The scales below for transparency and seeing are the ones I will be using for my logs. I am posting the scale here just to make it easy for me to reference, I am also going to include a print out of the scales in each of my log books.

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Seeing (atmospheric stability) and transparency (atmospheric clarity or clearness)
are rated subjectively on 1-10 scales that are based on the guidelines provided by the American Association of Amateur Astronomers.

Seeing is primarily influenced by atmospheric turbulence. The following scale
is used to rate conditions:

1 :: Chaotic: lowest power stellar images unsteady
2-3 :: Severely disturbed: low power planetary/nebulae images unsteady
4-5 :: Poor: medium powers unsteady
6-7 :: Good: only high powers unsteady
8-9 :: Excellent: only highest powers soft
10 :: Superb: all powers steady

Transparency is influenced by cloud cover, relative humidity, and light conditions
which illuminate airborne particulates, including light pollution, moonglow, and
residual sunlight. The following scale is used to rate conditions:

1 :: Mostly Cloudy
2-3 :: Hazy; 1 or 2 Little Dipper stars visible
4 :: 3-4 Little Dipper stars; Milky Way not visible
5 :: 4 Little Dipper stars; Bright parts of Milky Way visible (Scutum starcloud)
6 :: 5 Little Dipper stars; Milky Way visible with averted vision
7 :: 6 Little Dipper stars; Milky Way visible
8-9 :: Excellent: 7 Little Dipper stars; M-31 visible
10 :: Superb: M-33 and/or M-81 visible

Transparency and Seeing page for log book:
Log Book – Seeing and Transparency Scale :: LogBook-SeeingandTransparencyScale.doc

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Here is a nice transparency chart of Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper) from the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA). Could be useful in helping to determine visual (naked eye) limiting magnitude.

Check this out, if you look close you can see the sun light reflecting off the rain drops.

This rain is suppose to bring us some cooler temperatures and lower humidity for the next several days. Look likes this weekend is going to be a good one for observing and imaging.

I think there were probably about 15 scopes out there – from a 6″ reflector to an 18″ Dob and everything in between. Sandy and I really enjoyed looking through Kent’s new Orion 14″ Dob. He took us on a tour of the sky to include M13, the Sombrero Galaxy, M65, M66, M82, and several other deep sky objects. The views of Saturn through the 8″ Dob were also very impressive.

Seeing these objects from a nice dark location is making me reevaluate the mobility of my set up. I may look into some ways to transport and power my gear outside of my backyard. I have a good soft case for my tripod already and a hard case for my AT66, but I think I will look into some cases to transport my 8″ SCT and the CG5 equatorial mount.

The BBAA holds the Northwest River Park Skywatch every month. Skywatch is free and open to the public. Check out the BBAA events page for more of the clubs events. Also check out the BBAA Facebook group. Sandy and I will definitely be making plans to attend a few of their events.

The boys were able to view Saturn and Mars on Friday night. After a long day of camping stuff I did not set the scope up on Saturday night – we were all worn out and in the tents sleeping by just after 9. I’ll post some pictures from the camp out on my Facebook page later this week.

One thing I learned was that I rely to much on the GOTO scope, I need some more practice star hopping to locate objects. Planets are pretty easy, but it was taking me too long to locate any other objects (clusters and such) that the boys lost interest. I am going to need a bit of practice locating objects without the GOTO.

The mail man left me a present on Saturday. My C6 SCT OTA that I had bought from a member of Astromart Classifieds.

I’ll have some pictures of my set up with C6 and the AT66 in a few days.

Anyway the instructions found here are pretty straight forward and I spent about $10 at Lowe’s for the PVC spacer, set screws, and tap kit. I ended up using 8-32 set screws and thumbscrew since Lowe’s did not have any 6-32s – this worked out just fine.

Here are some pics of the finished product.

Inexpensive 10x50mm Finderscope

The PVC Spacer secured in the finderscope tube.

With the Starshooter Autoguide camera attached.

I powered up the laptop, connected the camera, and I was able to get good focus on a tree off in the distance. So I am pretty confident that I am going to be able to obtain quick focus when I use it as a guide scope. I am able to loosen the thumbscrew and move the camera in and out to help if I am not able to get focus by adjusting the front lens.

So for just over $60 (not counting the quick release bracket) I have a nice (and light) guide scope.

The reason this I titled this post Part 1 is that I have not yet mounted the scope to my C8 or AT66, this is because I am not able to get the dovetail and mount to match up right with either scope. I have ordered a Celestron quick release finder scope bracket and should have it any day. Once I get it mounted and get a chance to try it out I will post a follow up.

Again check out Constructing a guide scope from a finder scope for instructions on putting one together yourself.

I ordered a kit from HobbyLinc.com, the Estes Tandem-X Model Rocket Launch set.

The kit came with two model rockets, a launch pad, launch controller, parachutes, etc. Basically everything you need except for glue and engines. I also order a bulk pack of 24 B6-4 engines.

Over the last couple weekends we assembled the rockets and today we got to go out and launch them. We went over to my brother’s house since he has a pretty good size piece of property with plenty of room in the backyard and Johnathan, Sandy, Mary Shannon, Carlie, Little Christopher, and Colin launched the 2 rockets a total of 11 times.

Here are quick videos I took of two of the launches with my iPhone.

The Amazon rocket is huge and was the easiest to assemble.

The Crossfire rocket is small and fast. Just watch both the videos and you can see the difference. This rocket also flew at least twice as high as the Amazon.

Both rockets flew great. After about 4 launches the Crossfire’s parachute was taking a pretty good beating, and the last launch it did not fully deploy. It took a good hard landing but survived fine. The Amazon’s parachute deployed perfectly every time.

We were having way to much fun to worry about taking pictures or videos of every launch. I still have thirteen engines left and we will definitely get out and do this again another day.

What a blast!

We decided to take a ride to Titusville to check it out. Here are a few pictures we took from the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.

For more information on the Shuttle Atlantis and mission STS-129 check here.

Have not had a chance to check it out yet, looks like it was designed for a Meade scope but there are options to set it up for a Celestron.

Will let you know when I get a chance to try it out.

This past weekend Sandy and I decided to take a trip down to Florida to try to catch the launch of the Shuttle Endeavour – STS-127 with was scheduled to launch at 7:17 AM on Saturday, June 13, 2009. The launch was scrubbed due to a problem with a hydrogen leak while fueling.

We did not find out about the problem and the canceled launch until we had already arrived at Space View Park in Titusville, FL at around 3:00 AM the morning of June 13th. So here are a few shots I took of the view across the river to launch pad that was all lit up.

Space Shuttle Endeavour on the Launch Pad June 13, 2009 approx 4:00 am from Space View Park Titusville, FL

Shuttle Endeavour - STS127 - June 13, 2009 - approx 4:00 AM

Suttle Endeavour on the Launch Pad at Kennedy Space Center

Space Shuttle Endeavour - STS127

The bright “star” in the upper left of this image is the planet Venus

Venus and the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the Launch Pad at the Kennedy Space Center

Shuttle Endeavour - STS-127 - June 13, 2009

Kind of a bummed about the launch being scrubbed, still a good trip and it was neat to see the launch pad all lit up. I hope that we can make it back down there for another launch.