After a stormy Friday night we had clear skies and decent seeing over Waikoloa again last night. Again I set up the telescope for a little planetary photography. The seeing was marginally better, and so is the resulting image.
The night also featured three moons in close to the planet. Io can be seen alone to one side of the Planet while Europa and Ganymede form a close pair. Ganymede is the larger moon and slightly closer to the planet
I really need to do this from the summit under good seeing some time.
Jupiter under moderately good seeing from Waikoloa
Dawn has been in orbit around Ceres for over a year now, having entered orbit back on March 6th, 2015. Most of the dwarf planet has been photographed and mapped in high resolution now, creating beautiful imagery that reveals a great deal of interesting terrian. As we have seen with other dwarf planets like Pluto, these little worlds are surprisingly dynamic places, hardly the dead rocks one might have expected.
The bright features in Occator crater have been revealed to be some sort of cryovolcano. While not certain, the bright is likely to be water ice, or perhaps a briny, salt and water mixture. There has even been some evidence of vapor observed over the crater, possibly from sublimating ices.
I am sure this is a large disappointment to those who claimed it was some sort of alien base. Not that this has stopped the claims, they are just more modest in size. You can find YouTube videos of folks combing through the high resolution images and claiming any little feature that is slightly regular looking is some alien artifact.
More enjoyable to watch is a JPL video pointing out the highlights of Ceres…
Jupiter passed through opposition back on March 7th. Thus the giant planet is high in the sky through much of the night, well placed for observations.
Jupiter on March 24th from WaikoloaI was thinking of going to bed, but it was a hot windless evening in Waikoloa, not much point in trying to sleep before it cooled off a bit. The dead calm conditions made me think… What is the seeing like? A question only an amateur astronomer would ask.
Turns out the seeing was pretty good. The typical horrible seeing in Waikoloa is 2 to 3 arcseconds or worse, when the trades are blowing it can be quite bad. I suspect the seeing was 1 arcsecond or better last night, the view of Jupiter in the eyepiece was quite pleasing. Putting a camera in place of the eyepiece yielded video worth the effort in processing.
Full Moon taken 27Aug2007, 90mm f/12 APO and Canon 20DaFull Moon will occur today at 02:01HST.
This full moon will feature a penumbral lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific region. It will be well placed for observers in the Hawaiian Islands where the entire eclipse from beginning to end will be visible. Do not expect much, penumbral lunar eclipses involve only a slight dimming of the Moon, it is unlikely to be noticeable without instrumentation.
Still working on scanning the slide collection, I will probably be at it for years. Worth it though, so many memories. Here are a few images from a visit to Natural Bridges National Monument in 1993…
Sipapu Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument
Sipapu Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument
Skyrocket or scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata)
Sipapu Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument
Pricly pear cacti bloom at Natural Bridges National Monument
Horsecollar Ruins, an Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) site in Armstrong Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument
Deb and Joy Cooper explore Horsecollar Ruins at Natural Bridges National Monnument
Horsecollar Ruins, an Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) site in Armstrong Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument
An Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) petroglyph in Armstrong Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument
Claret Cup Cacti (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) in bloom
An Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) petroglyph in Armstrong Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument
Kachina Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument
The vernal or spring equinox occurs today at 18:30HST. Today there will be little difference between the length of the night when counted against the number of daylight hours. This is the first day of spring as marked by many cultures in the northern hemisphere.
Yeah, I did another Messier marathon, You know, that crazy exercise where you attempt to find all 110 Messier objects in a single night. A bit crazy, but also rather addicting. I am a somewhat of a purist, I use no computerized telescope, just a chart, a Telrad, and my knowledge of the night sky. This makes a Messier marathon a real challenge.
A few clouds wandering across the western horizon, some near, some far. At least there is some blue sky!I had invited a few other folks to join me at the Kaʻohe observing site on the side of Mauna Kea. A few other observers had indicated they would be there, I even had a DLNR permit for a small group to join me and a few extra checklists printed out. It was the clouds that convinced the others not to make the attempt. Thus, in the end I had the night to myself. Mostly.
Even if the clouds spoiled the event there was not much to risk. May as well pack up and drive to the site, as the organizer I pretty much had to be there in case any of the others responded to my invitation. This outing would not take much preparation, a cooler packed with munchies and drinks to get me through the night and one of my smaller telescopes. There is not much question as to which telescope I will use… Primero, my 6″ RFT and the veteran of many Messier marathons. it is this instrument with which I achieved my one perfect 110 score at the All Arizona Messier Marathon many years ago.
My first attempt at a proper Milky Way arch photograph. Not easy to stitch properly, but worth the effort! Click on the image for a file size large enough to properly enjoy…
The winter Milky Way arches over Hualālai with Orion and the setting Moon at the center, taken from the Kaʻohe observing site, panorama of five images taken with a Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm lens with over 300 degrees of horizon
