telescope – BRYOLOGUE

Officially rainy and Jupiter setting

June 2, 2017bryologue Leave a Comment

As of yesterday, PAG-ASA has announced the start of the southwest monsoon. This only means that the rainy season is already upon us, and I can now wear my boots again! This also means not using lot of leather bags. While I had a good experience with the Collonil Waterstop spray, it was just too costly. The bottle only lasted for about a month, with the rotation that I do.

To welcome the rainy season (that just seem wrong), I used a canvas bag with minimal leather parts.

Gucci in black canvas and leather tote with silver hardware, Doc Martens 8-hole boots

The silver hardware is reminiscent of the Gucci Jackie bags

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Mon and Moon!

March 17, 2013bryologue 1 Comment

March 17 and I can finally say: HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY MON! =D I was in the rooftop, with Mon, JB and my mother, testing my new telescope when the clock struck 12:00 AM! I had a hard time adjusting with the telescope, though, as the image was expectedly different than the other telescope. Newtonian telescopes produce images that are upside down, so it was difficult for me to deal with it on my first try. Unlike the other refractor, which produces images backwards, this Newtonian is not ideal for terrestrial use. LOL

Almost twelve hours after, I was woken up by JB because we were to eat our lunch. I was originally to help Mon with preparing lunch for today, but he did not bother waking me up at all. We bought a pack of frozen cream dory and other ingredients from Trinoma’s supermarket last night. Mon had fancied another bout of MasterChef moment and made a very nice meal for us. I especially loved the honey and lemon sauce on the cream dory, as well as the lychee in the jelly. He eventually left after lunch because he also had to spend time with his family on his birthday. =D

It was difficult to constantly bring the tripod of the telescope up to the rooftop, given the heavy counterweight, so the best solution I came up with was just to leave it in one corner. I would just remove the telescope tube, which wasn’t heavy at all. Thirty minutes before sunset, JB and I prepared our telescopes and cameras, hoping to get at least a momentary view of Comet PANSTARRS, but to no avail. Good thing that the Moon was visible to the northwest, near Jupiter and I was happy to point my telescope to these two celestial objects.

Of course, I also tried imaging the Moon with my point and shoot camera and I was delighted with the result. My camera, though, can’t capture the same beautiful thing seen from the telescope as the Moon’s details were more breathtaking as viewed from the eyepiece. I first tried using the 25mm eyepiece (originally from the Meade telescope), then the other 9mm. The picture below was seen through the 25mm one.

I also looked at Jupiter and it was beyond words! Given the bigger mirror of the Celestron, I was able to see Jupiter’s cloud bands as well as the Great Red Spot! With the Meade 70mm, I can barely discern these details and I usually half-guess whether I was seeing them. But using this 127mm, there was no mistaking the difference in the colors of the bands because of the better contrast. I attempted to image Jupiter but I can no longer push my point-and-shoot’s capabilities. All I got was a white blob with four dots (the Galilean moons). The next thing I might do is just purchase a CCD webcam and modify it for astrophotography because I don’t have enough budget for an SLR. LOL

Before wrapping up (because I had to eat dinner and take photos of things I will be listing on Ebay), I turned my telescope to Orion and almost cried when I saw the Orion Nebula. Again, unlike my other telescope, I just saw a faint haze of light and cloud, which was the nebula. But with this new telescope, I was able to see a much better detail of the clouds and even distinctly see the ‘trapezium cluster’ of four stars! I’m still amazed of the Orion Nebula but I know I have to soon move to seeing other Messier objects. =)

I’m broke but I’m happy!

March 16, 2013bryologue 5 Comments

Just as I thought that nothing much significant would happen this Saturday, I was very wrong. I’ve been debating for a long time whether to buy a new telescope for msyelf or a sewing machine for my mother, when I finally decided on the latter. When we went to Trinoma a month ago, I passed by Western Appliances and saw their selection of Brother sewing machines. I had my eyes on a particular model (BM-2600) and I knew that that was the exact one I wanted to give to Mama. She has been hinting on this since last year and I have promised her as well to buy one soon. Well, that soon became almost forgotten and Mama did not even bother reminding me but she was still secretly hoping I’d get her one. LOL

I called Western Appliances after lunch to confirm with the person in charge of the sewing machines that I would be passing by earlier this evening to get a unit. I had alraedy saved up for this, so there was no point postponing the purchase again. I just want to get it over with. Out of the three available models, I decided on this one — and then the demonstration of its features happened. It took about 20-30 minutes to show every single function of the sewing machine, from changing the stitch up to the making of buttonholes. My head was kind of heavy with all the information, because I was used to our VERY old and dilapidated Singer sewing machine, which only had a single running stitch function. =D Good thing it included an instructional video in a DVD because I have honestly forgotten more than half of the functions he discussed.

