Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

The Sun put on an active display of prominences on both the leading and trailing limbs as I observed it with my PST, 8-24mm Vixen LV zoom, and 7mm Nagler type 6 at approximately 16:30 UT yesterday.

Dave Mitsky

My friend Tony Donnangelo and I were fortunate enough to witness this morning's occultation of Antares (Alpha Scorpii) from his residence. It was quite cold and windy. The skies had been fairly clear until just prior to the occultation when clouds began obscuring the 53% illuminated Moon. However, we were able to see Antares (magnitude 1.1) as the Moon covered it.

I watched the bright western limb of the Moon grow close to Antares through Tony's 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromat at 137x (3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom set at 6mm) and took some prime focus shots with my Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera. I observed the actual occultation through my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat at 57x (7mm Nagler Type 6). Tony announced when he could no longer see the red giant. I timed the occultation as occurring at 6:05:16 a.m. EST (11:05:16 UT), give or take a second or two.

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0303zc2366.htm

Before leaving, I had a look at Jupiter through the FS-102 at 137x. Io, Europa, and Ganymede formed a narrow triangle, while Callisto hung well back from Jove.

Dave Mitsky

The PSTereo, as host Al Lamperti called it, was cobbled together at the February DVAA Solar Saturday by Gary Trapuzzano using our two Coronado Personal Telescopes. This binocular PST worked quite well.

Dave Mitsky

The skies were crystal clear on Monday afternoon in the Harrisburg area so I put my Coronado PST to good use. There were some sunspots and a long filament but what really caught my eye was a rather spectacular pair of solar prominences on the trailing solar limb that completely outclassed the other prominences that were present. Using my Vixen LV zoom eyepiece and 7mm Nagler T6, I could see subtle changes in the prominences in real time.

Dave Mitsky

The skies were crystal clear on Monday afternoon in the Harrisburg area so I put my Coronado PST to good use. There were some sunspots and a long filament but what really caught my eye was a rather spectacular pair of solar prominences on the trailing solar limb that completely outclassed the other prominences that were present. Using my Vixen LV zoom eyepiece and 7mm Nagler T6, I could see subtle changes in the prominences in real time.

Dave Mitsky

I was able to observe, but just barely, the recent supernova SN 2005am on Monday night using the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at the ASH Naylor Observatory. SN 2005am is a bright (13.5 magnitude) type Ia supernova that is located 17".6 east and 31" north of the center of the 11th magnitude spiral galaxy NGC 2811 in western Hydra. A "bright" star is situated approximately 8" southwest of SN 2005am. The result is a faux double star consisting of a star and an exploded star.

The supernova has a right ascension of 09h16m12s.47 and a declination of -16°18'16".0. It was discovered on 2005/02/22.733 by R. Martin.

NGC 2811 is on the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 list and is not particularly difficult to find. It is located to the southwest of Alphard (Alpha Hydrae). The galaxy has a bright stellar core but is otherwise unremarkable.

These two images are the most helpful in identifying the supernova of the ones I've seen:

http://astrosurf.com/jmllapasset/pubb/im_2005/2005_1/05amLL_C200503102102.JPG

http://astrosurf.com/blazar/super/SN05/SN2005am-rod.JPG

I had no problems acquiring NGC 2811 at 162x (40mm University Optics MK-70). Unfortunately, it was sitting right on top of the light dome produced by our friendlly neighborhood all-night ski run. On top of that, the astronomical seeing was very poor, which made a definite sighting even harder. Using averted vision and just a bit of averted imagination at magnifications of 202 (32mm U.O. Koenig-II) and 259x (25mm U.O. MK-70), I was able to catch fleeting glimpses of SN 2005am and its "companion" star.

Dave Mitsky

There wasn't too much in the way of prominence activity early Tuesday afternoon but the long filament that is approaching the Sun's leading limb was rather impressive.

Dave Mitsky

Coronado 40mm f/10 PST and 8-24mm Vixen LV zoom eyepiece

On Tuesday night, 2005/03/30 UT I had the opportunity to observe the recent supernova SN 2005am once again. My friend Tony Donnangelo and I viewed this type Ia exploding star from a club dark site with the aid of his 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dobsonian and a 5.2mm Pentax XL ocular. Contrary to the forecasts, it was extremely windy that night so we had to wait for momentary lapses in the gusts to able to positively identify SN 2005am.

I also observed it last night, 2005/03/31, using the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at the ASH Naylor Observatory. At 259x the supernova was clearly separated from the nearby field star that makes the pair resemble a binary star.

For more on SN 2005am see my report at http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=311607&poll_id=&news_id=&page=4 and http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

Dave Mitsky

There was quite a variety of solar prominences sprinkled around the Sun's disk on Wednesday at approximately 17:30 UT. My Coronado PST and Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece displayed them quite nicely. A few sunspots and filaments were also visible.

Dave Mitsky

There was quite a variety of solar prominences sprinkled around the Sun's disk on Wednesday at approximately 17:30 UT. My Coronado PST and Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece displayed them quite nicely. A few sunspots and filaments were also visible.

Dave Mitsky