Asteroid Close approach Tonight (Mag 9)

[Mike]

Those pictures are truly fantastic - Of course you have to take into account he is using an LX90 and a Takahashi !! They are some of the best I have seen yet for the Vesta or Toucam.

(I must fix mine... I must fix mine... I must.....)

[Ian]

Hello Gene, welcome to OAS.

sorry, I should have refreshed my memory about your kit. Your mount is a alot more robust than mine so I guess weight is a less of a concern.

You've got me thinking now, is -22 significantly better than -10 or is it a case of diminishing returns?

[Anonymous]

Hi Ian,
Thanks for the welcome!
With the particular CCD in the cam, at about -10C and less absolute(not from ambient) the number of hot/warm pixels just about goes to 0. The use of a fan took it to -10C from ambient, so a 20C day only gave me a 10C cam. With water, 20C ambient and 10C water gives me -12C inside the chamber. If it is 25C ambient it starts to struggle a little , but I still get -10C absolute inside the chamber, for a -35C differential from ambient. The difference between -5C and -10C absolute is amazing and for the way I use it only requires a flat frame correction and no dark subtraction is necessary.

Gene

[Ian]

well that explains the trouble you've gone to! Here, we're lucky to get ambients over 20 at night in summer, it's usually in a region of 15. What we do have plenty of at the moment is dew. Do you get condensation on the outside of the window?

p.s. feel free to register

[Greg]

Nice to hear from the State of the People in the US.

Drop in again

[Anonymous]

Greg, thanks, I will!

Ian, I did have quite a dew prob on the window, even with a bag of dessicant in the Tadapter tube between the window and focal reducer.
I did two things about it, the first was position the window farther up the Tadapter tube and second was built a nichrome wire heater for the Tadapter tube of about 2.5 watts. Moving the window forward about 18mm seems to have fixed it and until now I have not needed the heater, but it has not been exceptionaly bad dew wise, even though the humidity has been high.

I got so frustrated with the dewing on the window that I would just give up when I cleared it with a hair dryer (and also dry'ed the bag of dessicant) more than twice, because the clearing only lasted for <10 minutes.

[lynol1000]

I registered as lynol1000, thanks for the invite Ian.

BTW: Added a little more science to my web page on the flyby. Photometry and positional info from GSC2.2 that for stars that had a Vmag. This was added to a new version of the composite made from the frames from the gif animation.
http://www.geocities.com/lynol1000/2002_ny40_08172002/index.html

Gene

[Rick]

Interesting analysis, Gene.

[Whitters]

Gene those are superb images. I must get my Toucam modified.

[lynol1000]

I am so plagued with light pollution that I lose a lot of dynmaic range trying to get 'pretty' pictures, but as a platform for digging thru the light pollution I can get some pretty deep things.

Now, for the full capabilites of the cam thru its full dynamic range, check the site Ian pointed at Etienne site:
http://www.astrosurf.com/astrobond/ebcipr.htm

He has just posted a new M57 image to yahoo egroup QCUIAG that is amazing (along with his Veil neb shots) !

Gene

[Rick]

Did anyone else see the images from the William Herschel Telescope of the encounter?

http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/2002NY40.jpg

http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/2002NY40.gif

They're from the September 4th PR on http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/