On politics...

I'm going to momentarily step out of the role of amateur astronomer and comment on the election of a couple of days ago. In my state of Minnesota the Republicans got a severe thrashing, losing both houses of state government and seeing two amendments they promoted be denied. A very conservative house member was voted out after his first term, and the radical Michelle Bachmann barely won reelection to another term.

The Republican error--and a common one made by most of us these days--was inflating their own sense of moral and practical rightness. They gained control of the legislature only two years ago, selling themselves broadly as the party of jobs, and to a narrower constituency as the party of morality. The honeymoon was brief. Many of the new members were inexperienced at participating in government at a high level, and they quickly found themselves being outmaneuvered by the Democratic Governor. A sexual scandal erupted that became messy because of legal fees.
Failure to work with the Governor led to a shutdown of state government. The state Republican party outspent their resources and hardly looked like the party of fiscal responsibility. Republicans then dithered on a contentious stadium-building issue (managing to look both obstructionist and disorganized).

Republicans sealed their fate with two state constitutional amendments. The marriage = one man + one woman amendment was a slap at GLBT families, liberals, and libertarians, the latter being a significant portion of the Republican base. The voter ID amendment addressed a non problem and was perceived as oppressive and self-serving.

Republicans apparently judged themselves so popular and their mandate so large that they thought their base would carry them to any victory they sought. It worked out otherwise.

Democrats would do well to remember this lesson as they sweep back into power, lest they repeat mistakes they've made in the past. I consider myself an independent, and I hope that the Republicans can regroup around a more moderate base and continue to advance the ideals of conservatives.

HOASP, CCD Returns

It's back, and it works. SBIG contacted me after about three weeks that the problem had been diagnosed. The news was not good: both circuit boards were fried and would have to be replaced. The cost would be $695.

Ouch!

I told them to go ahead and do the repairs. My options were limited. The filter wheel and 36mm filters I use are tied to the ST-8300 and can't be easily adapted to another camera. While $700 could probably buy a used CCD, but it wouldn't be as good a camera as the 8300--and I would have to add the cost of a new filter wheel and filters to that.

A week later the 8300 came back, and it works like new so far as I can tell. The fan runs and the filter wheel aligns itself when powered up, the shutter clatters when initialized, and the cooling system cools. It's been cloudy here since the camera was returned, so all I've been able to do so far is shoot dark frames.

Two questions I asked SBIG that you may be interested in if you are an ST-8300 owner:

Q. How did the breakdown happen, and how can it be prevented in the future?

A. The camera apparently much prefers to be powered up first; always connect the 12V power before plugging the USB connection into your laptop.


Q. Even though the sensor was not replaced, do the new boards mean that I need to shoot new dark frames?

A. Probably not, but it would be a good idea to shoot some test dark frames that match the exposure time and temperature of old dark frames. If they compare well, then my flat library doesn't need to be rebuilt.

So I'm back in business, once the skies finally clear. While I'm waiting, I'm going to make myself a poor man's camera case using a Plano #761 toolbox, some foam from a craft store, a twin-blade electric carving knife and a hot glue gun. It won't be a Pelican, but it will cost about 1/4 as much. I'll post more about this micro-project when I'm finished.

The Heart of America Star Party was a viewing and imaging bust, but I had a good time, as did most of the attendees. All three nights were cloudy, and it rained pretty much from the second night through all of the third day, with a lot of lightning the second night. Severe weather was forecast for the third night so I folded my tent and stayed at the Days Inn in Butler. Fortunately the severe weather bypassed the observing area.

HOASP featured an abundance of knowledgeable and friendly people, excellent talks, great food (assembled if not made on the premises) and nightly movies to help people cope with the clouds. One vendor (Bushnell) was on site, the daily door prizes were decent (I won none). One word of advice: If you decide to play bingo, take several cards. It's a cutthroat game, bingo.

I'll definitely want to return.

Waiting Time

One week since I sent in my CCD to SBIG, and one week to go to the Heart of America Star Party 2012. I didn't expect to hear anything from SBIG this week; my impression is that the repair queue is about two weeks long. After that--in a few short days--you hear from them, they do the repair, and it's on its way back to you. So I'm guessing that I'll get it back sometime around the last week of October.

On the HOASP front, there's good and bad news. A friend who also owns an ST-8300M has agreed to loan me his for the trip. CCD imaging is back on the menu. I'm still waffling about which scope to bring, the TV102 or C925. Today, I'm favoring the TV102. Stand by.

