Finally!

This is the first image of the year! Let's just say it's been a bad year. Amazingly everything worked smoothly, including me. This is yet another AL Bright nebular object, LBN 331.

A so-so picture, but I'll take it--LBN 331 is a brightness 4 object, so given my skies I don't expect much from 1.6 hours total exposure.

LBN 331

Details are here.

Tonight's supposed to be clear again (we'll see), so with luck I can bag another object, or go back to this one and shoot some RGB so that the stars have color.

Framed and Registered

The print of M31 I talked about last time has now been framed, and I've registered it for the Fine Arts competition at the State Fair.  Here's what it looks like framed:

This is a snap using an inexpensive digital camera, and I think it went blue-heavy, but you get the idea. The matte and frame are blacker than this shows. I chose anti-reflection glass, too, which lends a very slight blue tinge, much like it can do when viewed on a lens.

In a fit of optimism I decided to put a for-sale price on it. My cost, disregarding time and travel is $14 for the print and $261 for the framing, for a total of $275. The fair takes 20% of the sale price, so that becomes  $330. I set the price at $350, which means I'll have a "profit" of $20. 

Two things about that. It would be nice to have the costs taken care of, and it would be a great pleasure to know someone was willing to pay for one of my images. Seeing it hanging in the Fine Arts building with a "sold" sticker would be a blast. 

One thing at a time, though, and I won't find out what its status is until July 14-15. If it's accepted, I'll take all the mounting hardware off, and my wife will deliver it to the Judges (I'll be at the Nebraska Star Party).

This week I should really finish my Binocular mount project. The Jeffers Stargaze and NSP are going to arrive quicker than I know.

Getting an Image Ready for the Fair

I'm a fan of our state fair, which I've attended almost every year since I was a child. In recent years I've been entering baked bread in the baking competitions with some success. My wife usually enters some of her craft work, too. And my mother, now 91 years of age, enters both stitched and baked goods.

The first day of the fair is usually dedicated to visiting the buildings where our entries are on display and seeing what ribbons we've won (most years at least one of us gets a ribbon, some years, all three). After that it's on to the Education building, the 4H building, Fine Arts Building, and then to wherever time permits. It's not unusual to attend on a couple of days, as there's a great deal to see.

One of my uncles was a painter (as I hope to be some day) and managed to get his work displayed in the Fine Arts building on a couple of occasions. He never won a prize or mention, though, which I think irritated him a little. To carry on with his tradition I'm going to submit an astrophoto this year.

In the past there's been some astronomy presence in the building. A local painter has entered her impressions of astronomical objects, and there's usually at least one picture of the Moon. Last year was a particularly fruitful year, with these on display:

At top are two star trail images, lower left is an aurora, and bottom right is art with a fairly realistic depiction of the northern sky (note the big and little dippers). Obviously my pictures don't do justice to the works!

Seeing these got me thinking that the judges might be receptive to other examples of astrophotography. So I'm submitting my M31 image from the South Dakota Star Party:

While I'm not suggesting that it's great astrophotography, it's one of my best to date, and I like it. I've had a test print made using the services of National Camera Exchange in Burnsville. It looked good and faithfully reproduced the image I submitted, but for the full-sized print (11x14 inches) I changed the yellow-blue balance a little, which nicely brought up the blue. I'm also going to print it on metallic paper, which is said to enhance the vibrancy of the color. The print will be ready next week, and then it's off to the framing shop.

The Fair requires that the image be framed with a glass or plastic cover, and I'll go with glass. Registration requires submitting an image of the art that is about 1,000 pixels on the short side. 

Judging takes place in several phases; Phase 1 is where they cull the entries based on the submitted image and is completed by July 13. Phase 2 is where the jurors do the hard work and decide what will be displayed and how awards will be allocated.

Between now and the end of registration on July 7 I need to decide if I will offer the print for sale. The price would be set by the cost of printing (a modest $14) and framing (probably not as modest) plus 20% to cover the Fair's cut and a few bucks so I can say I came out ahead on the whole thing. 

There are cash prizes awarded, and the dream would be to land one of those, sell the print, and do this over again next year with a better image. At this point reality says: Let's just see if I can get past Phase 1.

I'll post more about this as the process rolls on.

A DIY Binocular Mount

Thanks to a change in plans--a wedding I want to attend is on the same Saturday as the Wisconsin Observers Weekend--I am going to go to this year's Nebraska Star Party. No offense intended to WOW, but NSP is a bit of a bigger show with more people and darker skies. NSP begins as the annual Jeffers Petroglyphs party ends, so I'll be able to save a couple of hours of drive time by going straight from Jeffers to NSP.

But what to do at NSP? I'll have my imaging gear from Jeffers with me, but maybe I should just make my first NSP a strictly visual affair. All that really dark sky, you know!

I've come into possession of an old pair of Celestron binoculars, their 11x80 Giant model from the 1990s:

This is not the model that was labeled "Comet Hunter" or "Comet King" apparently to cash in on Halley's Comet in 1986. What reviews I can find for this later model are mixed.

Good features from my standpoint:

• It was free
• It has a wide FOV (4.5 degrees)
• It comes with a mounting bracket. 

Cons:

• Probably not the greatest optical quality
• Heavy (6.7 pounds) 
• Exit pupil (~7mm) that is too large for my old eyes. I'm 60, and although I haven't measured, I would guess my pupils don't open past 5mm. This means that some of the objective size is being wasted, but some people suggest this has a small silver lining in that one's eyes can move a little laterally and stay in the light.

