Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

I just rented "The Matador" starring Pierce Brosnan. It's a very enjoyable dark comedy and I recommend it highly.

Dave Mitsky

The 2006 Stellafane turned out to be a very enjoyable one. Friday night was quite good, which surprised just about everyone given what the varying forecasts had been. I spent time on the lower observing field and at the McGregor Observatory. By the time I made it up to Breezy Hill, most of the competition telescopes were no longer in operation but I was fortunate enough to have some great wide-field views through the two 6" f/5 Newtonian binoculars entered in the competition (one of which took first places in all three major categories!). I finished the night observing with Scott Ewart (and his prize winning 12.5" split-ring equatorial Newtonian) and Sue and Alan French (and Sue's 105mm Astro-Physics Traveler).

The cosmologist and author Dr. Timothy Ferris was at Stellafane for the first time filming a documentary on amateur astronomers. (His last book was a tribute to our breed.) He and Al Nagler had a long conversation while one scene was being shot on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night was partly to mostly cloudy until I decided to be the clear sky sacrifice and leave the Stellafane site for some much needed sleep. By the time my significant other and I had returned to our bed and breakfast inn just outside of Chester, which was sometime after midnight, the skies were mostly clear.

During the course of the convention, I spent some time engaged in interesting conversation with other Stellafane regulars such as Phil Harrington and Al Nagler and heard some informative talks on a number of varied topics.

Dave Mitsky

There was a rather nice loop prominence on the Sun's leading limb (left side of the photo) yesterday afternoon so I took a few afocal shots with my Canon Digital Rebel DSLR. The prominence is located at approximately 9 o'clock in this not so great image.

Dave Mitsky

Since the price reduction, I've been considering the purchase of a Vixen Sphinx equatorial mount and would like a bit of feedback from owners. I have read a number of positive reviews but have some concerns and questions regarding the brightness of the display screen, software issues, the stability of the tripod for astrophotographic use with a 101mm Tele Vue refractor, any matters that I should be aware of in general, and so on.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Dave Mitsky

If you've never seen Mercury, the following few days are an excellent time to do so. Mercury is just past its greatest western elongation of 19.2 degrees and is quite close to Venus in the eastern morning sky. For observers at 40 degrees north latitude, the speedy planet was at its highest altitude of approximately 16 degrees this morning. Tomorrow morning brilliant Venus (magnitude -3.9) will be 2.2 degrees "above" Mercury (magnitude -0.5). Mercury is in quasi-conjunction with Venus on August 10, the last such event involving bright planets until 2010. (A quasi-conjunction occurs when two planets pass within five degrees of each other without reaching the same ecliptic longitude or right ascension.) Mercury will head sunwards and by next Thursday the two planets will be separated by 3.7 degrees.

In the meantime, Saturn will be climbing higher into the early morning sky. The Ringed Planet (magnitude 0.4) will a little more than one degree below Mercury (magnitude -1.3) on the morning of August 20. About 45 minutes before sunrise on August 21, Mercury and Saturn will be only 0.9 degree apart. Saturn continues to increase in altitude, while Mercury does the opposite, and has a close encounter with Venus on August 26. On that date, the second closest planetary appulse of 2006 occurs. Venus (magnitude -3.9) and Saturn (magnitude 0.5) will be less than a tenth of a degree apart. Saturn passes Venus the next day.

Dave Mitsky

Well, after a number of unsuccessful attempts from sites that simply weren't dark enough, I finally got a look at 177P/Barnard on Tuesday night. Two fellow ASH members and I went to one of our dark sky sites. Conditions were excellent and we had no trouble observing the comet through an 18" Obsession Dob, my 101mm Tele Vue refractor, and an 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk refractor. (There was the slightest hint of the comet's presence through the Obsession's 66mm finder scope.) The comet's coma is quite large and is very diffuse. The coma had a very pale blue hue through the 18".

I could not see 177P/Barnard with my Celestron 8x42 binocular.

A finder chart is available at http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/177P.gif

Dave Mitsky

Five fellow ASH members and I had a very fine time at one of the ASH dark sites on Wednesday night. Like the night before, we observed many celestial objects, including the Moon, planets, double stars, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae (both bright and dim), a quasar, and Comet 177P.

After locating the comet with my 101mm Tele Vue refractor, I spent a few minutes looking through my friend Tony Donnangelo's Celestron 15x70 binocular, which was mounted on my Vista binocular guider. Eventually, I could just make out the comet with averted vision.

Dave Mitsky

Well, folks, things are not looking too good here at Cherry Springs. Last night a sucker hole opened up for a bit early in the night and we were able to observe a few of the showcase objects such as M11, M13, M27, V Aquilae, and T Lyrae. All the while there were brilliant flashes of lightning off to the north and northwest.

Since I had booked a motel room in "nearby" Coudersport, I left when the hole closed and the storm grew closer. As I was watching Stargate Atlantis, a tornado warning for neighboring McKean County flashed on the tube.

The forecast for tonight is not promising. As a matter of fact, as I drove to the Coudersport library to post this message a severe thunderstorm and possible tornado warning was issued on the radio.

What a shame it is to have the Black Forest Star Party suffer a similar fate as the Cherry Springs Star Party did two months ago.

http://www.bfsp.org/starparty/index.cfm?CFID=1134928&CFTOKEN=90820592

http://www.astrohbg.org/s4/

http://www.upstateastro.org/stars/cssp.html

Dave Mitsky

One of the speakers at the September DVAA meeting last night was Mark Huss, a member who visited Mauna Kea last April. Scott Hartman, another DVAA member, currently works at Mauna Kea as a software engineer. He gave Mark and his wife a special tour of the Keck telescopes and the interferometer. We saw many interesting shots of the 10 meter telescopes, the interferometer, and ancillary equipment.

There was snow in many of the photos. (Mauna Kea means white mountain, by the way.) People ski from the very summit of the mountain.

http://dvaa.org/php/page.php?body=Events

Dave Mitsky

I attended the Grand Opening II and Tele Vue Day at the new Skies Unlimited on Saturday afternoon. The new store is located at the Suburbia Shopping Center near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and has a larger showroom than the original.

Al and David Nagler were there, of course, and I spent some time talking with them. Before I left, Uncle Al demonstrated some new hardware to facilitate CCD imaging.

Two fellow DVAA members are working at the store. Dennis Galvin has his back to the camera and is on the right side of the second photo. Former DVAA president John Symborski, the fellow wearing the suspenders, is standing to the left of Al Nagler (center) in the third picture.

http://www.skiesunlimited.net/index.php

Dave Mitsky