An amateur astronomer blogger highly interested in aerospace, astronomy, astro equipments and other astro related fields. Robin shares the astronomy enthusiasm with people from kids to seniors.
Today, the Malaysia Meade Distributor, Uncle Looi told me how do an illunimated reticle work and why was it invented.
Long exposure astrophotography will always suffer from some imperfect tracking because even the most precise man-made gears have some minute imperfections in them, the mounts can never be perfectly rigid (they are invariably flexible to some degree) and the atmosphere itself can cause positional shifts in images.
Continue reading ‘How do reticle eyepiece maintain the guiding?’
This is the best observation ever done. 
The sky was the clearest I had ever met. Hundreds Of stars were viewable. Looked to the south, you could see Crucis (a constellation which looks like a cross). Looked at the zenith, you could see Jupiter, Arcturus and more! Let’s skip all these things and straight to the observation report. 
Date: 25 May 2006
Time: 9:16PM GMT+8
Sky Condition: Extremely Clear
Objects Observed
Planets
Star Clusters
Nebulae
After I backed from tuition, I just found that the sky was damn clear. The Jupiter was extremely bright. I chose it to be observed for this observation. Actually, I did try to locate nebulae but somehow, I found that they were only rose after 8am.
Since there is no picture of Jupiter to be shown, this observing note seems to be a little bit boring. I shall be able to show you all the pictures of all the celestial objects that I observed once I have my notebook in order to drive the ccd camera. That’s the main purpose I step into the territory of Astronomy, it’s Astrophotography.
Date: 24 May 2006
Time: 9:56PM GMT+8
Sky Condition: Very Clear
Objects Observed
Planets
Both of the centre bands were easily seen. I planned to observe the great red spot but my timing was just not that correct. 
I also spotted 5 Jupiter Moons. 
24 May 2006
Although the sky was clear, I found that it’s just too faint for to catch me. Furthermore, I haven’t done the drive trainning to ensure precise tracking. Therefore, I decided to cancel this observation and wait for the next event.
20 May 2006
I think you know the result now. It’s cloudy again… 
17 May 2006 5:45AM
The northern sky is very clear now!
Sadly, I think my telescope is having misaccuracy or the data in the autostar need to be updated.
Next plan: 20 May 2006
Light gathering ability is the most major factor when considering a telescope. Large power, ie. high magnification, is not always encouraging. Moreover, over-magnifying the objects will cause diffraction as it’s over the diffraction limit of the telescope. Why? The term, light loss is always linked to this.
For any telescope entrance aperture, the brightness intensity seen at the eyepiece is inversely proportional to the square of the magnification. This is the natural “square law”.
Did you see any lightning before? I am sure that you do! However, they are always too fast to be catched and normally the lightning in our mind is just a simple coutour. Lightning photography is very challenging as you need to capture it in time. I am not an experienced lighting photographer so I use a function which is widely provided in consumer and prosumer digital cameras. That’s the movie function! I just clicked on the shutter button and it started taking the movie. 
Below are the pictures that I took on around 2PM Wednesday, 17 May 2006.
Date: 11 May 2006
Time: 10:28PM GMT+8
Sky Condition: Partly Cloudy
Objects Observed:
Planets
The eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on Saturday, May 7th. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the hours immediately before sunrise on Saturday morning. As usual, you will see more meteors from the dark countryside: get away from city lights if possible.
This is mainly a southern hemisphere shower, but northern observers can see it, too. Expected meteor rates: 5 to 10 per hour in the northern hemisphere, 20 to 60 per hour in the southern hemisphere. Latitudes between the equator and 30 degrees south are favored: this includes most of Australia, South America and southern Africa.
In 1980s, analysis of Saturnian radio emissions by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts measured that a day (rotation period) on Saturn is 10 hours, 39 minutes and 22 seconds. But now, according to the lastest radio data collected by Cassini in 2003 and 2004 measured a different number, 10 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds. If this number is confirmed, this could help scientists gain a better understanding of Saturn’s turbulent atmosphere and its shrouded interior. The study, led by Giacomo Giampieri of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is detailed in the May 4 issue of the journal Nature.
According to the report from SkyAndTelescope.com, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 is going to be at the closest approach at 1600 (GMT+8) 8th May. But, I am going to prepare my observation this Saturday night. It’s going to pass the Ring Nebula before dawn on 8th May.
It was 6.9th magnitude and nearly 12 arcminutes in size on 1st May. A backyard telescope is more than enough to spot this comet. If it grows brighter and lesser than 6th magnitude, unaided eyes are manage to spot it on the very dark sky.
I am getting very excited of the observation on Saturday night! This will be my first observed comet!
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