Citizen Scientist Adds To Supernova Science.

Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered a “new” star that was really a Nova in Delphinus.

The next day after the report the scientists at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) atop Mt. Wilson pointed the world’s largest infrared telescope at the event for the next 27 days.

The CHARA group was able to obtain the highest resolution images ever of an expanding nova in its earliest stages.  Although we are seeing it now, the nova actually occurred 15,000 years ago.

The CHARA Array uses the principles of optical interferometry to combine the light from six telescopes to create images with very high resolution, equivalent to a telescope with a diameter of more than 300 meters. This makes it capable of seeing details far smaller in angular extent than traditional telescopes on the ground or in space. It has the power to resolve an object the size of a U.S nickel on top of the Eiffel tower in Paris from the distance of Los Angeles, California.

Although located a couple of miles up the road from my house in Pasadena, the CHARA Array is operated by funding from the National Science Foundation and Georgia State’s College of Arts and Sciences.

 

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

And So It Begins…Nightfall Has Arrived.

Once again, I am making my pilgrimage to astronomical nirvana by attending Nightfall.  This year’s event is going to be a show stopper.  Not only is there the usual advanced courses available, this year there is a another complete track for not-so-advanced astronomers.

Also, our sponsor, Woodland Hills Telescope will also have astronomical goods on sale during the event.  This is great because I can’t tell you how many time that I forget that one piece of equipment/cable/something that my entire rig depends on to function.  Not only does this make me VERY angry, it also makes me go to the nearest astronomy store (about 80 miles away through the mountains, still closer than home) to get it.  Not this year.

I will be giving a talk, along with fellow Riverside Astronomical Society member Daniel Perry, about mirror-less cameras and astrophotography.  Daniel recently picked up a Sony A7s, which has great low light sensitivity (not any of the other A7 models, just the A7s).  While I will be talking about my significantly less expensive Canon EOS-M, which also has great low light capabilities.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each one.

I will also be manning the Solar Pavilion with always popular Lunt 152mm solar scope.  I will also have my Lunt 60mm solar scope and a Coronado PST.  We are only supposed to be open for about an hour, but it always turns into an all day event.  Thank goodness for pop-up shade tents.

I hope to see you there, but in any case, I will have plenty of images from the event for you next week (if I survive the trip and the event).

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Sun in the mornin’ and the Moon at night.

Yesterday, I posted some images I took of the Sun with just ordinary photographic equipment.  I didn’t get a chance to take any more images today, but this evening, the Moon was full and I decided to see what other ordinary camera capabilities are available.  Also, there was that lunar eclipse.  I didn’t stay up for that because it was a school night and I had to get up in the morning.  I hope some of you enjoyed it however.

So I broke out my birthday present.  A Sony DSC-H400 compact camera with an amazing 63x optical zoom.

With a better tripod, I extended the lens to is max capacity and shot some images.  The top image was bracketed by 1/3 ev and I think it looks better than the bottom one, which I did not bracket.  However, the bottom one is truer to the actual color (if you can call dust a color) of the Moon.  I think if I used the movie mode and then ran the frames through another free program, Registax.  I think the results may have been even more spectacular.  Not that I don’t think that the Sony didn’t take some very good images for single shots.  It is just that post processing will always make your images look better than a single shot in almost every case.  If only I had the time to do it all.

But it just shows that even an inexpensive camera, the Sony was around $300, can take some impressive images of the night sky.  I only wish my birthday has been a little later, because Canon just announced the PowerShot SX60 HS.  Although a little more expensive at $549.00, it has a lot more capabilities than the Sony.  Plus all my other cameras are Canon, so the controls are more familiar to me.  It took a few minutes to figure out the manual mode settings for the Sony.  At least they had the manual mode.  If you are looking for a camera to be creative with, you really need to get one with manual mode.  The Canon has the added bonus of storing images in RAW format which allows for a greater range of processing options that I don’t have with the JPEG only Sony.

Oh, well.  There’s always next years birthday to look forward to.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Star Party Weekend.

For those of you that have a chance, you are more than welcome to come out to the Riverside Astronomical Societies dark sky site (GMARS).

If you would like more information or directions, they can be found here.  We have two houses, 8 beds, 3 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, internet available, and lots of good people and good times.

