SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Part 5

Polar Alignment Scope App

I have just spent the vast amount of £1.49 to download Polar Scope Align Pro. (There is a free version).  Both my CGEM and Star Adventurer have Polar Scopes and I think that this app may be the best option for me. When you are aligning the Star Adventurer Mount using the polarscope you need to know the position of Polaris so that you can align the mount with the true pole. If I use my SkyX software I can check the position of Polaris very easily as I show below. The time is 13:48 on the 6th Jan 2016. So where is Polaris now. If you were to look at Polaris through binoculars now this is what you would see. (We pretend it is dark!)

The SkyX All Rights reserved Software Bisque

 As you stand facing north with your binoculars the meridian (red vertical line) comes up from the south behind you, goes over your head and drops down to the north point on the horizon in front of you, passing Polaris on the way. You can see that Polaris is currently on the east side of the meridian as you look at it. Polaris is part of Ursa Minor so this little constellation is shown in the chart. If you draw a line from Polaris to Kochab in Ursa Minor the point at which it intersects the meridian is very close to the actual north celestial pole. Here is a closer view in the SkyX with the polarscope features turned on in this software. 

The SkyX All Rights Reserved Software Bisque

 If you use the Star Adventurer Polar Scope you will see that it has an inverted image. Check out the scope during the daytime - I used a nearby chimney with a TV aerial - the image has been rotated by 180 degrees. This is what the SA scope looks like when you look through it.

 If I use the app on my iphone this is what I get. The time is exactly the same as in the above image using the SkyX. I have selected the Star Adventurer Polarscope reticle from the list of possible scopes in the app.

 The inverted view now places Polaris on the left of the meridian. This is what you will see if you look through the polarscope but you will need to adjust the mount to place Polaris on that cross. If you do that the mount will be aligned on the true pole. 

Adjusting the mount to centre align Polaris on the cross. 

This has to be done using the latitude adjustment knob and the azimuth adjustment knobs on the Equatorial Wedge. The bubble level needs to be checked to ensure the mount is horizontal. 

SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Portable Setup Part 4

Astronomy and Nature TV have an excellent video introducing the Star Adventurer which you can watch below.

He recommends that you should obtain a large diameter Ball Head and I obtained a Triton Ball Head from Teleskop in Germany. I believe they now supply their own equivalent version instead of Triton. The details are shown in the photograph below.

 TO BE CONTINUED

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Portable Setup Part 3

No observations today - it was cloudy today and the New Mexico telescopes were very busy. 

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Portable Setup Part 3 

Mount Battery Test

I switched the mount on yesterday morning at 6 a.m. with a fully charged battery. I set the camera to point east. It was still running at midnight having rotated 270 degrees and the camera was now pointing north. So the drive motor will certainly run for 18 hours which means the lightweight battery will last a full night of imaging without any problem. It can then be recharged for the next night's work. I left the mount on and just checked it at 7 a.m. - still going - so it has now lasted 25 hours. I will leave it running and report back. I have certainly solved the problem of powering the mount with minimum weight implications. I finally switched it off at 12 o clock after it had run for 30 hours driving the telescope.

The battery is shown below

The battery plugs into the Star Adventurer mount as shown below

Here is a closer view that also shows the autoguiding input and the fast/slow buttons and the switch that is set to the northern or southern hemisphere as appropriate. The internal battery cover is shown to the right hand side. This is a bit fiddly but the external battery means I do not have to access the battery compartment.

 At a later stage I will test the battery life on the camera I will take a sequence of 30 second shots, storing both jpeg and RAW files for each and see how long the battery lasts. 

To be continued.

Jupiter through the clouds. My Portable Equipment Part 2

Just in case the sky was clear I checked at 3.45 this morning. Cloud everywhere but Jupiter was so bright at magnitude -2.2 I could see it through the clouds as it approached the meridian. 

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Portable Setup Part  2

The image below labels the parts of the setup

The image below shows the output from the external battery for the camera feeding to the dummy battery. The voltage is higher than that provided by the original internal battery so if you try this it is at your own risk. It seems to work OK and I only tried this after seeing reports from others who had used this battery over a period of time successfully!

