Mysterious Travellers!

In 1973 I was a geeky astronomy major at the University of Iowa in my sophomore year.  Somehow I landed a job helping grad students collect their data at the observatory.  Earlier that year the "comet of the century", C/1973 E1, better known as Comet Kohoutek had been discovered.  Hyped by the media because of it's discovery at a large distance from the sun, it was supposed to attain a brightness nearly as bright as the full moon!  From the University's observatory, I obtained my first published image when my 400mm shot ran in the student paper before it's close approach to the sun.

About the time it made it's appearance in the evening sky, something went wrong, and it never attained the predicted brightness.  About the same time, cruising a record store I found the album pictured here - Weather Report's "Mysterious Traveller", likely the first of a few albums I bought for it's cover...  While I wasn't an immediate fan of the jazz fusion genre, it's grown on me and is currently on my phone's playlist, and the spacey title song is a favorite.  The cover art is drawn by Helmut Wimmer, who was an artist at Hayden planetarium for over 3 decades long before the digital age.  It shows Comet Kohoutek as it was predicted to appear in the post-perihelion  evening sky (after its close approach to the sun).  We had several open-houses at the astronomy department with hundreds of people wanting to see the much-hyped comet, but all they saw was a little fuzz.  As a result, Comet Kohoutek is synonymous with spectacular duds!

The reason I tell this story is that we've got incoming comets!  First up is Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) which will peek above the western horizon in a couple weeks.  It is already visible from the southern hemisphere, where, like Kohoutek, has been revised downwards in its predicted brightness.  Besides being featured in Spaceweather,the periodical Sky and Telescope is keeping updates on the PanSTARRS appearance, and supplies the graphic shown here.  It is currently predicted to be of about 3rd magnitude - bright for a comet, and well-visible to the naked eye from a dark location, but it won't be casting any shadows like the full moon!

 

Another interloper, Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) was discovered last Fall and sounded a lot like Kohoutek - early predictions placed it about as bright as the full moon (where have we heard that before?)!  It still has a long way to go, won't near us until late fall, but is currently predicted to be about as bright as brilliant Venus near perihelion rounding the sun.  It should still be relatively bright and highly visible for northern hemisphere viewers the end of the year.

 

So keep an eye out for these known visitors to the inner solar system, and of course, there is always a chance of a bright one appearing suddenly without much warning.  I'm hoping to get some pics, so keep an eye on this space as well!

Binocular Meeting Concludes...

Today this weekend's Binocular History Society came to a conclusion.  The final wrapup day included a series of talks and demonstrations at host Steve's house where we also met yesterday.  The 17 or so attendees found his living room the perfect venue.  If the crowd were much larger is would have been less comfortable, but a private home worked out great.  With a temporary screen set up for the video projector we heard 5 presentations today.  A panorama picture of the group is shown at left.

 

 

My buddy Dick, who supplied the group shot from yesterday, today gave a presentation on the state-of-the-art of wide-angle eyepieces.  One of the things I noticed in the binocular shootout yesterday was that the high-end binoculars had both wide fields of view, yet a reasonable eye relief so that you could wear glasses while using them.  A lens designer himself, he showed new eyepiece designs that need to use large elements to provide super-wide fields.  Unfortunately, while these work well with telescopes when used by themselves, in binoculars when you need 2 of them side by side there is no way to mount them close enough to look through one with each eye.  So there is no way presently to build binoculars with these newer 100 degree+ eyepiece designs.

 

And speaking of the binocular shootout from yesterday, today Steve (another Steve, not our host) presented the analysis of yesterday's optics judging.  The results of best image quality and best overall portable binoculars are shown.  The blue lines show the relative quality, the red shows the standard deviation of the results - the smaller the red bar, the more we agreed with the results!  Of the 13 pairs compared, the overall winner appears to be a pair of Zeiss 8X30s.  As I said yesterday, most were high-end and of very good quality.  The Bresser 10.5X45s were just about my favorite of the group, small, yet very sharp with a wide field of view.  Interestingly, these were donated to the society to be auctioned off to help cover expenses of this week's meeting.  They sell on Amazon for over $900, and I e-mailed my offer this afternoon, substantially less than that, unfortunately.  There are some pretty deep pockets in this group, so we'll see if there are others that liked it as much as I did.

 

Overall it was a fun, enjoyable meeting, and I learned a lot, especially from some of the primo examples of binoculars that some folks brought in for display and for the shootout.  And our host's garage was full of some very unique optical devices - good thing he agrees with me, that garages are NOT for vehicles!  They expect up to 80 people to meet in the Netherlands in October for the next meeting.  We've got a friend that lives there we've been looking for an excuse to visit - might be fun!

Binocular Overdose!

Today was day 2 of the Binocular History Society meeting, held at the home of local collector Steve, up on the far NE side of Tucson, nestled between the Catalina Mountains to the north and the Rincon Mountains to the east.  It was a longish drive from the central part of town, so we missed part of the "swap meet", and the official picture of the day from our buddy Dick Buchroeder who supplied the shot at left.  There are a few people from Tucson, but there are a number from Phoenix, one from Iowa and Washington State as well. 

 

Our host Steve has an incredible collection, and most of it is still in storage in Washington, as he continues his relocation to Tucson.  Highlights included some aged big Zeiss binoculars, or perhaps better referred to as double telescopes!  Now I've seen these before - in fact, posted about them!  They were in the collection of the State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, donated by Bob Ariail a few years back.  Of course, it is always better to look THROUGH them rather than AT them, so it was great to have a chance to do so.  While these I think are smaller than the 130mm in the above museum link, they are quite good - difficult to believe they are approaching 100 years old!  The weird-looking assembly in the rear is actually a turret eyepiece, allowing you to change the eyepiece, thus the magnification to 3 different powers.  It was great to sit in a chair, use the nice controls to scan across the landscape, and change the magnification at will - the device worked absolutely perfectly and the optical quality was excellent.

 

 

These binoculars are also Zeiss, but I think they are a little older.  They also have turret eyepieces, and can vary the magnification from 23X, 45X or 100X - yes, 100 power!  Again, the optical quality and collimation was good, but the clarity wasn't quite as good as the pair above.  High power was pushing it, but the low powers were quite good...

 

 

It wasn't all play, though...  We were invited to bring in some of our favorite binoculars to compare to other's favorites and there were some very good performers.  Comparisons were non-trivial, there were a number of criteria we needed to rate, including resolution, contrast, ability to use glasses, those sorts of things.  It is difficult, perhaps not even fair to compare modern binocs to older uncoated models, so most of these were from the last couple decades, most of very high quality.  There were many of Zeiss and Nikon manufacture, but a number that were new to me.  Results will be compiled overnight and reported tomorrow morning... 

 

 

One big surprise was presented to me later in the afternoon as it was passed around the group.  Though of unmarked manufacture, they were supposedly Zeiss, manufactured for the German war effort under the code name blc, highly prized by u-boat commanders (M.S.S. supposedly stands for Marine Signal Station).  They were quite stunning visually, with enough eye relief to allow my glasses, low distortion and very high acuity.  They have the reputation as the "best handheld military binocular ever made!"  And yes, they have the Nazi swastika stamped on the right side...  From my Internet research tonight they are quite rare, but I'd love to try them out under a dark sky sometime!

 

 

The last item of this post is a device I'd never seen or heard about before - but Steve had 2 in his garage!  This was a multiple-position fire control sight.  This one had 3 pairs of objectives and observing positions, one behind/below, the others on the right and left side.  The optics were quite exceptional in quality, and supposedly were used on German cruisers to control anti-aircraft or canon fire.  I'm not sure what the redundant sights get you - perhaps I'll learn more tomorrow as there is a talk on "Fire Direction Optics", though it covers the Japanese Navy...  I've been spoiled by my limited binocular exposure, but I sure learned a lot today as I got to use all of the varied units presented.  After thinking about what I've seen, I'll have to ask more questions tomorrow - my last chance this meeting!

A Binocular Kinda Weekend!

A few weeks ago, I posted about my ole' battleship binoculars.  Some friends told me about a meeting of binocular nuts right here in Tucson - the Binocular History Society, and they are meeting this weekend!  Festivities started today with a tour of the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, which I skipped, since I work there, but I recognized a few folks on the afternoon tour from the machine I was operating.  I caught up to them later in the afternoon for the start of formal activities at the Optical Sciences Center a block or two away.

One of the main attractions there is the relatively new Museum of Optics, a historical collection of optical instruments collected mostly by faculty member Dr. John Greivenkamp with use of discretionary funds.  At the present time they have over 800 pieces, a large percentage of which is on display through the building, representing some prime examples of early telescopes, optical devices, and of most interest this weekend, binoculars and opera glasses.  And besides the historical stuff, they've got doodads and optical goodies of all sorts.  Above is the back end of a large view camera - the ground glass in the back shows the inverted image the photographer would use to compose and focus, in this case, of the Planetarium dome and adjacent Lunar and Planetary Lab.  At left here is a 20" sphere of glass that one of the graduate students ground and polished to a high level of accuracy.  At right, buddy Gene Lucas is shown transmitted through it, in this case, I inverted the image for your convenience.

 

 

Even though I frequently go through the building, I mostly go to the optics shop in the basement, and I've never actually examined any of the collection.  But it is quite extraordinary.  Certainly most colorful is a shelf of opera glasses, mostly of European origin.  There are many finished in baked enamel, some finished in mother of pearl, some of aluminum, which 150 years ago was the equivalent of platinum or gold today!  My friend Keith and I roamed the 7th floor display, at right he examines some brass Gregorian telescopes from the latter 1700s.

 

Dr. Greivenkamp at left poses with some of the oldest pieces in the collection - paper telescopes from the late 1600s before brass tubing was generally available for construction (lower shelves).  He talked to the group about these early telescope constructions and designs, and then the evolution into binoculars for use of both eyes.  In face, he showed the original 1608 exchange between inventor Hans Lipperhey and the patent office one week (!) after his application which asks effectively "yes, the telescope is nice, but how 'bout using both eyes?"  Of course, with a collection like this belonging to OSC, they are able to disassemble some of the instruments to see just how they were engineered in "olden days".  I'd seen nearly the same talk about 18 months ago, but with new items in the collection it was still great.

 

Of course, the weekend activities continue tomorrow with a swap meet and getting to try out some examples of these old instruments, as well as check out the binocular collections of the local members of this group - should be fun!

EDIT:  I meant to, but forgot to include this picture taken from the 8th floor conference room where we ate our box dinners and socialized after Dr. Greivenkamp's talk.  I can't imagine holding a meeting there - I'd be too distracted looking out the window.  It was less distracting at night, but the view here is to the North of OSC showing the Flandrau Science Center, Lunar and Planetary Labs to the right, National Optical Astronomy Observatories offices behind Flandrau, and Steward Observatory across Cherry avenue.

Desert Frosting!

Most may have the impression that the desert southwest is a hot, lifeless place.  Yes, it does get hot in the summer, but there is an abundance of flora and fauna that lives here, in fact thrives throughout the year.  And while most associate us as a Winter destination, we do get snow here!  In fact, we've had several storms that have dropped several feet of snow in the higher elevations of nearby mountains, and I heard that they might have gotten some down in the valley while we were in Illinois a couple weeks ago.

Today another storm came through, and dealt a catastrophic hand to normally pleasant tourist activities.  The first round of the PGA golf tournament was cancelled this morning, and it will also have an effect on the big Tucson Rodeo Parade tomorrow, and also for a series of soccer tournaments currently in town as well.  It snowed for a while today while at work, which I missed, but I did catch the snow level in the Catalinas north of town on the University of Arizona's "Sun Cam", shown at upper left. 

Tonight I peeked out in the back yard and saw it coming down pretty heavily again for a bit and snapped a couple flash pictures of snow and cacti.  It is always incongruous to see snow-covered cacti, but it happens more often than you think.  I think on average, it snows in Tucson about once per year, even at the lower elevations of the city.  There have been memorable snows over the decades of more than just a few inches, but of course, the good thing about it here is that it typically is gone in a few hours as the temperature rarely stays below freezing for more than a few hours or overnight.  Just the way I like it!

A Nice Iridium Flare!

I often check out the website Heavens-above to check for favorable appearances of the International Space Station, as well as Iridium Flares.  The former, of course, is a nearly football field-sized satellite in low earth orbit that can make breathtaking passes shortly after sunset or before sunrise when it is illuminated by the sun over a darkened planet.  Showing an unknowing public bystander always impresses them, especially knowing that it is permanently manned (or womaned!) and they are also looking down upon us...  The website is simple to use - enter your location using Google maps or search for your city, make sure your time is entered properly, and you'll be on your way to observing space objects..

The above-mentioned Iridium Flares, are similarly earth satellites, part of a satellite telephone array, in fact.  They have door-sized shiny antennae that are of known orientation in space, so it can be calculated when a narrow shaft of sunlight can be sent down on your location on earth.  For brief periods of time, they can be the 3rd brightest thing in the sky after the sun and moon!  For an event a couple nights ago, I noticed a bright one (magnitude -7.8 - very bright) would pass just east of Orion tonight.  The map that heavens-above shows is displayed above at left.

So with the chance to show the brilliant flare, as well as some detail in one of the brightest astronomical objects in the sky (the orion nebula), I set up my tracking mount and planned to use my 70-200mm zoom to catch both flare and nebula in the same frame.  We met friends for dinner with the plan to be home in time for the 7:30 picture, and I had everything all set up in advance.

Right on schedule, about a minute before the flare, I spotted it just left of Betelgeuse, and as it approached the edge of my frame I started the 90 second exposure.  I ended up stopping it after 55 seconds when it was out of my frame.  The result is shown here - I just got the entire flare, but the field was narrower than I expected, but still a shot to be proud of.  I'm glad it worked out, and will certainly look out for future photogenic shots.  I encourage you to do the same!

New Mount, New Evening Star"!

I needed to set up for an astronomy event last evening and was finally "forced" to set up my "new" (to me, anyway!) AP1200 mount!  I was forced to use it as my old reliable G-11 mount finally has a new home with a friend of mine.  So for the first time I mounted the C14 telescope on it - it worked great!  It breaks down into more pieces, so even though it is a much more substantial mount, it is no more difficult, likely easier to set up that the older mount.  I've yet to use it for imaging, so haven't put much of a strain on it, but it seemed to work well, and I'm looking forward to next dark of the moon to get under a dark sky with a camera.  The deal I made for the mount only included the equatorial head - I needed to make arrangements for a new pier and legs, and I also refused to pay the inflated prices for counterweights, and all of these accessories worked well too.  It should serve me well for many years...

 

Last night I also noticed that the innermost planet Mercury is also quite high in the evening sky, so I went out tonight to image it in the twilight.  Shown at left in a 1.5 second exposure, as it gets dark it is easily seen just south of due west.  It will be an excellent chance to go out and search for the most elusive of the visible planets because it never travels far from the sun, and rarely in a dark sky.  So certainly go look for it in the next couple weeks.  If you click and look at the full-size image, the star seen faintly to the left of Mercury is Phi Aquarius.  Normally a star barely visible to the naked eye, it is obvious here only because of it's proximity to Mercury!  Be sure to step out and catch the show the next few nights!