Starship Asterisk*

khagol wrote:Moon at 73.8% fades away most of the stars limiting the visible magnitude to 3.0. The screen seems to be oval in shape. Don't know why.

Looks like a combination of the moon and possibly dew on the lens.

It should clear up when the moon goes away.

Tonight's Sky: A laser star guide from Keck Observatory is pointing somewhere in the sky. Its visible on the north east portion of the sky. Visual Magnitude Limit is around 3.5 - 4.0. On the western limb, Galactic Plane is visible. Also some of the brightest stars like Sirius(-1.09), Arcturus(0.16), Procyon(0.46), Capella(0.24), etc are visible. In planets, Jupiter shines at -2.4 while Saturn shines at 0.1.

Camera Status: : Some frames are partially lost. No other problems detected.

Yes, I see the laser guide star. Here is one image of it from early in the night:

- RJN

Sky Report:

The Moon is in Sagittarius with a phase of 22%, and is 25.4 days old. New Moon will occur in 4.1 days time. It rises at 03:09, transits at 08:33, and sets at 13:59. It is visible in the morning sky.

Mercury in Pisces with a magnitude of -0.9, a phase of 72%, and a diameter of 6". It rises at 07:38, transits at 13:42, and sets at 19:47. It is visible low in the west after sunset.

Venus is in Aquarius with a magnitude of -3.9, a phase of 99%, and a diameter of 10". It rises at 06:35, transits at 12:23, and sets at 18:11. It is currently too close to the Sun to be observed.

Mars is in Sagittarius with a magnitude of +1.1, a phase of 92%, and a diameter of 5". It rises at 03:38, transits at 09:02, and sets at 14:27. It is visible in the morning sky.

Jupiter is in Virgo with a magnitude of -2.4 and a diameter of 43". It transits at 02:46, sets at 08:39, and rises again at 20:48. It is well placed for observation throughout the night.

Saturn is in Gemini with a magnitude of -0.1 and a diameter of 20". It sets at 03:48, rises again at 14:28, and transits at 21:06. It is visible in the evening sky.

Uranus is in Aquarius with a magnitude of +5.9 and a diameter of 3". It rises at 06:28, transits at 12:15, and sets at 18:01. It is currently too close to the Sun to be observed.

Neptune is in Capricornus with a magnitude of +8.0 and a diameter of 2". It rises at 05:17, transits at 10:53, and sets at 16:28. It is visible low in the east before sunrise.

Pluto is in Serpens with a magnitude of +13.9. It rises at 01:38, transits at 07:16, and sets at 12:53. It is visible in the morning sky.

Report Generated Using Skymap Pro 10



Camera Status: The objects are getting highley exposed. Any problem with cam or atmosphere

These days we have the luxury of having both the MK and HL CONCAMs running simultaneosly and seeing nearly the same sky. When this happens, meteor observations are particularly important. Were the MK CONCAM to clearly see a meteor, there is a good chance that the HL CONCAM also saw it, particularly if it was toward the west.

When two CONCAMs see a meteor, it is possible to reconstruct the height and even path of the meteor, a relatively rare event in astronomy, and particularly for meteors that are not part of a famous meteor shower. Such a reconstruction may allow a "discovery identification" of where the meteor originated.

The quickest way to check for meteors is to look closely at the movie file that is automatically created and linked at the top of the archive page every day after the previous night's observations. The time of meteor observations could be recorded. An image at exactly the same time should exist in the HL data archive. That image could be inspected for a meteor too, which would NOT appear in the same location in the sky. Were anything like that to be found, please post it here immediately.

Looking in the HL CONCAM archive for last night, I found the following frame that might be a meteor:

The meteor is just to the right of the Leo label. I could find no corresponding meteor on the less-sensitive CONCAM2 frame from MK, though.

Since MK is less sensitive, if a meteor were found here first, it could likely be locatable on the more sensitive HL frame.

- RJN

MK Concam is online and returning good images. They seem blurry, maybe wx conditions. No Photometry or Opacity available.

Seems the last image returned by the CONCAM was on the morning of 18th at around 15:38 UT which is about 05:38 AM local time. No further images have been uploaded. Also the server is returning empty archives.

The ConCam is online now. Though the moon outshines most of the stars, the software is able to detect bright stars like hydra and lyra.

MK has been using their older Concam2 for a few months while their newer Concam3 was being repaired. The Concam2 has appeared to be slightly out of focus for some time now, luckily their Concam3 has been repaired and is currently on it's way back to MK. The Concam3 should be installed soon after arrival, I would hope for it to be back in operation within the next few days.

Hey,

This is really great news. Hoping to get it online as get my 6" Newtonian.

Clear Skies,

The sky is clear and so the Saturn is clearly visible rising from the east followed by Sun.

ConCam is doing good. But I think there is some water on the centre. It covers some 1/4th or 1/5th part of the lens. Else details are good.

Dear Friends,

First of all my apology for not being able to report the status for quite a long period but guess am back now. As one of our kind member has reported....the cam's last picture seems to be of April 02, 2006. A kind request to send in a technician to check the problem would be quite good.

Regards,

The cam is not available on the homepage. Is there any problem?????