Here’s a quick pic of the EQ6 mounted on the pier in the observatory. I haven’t had much time to do anything with the setup the last couple of weeks, but now that the nights are closing in, the impetus to get moving on the setup is back.

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I decided that drilling a 13+ mm hole through the 10mm thickness of the lower pier plate would be just too much work, so I took the over-long threaded bar I mentioned in my last post to the local hardware store to see if I could find the diameter and tap of the thread used on the bar. As I …

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Jupiter Moon Movie

Four hundred years ago when Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter, the satellites appeared in his primitive telescope as tiny, almost infinitesimal specks of light pirouetting around the giant planet. Their discovery transformed 17th century cosmology and made Galileo famous, but he never saw them as anything more than star-like pinpricks. The “Galilean satellites” were second-class citizens in the heirarchy …

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AAVSO AAVSO Alert Notice 402:
Nova in Ophiuchus
August 17, 2009

Discovered By: K. Itagaki (Teppo-Cho, Yamagata, Japan)

Discovery Date: 2009 August 16.515

Position: RA = 17h 38m 19.72s , Dec = -26d 44m 13.7s (+/- 0.6 arcsec from L. Elenin, Moscow, Russia, using the Tzec Maun 0.31-m Newtonian near Mayhill, NM)

Charts: Finder charts for this object may be plotted …

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I finally got some time to play with the EQ6 adapter and see if it fitted onto the pier out in the observatory. I’m happy to report that it was a perfect fit. That was a bit of a relief:

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AAVSO Alert Notice 401:
Monitoring of EX Hya and DQ Her
August 13, 2009

Kunegunda Belle, Don Hoard and Steve Howell are observing two cataclysmic variables with Spitzer during the next couple of weeks. They request ground-based light curves spanning the observation intervals so that they can identify the state each variable is in during the Spitzer visits.

1. EX …

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The annual Perseid meteor shower is about to peak. The show begins after sunset on Tuesday, August 11th, and continues until the sun rises on Wednesday, August 12th.

A time of particular interest is 0800-0900 GMT (1-2 a.m. PDT) on the 12th. That’s when Earth is expected to pass through a denser-than-usual filament of dust from Perseid parent Comet Swift-Tuttle. …

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AAVSO Alert Notice 400:
Nova Sagittarii 2009 Number 3
August 8, 2009

Discovered Independently By:
a. – Koichi Nishiyama, Kurume, Fukuoka-ken, Japan, and Fujio Kabashima, Miyaki-cho, Saga-ken, Japan
b. – Grzegorz Pojmanski, Dorota Szczygiel, and Bogumil Pilecki, Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory, observed by ASAS3

Discovery Date:
a. – Aug. 6.494 and 6.495 UT, confirmed on five frames taken around Aug. …

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The EQ6 Adapter I had Beacon Hill Telescopes make up for me has arrived. It comprises an adapter to take the EQ6 mount head and a plate to allow me to mate the adaptor to the permanent pier in my observatory. Here’s a photo of the adapter:

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This year’s Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. According to NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, a filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth’s path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 0800 and 0900 UT (1 – 2 am PDT) on August 12th, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value.

Perseids On

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