But before we event went to Western Appliances, we had passed by Cutting Edge on a whim to oggle at their selection of telescopes. However, it might have been a wrong call because I can’t stop stressing over the Celestron telescopes on display and I seriously considered buying one, especially as these units do not always show up in their stores. To cut the long story short, I eventually bought a new telescope!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Meade ETX-70. And eversince I bought one (secondhand) exactly a year ago, it has been serving me well. However, it was really frustrating to look at some of the planets because of the faulty base, making it extremely difficult to focus on an object. Higher magnifications exasperate me so much, but it was really good in viewing asterisms or other wide-angle subjects

When I got inside, Cutting Edge had four types of Celestron telescopes on sale but I instantly got ‘infatuated’ with the Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ. It cost Php 1000-more than the 114 EQ so I thought that it was no-brainer to pick the 114 over the 127 at that price. LOL I went to the cost-efficiency route in judging with the added mm in the aperture.

I went home with an emptier pocket, but I was happy. =D Mama was extremely happy and giddy and I immediately said “Belated Merry Christmas! Advanced Happy Mother’s Day! Advanced Happy Birthday!” Hopefully, she’ll give the hinting a rest because I already bought her new sewing machine. As for the telescope, I thought that if I keep on putting off getting one, it will continue until the end of the year and I have no time for that. If I were to empty my pocket, I might as well do it now so that I’ll have time to focus on more important things for the year — and that includes being more serious with Ebay etc!

All for an asteroid!

February 16, 2013bryologue 2 Comments

I woke up past 1:00 PM today because I spent my early morning on our rooftop. Asteroid 2012 DA14 was due to flyby Earth and I was really delighted that we’d get the chance to see it on this part of the world. So straight from work, I arrived at home around 1:30 AM and I had to rush fixing my things so I’d be ready before that moment started.

I have my telescope with me, as well my brother’s bridge camera, a GE X500 and a star chart of the asteroid’s path I have obtained from Mr. Eteny’s website, Night Sky in Focus. I had a hard time looking for my eyepieces, though, because my mother had fixed my telescope and I wasn’t able to immediately find where she put them. I spent the last 20 minutes looking for them and it was already past 2:00 AM when I was finally able to go to our rooftop.

Honestly, it was way more difficult from what I had already expected, and locating the asteroid in the star map was tasking as I had to consider the relative distance of each celestial object/asterism from one another. LOL I just need more practice, I guess, because I’m honestly not a regular observer. The first three photos I got below were surprisingly able to yield results, and I believe I might have just photographed the fast-moving asteroid. I just used the ‘Aperture’ priority setting of the camera, in the lowest possible focal length at 3.0, chose the ‘Fluorescent’ color setting, put it on a 30-second interval and prayed to get decent photos. The three photos below show the asteroid moving to the right of Crux, the Southern Cross. I checked the time signature of the three photos and they reflect 2:22:38 AM, 2:23:20 AM and 2:24:02 AM. I just adjusted them using “Auto Levels” in Adobe Photoshop and added crosshairs to point at the location of the asteroid.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 from 02h22m38s to 02h24m02s PHT -Marikina City, Philippines

Click photo to zoom

Decent pictures I guess, given the limited capabilities of my digital camera, so I furthermore edited the color, brightness and contrast, as well zoomed in and cropped the three photos. I also used the animated GIF-maker, Jasc Software, to animate the photos and make them move, showing intervals of about 30 seconds each.

Animated image of Asteroid 2012 DA14 moving to the right of the Southern Cross - February 16, 2013, Marikina City, Philippines

Animated image of Asteroid 2012 DA14 – Click photo to zoom

I have tried looking for the asteroid with my telescope, and I had no luck even with the low power eyepiece. So I just ditched the telescope and spent the next hours trying to photograph the asteroid. But alas, I might have already lost track of its location and even when I consulted the star chart, the clouds went on the way and I just wanna burn them off — as if that would happen as they are made of water. LOL Looking at the photos (lots of photos) I have taken last night, I had a better appreciation and developed more respect to Clyde Tombaugh and the blink comparator technique used to confirm the existence of Pluto (as well as the astronomers tirelessly working on identifying asteroids/comets). From one photo to another, I had to look for a seemingly moving object just to see the asteroid. It was very tiring as I also had to first adjust the brightness and contrast in Photoshop, so I eventually gave up. I’ll just deal with them when I have more time in the future, but I’m still happy with the first three photos I have taken.

