December 2009 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Ziggy's "Wishing Star"
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy/2009/12/13/ patrick :)

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] NGC2070 Tarantula Neb 12-18-2009 via GRAS roboscope
by Canopus56 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

Patrick wrote; > Just to clarify, you took it in Australia while sitting in SLC. Is that correct? Yep, that's right. It's a little anispectic for an astronomy experience, but you can grab some interesting captures for practicing image processing. Definitely cheaper that a plane ticket to Chile. GRAS is pretty pricey - minimum of $40 a month, but I've decided to subscribe for a couple of winter months just for the imaging practice. The main alternative - Slooh - is much cheaper - $25 for six months - but is (1) never really working and (2) is a crippled consumer experience. The GRAS interface has an advanced option to control pretty much anything an advanced imager would want (Schuler filters, Ha, etc). I've also took an image of part of the Small Magellanic Cloud that I will process and post later. The Tarantula Neb in the Large Magellanic Cloud is an interesting image processing challenge. The base exposure is 300 seconds but the ratio between the cloud feature (2000 ADUs) and the bright central nebula (50,0000 ADU) is 25-to-1. Mostly for me, it is a convenient way to practice image processing over the cold winter. (Gotta handit to David - driving down to St. George to capture images). Through the Mars opposition on Jan 14, 2010, I'm planning to use Slooh and Gras to take a time series of Mars approaching. (It's been done before by some uber-imagers, but it looks like a fun imaging project.) Clear Skies - Kurt

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Onion funnies
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

Most media folks due "Best of the decade" or even "Best of the century". But the Onion has just released their "Top Ten Stories of the Past 4.5 Billon Years": http://www.theonion.com/content/news/evolution_going_great_reports And, as you read it, remember, it's The Onion... :) Smiles, patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Cheap meteor camera?
by Canopus56 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

To summarize results of my and Patrick's tests, I think the answer for the "cheap meteor cam" what has been done by the Croatian Meteor Group. Report 2nd Year of Croatian meteor network (2009) http://www.imo.net/imc2009/pdf/segon_andreic_korlevic_imc2009.pdf Slide 3 Describes using the Sony EX View HAD modified to disable the automatic gain control to reach down to 3 or 4 mag with modification by "Filip Lolic". They are using a $270 base camera from Supercircuits based on the Sony ExView HAD chip - http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Cameras/Dome-Security-Cameras/CD42IRHR This uses the same chip that Patrick has in his Supercircuits IR camera for $85 and that I have in a raw camera board received yesterday - Supercircuits PC402UXP. The problem is that the Sony ExView HAD chip has automatic gain control, automatic brightness and backlighting compensation forced on. The AGC feature has to be disconnected for the Sony ExView HAD chip to function as an all sky cam. After the AGC on the camera board is disabled, it should reach down to mag 3. I have emailed the Croatian Meteor Group asking for a set of instructions on modifying the camera board. Possible solutions are, if the Croatian Meteor Group does not respond are: 1) Is there anyone in the group who is an electronics wiz or has experience in with the old Quickcam modifications (that turned the Quickcam into a lunar planetary camera). 2) Is there anyone in the group who is Croatian? The Croatian Meteor Group might be more willing to respond if a native speaker contacted them. 3) Perhaps the club through some of Patrick's contacts at the UofU could ask the UofU electrical engineering department to work out the modification. This is the kind of project that an electrical engineering student could probably tackle with ease. Patrick did not get below mag 1.5 in his test with Supercircuits PC88WR. Last night I tried with the Supercircuits PC402UXP Super Low Light raw camera camera board with a 90 deg. While the AGC is enabled and cut-off the camera's response, I boosted the gain on my laptop's video board to the max. This gives a grainy image. The TLM was around 2.0 with Orion's belt at the eastern horizon just above city lights. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2736 I'll have to retry this from Little Mtn the next time clouds clear out where there is less light pollution. If you search the web for "Sony ExView HAD" you can find any number of more expensive security cameras that have AGC and Backlighting cutout buttons - but they cost more money - http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/251834984/1_3_Sony_Super_HAD_CCD.html For example, there is a microscopy camera that has the AGC override and a USB laptop connection built-in - but again at a price - http://www.ptgrey.com/products/chameleon/Chameleon_datasheet.pdf This Chinese direct company seems to have the lowest priced housings with the Sony IR chip in them - http://www.inesun.com/cate-597.html In summary, test moved forward to the sticking point of finding some wiring instructions for disconnecting the AGC, backlighting, white-balance switches on the Supercircuits board with the Sony ExView HAD chip. Personally, I am not electronic educated, can use soldering iron and have built a few circuits out the basic Forest Mims books. Clear Skies - Kurt P.S. - Patrick, if in your wanderings in other newsgroups, you run across wiring instructions - specifically for the Supercircuits PC402UXP board - to disconnect the AGC, please let me know. I found one sheet of instructions for the ExView chip, but the camera board was different.

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Meteor pings
by Stephen Peterson 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

I do not think what Kurt recorded were meteor pings. This is based on pings that I have heard via Space Weather and the fact that they were too regular. Also interesting was the alternating doppler shifts (up/down in frequency). I don't know what they were. I do ham radio and when I get a chance I'll put together a system and give ping listening a try. Lots of thanks to Patrick for the list of FM stations, finding the right frequency is the hard part! Steve KI7L

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Meteor cam update
by Canopus56 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

Patrick, The other thing I was going to try with the C lens housing was to simply duct tape it to a Celestron LPI camera - which comes with better software gain controls. - Kurt

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Rosette from last night
by David Rankin 17 Dec '09

17 Dec '09

Got chilly, was fighting ice all night. Here is the Rosette Nebula. Enjoy! http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2733&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

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Meteor cam update
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Dec '09

17 Dec '09

A sucker hole lasted just long enough tonight for me to try out the 164C with the 1.68mm lens. Unfortunately it did not work well. Not even 2nd magnitude stars registered. Really surprised me as it worked better than the 88WR indoors but the 88WR was clearly better outside under real sky conditions. So if you're happy with a 90 degree FOV and stars of mag +2 or brighter showing up on the monitor go with the PC88WR. But if you want fainter and/or wider you'll need to look elsewhere. patrick

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Overwhelmed
by Troy Davidson 16 Dec '09

16 Dec '09

I just wanted to send an email saying that you all are way smarter about astonomy then I am. You all are using actual math to figure things out! I just look up. I am so overwhelmed by everything on this list. I feel like I don't even belong. And, I've gone to SPOC once and just didn't feel like I fit in. Everyone looked at me like I was invading their special club. I'm the wallflower of the Utah Astronomers. ++++++++++++++++++ Troy Davidson

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Radio meteor recording attempt
by Canopus56 16 Dec '09

16 Dec '09

Patrick, Thanks for the frequency list. I'll give them a try. - Kurt

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