80mm f/15 first light

After what seems like a month of cloudy and rainy weather, we had a pocket of clear skies tonight.  It wasn't especially good -- transparency still poor and seeing worse -- but it was my first opportunity to look through the 80mm f/15 Jaegers refractor I acquired.  I intend it for a H-alpha solar scope, but I've discovered it's a very pleasing nighttime instrument as well.

When the scope arrived the focuser was jolted out of square with the tube, and I was surprised to find no set screws for the focuser.  So during the day today I affixed the focuser to the tube by drilling holes and using thread forming screws.  I accidentally broke off one drill bit into the hole I was drilling, but it serves the purpose to set the focuser!  I also made a make-shift dew shield with some black foam and Velcro.  I set up my tripod with simple alt-az mount to its tallest setting, and find that it is still not tall enough to comfortably view with the scope at zenith.  It's a shaky mount too and not able to handle the 20 pounds this 80mm weighs.

The first target was M42, and I was able to sight up the scope tube and find it pretty quickly with a 40mm plossl eyepiece.  Nebulosity looked really good, especially the dark nebula, which was a surprise and indicates the scope has very good contrast (it is baffled by I think three or maybe four disks inside the tube).  I steadily increased magnification, first a 26mm plossl then a 13mm Ethos -- and yet I could not find the E or F stars in the trapezium.  The Ethos gave a stunning view, as it usually does.  Stars were nice and pin point and a rough star test showed round on both sides of focus (though seeing was not nearly good enough).

Next was M45, which was at zenith, and I needed to sit on the ground to reach the eyepiece.  So, a taller mount is called for.  A telrad at the objective end of the tube would be very helpful.  But the main issue is the height and steadiness of the mount.

I tried Rigel next, and could not find its B star.  M35 showed a pleasing spray of stars.  No question but refractors show the prettiest sky images.

So now I can move with confidence to make a cell for the energy rejection filter, and to go ahead with the solar scope.  My only worry is if there is enough in focus.  And of course the mount.

During the day I had a quick look at the sun with the PST, and it showed one large faint fan like prominence on one end of the limb and a small bright spike on the other side.  Looking forward to more views.

great flares

I tried to spend some time outside this morning, since there is a storm approaching with rain starting this afternoon and lasting until Tuesday.  Out on the trail I was very surprised to see a bald eagle, flying right above me and landing on a tree.  He was being harassed by crows.  Large bird, with the distinctive white head, hooked beak, and large yellow-orange feet.  He flew off after a minute or so.  First time to see one.

After lunch there was a nice bright clear window between the clouds so I brought out my PST.  There were two very nice prominences visible.  One was a short but very bright hook, and the other, about 60 degrees away, was a very large faint fountain, spraying in an irregular fan shape very far from the limb.  There was a smaller arc nearby but I don't think they were connected.  The SDO image shows the bright hook at 9:30 and the large fan at 2:00.  I did not see the third prominence at 11:00; maybe it sprung up between when I had lunch then came up here to post!  I could see very fine graining / orange peel on the disk but only along the rim of the disc.

177p/barnard

In this blog's Christmas 2016 post I wrote about The Immortal Fire Within, a biography of EE Barnard.  I mentioned one of his comet discoveries, which was designated in the book as 1889 III.  The biographer mentioned that the orbital period would set the comet's return in 2019, and I tried to make a mental note of it in case I could try to recover it--likely the last chance to see a Barnard comet in anyone now alive on earth's lifetime.

Well it turns out I forgot about this one until today, near the end of 2019.  Not finding any reports of "1889 III" online I did some more searching, and found the correct designation is 177p/Barnard, and that its actual orbital period is 119 years, and that it was seen during the summer of 2006.  So the book was incorrect.  It was pretty bright too, 8th magnitude.

I'll need to keep better track of such observing opportunities...