Davis Mountains here we come.

Next week my wife and I are going out to the Davis Mountain area of Southwest Texas (the same place the Texas Star Party is held) for our 4th Wedding Anniversary. We are are planning on viewing the Marfa Lights and taking in the sights of Marfa, Alpine and Ft. Davis. Thank to Bryan T. the chairman of the San Antonio Astronomical Association got in contact with the head of the McDonald Observatory Visitor center and we have been granted permission to do some private observing with our 16" Lightbridge. We are also volunteering to do 2 outreach events at the visitor center.

If our hotel has internet I'll try to update next week.

3 AM Observing

Early this morning I was crawling into bed around 3am. Then I noticed that my dog, a 3 year old white miniature poodle was trying to sneak into our closet... a sign that she needed to go the restroom. I put on a some shorts and off we headed downstairs and out the door. While outside I noticed a bright object up in sky. I thought it looked like Jupiter but I thought I'd like to know for sure. I opened my garage door and grabbed my little Celestron IYA firstscope (3" Reflector) and set it on the hood of my old Ford Ranger. Within seconds I knew that it was Jupiter. My little scope is an f/4 and with the 18mm eyepeice I had in there I could see a few moons.

I'm really glad I have a little grab and go telescope like this, my other scopes aren't as quick to setup. This little scope might just be the best $50 I've spent. I have a homebuilt 4" Dob... but it still isn't as easy to set up. I can grab the first scope in one hand and have it on an object in less and a minute after taking it out of the garage.

Types of Astronomers

Lately I've been reflecting on myself the astronomer. As a dual career as photographer/educator I feel securely confident in my abilities and understanding of the subject matter. Astronomy...well at times I feel that I'm lacking.

Recently at a few star parties I've attended I did some basic observations of fellow astronomers. I was trying to see where I fit in. To me there seem to some various types of astronomers:

Type 1- Daddy/Mommy Astronomer
These are the moms and dads who are at star parties for their kids. They might have limited knowledge of astronomy but they are there to foster their kids learning.

Type 2 - Hungry Astronomer
This is the type of person that has had a taste of astronomy and recently decided to come back for additional helpings. This person may or may not have a telescope/binoculars (if they have one it is usually a department store off the shelf model that leaves much to be desired). Generally this type of astronomer comes to star parties to learn more and get advice as they start out in the hobby. This might the most common type, however, sadly, many of these fail to stick with astronomy.

Type 3 - Angler Astronomer
This is the type of astronomer that has some decent equipment they are still starting out in the hobby. The are standing in the water but they don't have the knowledge or equipment to go deep sea fishing yet, but that is the where they are headed.

Type 4 - Inspector Gadget Astronomer
This is the type of person, usually out with a GO-TO, fancy telescope, DSLR, etc... With them it is all about the dazzle of the equipment. They like buttons, little LED lights, things that use batteries. They probably have a smart phone with a data plan and are surfing the net as much as they are stargazing.

Type 5 - Serious Astronomer
This is the person who is "into" astronomy they are rather knowledgeable and have nice appropriate equipment for the type of observing they do: star-hopping, astrophotography, planetary, deep-sky. These people are generally resourceful with the equipment they use.

Type 6- Too Smart for their own good.
This is the most knowledgable person. They know the ins and outs of the universe and astronomy. These people are often so knowledgeable that they often talk over peoples heads and make references to movies and television shows that cause you to move you fingers in awkward positions.


I'm sure there are more types of people out at star parties but thought I'd mention these as sometimes when I'm out with my telescope I feel like I move between being one type of astronomer to another. Sometimes I feel like Type 6 when I'm talking with some people and at other times I feel like type 2.

So what type are you? (Post your comment and explore your inner astronomer.)

Seeing In The Dark a Review

I have a copy of the PBS video titled "Seeing In The Dark" by Timothy Ferris. It is based on a book Ferris penned with the same title. The video was given to me a while ago by a fellow member of the San Antonio Astronomical Association.

The PBS website store described the video as such, "Seeing in the Dark aims to redefine the standards of quality in nonfiction science programming for television, and is meant to introduce viewers to the wonders of the night sky, making casual stargazing or serious amateur astronomy a part of their lives."

I have watched this video a number of times and I do feel that the video is top quality with one flaw. It is clearly apparent that the videographer paid much attention to composition, detail, and lighting. I can easily say that this video is rather pleasing to the eyes as it is visually pleasing.

The sound track on the other hand can at times become annoying. There is a scene when Mr. Ferris is recalling his youth when some friends are at the beach and listening to blues from a far off station. After this semi-cheesy 1950's themed scene the video seemed to lose focus at times like a junior high student hopped up on sugar and soda. Timothy Ferris seems to go on a few tangents, or rabbit trails if you will, about musicians and music throughout the rest of the film. Some of these trails were fitting like mention of the famous astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel's musical connection and an interview with Prince's former recording engineer and amateur astronomer Michael Koppelman who produces the podcast Slacker Astronomy. Slide guitar is used almost exclusively on the sound track of this video and at times, at least to this viewer, is not as pleasing as the visuals the film presents. Some might disagree, but I found the music chosen for this film at times very distracting.

