From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: November 30, 2007 9:54:20 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] First light ... Mars

Hi Jim;

Nice image.

I was out after Mars last night for about 1.5 hours when it was -17°C (light cross winds so it was about -20 to -25°C on exposed flesh) but the sky was clear and will be the only clear skies I get this week. The scope sits outside on the balcony under a barbecue grill cover and is always in equilibrium with the outside air.

According to the 300 mb plot and clear sky clock, i should have had seeing that was 4/5 or better - however it wasn't even close. I had turbulence that moved the disk +/- 5 arc seconds and sporadic bursts of motion that turned mars into a 30 arc second boomerang or even a 50 arc second donut. This was imaging at 9 ms exposures at prime focus of 2000 mm. Even visually stars were soft little balls due to turbulence and instead of pinpoints, they were tiny. As I moved my cameras and laptop back inside, I decide to have a quick peak and M42 for this year, as it rises majestically over the newly xmase decorated 20 story crane that now blocks the only remaining view to the south.

What I'm doing from now on is to try and quantify what factors produce "good seeing" here. So I grab snaps of the predicted turbulence and where the jet stream is, then take some movies of  a bright star and record my visual observations. I hope I can then get a better handle on what factors "point" to good seeing here.

TTYL..

Milton J. Aupperle

On 30-Nov-07, at 5:13 AM, jimchung2338 wrote:

I got up early this morning since clear skies are rare these days in Toronto and I was anxious

to attempt first light with my new Tak Mewlon 210.  Skies were mediocre but I managed to

capture a small Mars image.  Lightly processed to preserve a more natural look of low

contrast features.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/Planetary/MewlonMarsNov30.jpg

Jim