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Post by Mike on May 11, 2012 19:40:33 GMT -5
Hey Guys! Let's talk about the upcoming transit. What's everybody doing? What kind of scopes? What kind of filters? Describe your setup. Anyone else imaging? Where are you going to be? Anyone as excited about this as me?
I'm using my 152-8 of course. I'll be imaging using an Imaging Source Camera DMK 21AU618.AS. I bought a 6" Baader solar filter from Astrozap. I used it a couple of times and it really shows great detail. There is a huge group on the sun now so I'll attempt to image them tomorrow.
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Post by borispider on May 12, 2012 2:59:32 GMT -5
Nice. Can't wait to see the images. If I'm not at work, I'll be at Laudermilk Park w/ the club. My set up will be 4" f/10 refractor w/ white-light Baader filter. This will be an outreach w/ a local highschool.
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Post by jamesling1000 on May 14, 2012 5:26:43 GMT -5
Hi All..... As most of you have seen my other post on my preparation for this coming Venus Transit , by getting one of my astro machinist to machine the extension pier for my losmandy heavy duty tripod... Yes.... For this coming Venus Transit, I will participate in one of our local NUS university , whereby they will stage a major event that will start on 5th June 2012, around evening time, all the way till 6th June 2012, noon time....with astronomy exhibitions, star gazing, and even 2 talks from following:- Professor Roy Kerr from University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. His most famous scientific work is on the discovery of Rotating Black Hole Theory , and Professor Richard Strom will deliver his talk entitled The Venus Transit. He retired as a Senior Research Astronomer (Wetenschappelijk Hoofdambtenaar) at ASTRON (Dwingeloo Radio Observatory). The details for this major event is also been featured in their outreach website.... www.science.nus.edu.sg/outreach/venustransit2012.htmlNUS university has ordered a solar filter for my ISTAR, coz the 8" ISTAR outer tube dimension is 10.25inches...., if it did not arrive on time, they will use the solar film sheet to make one ready for me as well. As I am one of those who participates with big telescope, I am sure the ISTAR should be the biggest one, not in aperture, but in overall size , as it is heavier than my C14. I think the 8" ISTAR big achro will be one of the main attraction on the 5th June night gazing session, and it will continue until 6th June noon time... Hope I can come back with some good reports and photos of this ISTAR at this coming Venus Transit.... REgards James Ling
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Post by borispider on May 14, 2012 7:06:38 GMT -5
Sounds like a great event, James. I wish I could be there.
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Post by Mike on May 14, 2012 12:55:50 GMT -5
There are a number of spots now. However, the clouds have rolled in and will be here until Thursday which is going to be just long enough for the big group to rotate out of sight.
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Post by jamesling1000 on May 14, 2012 20:12:22 GMT -5
Sounds like a great event, James. I wish I could be there. Hi Borispider... I hope I can have photos taken with these two great professor astronomers together with the ISTAR, and have them posted....in our forum..... In fact , 2 other areas in our small Island, are organizing this major event ..... One of them is our Singapore Science Centre, whereby in the observatory, a 16" Pentax scope..... Another is a newly build observatory from a local community club, with a 12" Mewlon.... Both areas are opened to public on 6th June Venus transit..... REgards James Ling
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Post by jamesling1000 on Jun 1, 2012 1:30:31 GMT -5
Hi All......
As the Venus Transit is now very near, and is just less than a week to go......
Perhaps some of you may be able to have some update at your side of your country, states, etc......, in welcoming this special once in a life time event......
In our small island city, Singapore, in South East Asia, many big organizations are also preparing for this major Venus Transit event.....
Even my other astronomy friend, Gary is also arranging with a few of his friends to stage one at one of our new park.......which they have been actively doing side walk for more than a month.... And this place is also their new regular side walk outlet, just next to a Mcdonald outlet....., which I will join them, in their future side walk activities, with my ISTAR after this Venus Transit.....
As for me, as mentioned in earlier post, I will join the NUS university , and for them, is even a bit special..... This university has start this event , one day ahead, and it starts on Tuesday evening with exhibitions and performances...., and then follow by the star gazing activities from 9pm.... all the way till Wednesday noon time.... The actual transit started earlier in our South east Asia region, before 6am, and we can only see the Sun , clear from the high rise building around 8am.......
Hope to hear from the rest of you.......
REgards
James Ling
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Post by borispider on Jun 1, 2012 7:59:54 GMT -5
Here in Florida,US the transit will start around 6pm-ish(I believe) and we will only catch the 1st part just before the Sun sets. The park we will be at is on the beach and the Sun will be setting over the Gulf, so no obstructions other than possible cloud cover. Club members will start showing up around 3pm and start showing off the Sun to the public and I think the local newspaper will be there. To much fun will be had by all For me, I think it's a little to early to be checking the weather.
