With the big wall completed along the driveway, and a bit of a break over a hot muggy summer, I am again building walls.
Excavating for a series of terrace walls in the back yard.
This is not the sort of wall between people, I detest those, but rather a real rock wall, terracing the backyard to make the space available for landscaping and other projects. This puts into action a plan that has been brewing for years.
Part of the impetus is that I have a source of rock secured, a very large pile of very nice rock found in a Waimea backyard. One of my co-workers casually mentioned he needed to rid himself of a pile of rock, to which I quickly asked… How much rock?
This evening look for the Moon rising in the east just as the Sun sets in the west. Across the Big Island this can often lead to moonbows as the low elevation moonlight interacts with fog and clouds.
I do enjoy doing school star parties, one of the best parts about running our little astronomy club is arranging these events.
Students of Mauna Loa School enjoy views of the Moon during a camp-out at Spencer Beach Park.
The school in this case is Mauna Loa School, a Hilo charter school. This did not entail a two hour drive to Hilo as they came to our side of the island. Much of the student body was camping out at Spencer Beach Park after a day spent visiting nearby sites including Anna’s Ranch.
The school had reserved the entire camping area of the park, along with the large pavilion. About 40 students, staff, and parents. We arrived to a small tent city and the smells of Mexican beans being prepared for dinner.
Invited for dinner we had burritos with the students while the sun set over the ocean. A classic Hawaiian evening with the beach and palm trees, a gentle sea breeze and a glowing sunset.
Early in the evening we were troubled by clouds, with nice views of the Moon through the gaps every few minutes. As usual for this coast the clouds slowly dissipated as daytime heat faded leaving a mostly clear sky towards the end.
The timing was perfect, with a crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn all high and available for viewing. Four telescopes were available for viewing keeping lines a bit shorter at the ‘scopes, with many eager eyes.
As usual when viewing Saturn somebody jokingly accuses me of faking the image… A slide, a sticker, that has has to be fake. Yet there is was, encircled with those beautiful rings, the large moon Titan just above the planet.
Our deadline was 9pm, when the gate above the park would be locked. I gave everyone a 20 minute warning to break down and head out. After a few last looks at Saturn and profuse thanks from the students and staff we just made it, park security locking the gate behind us.
A modest comet is currently crossing the evening sky, at about 8th magnitude C/2018 W2 Africano can be appreciated in small telescopes. Last week I decided to add it to the target list for a few images.
The many images are registered on the comet during processing. Each image showing the motion of the comet as it moves fairly quickly among the stars in the hour or so the camera was taking frames. Thus the stars become multicolored streaks in this combined image…
Comet C/2018 W2 Africano taken on the evening of Sept, 24th, 2019 as it passed through Pegasus
OK, I have color. Getting there, but not quite happy with the result. This is my first attempt at LLRGB layering to assemble the color and luminance data.
Too much noise and structural information is coming through with the color data. I had to use a lot of noise reduction in final processing.
Some odd rectangular structure around bright stars that might be coming from the microlenses of the CMOS sensor. This shows in the color data, but not so much the luminance.
As I get back into astrophotography I am starting to conquer the little issues that make huge differences in the results.
I did get a nice session in last week, with several targets imaged. I am still struggling with processing LRGB color data and have some learning ahead of me. In the meantime the monochrome luminance images look pretty good.
I had hoped to get some more telescope time in tonight, the weather decided otherwise. May as well process photos while I listen to rain on the roof.
The equinox is defined as the time at which the Sun passes through the plane of the Earth’s equator. Until the next spring equinox occurs in 2020, the Sun will be located in the southern hemisphere with a negative declination coordinate.
Today the length of the day and night will be very near equal, thus the term equinox. the Sun will rise and set nearly exactly due east and due west.
Today is considered the start of fall for most cultures in the northern hemisphere, or the start of spring for those in the southern hemisphere.
This evening look for the Moon rising in the east just as the Sun sets in the west. Across the Big Island this can often lead to moonbows as the low elevation moonlight interacts with fog and clouds.