The external rechargeable battery for the camera has outputs at 12V, 9V and 5V (USB). I use the 9V output to feed to my dummy battery and this works very well. I can use the 5V USB output to drive the Star Adventurer mount at the same time but clearly this will deplete the battery more rapidly and there will be a trailing lead from the moving battery on top of the camera to the static mini USB input to the star adventurer which will wind the cable around the camera as the mount tracks the sky during the night - not a good idea. So - I have a second identical battery that is attached to the tripod feeding only the mount 5V input removing this problem. If either battery were to go flat the appropriate output from the other battery can be used in an emergency - monitoring the cable being wound up very carefully!

TO BE CONTINUED

My Portable Equipment Part 1

Cloudy day today - no remote telescopes available when I checked - poor weather everywhere although I did see that the remote telescope based in California that I sometimes use was available at one point.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Portable Setup Part 1.

I have been waiting for clear nights locally to test my SkyWatcher Star Adventurer mount. I initially aim to use this as a base for my Canon 40D DSLR which I can use with a range of lenses including my Sony lenses for which I have an adapter. It is capable of a number of other potential configurations.

 First of all I am trying to optimise the power supply weight/capacity balance on the portable setup. I need power to the camera and to the mount and I have separate arrangements for these. I do not want to use one of those heavy 12V units that often have cables to jump start your car!! For the camera I no longer use the rechargeable standard camera battery but have instead replaced it with a higher capacity external supply that connects to a dummy battery. The question was where to put the external battery. I used an option that I first spotted on You Tube adopted by some photographers to prolong the period for which they could shoot witout battery replacement. I purchased a "cold shoe" adaptor to fit the Canon and an adaptor plate that would screw into that. I then used velcro to allow the battery unit to attach to the plate as you can see in the image below. 

 

This seems to work very well. It should be possible to run the camera all night without a problem. Of course the number of images that can be stored depends upon the memory card capacity and can be a problem if you are recording RAW images. I use the Canon 40D successfully by a direct connection to my PC without card storage but that introduces additional delays in setting up and additional power requirements. At present I am sticking with card storage. 

TO BE CONTINUED

Clear Skies with a message from the Sun.The Winter Triangle and the New Year Star.

This morning the Sun was shining and the skies were blue

For some reason the Sun was projecting the number 100 on to my hedge. Could it be that the answer to life, the universe and everything has been revised upwards from 42?

As midnight on New Years Eve in Leyland approached, the sky was clear, but at midnight the sky was filled with bangs and screeches as everyone celebrated the arrival of 2016.

Through the haze I could see the Winter Triangle clearly, with its three bright stars Sirius, Betelgeuse and Procyon.

 Star chart generated by TheSkyX © Software Bisque, Inc. All rights reservedThe star chart shows the Winter Triangle at midnight. Procyon is in the constellation of Canis Minor and has a magnitude of 0.4. It was at an altitude of +39° 24' 33" and an azimuth of 157° 00' 08" so it has to move by about 23° before it reaches the meridian, due south. It will cross the meridian at 01:10. Procyon has a Right Ascension  of 07h 40m 10.343s at the moment (1 Jan 2016)whereas its J2000 RA was 07h 39m 17.354s. The difference of almost one minute is due to the westward movement of the First Point of Aries caused by precession over the 16 year period. Procyon lies at a distance of 11 Light Years from us and has an absolute magnitude of 2.68. It is an F5 type star so has a temperature of about 6700K and appears white. It has a white dwarf companion.

Betelgeuse is in the constellation of Orion and has a magnitude of 0.45. It was at an altitude of +43° 13' 27" when I observed it at midnight. It had an azimuth of 191° 26' 42" so was about 11° west of the meridian which now lies between Betelgeuse and Procyon. It crossed the meridian at 23:23. Betelgeuse has an RA of 05h 56m 03.602s at the moment. Betelgeuse lies at a distance of 427 LY so is much further from us than Procyon. To appear to us at roughly the same brightness as Procyon at that distance Betelgeuse must be considerably brighter intrinsically and in fact has an absolute magnitude of -5.14. It is a red giant type M2 star so is a lot cooler than Procyon at about 3600K. It is slightly variable.

Sirius is in the constellation of Canis Major and has a magnitude of -1.44. It was at an altitude of only +19° 29' 24"when I observed it at midnight. It had an azimuth of 175° 51' 45" so had just over 4° to go before culminating at the meridian at 16 minutes past midnight. Sirius has a current RA of 06h 45m 53.256s. Sirius lies at a distance of 8.6 LY and is spectral type A0 with a temperature of about 9600K so appears white. It has a white dwarf companion about the size of the Earth.

