Astronomy – Page 57 – A Darker View

As lunar perigee occurs only a couple hours ahead of full moon this will be the best supermoon of the year. Perigee will occur at 01:23HST, just before the 03:52 full moon. This leads to a modestly larger and brighter full moon.

Continue reading “Full Moon”

Segment

On the Keck 2 Dome

During the morning meeting we discuss our plans for the day. This is done to coordinate activities, to insure we will not get in each other’s way during the day. This also lets everyone know if we are doing anything that might have a safety concern, so we can watch out for each other. With this last part in mind I noted that I would be climbing to the top of the Keck 2 dome.

All I needed to do was to take some photos and make some measurements. We want to install some weather instruments on top of the dome, given the harsh mountain conditions this must be properly planned and approved. This was a nice day, not a cloud overhead, warm and sunny, and no wind. A perfect day for climbing the dome.

After the meeting Denny approaches me. “Can I come?” he asks. Denny is our network manager, in charge of our computer systems, he has never had an opportunity, or reason, to climb the dome. The top of the dome is just a bit spectacular, and it is a beautiful day, I can not blame him for wanting to go.

Continue reading “On the Keck 2 Dome”

Obsession in the Twilight

Obsession at Kaʻohe — The 20″ Obsession telescope awaiting full dark at Kaʻohe, on the side of Mauna Kea

Star Party Gallery

Astrophoto Setup — The NexStar 11″, the TV76mm and a Canon 60D setup for astrophotography at the MKVIS

Star Party at Cliff's — Debbie Goodwin gazes at Saturn through a C-14 at an evening star party in Waikoloa

Telescope Line — The telescope line at Sentinel for the 2005 Sentinel-Schwaar Star Gaze

Setting Up — Maureen setting up for some public observing to support Keck’s Evening with Astronomers

Scope at Sunset — Bright sunset colors silhouette a telescope at Oregon Star Party 2013

Solar Viewing — Visitors enjoy great views of an active Sun at the 2012 Waimea Planet Walk

Kealakehe Star Party — Tony’s 14″ dob with a long line of folks waiting to view

Visitors enjoy telescopes under the star at the Mauna Kea VIS

Laser and Stars — Deb pointing out the star βPhoenicis to VIS volunteer Joe McDonough

Astrophotography — A trio of telescopes set up for astrophtography at the Mauna Kea VIS

Steve Dillinger’s 20″ Dob awaiting full dark at Sentinel, AZ with Venus and the Moon shining behind

GyPSy in the Night — The 11″ NexStar GPS telescope, GyPSy set up at Ka’Ohe

Messier Marathon Mosiac — The observing field at the Farnsworth Ranch, with the Silverbell Mountains in the background and Kitt Peak just visible at far right. The field is unusually green after heavy spring rains. The clouds are rapidly departing to the east.

Tony and Stars — Tony shows a group of enthusiastic student views with his 12.5″ dob.

Telescopes at OSP 2013 — Telescopes at Oregon Star Party 2013

Mauna Loa Observing — Observing from the Mauna Loa research station, the trace of red lights in 116 x 20sec exposures, the AMiBA telescope is in the background

Students Under the Stars — A group of local school students with the 20″ telescope

Mauna Kea Observing — My 18″ telescope Deep violet set up under the stars at the MKVIS.

Observing at the VIS — A line of big ‘scopes to greet a huge Saturday crowd at the MKVIS

Ken and Ann Jones oberving with their 18″ at Oregon Star Party 2013

Ready to Marathon — The author waiting for dark at the 2005 All Arizona Messier Marathon with my usual visual setup including Deep Violet

All The Big Dobs — Almost all of the big dobsonian telescopes to be found on Hawai’i show up at the VIS for the night.

Chris Collimating the Monster — Chris Fuld collimating his 40.5 inch dobsonian

C14 Sunset — A telescope set up on the grounds of the Mauna Kea resort awaiting dark skies

Small telescopes at Lick — Local amateur astronomers set up their own telescopes behind the main building at Lick Observatory

Camping Under the Stars — A camper and telescope set up under a starry sky

Setting Up the 'Scopes — The telescopes are nearly ready, now to wait for dark!

20" f/4 Obsession Telescope — The restored 20″ Obsession telescope set up at Hale Pohaku on the side of Mauna Kea

Observing Table — The observing table during visual observing, all the necessities… charts, guides, binoculars, observing notebook and something to drink.

Happy Solar Viewing — A family enjoys a view of the Sun in the telescope

Eclipse Revelry — Everyone at the VIS was enjoying the night!

Princess at the Telescope — A princess looking through the telescope while we were set up at the King’s Shops

Sharing the Sky — Maureen sharing her telescope with guests at Keck’s Evening with Astronomers

Lasers at the VIS — Green lasers in use at the Mauna Kea VIS nightly observing with the Milky Way high overhead

Telescopes at OSP — A trio of telescopes awaiting darkness at Oregon Star Party

New Telescope Happy — Olivier beside his new telescope, a 12″ Orion Dobsonian

Warping

The Dobsonian Telescope

In restoring a 20″ Obsession telescope I found myself pulling a book from the shelf that had not been opened in a while. David Kriege and Richard Berry’s The Dobsonian Telescope – A Practical manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes is a book I once read cover to cover.

The information here was critical in the success of my building Deep Violet, my 18″ telescope. Within the pages of this book are plans and drawings of the important bits as well as detailed discussions of what does, and does not work, when building a telescope.

The Dobsonian Telescope is the primary reference for those building large amateur telescopes. This book, along with the design revolution that went with it, put large telescopes in the hands of countless amateur astronomers. These telescopes extended the capabilities of amateur observers immensely, allowing spectacular views of deep space objects that were only fuzzy smears in the eyepiece before. Want to see the spiral arms of galaxies? A 20″ telescope can do that!

As I perused my well thumbed copy I was surprised to find bits of my own telescope plans used as bookmarks. There was dust on the top of the pages, but I still remembered where I disagreed with Kriege in the dimensions of the mirror box, or how to place the truss tube clamps. I may have deviated from the plans shown here in some aspects, but in other parts of the design I directly used the dimensions shown in the book.

So many old memories, good memories. Pursuing an art that has been around for four centuries, combining bits of wood and glass to make an instrument that can reveal our universe. Sure you can simply buy a very good modern telescope. But it is hard to overstate the pleasure of building one yourself. This is an art that can still be done in a garage, with tools available at the local hardware store, with results that can rival or even surpass something purchased from a catalog.

New Moon

Young Moon — A very young moon over Waikoloa

New Moon will occur today at 07:38HST.

Continue reading “New Moon”

Solar System Walk 2016

Walking from the Sun to Neptune is easy… At least when they are set up in a scale model along main street Waimea.

A fun day… The Sun, telescopes, the planets, a few asteroids represented by meteorites, and plenty of activities for the kids. It was a great day to be in Waimea as CFHT and Keck put on the Solar System Walk 2016…

Category: Astronomy

Whiffle Tree

Full Moon