Winter Quarter Observing News
This is the 2010 Winter Quarter Observing News
0BSERVING NEWS
WINTER 2010
Happy New Year fellow astronomers!! I hope all had an enjoyable holiday season and are looking forward to trying out those new astronomy gifts during 2010. After a long cloudy summer the fall observing opportunities were disappointing also. Let’s hope this winter has more favorable weather during our new moon weekends.
I have only received few replies from members concerning my last news letter inquiries on observing site preference, and interest in qualifying as an operator at the Robinson Observatory. Hopefully more of you will respond to this report. Again please send me an email at raygjones@earthlink.net or just post to this forum.
The 2010 CFAS budget includes a new instrument for the membership. In January we should receive a Mallin Cam video camera. The MallinCam TM Video CCD Observational System is manufactured by Rock Mallin of Pro-Com Electronics & Telescope Repair in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The system is designed specifically for astronomical observing. Now with the addition of HYPER circuitry, the camera has additional exposure times of 7, 14, 28 and 56 seconds. The MallinCam HYPER PLUS also incorporates a thermoelectric Peltier cooler that lowers the temperature of the CCD sensor, and allows for longer exposure times. MallinCam TM cameras are adjustable from 2X to 128X integration, and they can be used visually and for imaging the Moon and Planets without the need for additional filtration. The fact that images are in full color greatly increases the visual beauty of many astronomical objects, but especially enhances nebulosity. CFAS members will be able to use the camera for outreach programs, and it will be available during monthly viewing sessions on one of our outreach telescopes. This should be a very enjoyable addition to our observing equipment.
There will be a visual observing course held on Saturday, January 16th at the Seminole State College Planetarium. The session will begin at 0900 and end at noon. All members are invited. Bring your questions. See my post on this subject for more details.
The telescope at the UCF Robinson observatory is in a maintenance period in order to fix some flexure issues. Once this is complete I expect to have information on how CFAS members can get checked out on this telescope and can assist with UCF research efforts.
Once the new quarter begins in January UCF has asked for help in getting their lab telescopes packaged up for factory refurbishment. These telescopes are used for their visitor observing program and by student extra credit projects. CFAS members have assisted in this outreach program in the past. If you are interested in assisting with this one time effort, please send in a reply to my forum post on this effort.
If you have not noticed the official CFAS observing nights are posted on the CFAS calendar. These are usually the Saturday nearest the new moon. When possible an alternate date is also listed. I am looking for two volunteers to assist with the observing sites. Ideally I am looking for someone who lives relatively close to the site to be the CFAS contact point for either the Ocala or Harmony site. If you are interested please contact me for additional information. Remember this is an all volunteer organization and we only exist through the efforts of our members.
If you have been frustrated with too many bad weather nights you might want to consider joining SLOOH Space camera : http://www.slooh.com/ . This web site has mountain top telescopes located in Spain, Chile and Australia that are hooked to color CCD cameras. Weather permitting, every night each telescope has an observing program. Images are processed as you watch, and take about 5 minutes each to develop. You can also sign up for your own observing time on one of the telescopes.
Wishing each, Clear skies!
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