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Dear RAC, Here¡¯s what the C14 on the ASKO mount looks like as it is being tested in my driveway. I was imaging NGC 2903 and several members of the Hickson 44 compact group when thirst pictures were taken. Myron
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Dear RAC and Pete, Here are "first light" images from the C14 on the ASKO using a QHY 174 camera. these were obtained by using sharpcap live-stacking mode. They are a stack of short sub exposures-about 7 seconds as the mount is not tracking well-its slightly slower than sidereal. It can be fixed by updating the firmware which will be done soon. The images are nearly full frame at the f/11 focus of the C14 (3910mm).The goto was close but not perfect as I was not perfectly polar aligned. I used NGC 2903 as my first target, found it visually in the 80mm finder, and then moved the scope manually onto the target.. Once it was in the camera frame-I synched using Cartes du Ceil. From then on the objects were in the FOV as long as the slew wasnt too large. The large galaxy in NGC 2903, while the two smaller ones are members of the compact group of galaxies Hickson 44 (NGC 3190 group). These images are just test images and were obtained to determine if the tracking rate on the ASKO needed adjustment (it does). They are way underexposed from an astrophotography standpoint. Nonetheless-they hint at what will be possible with this scope once we get tracking rate set and autoguiding working. Myron
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These were taken with the SVX-102T Raptor when objects were low in southwestern sky from my driveway with high clouds and a nearly full moon in the sky. The Horsehead is full frame. The other two were cropped from full frame. Myron
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Dear RAC, Here are a couple pictures of the new MSRO/RAC Station 3 telescope. I still have to manage the cables but just waiting on the spacers to reduce the edge distortions in the test images. Note the mini PC riding on the front end of the telescope. Myron
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April 2025 RAC Meeting
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Dear RAC, Please find enclosed the link for our April 2025 RAC Zoom meeting. There is no program at this time-if anyone would like to present at this meeting just send me an email. Myron RAC President (Myron Wasiuta) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: RAC April 2025 Meeting Time: Apr 16, 2025 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81874420506?pwd=MnRaDKW9WxVxu8TX3guORd666lK4tg.1 Meeting ID: 818 7442 0506 Passcode: 276837 --- One tap mobile +13017158592,,81874420506#,,,,*276837# US (Washington DC) +13052241968,,81874420506#,,,,*276837# US --- Dial by your location ? +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) ? +1 305 224 1968 US ? +1 309 205 3325 US ? +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) ? +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) ? +1 646 931 3860 US ? +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) ? +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) ? +1 360 209 5623 US ? +1 386 347 5053 US ? +1 507 473 4847 US ? +1 564 217 2000 US ? +1 669 444 9171 US ? +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) ? +1 689 278 1000 US ? +1 719 359 4580 US ? +1 253 205 0468 US Meeting ID: 818 7442 0506 Passcode: 276837 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kb2GEEWnLx
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Fw: Citizen Science! RAS Meeting Tuesday Night!
The monthly meeting of the Richmond Astronomical Society is Tuesday night. Our presentation is about citizen science. Please join us - everyone is welcome! Zoom information is below. Citizen Science! RAS Meeting Tuesday Night! The Next Meeting of Richmond Astronomical Society is Tuesday, April 8, 7:30 PM at the Science Museum of Virginia (2500 West Broad St.) and online at this link To view this e-mail in your browser - click here. RAS board member Betty Wilson will be presenting on how amateur astronomers can contribute to real science. The title of her presentation is, 'Science Wants You ¡ª Be a Citizen Scientist.' April is Citizen Science Month, making this presentation particularly timely. Betty will discuss the many ways citizen scientists can contribute. Please join us for her presentation! A number of us will be also gathering for dinner before the meeting at the Chicken Fiesta restaurant across the street from the museum about 6:00 PM. Please join us for the meeting in person or online and for dinner, if you can. Everyone is welcome. Zoom link to Tuesday's meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88012257115?pwd=WnRYYTlTZVhKZE1kOGhETks1c0hUQT09 Dial in (if needed): (301) 715-8592 Meeting ID: 880 1225 7115 Passcode: 464955 Images by Colin Grace! RAS member Colin Grace is studying astronomy at the University of Virginia. As a side benefit of being an astronomy student, Colin has access to some of the large telescopes at the university's Fan Mountain observatory. He has been using the opportunity to hone his imaging and image processing skills by capturing images of a number of interesting deep sky objects. In the animation below and to the left are some samples of Colin's recent work. Thanks to Colin for sharing your work with us and congratulations in advance on your upcoming graduation. Nice work Colin! We look forward to hearing more updates from you. Spacewoman! RAS members and friends may recall that we have enjoyed presentations by Jonathan Ward, who has authored several books about space travel. Jonathan is also an avid astronomer and astroimager, so he fits in great with our crowd. He recently served as co-author and creative consultant on a new film, "Spacewoman." The movie is based on his book, "Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars," which is about and co-authored by former astronaut and Air Force pilot, Colonel Eileen Collins. Col. Collins was the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle and the first to serve as commander of a Space Shuttle mission. Her story is told in the movie and in the book by Jonathan and Col. Collins. You can learn more about the film at this link: https://spacewoman.film/; More about Jonathan here: https://www.jonathanhward.com/bio/; And you can purchase the book