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Post by Mike on Jun 1, 2012 14:56:52 GMT -5
So far the weather is looking good for Monday and Tuesday. The transit or should I say ingress starts at 6:04 PM. We should be able to see a large part of it before the sun sets. Unless clouds are sitting on the horizon. If you guys are at the beach you should be able to follow it pretty far down. This will also allow for some interesting images. I would join you but I'm being selfish and staying home to image from my driveway. Every time I try to image at a public viewing it doesn't work out well. Someone always stands in front to the scope or something crazy like that. Since you guys are doing the public thing I don't feel so guilty now Thanks to you guys Todd, Charlie, Mr. Spider and the rest of the guys in the Everglades Astronomical Society.
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Post by borispider on Jun 5, 2012 20:11:07 GMT -5
Well hopefully James has better weather than we do. I spent the transit time on the beach hanging out w/the club talking and hoping the clouds would leave, but it was a nogo. It was a nice social event though and I might end up in the newspaper
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Post by Mike on Jun 5, 2012 20:44:37 GMT -5
Also clouded out... heart breaking. The local paper here and one astro magazine wanted my images. That's Southwest Florida in the summer for you.
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Post by jamesling1000 on Jun 6, 2012 7:46:32 GMT -5
Hi All...... This is the moment that some of you is waiting to hear and see .......how I enjoyed this special Venus transit event organized by NUS university..... On Tuesday 4pm, we arrived and setup our telescope on the big field that the night star gazing will take place , followed by Wednesday morning till noon Venus transit event..... Below is the ISTAR photo taken after setup..... REgards James Ling Attachments:
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Post by jamesling1000 on Jun 6, 2012 8:25:13 GMT -5
Hi all.....
We waited for night fall, to start the planet viewing, and after I do 2 star alignment to Spica and Arcturus, I point the ISTAR to Saturn, and using my baader zoom eye piece, I go straight to 8mm, at 225X, and the view is so beautiful and the contrast is so sharp, that I told my friend , can easily goes higher.....unlike the previous side walk, I will not go beyond 300X, until end of session.... I insert my 4mm burgess TMB eyepiece, at 450X...., and the contrast is still there....and so much details is seen, that almost everyone after seeing Saturn, are saying the view is so huge and clear, unlike from other scopes , are smaller and not clear..... Since my scope is tracking so beautifully, I went over to another astro friend of mine, who setup the 12" meade....., and take a look at his Saturn view... And to my surprise, my ISTAR 8" achro at Saturn with magnification of 450, you can see the CA that surround the planet, but the surface contrast detail is still very good. Whereas the 12" meade, is also powered up to around 400X, but the image is softer and lesser contrast sharpness, except is a very clean image without CA......
For Saturn, the queue is non stop from around 8pm till almost 11pm.... And after I move to the 16 day old moon for another half an hour, I use the WO-1 and a polarizer, and I managed to contained the CA and brightness down to an acceptable level....., with my 22mm TV panoptic ep..... The view and contrast is great even at such a full moon size....
And by then heavy clouds set in, and one hour later, heavy downpour came along, and we have to stop the night session......
REgards
James Ling
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Post by jamesling1000 on Jun 6, 2012 8:29:53 GMT -5
Hi All.... When is morning time, all of us started to gather back to the field , and waiting for the Sun to rise, around 7am.... The weather is so cloudy that we start taking pictures of our scope with solar filter, fixed onto it..... Below is another photo attachment showing myself with the ISTAR and a self made solar filter.... REgards James Ling Attachments:
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Post by jamesling1000 on Jun 6, 2012 8:52:03 GMT -5
Hi All.... We waited from 7am till around 10.30am for the thick clouds to disperse... And once the Sun is visible, we started to setup our scope to point at the Sun... I struggled for more than 20mins, coz the Sun is still not bright enough, and cannot be spotted with the solar filter.... By the time the Sun is of sufficient brightness, my finder can easily spot the Sun, I find no problem to setup the ISTAR with my TV55mm eye piece.... At 32X magnification, Venus is so clearly seen and also very huge black dot, and I have only less than 2 hours to show it to the public..... The queue to my ISTAR is so long that my friend told me everyone wants to see Venus through this giant achro.... And I really have no time to go over to my friend 12" meade to see his Venus view, except I took out my camera hand phone, and shot this short video clip, which I downloaded into utube for you to see the crowds and queues..... I am very satisfied with this whole Venus transit event, and as usual, the time to unpack, and drive home to unpack, and tiredness without sleep...., is worth doing it...... Hope all of you enjoy this whole venus transit event report that I have written.... Below is another photo shot taken with the public waiting for their turn to take a look through the ISTAR . REgards James Ling Attachments:
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