The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XXXIX Numbers 11-12 November-December 2014 ********************************************************************************************* Pensacola State Fair s Warren Jarvis Award Winner This fine photo of the waxing gibbous moon by Sean Torres won our finest astrophoto award at the Pensacola Interstate Fair last October. Sean receives $25 prize, a pair of Tasco 12x32 solar binoculars, and a certificate from the club at our December 12 th meeting, and hopefully some new front teeth for Christmas (see next page).
Our grinning prize winner! LUNATICS! That s what most folks thought about the group that showed up at 4 AM to view the fine lunar eclipse on the morning of October 8 th. Here are some highlights of this beautiful event.
Dave Cochran s partial eclipse at 4:40 AM Moon is about a third the way into our circular shadow in this shot. Jacque Falzone s shot about 15 minutes later finds the moon half way in.
Clay Mostad captures the moon about five minutes before totality with his 6 Celestron. Myron Almond s shot brought out the green color of the seven planet near the Blood Moon.
Ed Magowan picked Pensacola Beach as a scenic site for his eclipse watch!
Sheryl Williams shot of the setting eclipsed moon over Pensacola State shows the dawn coming; our hopes of spotting the sun rising as the moon began coming out of eclipse were frustrated by haze and the brightening sky. I personally doubt any one can observe this phenomena there is just too much contrast between the faintness of the eclipsed moon and the brightness of the sun and dawn. We had about 50 folks, mainly students, come out and also observe Jupiter s Great Red Spot.
A sunspot to remember! The largest sunspot of the last generation, AR 2192 came on the disk the week before the October 23 rd partial solar eclipse, and helped make it very photogenic and memorable to all. This photo, taken by PSC astronomy student Kristie Severns, used the 6 Criterion RV-6 donated to the loaner program by EAAA member George Oedesma. We also used an Iconel filter for the orange color, and it was shot through an Olympus D-595 camera and 26mm Plossl eyepiece. The photo was featured on NASA s Spaceweather.com website. George also donated an Orion Starblast 4.5 reflector for a loaner scope for the Pensacola State College library. It will be ready to check out with the new school year in January. We now have four of these library loaners in local libraries, and hope to expand this program more in 2015. If you would volunteer to serve as one of the custodians of these for the library loaners, please let the club know, and we will try to link you up to a library to work with.
Here the crowd awaits first contact about 5:08 PM on October 23 rd. At left, Amy Stewart will get outstanding photos like the one below of the eclipse with the Coronado 40 filter on the Meade ETX 70 refractor with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. One of the teachers noting the large filament to top right asked if it was a crack on the sun. Note how AR 2192 is flaring nicely during the eclipse as well. This was the first time many observers had seen an eclipse with a hydrogen alpha scope, and I suspect sales of these scopes will increase greatly as the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 approaches.
The huge extent of AR 2192 is evident in this shot by Ray Hayes with a Baader filter on his 4 refractor. This was taken two days before the eclipse, and the spot was seen by all PSC astronomy students as a naked eye object through Baader filters, and even appears on the mirror projection images of the sun. Fascinating as it appears, it was also ominous to see such a large and active region moving across the center of the disk, with the threat of a huge flare creating a Carrington Event to disrupt communications and even the worldwide electrical grid. Alas, no aurorae dancing over Dixie this time, unlike October 2003. For Baader filters for solar viewing and eclipses, visit our sponsor, Draco Productions website, at http://www.dracoproductions.net/baader.htm for prices on these filters.
Dr. Vanash Ramachandran demonstates how a flat front surface mirror, with paper over it and holes of various sizes, can be used to project the sun s image and even large sunspots. He suggested smaller holes for better resolution; we found 1 holes did image the spot. This will be ideal for the August 21, 2017 eclipse and group viewing.
While it certainly was sharper with a scope, this huge sunspot did show up well on the mirror projected image; in this case, there was about a 25 distance between the mirror and the paper on the flat wall the image was projected on. It is a good idea to have the wall in shadow for better contrast with this group viewing technique. We were actually inside building 17 to take this photo; the sun was shining through a large picture window, such as you might do in a classroom for eclipse viewing in the future.
The Solarscope is only $89 now, and was an ideal tool for classroom solar observing as well as eclipse photography. Hughy Hearn was the first to call attention to first contact, and captured it in this photo as well at 5:08 PM. For more on this fine educational tool, visit their website at: http://www.solarscope.com/us/prix.us.htm
Wayne Wooten used a yellow filter on his 26mm Plossl eyepiece and his Olympus D-595 at auto exposure to capture the progress of the moon s disk at 5:10 PM. He used the new Nova 500 4.5 reflector from Toys R Us for $130 to view the eclipse; this will be an ideal portable telescope with good optics, high quality light but stable mount with slow motions for photography, and fine 26mm and 10.5 mm Plossl eyepieces in perhaps the best value now in amateur astronomy for beginners!