here: https://goodreads.com/book/show/56897951-through-the-glass-ceiling-to-the-stars The next Saturday Under the Stars at Powhatan State Park will be Saturday, April 19, 8:00 PM: If you want to catch some beautiful views of the night sky or you have a telescope you would like assistance with, please join us at Powhatan - everyone is welcome. This is an RAS supported event and volunteer astronomers are needed and welcome. These events have been well-attended and we need plenty of astronomers. Observing will be at the Trailhead / Equestrian parking area. Volunteer astronomers are also welcome to continue to observe through the night after the public hours. Note that the $5 parking fee applies at all times but parking fees are waived on the day of the event for volunteer astronomers who share views through their telescopes/binoculars or share their expertise. Additional dates are May 31, July 19, September 13, and October 11. Please send a message to president@... if you can help. A map to the viewing location is at this link. Milky Way image by David Amos Celestron 8-inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope for sale: Rick Connors is selling a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope locally. The telescope was purchased around 10-15 years ago, has been very lightly used, and is in excellent condition. If you are interested in possibly pu
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Dear RAC< Here is the last test image from my session on Wednesday night using the future RAC/ MSRO Station 3 telescope. Its a highly cropped portion of a full frame image of the nebula IC 443/444 in Gemini (Jellyfish Nebula). Stack of 12 5-minute guided subs (1 hour exposure time). Thank you to Corey D for pointing out this cool supernova remnant one night when we were using his night vision PV-14 on his 16" reflector. We still need to install spacers to increase the back focus distance to 55mm. Once this is done the star images should be points across the entire full frame. Myron
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Heres M37 and the small satellite cluster NGC 1907. Again this is full frame so you will need to zoom in to see detail. I wanted to show what the FOV for this telescope is. Myron
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Enclosed is a full frame image of NGC 2903 and a cropped vesion. This image like the others I sent out (except M37) are about 2 hours of integration (24 5-minute auoguided subs) Myron
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Dear RAC, I have been working with Pete Laky to bring another remote telescope online as a combined RAC/MSRO station. This will use a Stellarvue SVX102T-R (Raptor) which has a hand-figured triplet APO lens and a fiels flattner and focal reducer o bring the telescope to f/5. The camera we are using is a 36 MGb QHY 367 Pro C (full sized DSLR chip).It is mounted on an EQ-6 Pro mount. Riding onboard the OTA is the mini-computer (1 Tb Beelink 18v) and a Pegasus Powerbox. Last night was our first night under the stars with this rig. It was a shakedown session with lots of unknowns. really I just wanted to see what kind of field of view we can get and how the autoguiding would work. I only roughly polar aligned and relied on autoguiding to do the rest. Im happy to report 5 minute guided subs were obtained with perfectly round stars! The camera also performed well. It is very sensitive! However, the chip is so large that there is a fair amount of vignetting and fiels curvature. This is what causes the oval stars at the edges of the images. However, once the correct spacing is obtained the images should have pinpoint stars to the edge! I am enclosing two of the test images here. Both have been greatly cropped from the original size. Ill include a full frame of NGC 2903 in my next email that will show the immense field of view-yet still if one zooms in- nearly seeing limited detail is captured! Pete has generously placed the StellarVue "Raptor", QHY 367 Pro, EQ-6 Pro Mount, and telecompressor/field flattener on long term loan to MSRO. This station will be available for RAC members to use just as is the currently operational 10" RC in Station 2. The images were obtained by stacking 24 5-minute guided subs with the camera running at full resolution (binned 1x1). Zooming in will reveal more detail! Ill send other images out soon. Remember-these are only test images and have imperfections. But I thought they were still interesting enough to send out. Pete and I would both like to see more club members delve into remote imaging. Myron
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-------- Original Message -------- Subject: FW: April sky materials from the Astronomical League Date: 2025-03-24 11:45 From: <dknabb01@...> To: "Don 01 account" <dknabb01@...> Greetings MERAL Presidents, ALCors, editors, officers, and others, Here are the sky maps for April, courtesy of John Goss, former president of the League and current Media Officer. Please share these with your club members, use them in your newsletters, websites, and social media accounts. Clear skies, Don Knabb MERAL Chair From: John Goss <goss.john@...> Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2025 11:09 AM To: John Goss <goss.john@...> Subject: April sky materials from the Astronomical League Here are the April sky materials from the Astronomical League. Clear skies, John Goss
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Dear RAC, On Saturday night I was able to get almost 3 hours of exposure on the spiral galaxy M 100 in Virgo. I used the 10" RC for this pseudo RGB image. Note all the faint background galaxies. Theres even one within the spiral arms of the galaxy itself! Myron
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? Dear RAC, Here¡¯s the solution Pete and I came up with to move the big 14¡± Celestron/ASKO in and out of the garage for star testing. A pallet jack from Northern Tools! Works great. I¡¯m hoping to get some testing in soon but my immediate project is to get the new MSRO Station 3 online. I¡¯m including a picture of the scope on the test dolly. It¡¯s a Stellarvue SVX102T-R ( hand figured triplet apo optics!)with a QHY 367 M Pro one shot color cmos camera. It¡¯s got a DSLR sized sensor. With the field flattener we should get sharp stars to the edge! Thanks Pete for the generous support on making MSRO/RAC Station 3 a possibility!
