Dialing in the Red Planet

Man, Mars is getting better. Or maybe its just the scope. This week I plugged in the colimator, I realized the 2 dots I thought I'd been seeing were actually 3, the third one way out in left field. I adjusted the mirror so the alignment was right, and as good as everything was looking now its so much better. Seeing sooo much more with Jupiter, and the last two drawings of Mars are a big improvement over the first few.


The one common point is in all observations since the 13th the dark area surrounding the ice cap has been as obvious as the ice cap itself. I've described the task of drawing beyond that as trying to remember a dream. Details seem to whisp in and out, necessitating repetitive visual study of the surface to confirm and re-confirm what you THINK you see. In one case I did three rough sketches, the final drawing only happened after I saw those 3 roughs were pretty similar. Sort of like the idea of recreating an event by consulting several witnesses! In the end though patterns start to emerge. Last night was the biggest exception, that was like remembering a dream you were still having when somebody woke you up! The details seemed far easier to visualize then over the past week.   Steve Gale

Focusing More on Mars

Last night was annoyingly wet, condensation all over my scope and the Telerad was too blurry to be useful. But through this the seeing was really very good. Mars was shrouded in a huge halo from all the condensation, but the planet in the middle of that was nicely defined. I did 3 sketches, the second because I thought I had overworked the first, the third was to test myself - make sure my results were all pretty similar. That worked out so I went inside to make the final sketch from those while it was all very fresh in my head. I was using the same paper as two days prior when I also did a drawing of Mars. To protect that from smudging I covered it, when I pulled the smudge-guard away I noticed how similar the two pictures looked. Mars should have been rotationally in nearly the same position as Monday Iit's day is only a little more than a half hour longer), I thought what I'd just done looked like a more detailed version of the previous one. Almost like the same image but the first a bit over-exposed. I really thought that after drawing Jupiter I'd be bored by Mars, but it turns out I like it more.
Steve Gale

More Planetary Illustration

Man, Mars is hard to draw. It's still so small, the only really obvious feature is the ice cap. I need to stare at it for like 10 minutes before I can see things that I'm pretty sure I'm seeing. After that Jupiter is pretty easy! Since Mars rotates at a slower pace, I figure 1 drawing a night is all that really makes sense (whereas Jupiter can be pretty different after a couple hours). So, a few Jupiter's and drawing of big red.

I'll try to get out there every night that seems to have observing potential. Mars is coming up from behind a house across the street, so Mars drawing makes it a later than usual night. But we'll keep plugging away...

Steve Gale

SAS-AAVSO Spring Meeting

The Society for Astronomical Sciences and the AAVSO have recently announced their second joint spring meeting May 22 - 24 at Big Bear Lake, California. They did a joint meeting for the first time two years ago and it was great for all levels of expertise. I know its a long way from NJ from but I think it may be worth while for interested parties. Another plus is that RTMC starts on the 25th at a dark site about 12 miles away. Its a great astronomical combination. Details are just starting to come out about the meeting on both the SAS and AAVSO web sites. Nice area for a short vacation too. My wife usually joins me just for the mountain air and climate. Big Bear Lake is about 2 hours by car from either LAX or John Wayne Airport at about 7500 feet. I hope I can see some of my old observing buddies there as well as make some new NJAA friends.
Tom Kucharski

Grazing the Moon

Dave Nelson tipped me off about an neat astronomical event, a "grazing occultation". Between 9:05 and 9:15 on January 31st the Moon passed in front of the star Botein, resulting in an occultation. In this case only the edge of the Moon covered the star, making it a grazing occultation.

What really stood out for me was the optimal path of this event. As we all know, astronomical events don't look the same from everywhere on the planet. Take an eclipse, people sometimes take cruises miles out into the ocean to catch the perfect fit of the Moon over the Sun, while a thousand miles away the eclipse appear to be more partial. Lunar eclipses, ugh. It's going to be years before New Jersey is in a good spot to see the show. But this was an amazing exception. Dave sent me a map showing the line of optimal positioning for this event - and it went right through New Jersey! And not just anywhere in the state, for northerners like me it was a true gift from the heavens. The line passed through Rockaway and Andover. I'm in Roxbury township, so I was pretty close to the front row right from my yard!

I was able to get a couple shots by placing my digital camera to the eyepiece on my 10" Discovery Dobsonian. I dimmed the Moon by using an approach John Andrews told me about just this weekend. He mentioned "stopping down" his scope on bright objects to increase contrast. He simply placed a cover on a 8" scope with a 4" hole cut in it. I did the same, cutting a 12" piece of cardboard in a circle, then removing a 4" circle from the center. I still got a great view of the Moon, but a lot less blinding! Cutting back the light enabled me to get the star in there too.

The top image shows Botein at 9:01PM before it disappeared behind the Moon, the bottom image show it at 9:14PM, moments after it reappeared.

 Steve Gale

Imaging Jupiter the olde fashioned way!

During the December research meeting Bill explained and demonstrated that modern imaging techniques are not the only option for recording images of the planets. Over the last couple hundred years imaging equipment was pretty much paper and pencil! Sure, the mechanical approach offers way more detail, but drawings provide an apples to apples means of comparing today's Jupiter to Jupiter of a century ago. I'm not so much into gizmos thus I thought that as a Dob user that I was left outside looking in. Not so! Get good, clear magnification between 150 and 200X and even with a non-tracking scope you can pitch in and help with the research effort.

There was another benefit I learned back when I completed the lunar challenge that I'd forgotten about. In preparation for drawing Jupiter I spend a few minutes studying it, making sure I see all the things I think I see. It makes you really focus on details that are otherwise too easily lost. As a result I am seeing more when I observe the planet now. Having a goal like this really makes you stop and smell the roses.

The illustrations here were the result of observing at 204X magnification using a 10" 5.6 Discovery Dobsonian mounted telescope with a 27mm Nagler placed in a Teleview 4X barlow. BTW I had real doubts about a 4X barlow, Televue insisted though that this is not yer Daddy's barlow. They were right, the thing is awesome. After 5 minutes or so of really studying the planet I did a rough sketch, recording every feature I could in terms of size and positioning along with any necessary notes. With my previous study time that just took a few minutes, the time I recorded represents the conclusion of the note-taking part of the process. I then went inside and did a more rendered drawing, following the notes to a tee.

Steve Gale, NJAA President

12" Meade RCX and Schirra Observatory update!!

Good news!!! The NJAA 12” f8 Meade RCX400 is back up and running. 

The scope was placed back into the Walter Schirra observatory a few months ago.

This was after a slight renovation of the observatory.  The goto problems that plaqued the

scope have also been completely fixed.  

Walter Schirra Observatory



 During the end of December, Research Group member Vladimir Alexandrov took the time to collimate and polar align the scope.  This is just in time as the 12” RCX is an ideal imaging platform for lunar and planetary work.  The telescope has a thermally stable carbon fiber tube.  Also the electronics are able to readout the temperature inside of the telescope tube.  Not to mention an electronic focuser.   All of this adds up to a telescope that should be exceptional for lunar and planetary imaging. 

12" f8 Meade RCX400

   Below is one of the first images from the scope by Vlad.  In the coming weeks this scope will be instrumental in an imaging campaign aimed hopefully at Mars and Venus with images being regularly sent to the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO).

Saturn by Vladimir Alexandrov, 12” Meade RCX400  2x Barlow, ~ f/16, 1/1/12

W. Anthony
NJAA Research Director