing!

Comments Off on Comet C/2022 E3 (ztf)

Jupiter 2023Feb13

Feb14
by kevin on February 14, 2023 at 17:55 and modified on February 14, 2023. at 17:59
Posted In: astronomy

Jupiter was low (airmass was 2.55 !!!), seeing was average, transparency was poor. This was the best 10% of 15K frames at 5ms per frame.

First time out in a month and boy was it cold… not as cold as before but still brrrrr!
This is the 3rd imaging session of 2023. Sunday evening.. could not stay up for long. Attempted to find Mars and after 10 minutes of searching, slewing, resetting, etc. no joy.

Really really looking forward to a newer bigger camera someday that has a bigger FOV… then I might be able to find my target better!

Then again maybe this ZWO ASIAir may be another possibility.. Only issue is, can the ASI 290MC camera image stars in order for plate solving to take a stab at pointing and aligning?

Comments Off on Jupiter 2023Feb13