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- This topic has 43 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 2 months ago by
chupathingie.
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February 9, 2012 at 5:24 am #2594
orionidParticipantSo, I’ve been going over my calendar and long term scedule, and I decided to go ahead and jinx myself now by mapping out any of the major astronomical events this year versus the moon cycle. Looks like there’s four eclipses I won’t get to see, but the moon is at a quarter or less for all the major meteor showers (with a true new at the Geminids!). Also, not listed on this link is an occlusion of Jupiter by the moon visible from europe and a close-enough-for-potentially-badass-photos pass visible from Eastern US.
Oh, and then there’s that whole venus transiting the sun for the eigth time since the invention of the telescope thing. Yeah, it won’t happen again until 2117.
Linky: http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2012.html
February 9, 2012 at 6:07 am #45236Plamadude30k
ParticipantYep, I’m starting to make plans for the transit of Venus, since the WHOLE THING will be visible from first to last contact from here!
February 9, 2012 at 6:16 am #45237orionidParticipantYep, I’m starting to make plans for the transit of Venus, since the WHOLE THING will be visible from first to last contact from here!
Bah! I hereby curse you to get sent to Arecibo that week.
/Nah, seriously. I expect good things out of you. Better than what I’ll probably get out of a 1000mm 5.1″ reflector with a double-mylar solar film.
February 9, 2012 at 6:31 am #45238ParticipantArecibo? Some weird stuff would have to go down for me to go there. I’m not even a radio astronomer. I’m going to do my damndest to get ahold of something in the 10-16 inch range for that day. We’ll see how it goes.
February 9, 2012 at 6:36 am #45239orionidParticipantSome weird stuff would have to go down for me to go there. I’m not even a radio astronomer.
Exactly 😀 It was either there or VLA, and I figured VLA would have better skies than the Puerto Rican sauna.
February 9, 2012 at 7:57 am #45240Farktographer
ParticipantThe moment I clicked the link and did my wiki search and found, “The best place to see the 2012 transit is in the Pacific Ocean – including Hawai’i, Alaska, and central Pacific islands. Some organizations have begun to prepare for the 2012 transit well in advance, including a group organizing festivities and observation in Tahiti.[26],” my first thought was: Damn it, Plama!
Not that I’d even have the telescope to be able to shoot it if I wanted.
February 9, 2012 at 8:18 am #45241lokisbong
ParticipantI don’t have the gear to see it by myself either but I have a local astronomy club that does stuff in the park a block from home so I might get to witness the transit
February 9, 2012 at 9:51 am #45242ParticipantExactly 😀 It was either there or VLA, and I figured VLA would have better skies than the Puerto Rican sauna.
VLA is actually way more likely-it’s only a couple hour drive from where I grew up, and where my parents’ house is.
February 9, 2012 at 11:21 am #45243ravnostic
ParticipantSo much to say to this thread! Orionid IIRC the transit will be visible from your location. I saw the 2004 one, even got pictures, but that was before I knew how to do things like backup pictures in case your computer crashes.
Didn’t know about Jupiter and the moon–won’t be visible here.
I’m planning a trip to (*joy*) Tuba City for the Annular eclipse. It’s worth the drive since I’m so close, though I will have to stay in said Tuba City. I’d like to go with others, but the local photogs I’ve found haven’t seemed interested. A phuqin’ annular eclipse of the sun less than 300 miles away reaching maximum at sunset and perfectly centered within a 1 arc second radius of the sun is going to make a fine picture (I think between that and the sunset, we’ll be getting some 3% ‘day’ light but I’d love Plama to do the mathz) . Don’t understand the lack of interest. I wouldn’t fly across country for it but, 300 miles?!?
I finally coaxed the school into giving me my tuition refund. I’ll be buying the Celestron 11″ solar filter and the long-dreamed about wedge mount, and will shoot the eclipse on video, keeping my camera free for more scenic landscapes. I have to find a good site with a negative horizon and spectacular scenic view, on an indian reservation. A pre-photo excursion is in order.