I noticed that at midnight the star β Monoceros was exactly on the meridian. The Right Ascension of this star is 06h 29m approximately. The Sidereal Time at midnight was 6h 29m as well as it is always equal to the RA currently on the meridian.  The star is HIP 30852 and has a magnitude of 7.55 so was well below naked eye visibility. So every year this star arriving on the meridian at midnight means that it will be acccompanied by thise bangs and whizzes!

Clear Skies?

It is just as well that the internet was invented so that amateur astronomers can link to remote telescopes where skies are clearer. What is the prospect of a clear night tonight here in Lancashire? (6 p.m. at the moment)  Hang on - I will just pop out to my back door and take a quick photo of the sky with my iPhone. Back in a minute.

Well I used my Night Modes App to take that photo - a miserable night with more clouds so Lancashire is no good. What about the rest of the world?I just need to log in to iTel and check the situation. You need to hang on again. 

Well as you can see it is day time in New Mexico and California (the observatories are located at the two red dots) - my wall clocks tell all. I need to take some pictures of the clocks... This is the New Mexico clock.

So - it is 20 past 11 in the morning (Wednesday 30th December 2015) so no chance there. 

This is the Sierra Nevada California clock

California is one hour behind New Mexico so it is only 10:20 a.m. there.

Hang on - I spot in the iTelescope "Launchpad" above that T18 is free in Spain at Nerpio. I will just check the skies there. No - someone has grabbed that telescope and is taking an image.  Any way - this is the sky from the T18 dome at the moment.

So I have a picture of some stars at least! Clear skies in Spain then. The telescopes in Spain are based at Nerpio in the south. The time in Spain is 1 hour ahead of the UK at the moment so it is 7:20 p.m. local time there.

What about Australia? - you can see from the world map above that daylight is approaching and that Twilight Dawn has closed the roof on the Siding Spring shed. 

This is what my Siding Spring clock says - it is 20 past 5 in the morning. I only have three 24 hour clocks - one each for Australia, New Mexico and California. I use  ordinary 12 hour clocks for the UK and Spain as I always know what time of day it is in the UK and Spain is one or two hours away from that.

 So there is only one active telescope available on the iTel system but is in constant use. 

Looks like I need to go back to my books  - here is one recent purchase

This seems like a good introductory text - I particularly like the quick start guide to Stargazing. Mark is based in Norfolk. I have just joined the Noriwch Astronomical Society recently but have not had a chance to attend a meeting since then so I was pleased to see that they used my lunar eclipse images on the front page of the Winter 2015  Cygnus,  the Society newsletter.

I bought some books this morning online from "The Works". I particularly liked the price of this one - 

 Not bad for £2 including free postage. I must admit it led me to buy two more books- this one

 Not bad for £6 - it is £20 on Amazon currently - this is the hardback edition. I must say that I occasionally visit the Works shop in the Arndale Centre in Manchester - find a very much price reduced book and then walk round to Waterstones to find the same book at full price. Are the Works buying them cheaper than Waterstones?

I also bought this one for £4 - evidently the full price is £16!

All free delivery by second class mail. 

Harvest SuperMoon

The much awaited Harvest SuperMoon has been and gone. Fortunately it was a clear night here in Leyland.  I started taking images of the Moon about 1 a.m. with my 500mm lens on my Sony Alpha A58 DSLR. The event was to last about 5 hours so it meant a pretty sleepless night. I started with an image of the Moon as it was in the south. Of course through the night it was going to move across the sky into the west. To be more precise at 1 a.m. the Moon had just transited the meridian at 12:54 and was at azimuth 181° 20' 42".  At 1 a.m. local time (British Summer Time plus 1 hour) the Moon was at an altitude of 36° 27' 57" and as it moved across the sky during the night this was to cause problems with intervening trees meaning that I could not set up a fixed position on a tripod for the night. In fact I had to change position regularly, sometimes trying to image through gaps in tree branches. As a result I handheld the DSLR for the images. If it was a brief event I would have gone to an external site with a clear view of the sky but preferred to stay at home for such a long event.  I show below the location of the Moon corresponding to my first image in the constellation of Pisces. 

