41 Daphne occults a 4.8 Mag star March 31 2013 Sunday

On Sunday ... March 31 2013 Somewhere in CT Road.... we were prepared to chase a thin strip of shallow casted by an asteriod eclipsing a mid brighenss star - a line of sight events.

 

 5:00 pm   Heavy rain in Yishun. Been cloudy for the past days.

 5:30 pm   Rain stop ... Jurong East here i come...

 6:30 pm   Meet up Albert in Astro,  SW installation for digital recording to laptop took a while.

 8:00 ++ pm  Quick bite and heading  for his place.

 8:30 - 12:30pm   Main scope / piggy back scope alignment etc - Wiring up the GPS, video out to Sony camcorder using the LCD as monitor , focusing the scope, Y out the digital recording in Laptop.
Coffee breaks,  listening to the frogs.... A few stars were visible - Procyon ... and moon rising in the east.  Tree were blocking the low eleation in the east.

1:30 pm  Back to the scope. The scope is slewed to the exact spot to track the rising 4.8 Mag star.

3:30 pm  Pack up,  heading home.  Nice warm feeling the sky didnt let us down and I saw my first occultation and my toy is working since these years.
 
I brought along my stuff:
Watec 902H ultimate
Kiwi time inserter Box
Sony Camcorder DCR TRV-820E
Cables, extension code ( indoor so no need portable 12V DC batteries)

Occultation Map :  Notice the occultation narrow strip heading mostly over non land mass. W Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore lies within this strip.

 

Just found out the 902H watec i had does not have a 'C' thread so finally swapped to my other newer Watec 902H Ultimate. The watec is coupled to the piggy back white tube Takahashi refractor. Due to the concern of slewing scope tearing the cable the Kiwi time inserter and GPS were later put on the top red column flat surfaces and the AC powercord were tie-wrapped to the main scope handle. The ladder is 7-foot.

The recording is ON. We glue our eyes to the sole star watching the time stamp dances in the footage. Suddenly the star is gone and 6 seconds seem short and the star reappear again.

Star disappears!

Back home i use a P&S and playing back the Sony camcorder, download a player that allows me to frame stepping. This is the frame just after the 4.8 mag star blank off.

 

The disappearing act lasts 6 seconds or so... here the star reappear.

 

 

Post peak Dec 15 2012 Gems in cloudy sky

Day view below.

December Geminids 12 12 2012

 Plotting only the Gems

Short parallel streaks of Geminids meteors. Sirius and Canopus dotted the field in the composite shot above,

This  Monocerotid  steal the thunder.

Another non Geminids

This is NOO - November Orionids.  Both NOO and MON is believed to be from the same parent body -  comet C/1917 F1 Mellish  read more  here.

-4.4 mag upward shooting tiny meteor (spo). Note the Sirius at upper right,

just one meteor before it started to rain

aug 14 2011 - Sunday am Perseids

 Jupiter dotted the composite image.  The slanting ones ( x3)  were Perseids and x1 sporadics .Clouds gathered close to 5 am onwards wiping out chances of getting more Perseid ( see post aug 13 a day earlier)
This time we choose a another window at the utility room.

Meteors again Perseids 2011 , Aug 13

Aug 13 2011 - Its Perseids again .. from a tiny window this time.

Sprite 15 December '10

Taurid fireball with multiple flares

Multiple flares - signature of a Taurid. I was right!  A trajectory  plot confirm that.

after a long break meteors return

Meteor Oct 2

A long trail meteor vs a contrail near Moon

Jupiter's Moon handheld camcorder shoot

 TRV99E-PAL Sony Hi-8 camcorder : Handheld video shot of Jupiter and its moon (3 visible here)

    Jupiter's Moon(Video)  taken last evening. You can see 3 of the 4 moons lined up in the video as follow:

C= Callisto, E=Europa G=Ganymede

Sep 11 Meteors

Aug 31 Am meteors

Sprite Series - Carrots/Blue Jets ...

 

 

 

Instead of meteor ( see image below)  i got a bunch of Sprite and carrot-like blue jets. Video here

 

Aug 17 2010

Pers Aug 16 '20 am - Birds - spiralling bug

PERs Aug 13 2010

 

01:22  am Perseid grazer with wake in video

A typical averag Per..

A slight clouded out sky at critical time period 5 am onwards..

Video here. Overall impression is less than what i detected last year.

Combining Aug 12 & 13 - radiant plots of the Per members as follow:

Imagine the Perseids raining down this wide scattered area seen through the two nights. Single station cant figure out the angle of descent but just imagine the longest trace on the upper left entering the atmosphere at a shallow angle when the radiant is low in the east.

Aug 11/12 Pers

Perseids August 12 early AM.[ video here ]Cloudy and lightning flashes 00-02 hrs
Activity peak around 05:44 or UT Aug 11'10  20:26. So if  you want quick look. Wake up 5am and go out and watch. 

Recap Last year Aug 13

National Day 2010 - Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury

 Grouping of the planets. When Mars meets Venus

but Saturn is around and Mercury not too far too.