FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Weekend observing

[Jeff Hopkins <phxjeff@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday night I spent part of the evening in Gilbert at the GRCO with 
Gene Lucas. We used the observatory's 16" LX200 to do some infrared 
photometry of epsilon Aurigae with my SSP-4. The data looks very 
good. I tried seeing Comet Holmes with a pair of binoculars from the 
GRCO. I could see no trace of it. An excellent, but cool evening. A 
long drive from the west side of Phoenix, however.

Last night (Saturday) I did UBV work from my back yard. Another very 
excellent night. The 11 PM temperature in my two story observatory 
was 32.1 F. I tried my new 7 X 50 binoculars on Comet Holmes. It is 
just barely perceivable from my location. If I did not know where to 
look and have an idea what it should look like, I surely would have 
not found it. This is with the Moon down and the comet close to the 
meridian. It has faded considerable over the past week.

Last night I also experimented with using a camera telephoto lens on 
a DSI Pro CCD camera. Focus is a problem, but I think I have worked 
out a system. The purpose of this is to get BVRI CCD photometry of 
epsilon Aurigae with lambda (the comparison star) Aurigae in the same 
image. The stars are several degrees apart and very bright for CCD 
work. I still need to work out some problems, but it's looking like 
it may work.

For those hearty souls who would venture out on these cool Arizona 
evenings, you will be treated to a spectacular sky, even from within 
Phoenix.

Jeff


-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
Counting Photons
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html
Hopkins Phoenix Observatory
7812 West Clayton Drive
Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A.
(623)849-5889
(623) 247-1190 (Fax)
www.hposoft.com
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.