My past experience with large binoculars suggests that a mount is a very good thing to use for steadiness and comfort. A little googling turned up this plan, which I am adapting to the top of my CGEM tripod. The CGEM tripod has two threaded holes for mounting the azimuth post. These are perfect for attaching a base plate. In my case I'm changing the plan to substitute a 3/4" piece of hardwood for the 3/8" aluminum plate. The rest will be pretty much as the design suggests.

I was unable to find the nice round counterweights seen in the explanatory pictures, so I'm using lead scuba weights from the appropriately named Lead-co USA. Construction begins next week.

An update on May 20: Lead-co uses fixed-cost USPS mailing boxes, and I had paid for a medium sized-one. It turns out that the weights I bought fit in the small box, so Lead-co refunded the difference. Nice!

Definitely Rusty

First the unpleasant winter, and then too much work. I'm barely able to keep up with the lectures I need to prepare, so maybe it's been a blessing in disguise that the winter has made it difficult to get out and observe. I really don't have the energy or, sad to say, the will.

That said, last week it was finally nice enough for me to get out and try to resume imaging. Amazingly, I remembered how to get everything put back together and working. The fist night by the time my polar alignment was done my target (Thor's helmet) had moved behind a tree. I thought I'd swing up to Regulus and take a stab at trying to image Leo I dwarf galaxy. I screwed up and instead centered on Gamma. Nice shot of it, but not what I wanted.

The next night I was ready for the Helmet and started shooting as twilight ended. The tree won the battle, though. All I got was 9 frames for a grand total of 27 minutes of H-alpha. Not nearly enough to get the fainter outer regions.

As expected, the Bright Nebula list has a gaping hole in the sky during spring, so I'll be imaging other targets until the summer milky way starts rising.

I'm going to go back and get Leo I, I think, only I'll use my TV 102 or C9.25 for it. And maybe I'll do some planetary imaging. Classes end the first week of May, and after that I'll be free to do as I please!

Snow.

We had our biggest snowfall of the season last week, and while it wasn't all that much (maybe 12 inches) it brought our snow depth up to a level we haven't seen since 1982. This winter has been unlike others in that the temperature has stayed low enough to prevent the usual gradual melts that keep the snow cover in check. Each snowfall has added to the last and now we're up around two feet of the stuff.

I know for other parts of the country that's not so much, but winter is somewhat subjective. Thirty two years between mounds of snow like this are almost enough to erase it from the collective memory. Almost.

Anyway, with the forecast for continued cold (and I mean sub-zero lows cold) cabin fever is pounding at the door. To do something--anything--constructive is to hold the madness off for a while. So I decided to go dig out my observing platform.

BEFORE

The Pristine Winter Wonderland/Wasteland

AFTER

80 cubic feet of snow and ice later

THE SNOW

The yard stick does not lie.

The depth was 26" on one side and 24 on another, with the average as you see it above.

This was completely futile, of course. March, only days away, is our snowiest month on average. But it was nice to see the wood planking again, and maybe--just maybe--the Sun will do some work and melt it clear before the next snowfall.

---

I did manage to do some astronomy evangelizing the week before last. I volunteered to make an astrophotography presentation to three photography classes at Richfield High School. It was fun, and doing some show-and-tell gave me an excuse to get out my neglected cameras, now three months into their winter exile.

Nebraska Star Party Weather

(Continued cold and clouds have curtailed all my imaging activity, so thoughts continue to turn to the summer)

I'm still toying with the idea of attending the Nebraska Star Party, which in 2014 is from July 27 through August 1. I have some concerns.

A minor concern is electrical power. I run off two deep-cycle batteries, and it's unlikely that I can get more than a few nights off my gear. I'll be coming from the Prairie Grass Star Gaze. It's likely my batteries will need to be topped off before getting to NSP or I might have less than two night's capacity.

The bigger concern is the weather, both the heat and the potential for damaging storms. This has led me to investigate the weather that's typical for late July. Here's what I've found for nearby Valentine:

TEMPERATURES (all in degrees F) (source 1)
---------------------------------------------
July 27- Average, 89/61, records 106/43
July 28- Average, 89/61, records 108/44
July 29- Average, 89/61, records 110/42
July 30- Average, 89/61, records 105/38
July 31- Average, 89/61, records 110/44
August 1- Average, 89/61, records 106/44

WEATHER PROBABILITIES (source 2)
---------------------------------------------
Entire period, daily chance of thunderstorm is about 39%; daily chance of rain is about 50%.
An average five day interval will see two days with thunderstorms and two or three days with rain.

CLOUD COVER PROBABILITIES (source 2)
---------------------------------------------
In late July and early August the skies are clear or mostly clear about 66% of the time. This probably understates the likelihood of favorable conditions at night, when clouds are less common.

Sources:
(1) http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/daily/USNE0494?climoMonth=7
(2) http://weatherspark.com/averages/31908/Valentine-Nebraska-United-States

Numerous attendees have reported that the thunderstorms can be strong. I usually take down my scopes at night but leave the mount up so that my polar alignment is retained. I might consider looking into how to stake down the mount so that really strong gusts don't topple it.

As for the heat, it could easily top what I experienced at the Iowa star party last year. The Solution is a lot of water, and either bring or borrow shade.