November 28-29, 2012 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

On November 28, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines as well as most of Asia. Penumbral magnitude will be around 94%. The event will start at around 8:15pm PST (Philippine Standard Time) about 40 degrees high from the eastern horizon wherein the Moon will enter the Earth's penumbral (lighter) shadow and reach maximum penumbral eclipse of around 94% , meaning the Moon will not enter into the umbral (dark) shadow, thus will only display a pale grayish shading on the northern limb of the Moon. During this time, the Moon will be in the constellation of Taurus with the Hyades star cluster and planet Jupiter close by :) The Moon will finally exits the Earth's shadow past midnight at around 12:51am. Click above image for bigger view. Image courtesy of Fred Espenak. Local circumstances prepared by James Kevin Ty of Astronomical League of the Philippines. Members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines will setup public observation as well as documentation of this event at AstroCamp Observatory in SM MOA, Pasay City. TIME (PST) / ALTITUDE / AZIMUTH Moon Enters Penumbra 20:14:59 pm 40 deg 58' / 75 deg 31' E Maximum Penubral Eclipse (94%) 22:34:07 pm 72 deg 13' / 68 deg 16' E Moon Exits Penumbra 00:50:59 am 74 deg 05' /294 deg 07' NW

Testing ATIK-1HS II Long Exposure Mode

Despite the bad weather tonight, I just opted to test my ATIK-1HS II webcam's long exposure mode of it is working with a fabricated parallel to serial port LX mode adapter so I can connect it to my webcam's parallel port's long exposure connection. With the removal of parallel ports on all new laptops, I had no choice but to have this adapter made. Since I'm not good in electronic diagram to make the customized parallel to serial adapter, I asked a friend of mine Anthony Urbano to help me make the adapter with the diagram design submitted to him to work on the adapter. BTW, the LX (long exposure) mode design and diagram were based from Steve Chamber's long exposure webcam modification and refined by Peter Katreniak's K3CCD page to make the necessary adapter which can be seen at http://www.pk3.org/Astro/k3ccdtools_serial_port_adapter.htm . I then tested the adapter by connecting my ATIK 1HS II webcam long exposure parallel port to the fabricated adapter and then to a generic serial to usb adapter then to a generic USB hub. Then it is connected to my Orion Mini50 Guider and pointed to a building window to test. I run AMCAP software to run the webcam initially at normal mode and dim down the image a bit to see of it will brighten up after i turn on the LX mode switch. Then presto! It works! The dim window was brighten by the slower exposure of course :) I then tested it to the PHD guiding software to see if it will detect the camera and it did :) Now I need to wait for a clear sky to test the setup in real time but for now, I'm satisfied with the results :)

Orion Mini50mm Guider

Parallel to Serial LX Mode Adapter

My Autoguider setup connections

My autoguider setup connection to my Orion Mini50mm Guider

Amcap Test Image under Normal Mode

Amcap Test Image under LX Mode

PHD Test Image under LX Mode

Deep Sky Imaging Session - November 11, 2012

The sky in the evening was clear and Oliver de Guzman and me decided to proceed to PAGASA observatory in UP-Diliman , QC to do some testing of my CCD well as autoguiding setup in preparation for next weekend's imaging session in Caliraya, Laguna. Although the sky there is not that good to do DSO imaging, my main purpose is to test out the system if I will encounter any ........ I brought along my Vixen GP-DX mount and Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Atik 16HR ccd camera as well as Atik 1HS II webcam on Orion Mini50 guidescope as autoguider. He also brought along his Kenko Sky Memo-R mount for Oliver to do some deep sky imaging of his own as he only brought along his DSLR with him to Manila. With the session, I was able to found out a lot of things to be addressed for next week session. Some of the problems encounter were 1) the lack of at least one more USB slot for use with the autoguider setup thus he wasn't able to test out his autoguiding :( 2) Temperature was around 22 deg C and 89% humidity and initially I saw ccd condensation again on the glass window but surprisingly, it evaporated after I waited for around 15 minutes. Although some hint of condensation was still visible but it was tolerable for me to at least do one test of the ccd camera on M41 galactic star cluster in Canis Major. 3) I need to replace several allen bolts which I lost the keys for me to lock the lens and Orion 50mm MiniGuide on the Vixen saddle plate thus I was forced to use a vise grip to lock the 2 unit on the plate. After doing LRGB sessions for 5 x 2 mins each on each channel, I was interrupted by clouds after doing my B channel :( I was only able to get 1 sub for the blue but anyway, I was able to still come out with an image worth sharing as my first successful CCD imaging with my Atik 16HR ccd camera. I;m looking forward to getting better results in next week imaging session I hope :)

Solar Imaging Session - November 10, 2012

The sky this morning is clear but seeing is bad. A nice group of sunspots designated AR11611 and AR11612 are a joy to look at in white light and Ha wavelength. AR11610 Sunspot Group is starting to be active as well. Several nice large prominences can also be seen on the Sun's limb.

Solar Imaging Session - November 8, 2012 (Huge SE Hedgerow Prominence & Twisting Dark Filament !!!)

The sky this morning is cloudy again so I have plans to forgo this morning solar imaging session. But at around 8:30am, the Sun started to peeked out from the clouds and I decided to quickly setup once again to check out if the huge ejected prominence in the SW limb is still visible or not. Unfortunately, it is already gone and only a small remnant of the huge prominence can still be seen. But the SE limb has a huge hedgerow prominence as well as the huge twisting dark filament that was visible the since the other day add spice to this morning imaging session. I could also see a new possible AR11609 Sunspot Group that is emerging from the eastern limb.

Solar Imaging Session - November 7, 2012 (Cloudy Sky with Huge Ejected Prominence)

The sky this morning was cloudy and I had a hard time getting a clear shot of the Sun :( But I got a small maybe less than 5 minutes of window for me to get my only shot of the huge ejected prominence I imaged yesterday which is still visible but has tone down a bit but still nice to look at despite passing clouds lowering the resolution of the image a bit. But I'm not complaining :) I hope it is still there tomorrow.......

Solar Imaging Session - November 6, 2012 (Huge SW Ejected Prominence !!!)

The sky this morning is fair and seeing condition is also good. KC and I observe this morning together through the Coronado PST-Ha and saw a huge Ejected Prominence in the SW limb!!! It was a session as my son is starting to appreciate also the Sun :) Anyway, this huge SW ejected prominence together with the SE Huge Twisting Dark Filament spiced up a rather quiet Sun this morning!