Bad news is the weather forecast. At this time it has all three days of HOASP as showers and thunderstorms, so the whole CCD issue may very well end up moot. I've picked three targets as if there will be three nights of clear sky. The helix nebula (NGC 7293), The sculptor galaxy (NGC 253), and The foxface nebula (NGC 1788, a reflection and dark nebulae in Orion) Will any get imaged? Or will I come home having collected only mildew?

CCD Camera Goes in for Repairs

My ST-8300M began acting erratic at a star party a couple of weeks ago. I was able to pull a couple of dark frames off it when it lost contact with my laptop. Subsequent tries to reconnect all failed. Either the camera couldn't be found by the camera control software, or Windows was declaring it an unidentified USB device.

Cable swapping and driver reinstallation ensued to no good effect. It was time to consult a higher source.

I contacted SBIG and they suggested trying to use another computer. I loaded the drivers onto my desktop computer and got the same results. SBIG suggested sending in the camera for diagnosis and repair.

Two days ago I mailed it to them. I expect to hear back in a couple of weeks, and then perhaps another two weeks for repair and the return trip. Which means I'll miss the best part of autumn, and imaging from the Heart of America Star Party. Bummer.

The fallback is to rely on my DSLR for some dark-sky imaging at HOASP. I think it would be nice to do some reflection nebula imaging, perhaps the Iris?

Goodbye, Sky and Telescope

In an earlier entry I posted a graph showing the diminishing page count of Sky and Telescope magazine. It's still at 86 pages each month. And now it's renewal time for me.

Reasons to renew: Product reviews, articles on interesting topics, pretty picture, astronomy news, advertisements.

Reasons not to renew: The magazine has become a two-hour read. The astronomy news can largely be found elsewhere on the Internet. Ditto the pretty pictures and advertisements (which now tend to target high-end spenders). The hardware reviews are too brief and often are about products for which I have no interest. Article topics tend to repeat over time; not much new can be said about alignment of your telescope that hasn't already been written about it. The monthly sky guides are mainly for beginners; much of their function can be replaced by software. I seldom read the editorial articles or letters to the editor.

The only reason I can muster to renew that makes much sense is that I need to keep up on popular astronomy on behalf of the classes I teach, and S&T offers a convenient way to do that. So I've reupped for three years. I would have gone for the online-only version, which is cheaper, but I didn't care for the image quality of their online version. I'll keep looking in on it.

Another telescope, WOW, images

Yes, I've purchased another telescope, this time a used C9.25. This is something I've wanted for a long time; it fills the niches for long focal length deep sky imaging and planetary imaging/observing. I've been using it so far only for deep sky imaging, and it's very nice, even at f/10. Here are some samples:

Messier 16 (Eagle Nebula) LRGB

M27 (first light image) Ha+OIII full frame

NGC 6820 (full frame) Ha
Sort of looks like M 16, doesn't it?

NGC 6781 (full frame) Ha + OIII

At f/10 it has a nice flat field. These are imaged with an SBIG ST-8300M and Baader filters. I usually bin 3x3.

WOW stands for the Wisconsin Observers Weekend, an annual event that brings together amateurs from all over Wisconsin and nearby states. It's held at the lovely Hartman Creek state park near Waupaca, WI, and features very dark skies. If you're in the MN, IA, WI, IL area and looking for a nice group of people to observe with under great skies, you can't do much better. I had bad luck with a faulty dew preventer, but still managed one night of imaging that got me the M 16 image above.

Next for me is the backyard observatory, the resumption of the school year, and a weekend trip to Jeffers Petroglyphs. More images coming soon, too.

MK-67 morphs to C9.25

One of the local club members put his C9.25 up for sale a while ago. I've always wanted a C9.25 because of its reputation and how it fit my "long-term imaging plan." It's got a nice aperture and versatility, being either a nice long f/10 or a reasonably fast f/6.3. I would just have bought it but for the fact that it would make my MK-67 redundant.

The solution was to sell the MK-67 and use the funds to help buy the C9.25. Two nights ago I did the former, and last night the latter. Tonight I've got it out on my CGEM to see If I can do an imaging dry run at f/10. The target will be good old M 27 in H alpha.

I wonder how often sales act like dominos. The selling of my MK67 triggers the C9.25 sale, which has its seller looking to buy a used Fastar system for his C11. It's too far downstream to ever know if the Fastar seller will turn around and buy something else, but I wouldn't be surprised if  that happened.

First visual check: Alignment looks perfect. Views are beautiful! Saturn sharp and contrasty (if that's a word); moons like pinpoints. Spica dazzles with no false color. Next up, getting the CCD started up as soon as it's dark.