Looking at both of my feet, I’ve noticed I have LOTS of ugly mosquito bites. They had a field day on my feet during that attempt to see the asteroid. Yikes! I was too preoccupied in getting to the rooftop that I have completely forgotten to put on some Off! lotion. If only I had not brought a hoodie with me, then my arms could have suffered the same fate. Anyway, it was a very good experience, especially I also saw three shooting stars fly past and I had to shake myself off from the shock of seeing them and make a necessary wish. I had three wishes in all and one includes a new telescope for real. ^_^

The last Saturday before Christmas

December 23, 2012bryologue 1 Comment

Yesterday, Mon and I were ready to face the daunting task — Christmas shopping on the last Saturday before Christmas. On our way to Trinoma, we were already discussing and making a list on our cellphone the things we need to buy for our loved ones and godchildren. I technically have six godkids but as only two were present (one’s already grown up, while the others: M.I.A.), I only had to buy two.

First stop was by the Barbie store in the second floor and I was able to finish choosing the items I wanted to buy within the first five minutes. Mon, on the other hand, had a hard time choosing what clothes to buy for my niece, Brie, who happened to be his goddaughter. Next stop was Toys R’ Us. We had a longer time looking and deciding for what toys to buy for the other kids. Towards the end of our shopping, though, we decided that it would be much better if one of us would get in line already while the other search for other last minute purchases.

Well since I was already done with my things-to-buy list in this store, Mon had to run around and look for other toys to give to his godchildren. Again, the queue was insane and bladder-challenging. The lady in front of me asked me if I can hold her position in the line ‘for a moment’ because she had to rush and get something. I gave a non-committal “Yes.” with a blank look, so she’d rush as I did not entirely feel comfortable doing it for her. And I was right. I don’t know about other people but if I said that I’d hurry up to pick something, it will be for a minute or two just to snatch whatever it was that I have forgotten. The lady in question, however, took a long time to get back on the line. She’d passed by my side, walking back and forth, and Mon even said that she was talking to somebody on the phone, while choosing for things on a shelf. O_O Had I known that such practice was okay, I could have fallen in line the moment I enter the store, ask the person next to me to hold my position, do my shopping and come back just in time to pay. =P Needless to say, she did not have her position back because… uhmmm… I did something interesting.

Going to the gift wrapping section of the store (because they wrap gifts for free as long as an item costs Php 300 or more), we were shocked to hear that the waiting time was six hours! Wow! That was a long time to wait just to have your gifts wrapped. But it was understandable, though. You can clearly see in their counter that the area was brimming with toys. They were literally slaving away and I hoped that other customers won’t give them a hard time because moments before, a cranky lady was throwing a fit in the cashier. Bless her little heart. Anyway, we had a lot of time in our hands since it was still 3:30 PM when we finished our toy shopping. We looked for gifts for the grown-ups and had a 6:30 PM screening of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. So 9:30 PM just flew by fast.

After the movie, we went back to Toys R’ Us to claim the wrapped items. I think they had barely finished wrapping the gifts, and there was still a long line of customers waiting to have their items considered. When will they get their gifts? The following day? Most of them got discouraged and just asked for the free gift wrapper.

Coming from Trinoma, we ‘flew’ immediately back at home to freshen up a bit because we were to meet some of my high school friends, one of them was Chelli, who I unexpectedly met when eating in Mashitta almost two months ago. Spent until 2:00 AM talking and laughing our heads off over the funny and foolish anecdotes we had from high school until present day. Then today (or few hours ago), I just came from another get-together of high school friends in Jannet’s house. Only five came again and we could have all gotten together on a single day but alas, their schedules did not match and they already have prior commitments. I had to go to Jannet’s place, though, because I needed to hand out my gift for his son and my godson, Aleph.

Tomorrow will be a very relaxed day. I intend to just eat and drink and sample the cooking of my mother for our Noche Buena. Perhaps catch up with with niece and nephew, and give my dog a bath. =P Barely two days before Christmas and I can’t wait until the kids open their gifts. We’ve been annoying JB since this morning that he will be receiving pick-up sticks as a gift. He had no idea that I have just given him his first toy telescope, so that he won’t bug me to go outside and lug my heavy telescope just to go stargazing. Well, he did nit initially know about it because when he was enumerating the possible content of the box (prior to me telling him that it was pick-up sticks), he said “small telescope” and we were all dumbfounded. =D

Oh Christmas. So stressful, especially to the wallet but I know it will be worth it. =D I missed nobody on my list and I was very happy.

