FINALLY! The Seattle area was witness to a spellbinding celestial event and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! After sleeping three hours, I woke up at midnight to crank open the roof of the observatory and set up the equipment to enjoy a long, quiet total lunar eclipse from start to finish. More than 100 pictures later, I decided not to go to bed for a nap but to just go to work. It was a long, exhausting day, but well worth it. Equipment used: 12" LX90 GPS Schmidt Cassegrain, Canon EOS 20D, and various accessories.

Continue reading "08/28/2007 - MOON OVER KITSAP" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DIARY OF NOVEMBER 8, 2006:
As you astronomy buffs know, Mercury is due to transit (cross) the face of the sun today, beginning at 11:12 a.m. (PST) and continuing for about five hours. I've looked forward to this for a month and have readied myself by ordering new equipment and fine tuning drive motors on my LX90 telescope to accurately track Mercury. But, as luck would have it, it's rained very hard and constantly the last week and the forecast is not all that good today. On top of that, the camera I ordered for this event did not show up, though it may show up today in time to be used, but that would have to be early in the day and thus, is not too likely. Here's how my day went today. (It's still only 6:30 a.m. at the time of this writing, but I will update throughout the day).

Continue reading "11/08/2006 - MERCURY SOLAR TRANSIT DAY" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This photo was taken of a partial solar eclipse June 10, 2002 in the front yard of the Rocket Lane house, using a C8 telescope and 35mm film camera.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)