Again according to the write up on the PBS store's webpage for this film the film is "meant to introduce viewers to the wonders of the night sky" and I feel this film fails to live up to that claim. If does offer some statistics and shows some fancy Hubble images... but it really is not an educational introduction to the night sky. It comes closer to being an introduction to various types of astronomers. It isn't a film that will teach you constellations, or have you star hopping after watching it, but I don't think it was meant to be that film either. With that said I rather enjoyed learning about various astronomers around the country.

As a Christian I found this video offensive when Ferris, while talking about Galileo's telescope, alluded to the bible as "some allegedly infallable book". Granted the "Priests and Professors" of long ago and astronomers haven't had the best past... but it seems Ferris wanted to take one more hit at Christianity and religion.

Over all despite my knit picking, annoying music and some hidden agenda slapped in there at the end. I enjoyed the video and I would recommend it to fellow astronomers to watch, the videography is top notch. It is available on blue-ray and highly recommended if you have a blue-ray player.

Here is a preview:

Hot Hot Hot... weather weather weather

My Telescope in HDR, originally uploaded by MPR Photography (Matthew2000tx).

If you don't know central Texas has been very dry this summer and San Antonio gets it's water from the Edwards Aquifer which has gotten very low this summer so we are at Stage 3 water restrictions. It has been unseasonably hot lately and today's high is expected to be 105 degrees; a temperature we usually don't see until the first part of August.

Why all the weather talk?? Well hot dry conditions are generally great for astronomy. I have gotten in some good viewing in lately because of the lack of humidity in the air allows the day time clouds to dissipate after sunset.

This week things have begun to moisten up a bit with rain the past two days. This is mostly due to the usual afternoon thunderstorms. Although we are in dire need of the rain, as is evident with the hue my lawn is showing, I have found it too humid in the evening to get the telescope out.

This week I have my parents in town from San Angelo, Texas and today is Wednesday which means it is the day of the week that the San Antonio Astronomical Association does it's weekly star party at McAllister Park near the San Antonio International airport. I would like to take my little Celestron First Scope out of a spin at the park and introduce my parents to the other astronomers that I talk about often. I see from the weather widget that the day's high is forecast as 105 and partly cloudy, so we might be able to make it to the park. All we need to hope for is that we don't have another one of those much needed rain clouds.... at least not today.

4th of July Star Party

4th of July Star Party, originally uploaded by MPR Photography (Matthew2000tx).

My family came in from the dark skies of west Texas to visit my wife and I in the light polluted city of San Antonio, TX where we currently live.

Modification to the Celestron 3" Dobsonian:

After a run to Home Depot for a 1/4" T-Nut and some drilling and hammering I had a tripod mount and it made it easy to set up the 3" dobsonian on our slanted driveway. We took in views of the moon and later in the evening Jupiter. Once again we are really enjoying the wide field of view (FOV) that this 3" offers. My wife noted as she was looking at the moon, "I like that you can see the whole moon and yet the details are crisp and clear."

All in all it was a real joy to show my family some astronomy on a semi-smoke filled night. (all the works from before). My dad even asked if I thought he should get one of these little $50 telescopes... I stated it wasn't bad but new eyepieces are a must to make the telescope shine.

First Light with new telescope

So I was in Dallas/Ft.Worth area this week for family and photography business. I stopped in at Fry's Electronics on I-635 (I think..) and I bought a little telescope I've had my eye on for a while, the Celestron 76mm International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) first scope. Telescope is what I call a baby (maybe a premature baby) dobsonian telescope that retails for $49.99. I couldn't resist. The telescope is tiny pointed a zenith it sits about a foot and a half tall.

I'll post some more details about this little scope later. But this post is about the first light with this scope. Today (July 3, 09) after driving the 5 or so hours back to San Antonio I decided to get this thing out and take it for a tour of the light polluted sky of San Antonio.

The telescope comes with 2 eyepieces and I took the 20mm out for tonight. My object of choice for first light was the moon. I needed something easy to spot since the first scope doesn't have a finder (an optional accessory kit is $20 more). It wasn't too hard to align the mini telescope to the lunar surface. The first thing I noticed about this telescope was how wide the field of view was. I was able to take in the whole moon with a 9mm eyepeice. I got some decent views with the the supplied 20mm eyepiece but I got some slight blue ghosting at the edge of the moon. This isn't the worst view I've seen in a beginning telescope however when I put in my Orion ED-2 18mm eyepeice it really took the views up a notch. I was rather pleased with the views in this scope. I also got to take in Jupiter. I didn't see any details of the planet but I could see a line of moons.

I have some big plans for this little telescope.. more on that later.