Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

There's been some major prominence activity the past two days. On Wednesday afternoon I noted a spectacular prominence on the trailing limb that was apparently still present on Thursday afternoon. It had morphed by that time into a large, looping structure.

There was also an extensive prominence on the leading limb. Several long filaments were present as well.

Observations were made with a Coronado PST, a 8-24mm Vixen zoom lens and, on Thursday, a 2x Ultima Barlow lens.

Dave Mitsky

I had a brief look at the Sun yesterday afternoon with my Coronado PST and a 8-24mm Vixen zoom lens. There were a number of prominences and some very long filaments.

Dave Mitsky

I had a brief look at the Sun yesterday afternoon with my Coronado PST and a 8-24mm Vixen zoom lens. There were a number of noteworthy prominences and some very long filaments.

Dave Mitsky

Seventy deep-sky objects for January: B26-28, B29, M36, M37, M38, NGC 1664, NGC 1778, NGC 1857, NGC 1893, NGC 1907, NGC 1931 (Auriga); IC 361, Kemble 1, NGC 1501, NGC 1502, NGC 1530, NGC 1569 (Camelopardalis); NGC 1507, NGC 1518, NGC 1531, NGC 1532, NGC 1535, NGC 1537, NGC 1600, NGC 1637, NGC 1659, NGC 1700 (Eridanus); IC 418, M79, NGC 1832, NGC 1888, NGC 1964 (Lepus); B33, Cr65, Cr69, Cr70, IC 434, M42, M43, M78, NGC 1662, NGC 1973-75-77, NGC 1981, NGC 1999, NGC 2022, NGC 2023, NGC 2024, NGC 2112 (Orion); Be11, NGC 1491, NGC 1496, NGC 1499, NGC 1513, NGC 1528, NGC 1545, NGC 1548, NGC 1579, NGC 1582, NGC 1605, NGC 1624 (Perseus); DoDz3, DoDz4, M1, Mel 25, NGC 1514, NGC 1587, NGC 1647, NGC 1746, NGC 1807, NGC 1817 (Taurus)

Challenge deep-sky object for January: IC 2118 (Eridanus)

Dave Mitsky

For those of you who have never seen Mercury now is a very good time to do so. Mercury and Venus formed a close pair on Christmas morning. The much dimmer Mercury was about 1.5 degrees to the east (left) of Venus.

A fellow Shallow-Sky e-mail list member took a great picture of Mercury and Venus as they rose above Pike's Peak:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/26dec04/mayfield1.jpg

On a very cold and windy Monday morning I took some shots of the two planets with my Pentax K1000 SLR camera and a Pentax 50mm lens. I also took some prime focus shots using that camera and my 80mm Orion ShortTube 80 achromat. Venus is heading sunward from our perspective and was lower in altitude than Mercury.

Mercury was at greatest western elongation (22.4 degrees) and exhibited its greatest illuminated extent of 22 square arcseconds on December 29. Here's a picture taken on that morning:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/29dec04/Tough1.jpg

The two inner planets are within 1 degree of each other for a period of three weeks beginning today.

Mercury shines at -0.5 magnitude as it makes a close approach with Venus on January 12 and 13. It eventually drops out of sight as the month draws to an end.

Dave Mitsky

This picture was taken at the LVAAS Pulpit Rock Astronomical Park (see http://www.lvaas.org/pr/main.html for further information), near Hamburg, Pennsylvania. The dome that is seen in the background is the Schlegel-McHugh Observatory. The other telescope is a friend's 15" f/4.5 Obsession.

Dave Mitsky

Fellow ASH member Tony Donnangelo and I joined occultation specialist Dr. David Dunham to observe the grazing occultation of SAO 109408 (see http://iota.jhuapl.edu/exped.htm for further information) on Saturday night. The graze line was a few miles to the west of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and was quite close to where ASH Vice President Rick Goodman lives. As it turned out, Dr. Dunham had stopped at the home of a relatively new ASH member purely by coincidence and was given permission to set up an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain and video equipment in the front yard. Tony and I positioned ourselves near the driveway entrance. Dr. Dunham attached a videocamera and videorecorder to Tony's 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromat and drove off to set up some remote telescopes.

It was still reasonably clear when Tony and I first arrived and we were able to observe Comet Machholz Q2 with a 10x50 Celestron Ultima binocular and a 6" f/8 Orion XT6 Dob at 38 and 51x but in the south clouds had begun to gather around the Moon. By the time the occultation started, which was 9:31 pm EST (02:31 UT), the situation had grown much worse. We were unable to see or record anything useful. The 37% illuminated Moon was visible, albeit rather dimly at times, through the 6" but not the 7.9 magnitude star.

After the event transpired, I observed M42 and Saturn briefly with the Dob and did a little more binocular observing. We then began to pack our gear into Tony's vehicle. Before leaving we viewed some of the videotape from the SCT's camcorder. (It revealed only fleeting glimpses of the occulted star.) As we did so we watched in consternation as a large sucker hole opened up and the Moon sprang fully into view once again.

Dave Mitsky

The sky was clear for a change late Tuesday morning, 2005/01/18, so I had a look at the huge active region AR 10720 with my Coronado PST and Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece and my Celestron C4.5 and a 17mm Tele Vue Ploessl (53x). Unfortunately, the seeing was rather poor so the sun "boiled" away with vigor.

Through the PST at 50x a long, thin prominence (or perhaps a surge) was visible on the leading limb. The area around AR 10720 was quite bright.

I could easily see AR 10720 through my black polymer solar eclipse shades.

Dave Mitsky

The sky was clear for a change late Tuesday morning, 2005/01/18, so I had a look at the huge active region AR 10720 with my Coronado PST and Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece and my Celestron C4.5 and a 17mm Tele Vue Ploessl (53x). Unfortunately, the seeing was rather poor so the sun "boiled" away with vigor.

Through the PST at 50x a long, thin prominence (or perhaps a surge) was visible on the leading limb. The area around AR 10720 was quite bright.

I could easily see AR 10720 through my black polymer solar eclipse shades.

Dave Mitsky

A friend of mine asked me about a 2" 55mm Star Trak eyepiece that was sold by a company that was based in Pickering, Ontario. I'd never heard of it before and a Google search didn't reveal anything. Can anyone shed some light on the subject?

Dave Mitsky