A Darker View

Yes, a new/old telescope has arrived at Andrew’s Home for Wayward Telescopes… A beat up and neglected 8″ Cave Astrola. The new arrival has me thinking of the other telescopes that have come through recently…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The 8″ f/6 Cave Astrola Lightweight Deluxe

Yes, Andrew’s Home for Wayward Telescopes has a new resident, an 8″ f/6 1978 vintage Cave Astrola.

8" Cave Astrola — The 8″ Cave Astrola as it arrived

This telescope was literally rescued from the dump. Matt, the owner of the excellent Mountain Road Cycles in Waimea found the telescope at the transfer station.

Continue reading “The 8″ f/6 Cave Astrola Lightweight Deluxe”

Top posts of 2017

2017 was a good year for me personally. This is reflected in the blog, with an array of posts chronicling my life over the past year. The posts resulted in 60k visitors to the blog, and while that may be down from last year I will consider that an improvement given DarkerView was not hacked to serve porn this year.

It is interesting to check the most popular posts. These do not necessarily represent the top read posts for the year as most folks read the latest post on the home page. Rather the top posts are the ones that gather steady traffic from search results, people looking for information on the subject and finding it in the archive of back posts…

Post	Hits
A Backyard Telescope Pier	3379
Tragedy on Mauna Kea	1980
Astrophotography with the EOS-M	1536
Repairing a Wii Balance Board	1529
Getting to the Lava (Revised)	1449
Starscape Photography	1436
Consequences of a Bad LED	1411
Rewiring a Celestron NexStar Telescope	809
Viewing the ISS	747
Visiting the Summit of Mauna Kea	656
Restoring an Orange Tube Celestron C8	622
Street Photography with the Canon EOS-M3	585
Fungus on Glass	575
Canon EOS-M3 Review	541
Shooting the Canon EOS M5	518

In the list only a few of the posts are from this year. Most represent popular posts from the past several years, posts that continue to be steadily popular. This is in many ways the measure of a good blog, people find the back archive of posts valuable, that Darker View represents good content.

2017 Gallery

2017 featured many adventure recorded in the photos of the year. Fun to look back and relive the expereince…

A heavy plume of gases trail from the 61G lava flow ocean entry

St. Augustine Church at Puehuehu, Kohala

Ohia Blossom — ʻOhiʻa in blossom along the Puʻu Oʻo Trail

Sakura (cherry blossoms) — Sakura or cherry blossoms at the 2017 Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival

Pakoda — A big pot full of pakoda (corn fritters) bubbling away at the Kamuela Hongwanji Mission for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Keck at Night — The Keck telescopes open and working under the dark Mauna Kea skies

On the Keck 2 Dome — The view of IRTF and CFHT from part way up the Keck 2 dome

KCWI being lifted off the trailer at Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea, Jan 20, 2017

A low ground fog covers the hollows with Mauna Kea in the background

Mauna Kea Wreck — A wrecked Toyota pickup truck about a mile below Hale Pohaku

A fogbow formed from drifting fog blowing across the Mauna Kea access road. Click on the image to peruse the panorama properly.

Dome Control Relays — A bank of relays that relay commands from the dome radio controller

Power supply indicator lights for the primary mirror active control systems in Keck 1

Various types of hammers await use in the Keck machine shop

The rear of the Keck 2 primary mirror, processed in Prisma

Waiting for Moonset — Deep Violet set up under Mauna Kea skies waiting for moonset and full darkness

Pōhakuloa Solar Telescope — A solar telescope set up at Pōhakuloa Training Area for Earth Day.

Thermal image of a young guest at AstroDay

Mauna Kea Telescope Moonrise — The Moon rising directly behind the telescopes on the summit as seen from near Waikoloa

Alaska 850 Redeye — Boarding Alaska flight 850 for the overnight flight to Seattle from Kona

Locomotive 4449 under steam at Horsethief Lake — Steam locomotive 4449 under steam at Horsethief Lake near The Dalles in transit to Bend

Tsagaglalal or She-Who-Watches at Horsethief Lake

A Spedis Owl in the rock art collection at Horsethief Lake

F-6 Wheel — The dash and steering wheel of a Ford F-6

Hay Baler Engine — The engine on a hay baler offers a view of mechanical paraphernalia

Harbor Seals — Some harbor seals lounge on an abandoned bit of dock in the Ketchikan harbor.

