December Dobservations

Saturn Occultation 12/1/01

We had invited another couple over for the occultation and the game. I set up 4 scopes on the drive: the ETX, The ST 80, the 6" and the 10". As it was work kept our guests (being a neurosurgeon is hell on your social life) past the return of Saturn by about 5 minutes. Ann, Justin, Brittany and I enjoyed views of its disappearance. Ann (at the 10") and I (at the 6" - I'm married ok, the wife gets the bigger scope) enjoyed the view of Saturn's return. Our Guests arrived shortly after and were treated to views of Saturn and the Moon in the same EP field. It's enough to make a guy think about video astronomy.

I've not been much of a planetary observer, but this was an amazing sight to see Saturn and the Moon in the same EP field and then watch it disappear. We timed the return well and were able to watch the whole thing. We observed at about 50-60x. neat. Even the kids liked it. Never seen the like before. I think there is another in December.

Planetary Dobservations 12/19/01

I set the 10" out to cool when i took out the trash. Later after the kids were in bed i went outside and observed Jupiter at 203x and 316x. The Great Red Spot is "in transit" and was quite well defined. It moved noticibly while I observed (using the equatorial tracking platform). It had a red ring arround it. In the opposite equatorial band 2 focal red areas could be seen which were darker and "redder" then the rest of the band. A few other bands were seen.

Becoming cold I turned to Saturn. Though higher in the sky there was more turbulence here and I cut down the mag from 316 to 203 to 158x. Cassini division was well seem when the seeing steadied. One planetary band was noted. Brownish smudging was seen towards the pole.

With the seeing deteriorating and my finger becoming numb, I returned to the warmer world inside.

Saturn Occultation 12/28/01

From what I'm told Occultations don't occur every year, but whe they do they occur multiple times for the year. I missed the event in September. I enjoyed the one in early December. That was most enjoyable as it occured about 8PM and the weather was pleasantly warm. My Christmas present was a Stellacam astronomical videocamera so I was eager to try it out on the last Lunar Occultation of Sturn for 2001. I set the 20" scope up outside on its equatorial platform . I did a crude polar alignment with a compas while it was still light. All the dew heaters were in place, the scope was collimated and the finders were aligned. I set up the car as a wind break. I went to bed. I awoke at 3:30 AM, dressed quickly and raced outside to set up the Stellacam and the video camcorder (that reords the Stellacam's video output). I watched Saturn close in on the moon. The view on the monitor lacked the impack of the eyepiece but i was here to record history. it was very clod and a little windy which made the scope shake but only blew it off target a few times.

The wind settled down and I was able to record the occultation. My polar alignment was not too good so I kept having to recenter Saturn with the platform's "slo mo" controls. I converted about 14 BMP images captured off the video tape with a SNAPPY 4.0 to both an AVI and a GIF movie. I put the lower res GIF on our club's web site.You can see it here.

Early January

I've spent some time playing with the Stellacam since then. I've put some views of the Sun, Jupiter, and s few deep space objects on the OVAS (astronomy club) Bulletin board on Yahoo. They are in the photos section of that site. I have some disorganized comments about astrophotography and videoastronomy as well as a few pictures on my video astronomy page.