Last year I searched for a iPhone meteor shower app and what I found was pretty poor.  Pathetic actually. So I decided to write one myself. Thus began a journey that has taken up much, no, all of my spare time the past months.

In the beginning I had grand ideas  carried over from an unfinished web project. Along the way I scaled back my expectations.  I don’t have the expertise yet. Just learning the intricacies and quirks of Objective-C was enough to keep me busy for many months.  This has been fun, I’ve not been so immersed in code and algorithms as this for a long, long time. I focused my attention and skills on a simple goal: write the best meteor shower app.

Over this time I have learned much more than I ever knew about meteor showers.  I can’t even count the number of technical articles I’ve read on them. Sometimes I wonder if that has changed my outlook. Before I simply enjoyed watching them, perhaps trying to capture them in a photograph. Now I ponder how to incorporate various data points into a table, how to quantify the duration of a meteor showers peak, why there is conflicting data on shower timing and intensity.

Tonight though I’m happy to say I have submitted version 1.0 of Meteor Shower Guide for approval in the Apple app store.  The waiting for approval begins.

First Flint Hills trip in 2011 and I doubt we could have had a better night that Thursday the 5th of May. The sky was crystal clear, very light wind with moderate temperatures.  For a change I setup north of Tetter’s rock, by a lone Osage Orange tree. Click the little picture on the right to see a larger version (looking south, note rock in distance).

The reason for my trip was the eta Aquariids meteor shower. I had never seen this meteor shower and my calculations (more on that in the future) suggested it would peak the morning of May 6th, shortly after sunrise . With a nearly new moon and clear skies the conditions were as good as they could be.

The eta Aquariids are remnants of Hally’s Comet. The radiants location in the sky and time of year heavily favors southern observers (south like Venezuela!).  Never the less one never knows, you have to go out and watch to see what develops.  There is not much to report, the shower is weak from +38 latitude. I did not see a single eta Aquariid meteor until about 3:00am. Which is expected. All together I noted 10 eta Aquariid meteors before darkness officially ended at 4:30 CDT.

Over a month ago I started my first LRGB CCD image, target was NGC1555. I’ve run out of time this season to collect more quality imaging data. Alas I found I really need more imaging time on this object from my location.

Nevertheless I decided to post this milestone in my astrophotography adventures despite its shortcomings. Like the terrible light pollution gradient. Click preview for larger version.

The picture is cropped from the original size and was adjusted a bit in Photoshop. This is 2 hours Luminance, 2 hours each RGB with a straight combine. The blue and green images were not of the best quality.

Added several camera models.

First night of 2011 is crystal clear and cold (avg 12F) here at Clearfield Observatory. Not just the first night of the year, its also first light for a new QSI 583ws camera. So its frickin cold as hell while I’m trying new hardware and techniques. A challenge, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The night went very well, thank you. Focusing with my homemade Bahtinov mask for the first time: amazingly easy. Testing shows the color filters (AstroDon TruBalance ) have a slight difference in focus among them, not unexpected. Finding and framing target without a camera viewfinder: not as bad as I thought. This is good since I don’t have a goto mount and finding/framing can be tedious.

After the initial test images I did one hour of exposures ( 21 x 3m) on Barnard 33, luminance only (click image for 100% zoom of horse head):

Combined in Maxim DL, just darks and lights, no flats. Minimal photoshop work, no noise reduction.  Very pleased with these results!

Situation for Mondays eclipse here: bad. Nowhere close was forecast to be clear so I had to sit and see what mother nature provided. Just like 2008. Unlike that year it cleared enough to enjoy this event, something no living person had seen before, a total lunar eclipse on the day of the winter solstice.

There’s something magical about the moon once its into full eclipse. Its big disk floating among the stars is so unlike anything you’re used to seeing. Awesome.

While the conditions were far from perfect I did managed a few pictures, click any image below for larger version:

From left to right: clouds whizzing by during early test shot, partway into eclipse a lunar halo, by the telescope at full eclipse just as more clouds approach and lastly the moon at full eclipse looking a bit soft from under exposure and passing clouds.

Its been many years since I last witnessed a lunar eclipse. It was exciting to experience this event, a good Christmas present.

Second year in a row I’m clouded out for the Geminid meteor shower. No dark site within hundreds of miles was clear.  Bummer.