Please be sure to come early in the afternoon on Saturday so that everyone can see who you are before it gets dark and you can meet and greet other club members.  It will also give you time to eat!  That’s right, we will be hosting our usual Star-B-Que Saturday evening.  It is free, but if you would like to bring something, it is a pot luck.

No matter what you skill level, you will find something to look at.  You don’t even need to bring your own telescope.  You can wander around and look through other peoples telescopes.  Don’t worry we are a friendly bunch ( except for that SOB of a Club President…wait…that’s me!).

If you would like to set up your own scope, we usually have pads available and there is a whole lot of field that you can also use.  There is electricity on the field that is also available.  It looks like the weather gods are going to be nice this weekend (the viewing was AWESOME last weekend).

I hope to see you there.  If not, I hope you can make an evening of observing somewhere.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

RAS General Meeting Recap.

We started off the evening with our usual reports, but unfortunately, our Chief Observer had a work commitment and could not make the meeting.

This months “What’s Up?” speaker was Cherly Wilcox and her talk was about atmospheric optics.  What is atmospheric optics you ask (like I did), it is all the nifty things that you can see in the sky from clouds, to rainbows and other phenomenon that you sometimes see if you look up.

I didn’t know that the dark area between two rainbows was called Alexander’s band, which was named after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it in 200 AD.

Moonbows are always a good time.  Moonbows are formed just like rainbows, only with moonlight.

Crepuscular rays (also known as God rays) in atmospheric optics, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the sun is located. I didn’t know what they were called, but I do now.  I have taken lots of pictures just thinking that they looked nice.

Anticrepuscular rays are similar to crepuscular rays, but seen opposite the sun in the sky. Now I will have to be on the lookout for them.

The green flash is always something to look for at sunset.  I have only seen it once, and I have never gotten a photograph of it.  I will just have to try harder.

This month’s main speaker was Chris Butler. He is a science artist, lecturer & media producer.  His talk, “Our Little Corner of the Galaxy — The Realm of the Super-terrestrials,” was facinating in that he produced a 45 minute animated video that he voiced over.  It will be available on his website.

Chris is an internationally renowned artist, public speaker, and educational program producer whose work focuses on science, nature, and maritime subjects. His illustrations have appeared in thousands of publications worldwide, from the Times of London to Scientific American. A graduate of California State University Fullerton’s school of Television and Film Production, Chris has served as a art director and animator on both educational and entertainment programs. Among his screen credits are the National Geographic IMAX film “Forces of Nature” (2003) and Griffith Observatory’s “Centered in the Universe,” (2006). Chris has produced and presented live science educational programming since 1985 which has been featured at hundreds of events.”

His talk will prompt some of this weeks posts as it raised a lot of questions for me, so as I explore them, I will tell you about what I find out.  This is just one of the benefits of attending your local astronomical club’s meetings.  You never know what you will learn.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Cell Phone Astrophotography Trials.

It was a pretty good weekend at the Riverside Astronomical Society’s monthly Star Party.

Dusk settling over the observing field.

Setting up equipment.

Where are we?  Knowing the Latitude and Longitude is important for astronomy.  P.S. the coordinates for GMARS are here.

Lots of people attended.

No, seriously where are we?  (or how many astronomers does it take to change a light bulb? Four, three to look it up and one to enter it into the computer. )

The Scoutmaster for Boyscout Troop 421 from Corona testing out my binocular/cellphone imaging setup.

Other Scouts attempting to set up camp.

Success!  Lots of different cellphone took some great images of the Moon as it set in the west.  They promised to send me copies, so I will post them as soon as I get them.

The Moon from my Canon G12.

Jan making short work of the Moon with her Nikon while hubby stays out of the way.

The Snapzoom device works great and I am excite to start using this for outreach (you can purchase yours here, but I was able to get mine at the Starlight Festival last week for $5 less.)  It is great and adapts to almost any cell phone.  We have had a Samsung Note 3 and my Note 2 and everything small attached using the snapzoom.  I am not sure if the Mega will fit (I didn’t have access to one to find out), but it is still a great device.

Now I just need someone to make a dedicated solar binocular (not just filters) and my outreach plans will be complete.

Next time, I have to try some long term cellphone astrophotography.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman