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Equipment: eclipse eyeglasses, Meade 80ST achro with projection setup on SW Skytee 2 manual mount.
Friday evening I drove to Anza to spend night observing galaxies (report to follow).
In the morning I have swapped 9.25" Edge SCT for 80ST frac. Eclipse has started soon after the Sun cleared the tree line at the hilltop to the east. I have observed the first moments with the eclipse eyeglasses and called my wife to make sure she is not missing the action at home.
It took me a few minutes to find the sun and focus with my projection setup. It is harder to do by scope shadow when the sun is low. (I should make a sun finder). So, I did not catch the very beginning with the projection. Anyway, the view was prettier in the eclipse eye glasses with Sun being rich orange color and pitch black Moon shadow. The projection however has shown a few sunspots. So, it was fun switching from one view to another.
When eclipse reached it maximum the sunlight become noticeably dimmer and eerie, like during wildfires. The air got chilly as well. These effects were reversed once the Moon shadow has passed. The moment eclipse was over strong eastern wind started to blow. Not sure if that was connected or just a coincidence.
I wanted to see see sun crescents in tree shadows, but as turned out you need leafy trees for that. None were at my desert location. I called my wife and she captured the view at home.
Overall, it was a fun event, not as dramatic as the total eclipse but still quite enjoyable.
Nice report Andrey. Yes, it sure was an interesting experience and I too noted a cold chill during the eclipse which did not seem normal.
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
The mount I am using is Skytee 2. This is a great manual AltAz mount. Has been my workhorse for seven years. It can carry 1 to 3 scopes, has slow motion knobs and rock solid.
Excellent eclipse report and captures Andrey! Glad you were able to enjoy the show personally. We watched in on the Weather Channel, and of course got to see the full annular presentation. But nothing beats witnessing an eclipse with your own eyes and observing the surrounding terrain (leafy trees of course!) to see the weird light show. I hope the total eclipse in April will be as good as the one we observed back in 2017. April is a bad month in the midwest for clear skies, but hope we get lucky and get to see our second total this century!
Alan
Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
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"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
"Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt." (William Herschel)
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
"No good deed goes unpunished." (various)
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?” (Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
kt4hx wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 10:31 pm
Excellent eclipse report and captures Andrey! Glad you were able to enjoy the show personally. We watched in on the Weather Channel, and of course got to see the full annular presentation. But nothing beats witnessing an eclipse with your own eyes and observing the surrounding terrain (leafy trees of course!) to see the weird light show. I hope the total eclipse in April will be as good as the one we observed back in 2017. April is a bad month in the midwest for clear skies, but hope we get lucky and get to see our second total this century!
Thanks Alan! Fingers crossed the weather cooperates in April.
Very nice report and photos Bigz!
Sorry for the late response. Just now catching it!
Jim
Scopes: Explore Scientific ED102 APO, Sharpstar 61 EDPH II APO, Samyang 135 F2 (still on the Nikon).
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro with Rowan Belt Mod
Stuff: ASI EAF Focus Motor (x2), ZWO OAG, ZWO 30 mm Guide Scope, ASI 220mm min, ASI 120mm mini, Stellarview 0.8 FR/FF, Sharpstar 0.8 FR/FF, Mele Overloock 3C.
Camera/Filters/Software: ASI 533 mc pro, ASI 120mm mini, ASI 220mm mini , IDAS LPS D-1, Optolong L-Enhance, ZWO UV/IR Cut, N.I.N.A., Green Swamp Server, PHD2, Adobe Photoshop CC, Pixinsight.
Dog and best bud: Jack
Sky: Bortle 6-7
My Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Juno16/
Thank you for describing the projector setup - interesting to me because I always find people coming to look in my scope when I'm at an eclipse. Often people are unfamiliar with a scope, and don't know what knobs to turn, hesitate, or move things undesirable. Never a disaster but it wastes precious time when both of us could instead be enjoying the event, not going over how-to instructions. That projector eliminates that problem.
I always have questions:
Since you used a 400mm scope and the sun's disk is a bit too big, would you guess that a 300mm scope would project a slightly smaller disk, therefore fit better on the projector screen?
As I mentioned above as commenter number 1 a great report. Thanks also for the description of how you viewed it and for the photos of your set-up. I see another VROD here!
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
SparWeb wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 5:25 am
Thank you for describing the projector setup - interesting to me because I always find people coming to look in my scope when I'm at an eclipse. Often people are unfamiliar with a scope, and don't know what knobs to turn, hesitate, or move things undesirable. Never a disaster but it wastes precious time when both of us could instead be enjoying the event, not going over how-to instructions. That projector eliminates that problem.
I always have questions:
Since you used a 400mm scope and the sun's disk is a bit too big, would you guess that a 300mm scope would project a slightly smaller disk, therefore fit better on the projector screen?
Does this work for the moon too?
That's correct. If you use scope with shorter FL you will get smaller image. Also I am stopping down the aperture to 50mm otherwise the image is too bright. So using smaller scope will work to. I have not tried, but I am sure it will work on Moon.
When I am observing sunspots I sometimes add 2x barlow. You end up with Sun disk too large to fit, but get better resolution on smaller/fainter sunspots.
helicon wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 11:59 am
As I mentioned above as commenter number 1 a great report. Thanks also for the description of how you viewed it and for the photos of your set-up. I see another VROD here!