Solar binoculars were also very popular at the viewing. Sheryl Williams uses her 12x32 Tasco from Gander Mountain ($20) and 1 Baader filters from Draco ($5) to view the eclipse with Dr. Wooten. Sheryl has been watching both solar and lunar eclipses with the club since the last total solar eclipse in the US on February 26, 1979. She plans to take her son Mark to totality on August 21, 2017; the club is in contact with other astronomy clubs along the path of totality to perhaps get students and members a bus and package tour for this event. Share your own ideas on how to get more of us involved in the astronomical event of our life times. If you want Dr. Wooten to prepare a set of similar solar binocs, they are $25 and can be delivered at any club event. I can also make a 10x25 Tasco solar monocular for $15, or a 10x25 Tasco solar binocular for $20. I recommend the 12x32 however as the ideal size for general astronomy and solar eclipse and sunspot watching overall; contact wwooten@pensacolastate.edu.
The Steam Punk Galileo Scope Mary Katherine Heuvelmann was the first president of the student chapter when we organized it in 2011, and it was great to see her back in town after several years at school. While her family responsibilities prevent her from getting to many club events, we certainly welcome her return. The Galileoscope has gone up greatly in price, from $25 to about $60 now, but is still certainly a good starter scope for many. Alas, the popular Star Scout kits are no longer in production, but certainly was fun for many of my students last term to build them. I salvaged an old tripod from Ivan debris, cleaned it up and used antique brass spray paint on it and the tube of the Galileoscope, and added a 13mm erect image eyepiece (taken from a misaligned Tasco 10x25 binoc) for 40X terrestrial scope. With 2 Draco Baader solar filter, gave some of the most memorable views of the sun and this eclipse; everyone loved how easy it was to use. If you want me to make such a conversion for you, will be glad to.
Harold Breyde s 8 Dobsonain Equipped with a Draco Baader solar filter, this scope gave fine views of the activity around AR2192 as well as the encroaching lunar limb. Lisa Monaco used the Criterion RV-6 donated to the club by George Oedesma to get good eclipse shots through an Iconel filter, like the one used by Kristie Severn.
Hydrogen Alpha Eclipse by Tom Haugh While Tom and other Northwest Florida Amateur Astronomers were observing from Niceville, they too got great images before the clouds crept in. Tom used a Lunt 60 Ha scope to get this great monochrome view of the long filament, AR 2192, and the eclipse at maximum coverage as seen here in West Florida.
Setting up at Longleaf Elementary for the Eclipse Ed Magowan and Dewey Barker held a gaze for students and families at Longleaf Elementary School during the eclipse; it was very popular and well attended as well. Dewey used the PST to photograph the clouds starting to roll in over the Sun.
And at UWF..Jon Ellard s shot with another PST Jon Ellard and Chris Varney hosted about 30 students on the roof of building 13.
Rick Johnston Records the Whole Event Rick s sequence in about three minute intervals shows to progress of the Moon, the earth s rotation as the Sun starts setting in the trees, and the clouds that prevented us from seeing a most picturesque sunset, alas. Ed Parent captures the first clouds passing over the sun just after maximum coverage.
Abigail Megginson uses the new ioptron Smartphone adapter Certainly one of the most innovative products just out, this $60 adapter is very easy to adapt to almost any cell phone camera, comes with a fine 10mm eyepiece ideal for solar and lunar imaging with smaller scopes, and makes you aware of just how awesome these cameras can be for astro imaging. http://www.walmart.com/ip/ioptron-smartphone-eyepiece-adaptor/38414664 Astronomy student Alex Chatham s shot two days after the eclipse was on spaceweather.com
Richard Olive s iphone 5 Captures great detail While AR 2192 had already rotated around and diminished a great deal a month later, this fine sunspot certainly made the sun come alive for many of us! The new Smartphones deliver!
Malone Calvert Observes RR Lyrae Variables in M-3 Globular Clusters are known for their aging stars, and Malone s 12 SCT does a fine job of capturing many of these short period variables in Messier 3. These were the critical yardsticks that Harlow Shapley used during the 1920 s for determine the size and structure of our Milky Way Galaxy. Ed Magowan used advanced imaging processing to bring out the Veil Nebula here. He also collaborated with Bill Martinec to make some great closing shots.
The Eagle Nebula in Hydrogen Alpha
The Horsehead Nebula with part of Orion s Belt. M-42, the Great Nebula of Orion
Seyfert Spiral Galaxy M-74 by Bill Martinec EAAA supports WSRE and PBS Science Programming Here treasurer Jim Larduskey and student member Susanna Rogers answer the phones while Wayne Wooten manned the on-air mic during our help with Pledge Week at WSRE on Wednesday night, December 3 rd. We will getting four NASA Nova videos for our $180 pledge also.