Tanzanian holiday - a must to return

Our trip is coming to a close but my heart has been won over by Tanzania. I have to come back!

There have been so many highlights and hard to organise them here for you now. In short, come to Tanzania and experience it for yourself. I highly recommend Simba Tours for their professional and experience in providing tours and stop overs. I am writing from Langi Langi beach bangalows in Zanzibar and I must say the manager here has ensured we have had a wonderful stay. Right from the first day we are able to arrange for a change of room to the Tumbutu suit, the highest appartment facing the ocean. the views are wonderful and the opportunities to view the night sky in all directions is possible either from the beach viewing balconew or the rear balconey showing a NorthEast viewpoint. From here I have seen Jupiter, a cresent moon and Venus rising before the sun. Venus was also seen to have a cresent shape through my small refractor. Southern views in the evening showed the Southern Cross and pointer stars, Hadar and Rigil Kentaurus. Whenever the power failed, which happens quite often here, the coalsack and milky was also able to be made out. Sadly, the south has its beauty spoiled by a huge hotel polluting the southern horizon. The North and West view is much better for night sky junkies.

One highlight was our 10th anniversary where we asked for a special meal to be made at the cooks choice, and found our table was well positioned near the water and decorated with flowers. A wonderful meal was provided and the bill withheld?? To our complete surprise and delight the anniversary dinner was complimentary!!! Suleimann Said is a really nice guy, not only for the wonderful dinner and making it complimentary, this guy really cares about his guests and hotel/Restaurant. I can't recommend Langi Langi in Zanzibar enough.

....more to come! Its time for my last swim and sun downer drink!

Well, the sun is shining again and there's clear skies to explore!

After resigning myself to not getting the latest and greatest 3D Printer by Makerbot, the Replicator, I was pleased to see a TOM appear on ebay. To my joy and delight I won the bid and this weekend had the chance to put it into action. After an excellent tutorial from Tim, TopperDEL, http://www.thingiverse.com/TopperDEL, the previous owner, I was keen to try something....well astronomy related.

I wanted something simple but still useful and was amazed to find a 3D diagram on thingiverse for an eyepiece cap. The perfect starting point.

This picture shows the Makerbot TOM setup ready to go, well almost, I'm waiting for the temperature to reach 200 . The eyepiece cap is ready and the G-code already created and copied to the printer storage card.

It took 20 mins to print the cap and it fitted very snugly. I would prefer to have a softer plastic so I am looking into printing with a softer, biodegradable plastic.

Cheers
Ivan

Modded Webcam for Polar Scope

While waiting for the weather to improve I was browsing youtube for more info on how to improve my polar alignment and came across a few videos from Astronomy shed.
His site is here and is worth a look when you have time:
 http://www.youtube.com/user/astronomyshed?feature=watch  
 I have since subscribed!

 One of his projects is to modify a webcam for the polar scope and I can tell you it was a breath of fresh air to know I am not the only one to suffer from wet knees trying to get my astrotrac properly aligned. In fact, I hope the webcam can be ported to my CGEM mount as well but I'll try that later.

This is the video I watched beforehand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L6IvfievRE&feature=BFa&list=UUFK1huCp-0Y3COTfkoV6cVQ&lf=plcp

 Here's a summary of what I did. As I am over the inlaws for Christmas I was fortunate to convince my father in-law that he didn't need the logitech webcam lying in a draw since the new PC has an in built webcam. So, here's how I managed to disassemble and fit a cap the snuggly fits over the end of the polar scope.    


I'm happy with the focus and have the option to focus the scope when I'm in the field next.  On this polar scope I have illumination but the contrast was not ideal to show it. I'll add to this post with I have a chance to point it to the night sky. I'm a little concerned with how sensitive this webcam is to low light as it wasn't the preferred Phillips SPC900 but we will see.

Journal Entry 5 Dec 2011 - Just give me 1 clear shot of Jupiter, Pleeeeese!

Oh, the weather is horrible and I feel a little jilted because this morning the sky was so clear.

Anyway, the clouds have thinned out and I can see Jupiter and moon though still through cloud.

Let's see if I can get another pick of Jupiter's Satellites for the Jupiter mass determination experiment.

1) Jupiter mass determination

Equipment:
Astrotrac in lunar tracking mode
70/420mm APO ED Refractor
DBK41AU02AS Astronomy camera by ImagingSource
Baader Hyperion Zoom 8-24mm eyepiece
Laptop + RSpec

Setup:
70/420mm APO ED Refractor mounted on Astrotrac mount in sidereal tracking mode.
Diagonal added to Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom set to 20mm.
50 frames video avi captured with DBK41AU02 colour camera exposure time set to 1/ sec.







Jupiter at 600 px
Io at  539 px
Ganymede at 449 px
Europa at 376 px
Callisto at 37 px

Journal Entry 17 Oct 2011 - Back to my C11

Well my summer love affair with a 115mm refractor came to an end last night when I decided to go back to my first love, Celestron SCT C11 and have another look at Jupiter.

The APO 115 refractor has been a joy to use but in getting the detail of Jupiter while its in opposition just needed more aperture.

Here's my pictures while I prepare to explain the set up.

Journal Entry Nov 30th 2011 - Sun viewing

The clouds are clearing!

There was news of a huge CME erruption on Nov 26th inspired me to get a picture of the sun as soon as the clouds and fog clears. At last I got my chance.

Equipment:
Astrotrac in Sun tracking mode
70/420mm APO ED Refractor
Sun mask made from Baader Astrosolar filter foil
Astrodon Photometrics V filter
Astronomy camera DBK41AU02AS by ImagingSource



Weather:
8 degreesC
92% Humidity
1021 hPa
patches of cumulus cloud and some high level sirus cloud with patch of blue sky

 Images:



Pictures each stacked and processed with Registax6 from 200 frames. Left or top image has exposure time of 1/2500 sec and Right or bottom image has 1/2000 sec exposure time. Darks and Flats subtracted.

Here's a labelled image.



Ref:
Spaceweather Nov 30

Journal Entry 30 Nov 2011 - Eeek, the fog is rolling in....again!

Quick picture of moon before the fog really rolls in.
By 18:45, just 1 hr later I was covered in fog. Just made it!!!

Equipment:
Astrotrac in Sidereal tracking mode
70/420mm APO ED Refractor
Baader Moon & Skyglow Neodymium filter
DBK41AU02AS Astronomy camera by ImagingSource

Weather:
1 degree C
90% Humidity
1021 hPa
clear with fog increasing

Images
Pictures each stacked and processed with Registax6 from 200 frames.
exposure time of 1/625 sec per frame.
Time - 17:46 - 17:48 hr