Star chart generated by TheSkyX © Software Bisque, Inc. All rights reserved

 The first image that I show below is just before the eclipse started at 01:09:16 BST with the full Moon at an altitude of +36° 25' 58" and azimuth position 184° 08' 47". Remember that azimuth is measured from the north eastwards so this means that the Moon is only 4° 08' 47" west of the meridian. The Moon's RA is 00h 10m 59s so is very close to the First Point of Aries, which is of course currently in Pisces because of precession. This is not surprising because a Harvest Moon is the full Moon nearest to the Autumnal Equinox. In the chart above the blue line sloping downto the right is the Ecliptic. Where it crosses the Celestial equator is the First Point of Aries. As we know the Sun is on the other side of the Earth, close to 180 degrees away from the First Point of Aries. In 12 hours the Sun will be just below the Celestial Equator at noon (UT) as it starts its winter descent following the Autumnal Equinox.  

The image was taken with my Sony A58 DSLR at ISO 100, f/6.3 at a shutter speed of 1/640th of a second. Of course as the Moon dims during the eclipse I needed to Increase the ISO setting and increase the time that the shutter is open to capture the light. 

The chart corresponding to the second image is shown below. You can see how much the Moon has moved relative to the Meridian as the Earth has rotated. One rotation is 360 degrees, corresponding to 24 hours, so dividing 360 by 24 gives a movement of 15 degrees an hour.

 

The second image was taken at 02:46:08. The eclipse is well in progress. Remember that you are looking at a Full Moon. The Umbra from the shadow of the Earth is blocking the light and clearly displaying Earth's curvature. The diameter of the shadow is clearly larger than the diameter of the Moon. Sony A58 DSLR at ISO 100, f/6.3 at a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second.

 

 

This is the chart showing the position of the Moon when the third image was taken.

The third image was taken at 3:29:54 and shows the Moon in full eclipse with the "blood red" colour associated with a lunar eclipse caused by the earth's atmosphere. Sony A58 DSLR at ISO3200, f/6.3 at a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second. A little blurry with a handheld shot at that exposure!

 

 The chart showing the positionof the Moon when the fourth image was taken is shown below

 The fourth image shows the Earth's shadow starting to pass from left to right on the Moon. The extra brighness allowed the exposure time to be reduced as well as the ISO. However that means the eclipsed part of the Moon is darker. Sony A58 DSLR at ISO 1600, f/6.3 at a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second.

The stars from Lancashire tonight

I managed a brief view of the stars tonight. In the north was Ursa Major with the pointer to the pole star formed by drawing an arrow from Merak through Dubhe. The tail of the Bear was pointing to Arcturus which was low in the west at 1030 p.m. ,very much dimmed from its spectacular brightness when better positioned. Phecda,  another bright star in Ursa Major, is of particular interest at my location as it has a declination very close to the value of my latitude. This means that when it culminates it will be at my zenith.  Between the clouds in the zenith the stars of Cygnus were bright and Lyra was clearly visible with many stars visible in the area - many more than usual in this light polluted town. The M6 motorway lights will go off at midnight which helps slightly. 

A new telescope for £34.99

I could not resist buying the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) astronomical telescope today when I visited the RSPB Reserve at Leighton Moss. It was for sale at half price.  the telescope comes with two eyepieces and a Barlow Lens which are of fairly poor quality at that price but are 1 1/4 inch standard fit so you can use your own eyepieces which improve matters considerably. I tried the telescope out the same night and started with Jupiter - a bit difficult because I was looking through the branches of the dominant oak tree that blocks much of my view to the south west. The disk on Jupiter was visible but difficult to focus. I will try again when I have a clearer view.  I then looked at Ursa Major and Mizar/Alcor. I could only see those two stars with the supplied 25mm eyepiece but when I used my own 25mm I could see the third off centre star between the other two quite clearly. No Moon which I suspect is the object that the telescope would be most useful for. The alt-azimuth design is easy to use and objects can be found by sighting along the tube - not difficult with the wide field provided by the 25mm eyepiece. I can see that the telescope would be a good starter for Moon observation. When the Moon is in a convenient position and phase I will try again. You could use it for observing birds in your garden once you got used to the telescope and an upside down view! I tended to move the whole telescope when I tried to adjust either axis and I think that clamping the telescope somehow would improve matters considerably.  Viewing a chimney pot on an adjacent property gave a very clear view with the 25mm eyepiece supplied - I am looking forward to using the telescope to view the Moon - it could potentially be very convenient for that purpose. I gather that at that price the telescope is selling well - the staff at Leighton Moss said that it was a very popular item.