That awkward moment when Uranus is over the Moon

October 27, 2012bryologue 3 Comments

No pun intended, but when I was checking Stellarium to check what was supposedly up in the heavens if it were not cloudy surprised me. I knew that the Moon was almost in West but I had an unexpected planet. Not to sound like Professor Trelawney on Lavander (“It is Uranus, my dear.”) but I really did not expect the planet because: 1) I was very sure that given my limited equipment, I will be having a hard time searching for it, and 2) IT WAS CLOUDY, so no use wasting my time.

It stopped raining but there was zero visibility of whatever celestial object of interest. I have been hoping to try my luck with my brother’s bridge camera (a GE X500) because I saw other amateur astrophotographers having great luck with the ones they have. But given the current weather condition, I contented myself with playing with the dials/buttons that I don’t normally touch.

My jaw dropped because I did not expect the photos to look like that. It was honestly very dark in the room and very dark outside as well, and I can barely see any details of the clouds in the sky. LOL That was amazing. Now, I can’t wait for the skies to clear so I can try my luck photographing the Jupiter, Taurus and Orion grouping almost directly above around this time.

I’ve been ranting all afternoon about how much I want to buy another telescope — a more powerful one. I really want to do astrophotography but I’m on a budget. I originally wanted to buy a webcam with a CCD sensor, but since my brother has apparently ceased using his bridge camera, I can settle for it now. Back to the telescope question, I really want to research hard on which scope will best fit my needs. If only budget were not an issue. Anyway, I’ll just push what I currently have to the limit and hope for clear skies ahead!

Photographing Jupiter for the first time

October 23, 2012bryologue 1 Comment

Finally, a cloudless night — perfect condition for a fresh attempt to photograph Jupiter. I went home from work in anticipation of another moment to look at this very bright object, as it sat above The Hunter and The Bull’s heads.

While trying my best to capture decent photos with my point and shoot camera, I’ve realized two things: 1) I need a better camera, and/or 2) I need a better telescope. But if I were to prioritize only one of the two, I’d prefer the latter. I love my Meade ETX-60 as it is perfect to view nebulae and other cluster formations, but I would have liked to step up my planetary experience. I know that I have previously resolved on getting a new telescope after my school commitments. But as a lot of things had happened immediately (or even during) those tasks, I had to postpone the purchase because well… I have already spent my telescope fund for more worthwhile things.

Anyway, seeing Jupiter and the four Galilean moons still made my night. The picture above can nowhere capture how wonderful seeing that planet suspended in the sky, but I still love seeing Saturn’s rings because they are forever magnificent. I also braved our street, setting up my telescope and two chairs in front of our house, with a sling bag carrying the eyepieces, a digital camera and my cellphone. I was that determined to use my telescope that I just went extra cautious of my surroundings because I might get mugged. LOL However, as our house extension’s rooftop was about to get built, I will claim the place and make it my makeshift ‘observatory’. But I will have to wait by mid-November in order to do that once it is finished.

I really want a new telescope. >_<

2012 Astronomy Day – Clouds throwing shade

October 20, 2012bryologue Leave a Comment

Not literally. But since October 20, 2012 is Astronomy Day, I decided to take my telescope out after several months of being inside its box and look up to the heavens. Any amateur enthusiast or professional astronomer must do something astronom-ish for the night. LOL However, the wonderful clouds went in the way and I wasn’t able to see other things, except for the Moon.

Don’t get me wrong. I am in LOVE with the Moon, but I was hoping to catch a glimpse of other celestial bodies. I took this photo of the moon almost half past six, and Jupiter wasn’t due until about almost ten from where I was located. I borrowed my brother’s bridge camera, just to try my luck in capturing Jupiter, because I had been having a hard time with my point and shoot camera (which I used for the photo above — but I was also wondering why my photos using the same camera this time were not that good as before). As I went out of the house four hours after, I immediately saw Jupiter almost above me and unobstructed — perfect condition because it meant less turbulence in the atmosphere for my optics to penetrate through. But as I was already searching for it, first with the 25mm eyepiece, then with the 9mm eyepiece, I could no longer see it. Thanks to the clouds. Ugh. I was cursing under my breath, no, loudly and Mon had to remind me to lower my voice. We were in the middle of our street.

It’s no longer the rainy season but I just hope that those dense cloud formations would give way for me just to get a good glimpse of the Orion Nebula, Pleiades and Jupiter. >_<

I miss photographing the Moon

June 19, 2012bryologue 1 Comment

Ever since I was little, being an astronomer was the earliest professional ambition I could remember.

I was very interested in the night sky, the constellations, and celestial events such as solar eclipses. I even count witnessing a total solar eclipse as one of the things in my bucket list.

However, this dream slowly died out when I was in high school because I had realized how much Physics and Chemistry was needed to achieve this dream. I became interested in other things such as languages, style (which takes up most of my time), etc.

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