The NEKAAL Observer

LINEAR picked up a small rock now called 2011 MD that will be as close 12,000 kilometers (7500 miles) to the earth Monday the 27th about 12:00 noon, Topeka time. The rock will whiz by about 6.7 km/second actually fairly slow for a rock this close. We won’t be able to see it here at it’s closest. It’ll be deep in the southern hemisphere passing over the Antarctic while exiting the immediate vicinity of the earth.
The rather crude video shows the asteroid Saturday night.
Lance Benner has secured some time on the Goldstone radar facility to try and get a ‘radar picture’ of this ~10 meter object. Bill Gray has stated he didn’t think it was a piece of space junk but is natural. (real rock – not man made).
cheers,
Gary Hug
garyhug@ksmaildotnet
md

Farpoint has had some unwanted guests as of late. Our paper plates and toothpicks have been ravaged. Signs of their demonic presence are left all over the floor. They have even managed to get inside the printer and ruin the printer paper. These mice sure are a pain.

Eric has deduced that they probably get in through the cable hole that allows us to run cable to the Tombaugh. That hole has been filled with metal mesh. Hopefully that will end the invasion but remember to cleanup before leaving Farpoint so we don’t attract more of these horrible creatures.

Original Image attributions:
George Shuklin (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Thomas Schoch, cropped by User:Jomegat [CC-BY-SA-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Eric Dose and I attended the 2011 Society of Astronomical Sciences conference at the Northwoods Resort in Big Bear, CA May 24 through May 26. On the 24th we had workshops on Observatory Automation and on Eclipsing Binary Star analysis. The two days of paper presentations covered a myriad of astronomical topics, mostly geared toward the amateur.

Eric flew, but Jane and I drove, a little over 3000 miles round trip, with 4 nights on the road. Jane is always in a hurry to get home after a trip, so that was 3 nights to get there, then a lot of driving to get home with only one motel night to get home.

I Plan on summarizing some of the material in the upcoming weeks. Perhaps Eric will join in and also provide some comments.

Though not actually part of the conference, there were two significant developments. We have been bemoaning the lack of ASCOM compatibility with the Tombaugh.  ASCOM is a generalized interface to many devices and software packages related to astronomy.  Jerry Foote, builder of the Tombaugh, now has ASCOM drivers for his software and will ship them to me next month. We hope this will help in our efforts to automate the Tombaugh Telescope.

A WIN?

After the SAS dinner on Thursday a drawing was held for door prizes donated by the vendors who sponsored part of the conference. I commented to Eric that I seldom won anything at these drawings, but did pick up a copy of Guide at one such conference (remember that Gary?). Low and behold,  one of the last drawings of the evening was won(?) by yours truly. That prize included:
– A bottle of wine (quality unknown)
– $500
– oops, it was a $500 gift certificate
– oops again, a 10% discount, up to $500 on a QSI CCD camera.

So, if 9 of you want to match the $500 in some fashion, we can get a $5000 CCD camera, in which case I share the wine. Otherwise I enjoy the wine alone.

– Graham

I finally got around to running a few trials of the latency test with the STL1001E CCD camera as described in MaximDL CCD software.

The result shows the delay from the time the computer tells the camera to open to when the CCD actually starts to register an image.

Surprisingly the delays ranged from 0.02 seconds to 0.09 seconds in 25 trials. The most common delay was 0.03 seconds. An average of 0.04 seconds is the delay that I ended up adding to the time in the fits register. So every image I take will now include this very minor adjustment to the U.T. start time.

The folks at SBIG did a really great job with their shutter system.

cheers,
Gary

I have stiffened the gable and the mounting for the new roll-off roof drive at Sandlot and gained a lot of reliability & performance in the drive system. Now the roof rolls off in less than 45 seconds (about 13′ of movement); and also closing in 45 seconds.

Apply this same rate to Farpoints 33′ of movement needed to fully open or close the roof, the roof movement should take about 2 & 1/2 times as long (just under 2 minutes each way). The unit is still not as smooth as I would have hoped but I now know how to accomplish that. The shape of the hub prongs need to be spherical instead of just 1 dimensionally round. I’m encouraged my 1/6th HP motor seems to work OK but maybe just a bit underpowered. If and when we switch over Farpoint’s cable system to this hub style drive I’m estimating a 1/2 HP motor will be needed.

But maybe at the next board meeting we should discuss proceeding with Farpoint’s roof drive conversion. Alternatively, with an in pouring of copious of amounts grant money (somewhere around 25 to 30K dollars) we can convert to a dome which, I believe, would nearly double the amount of time the Tombaugh is usable for imaging via increased wind protection. A dome would also provide greater security especially if we would operate the system via the web.

The dome can be slaved to the telescope operation so that where ever the telescope is pointed the dome drive will move the slit to accommodate.

I really don’t want to go through work and expense of changing the roof drive we currently have and then latter remove it in favor of a dome..

cheers,
Gary

Nancy Cole and I represented NEKAAL at KU’s book signing by author Michael Byers. His novel is based heavily on the life of Clyde Tombaugh and his journeys before and after the discovery of Pluto.
Here’s a few pics from tonight. More to follow.

Most of the time we meet at the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library, however this month we’ll be meeting at Farpoint Observatory.

Several knowledgeable club members will be prepared to show and explain many of the astronomy and telescope basics to get you started. The club has a 14″ Meade, 8″ Meade, the 27″ Tombaugh, and binoculars. Many other members are bringing their telescopes as well. Have always wanted to know how to operate a telescope you own or one of the clubs telescopes? Are you interested in learning constellations, using a plane-sphere, or star chart? Do you want to see different telescopes to get an idea what would be best for you? Are you interested in seeing how use a astronomy CCD camera? Have you always wanted to know something a fellow member knows but have not had the opportunity to ask? If you answered yes to any of these questions I hope to see you April 28th 7:00pm at Farpoint Observatory, rain or shine.

I went to Farpoint yesterday morning (3-30-11) and replaced one of the pulleys for the roof cable.  Actually the other pulley will need to be replaced too.  I’ll try and remember to do that but for now it’s working OK.

I also made and installed a holder for the end of the shaft on the cable reel.   This will limit the radial movement and should help stabilize the roof roll-out system.

Orbiting satellites can get turned into zombies by a prodigal Sun.

What can anyone (including NASA, who offered this article) do to prevent satellite zombiehood?  Read all about it here…