Bubble Net Feeding — A humpback whale feeding along Chatham Strait

Petersburg Wharf — A large wharf in Petersburg harbor on a calm summer night

Petersburg Fireworks — Fireworks over the Petersburg docks on the 4th of July

Craig Docks — The north Shelter Cove docks in Criag

Shooting Timelapse — The camera set up and shooting a timelapse sequence from Saddle Road

A pile of old hardware gathering rust and spiderwebs

Ruins of an Old Ranch House — Ruins of an old ranch house

Post Eclipse Sunset — Sunset from Grant’s Spring on the evening after the total solar eclipse 21Aug2017

Sun on Aug 10, 2017 — The Sun as it appeared August 10, 2017 with sunspot AR2670

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 — The 2017 total solar eclipse as photographed from central Oregon

Eclipse Watching — Watching the solar eclipse using proper eye protection

Eclipse 2017 Montage — A montage of the 2017 total solar eclipse

Eclipse Prominences — Large prominences visible along the edge of the Sun during the 21Aug2017 total solar eclipse

Solar Scope — A solar telescope setup to photograph the total solar eclipse 21Aug2017, iPhone photo processed in Prisma

Gecko Close Up — A gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) on a pineapple leaf

A Better Solar Water Heater Electric Back-Up Timer

Another little problem around the house that can use a little creative circuitry to make it better. Do I really have to do it? No. I do it because I can, and because it is fun!

Solar Water Heater Back-Up Timer — A hot water heater timer setup for a solar water heater.

This time it is the electric back up heater for my solar hot water heater.

In Waikoloa solar hot water is an obvious addition to the house, we had it installed within a couple months of moving in. Considering electric power is about $0.40/kWh on the island, and tropical sunlight is quite intense, the use of solar to heat our water has been good money saving move… Long, hot showers with no guilt!

Once or twice a year we will get a period of heavy clouds and the water temperatures will fall to the point we need to turn on the electric back-up heating element in order to have that hot shower. Like most solar setups the storage tank has a electric element that will heat the water when needed.

Continue reading “A Better Solar Water Heater Electric Back-Up Timer”

Christmas Lights

Astronomers Shed Light on Formation of Black Holes and Galaxies

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

Stars forming in galaxies appear to be influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, but the mechanism of how that happens has not been clear to astronomers until now.

“Supermassive black holes are captivating,” says lead author Shelley Wright, a University of California San Diego Professor of Physics. “Understanding why and how galaxies are affected by their supermassive black holes is an outstanding puzzle in their formation.”

Image of the quasar host galaxy from the UC San Diego research team’s data. The distance to this quasar galaxy is ~9.3 billion light years. Credit: A. Vayner and team

In a study published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Wright, graduate student Andrey Vayner, and their colleagues examined the energetics surrounding the powerful winds generated by the bright, vigorous supermassive black hole (known as a “quasar”) at the center of the 3C 298 host galaxy, located approximately 9.3 billion light years away.

“We study supermassive black holes in the very early universe when they are actively growing by accreting massive amounts of gaseous material,” says Wright. “While black holes themselves do not emit light, the gaseous material they chew on is heated to extreme temperatures, making them the most luminous objects in the universe.”

Continue reading “Astronomers Shed Light on Formation of Black Holes and Galaxies”

Winter Solstice

Winter solstice occurs today at 16:28HST. Today the Sun will occupy the most southerly position in the sky of the year. The term solstice comes from the Latin terms Sol (the Sun) and sistere (to stand still). On this day the Sun seems to stand still as it stops moving southwards each day and begins move to the north. This is the first day of winter as marked by many cultures in the northern hemisphere. Alternately, this is the first day of summer for those folks in the southern hemisphere.

2017 Solstices and Equinoxes
	UT		HST
Perihelion	Jan 4	14:18UT	Jan 4	04:18HST
Vernal Equinox	Mar 20	10:29UT	Mar 20	00:29HST
Summer Solstice	Jun 21	04:24UT	Jun 20	18:24HST
Apehelion	Jul 3	20:11UT	Jul 3	10:11HST
Autumnal Equinox	Sep 22	20:02UT	Sep 22	10:02HST
Winter Solstice	Dec 21	16:28UT	Dec 21	06:28HST
Source: USNO data Services