The stock plan at work pays me twice; once in March and another in April. I’m torn between a new camera body or a new lens. I might compromise on the latest APS-C body, and maybe a used lens (f/2.8 long lens). If I could swing it I’d love to repair the original xTi as well.
Suggestions on the camera angle welcomed!
February 9, 2012 at 11:52 am #45244orionidParticipantYeah, the Venus transit is going to be a sunset transit for most of North America. I don’t care what I have to ghetto-rig up, with two solar filters (one hard neutral, one RG mylar) and god knows how many optics, it will be shot. Also, we’re on the edge of the eclipse, so we should get a partial at sunset. I figure the cookie bite is better than no eclipse. You might look into stacking a Ha filter with your neutral for the annular, catching the Ha flares when they’re not overpowered by the rest of the damn thing should make a pretty spectacular sight. Which reminds me, I keep looking at the sunspot chart but never go out and rig anything up. I should do that sometime soon.
I also need to figure out my dagged-burndt tracking mount on the scope before the Jupiter/moon occlusion. I figure for that, I’ll just set the eyepiece-to-lens rig on the point and shoot with repeating 30 or 60-second shots.
February 9, 2012 at 12:31 pm #45245ParticipantAll you really need is a way to point a lens perpendicular to the sun’s rays and a white card to project it upon. There’s not going to be much more to it than that, excepting for frequency shooting. My telescope’s filter will be a Baader style; projects in full-spectrum (only less intensely so, of course) ‘white’ light. Given the sunset for the eclipse, I suspect it will be considerably more orange, but I’ll have to play with the filter some to see how conditions affect it. The eclipse I plan on shooting video, but for the transit, I’ll use the camera body; if I shoot in RAW, I ought to be able to pull out some of those spectral frequencies for things like sunspots and granulation etc.
The light remaining in the ‘halo’ as it were will still be several orders of magnitude above the brightness of the moon–I don’t know that much extra-solar activity could be visible–but I’m hoping! In particular, if a prominence were to be evident as the edge of the moon crossed one or the other edges of the sun….maybe. But I’m doubtful. Yet hopeful. We’ll see. OTOH, Jupiter and Venus might show up well enough in the shot…so many variables…makes me dizzy.
February 9, 2012 at 2:38 pm #45246chupathingie
Participantwow… I need to make some plans this year.
February 11, 2012 at 3:19 am #45235Yoyo
ParticipantSome weird stuff would have to go down for me to go there. I’m not even a radio astronomer.
Exactly 😀 It was either there or VLA, and I figured VLA would have better skies than the Puerto Rican sauna.
I’m close to the VLA. It’s only about 4 or 5 hours drive from my house. Even just outside of Socorro is the starriest place I’ve seen this side of Afghanistan.
On the other end of brightness, if I wanted to shoot the sun, I’d pull out a shade 10 welding filter.
February 12, 2012 at 6:10 pm #45247ParticipantEven just outside of Socorro is the starriest place I’ve seen this side of Afghanistan.
I stopped for the night at a campground just outside of Tucumcari back in ’82. That was my first exposure to the desert southwest’s skies. Now I’m only a couple of hours from there, and am planning on doing some sky shoots. NM has some of the most insanely dark skies you can find in the US far enough south to see most of the faint fuzzies towards the galactic core.
I’m really looking forward to it.
February 12, 2012 at 9:18 pm #45248ParticipantCentral Nevada is rather good for the dark skies also.Tonopah is advertized as #1 stargazing destination in America by USA Today. LOL Not sure I would go that far but it is by far the darkest skies I have ever experienced even in town you can usually see the whole Little Dipper on a good clear night. I just wish the weather was clearer lately. It’s been kinda hazy for the last few weeks every time I want to go out shooting star trails. The other night I tried to see Uranus next to Venus and it was just hazy enough where I couldn’t see it. Venus was visible but I couldn’t make out Uranus. Hopefully its clear by dark tonight but I highly doubt it since right now it looks like it wants to snow.
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