First Day of CNY and here is an exception - a day event

Its first day of CNY as usual we visited our mother-in-law in the morning and i had plenty of time to burn....

Checking my inventory : Annular eclipse in few hours time. What can i do? Need solar filter and either digital camera or video. I have a cumbersome old russian 300 mm lens and a Thousand Oak C5 filter.

I took out a shoe-box and cut some strips to line the outside of the lens hood - a few minutes later the C5 solar filter seated properly on the lens hood.
I need a color ccd - get the Jaguar Mintron, fish out a Sony Handy cam for recording. I need a easy to use digital camera - the recent addition CP P5100 fit the bill. Batteries need charging... Guide or unguided? The hardly used Orion Teletrack couldnt handle the heavy lens + ccd..pointing at steep elevation angles so I switch to camera tripod and a 2-axis slow motion... ( works all the time for comets too). I am set.... Then my brother and family came.




Sunlight getting into my hall. The dryer was the best platform for my camcorder while the 300mm lens+ solar filter faced the sun.

Close to 4:30pm the encroaching shadow-caster - moon created a bite of the sun, breaking the perfect circular 'spotless' geometry.

The bite get larger and larger as I continue outside the corridor then .. the clouds came and blinking light from the draining Lithium battery... oh well. Time to pack up and perhaps some other lucky folks can imagine a better one else where.

Using the same tools - UFOCapture V2.. i yanked out a couple of still shots and tested re installation of another USB Capture external device - Yuan's TV2Go.

P/s the camcorder time was 15 minutes faster..

It will be interesting to have set up a portable tracker and just leave the video on or another digital camera with lightweight filter in front for interval shooting .. perhaps next time.
This is another USB video capture board tested to work in UFOCaptureV2.
" When you have only a hammer... every problem look like a nail to you ....."

2009-Jan-20-22:42:35

Meteor near Canopus. Note Sirius at top.

small but bright

'Tear Drop' Meteor Again Jan 03 '09

.. and the brief event video

Moon(- 9.7) and venus (mag-4.3) in early evening for magnitude comparison

Unknown Object - firework or meteor?

Is this a single stray from 'firework' that masquerade as a meteor ? ( 0:12 hr)
Watch the the video just posted there. ( The little sparkle at the end of the video gave the true ID away- firework as all of you have correctly pointed out)