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Dear RAC, At last nights meeting during the MSRO report I discussed progress on our new Station 3 astrophotography setup. It uses a Stellarvue 102mm f/7 ( will be soon f5) SVX102T- Raptor and ASI 2600 MC duo OSC. Here¡¯s a quick picture of the setup in its enclosure. This image was taken before the camera and electronic focuser were added. Pete and I just wanted to make sure it would fit in the enclosure. Hopefully this station will be online soon for members to use. Myron
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Link to March 2025 RAC Meeting Recording
Dear RAC< Enclosed is the zoom meeting link for our March 2025 meeting and program held last night. We discussed activities at MSRO, and members shared their lunar eclipse stories. Finally, I gave a presentation and presented B band light curves of the recurrent nova T Corona Borealis (T CrB). Myron https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/qNaROFiFOhmQTAn_XuPmCksjyJ_wx7-muMDHY0RwSUgeYhMc3Cx1C-fDACL9X5m8.Ef9z-p84-evW5zJv Passcode: SV^a3kz^
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Hi Everyone! MSRO 2 is performing super well right now - the go-to is spot-on and the improved polar alignment allows for much better long-duration collection. Attached is M101 that I imaged last night. Follow-on work would be to gather additional IR frames and use them as a luminance channel. Pete
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Hello Everyone! Myron nicely touched up the polar alignment on MSRO 2 which has made it possible to do longer stretches of unadjusted imaging so last night I took a crack at NGC 2903 early in the night. In the attached image you'll see a fuzzball off to the side of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903...that's dwarf galaxy KKH 51. Thanks! Pete Laky
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March 2025 Meeting and Program
Dear RAC, Enclosed is a zoom invite for our March RAC meeting. Business meeting will start at 7:30 and go until approximately 8-8:15. Following that will be open discussion by members about the recent lunar eclipse. Please join in and share your photos, observations and thoughts on the recent total lunar eclipse. Myron RAC President (Myron Wasiuta) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: RAC March 2025 Meeting and Program Time: Mar 19, 2025 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84934708780?pwd=v2jmLmIm1W66vid8nKx3mrrHYyFFuE.1 Meeting ID: 849 3470 8780 Passcode: 395668 --- One tap mobile +13092053325,,84934708780#,,,,*395668# US +13126266799,,84934708780#,,,,*395668# US (Chicago) --- Dial by your location ? +1 309 205 3325 US ? +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) ? +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) ? +1 646 931 3860 US ? +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) ? +1 305 224 1968 US ? +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) ? +1 360 209 5623 US ? +1 386 347 5053 US ? +1 507 473 4847 US ? +1 564 217 2000 US ? +1 669 444 9171 US ? +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) ? +1 689 278 1000 US ? +1 719 359 4580 US ? +1 253 205 0468 US ? +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 849 3470 8780 Passcode: 395668 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdKTbChf6
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Good Morning, Here are a few pictures of this morning's lunar eclipse. I was lucky that I got to see it until clouds came in just before the end of the total phase. I used a Canon Rebel T3 at prime focus of a 94mm f/7 Brandon semi-apo refractor. Due to it being about 2:45 AM in the morning and me being a knucklehead-I forgot to tighten the lock screw on the focuser clamp. As a result the weight of the camera slowly pulled the focuser away from the best focus position during my imaging. Consequently most of my images were out of focus. At least I got to see it visually through this nice telescope. The view was amazing! Myron
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Sent from my iPhone I got a few pictures from start until clouds set in. I used an old celestron gt 90 refractor and cannon m50 camera.
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am