ASTRO: Helix - trying again

For some reason the attachment was stripped when I posted it earlier
tonight. It was attached when I sent it. So if it is missing again
I'll yell at the ISP in the morning.

A bit out of season. I'd forgotten about this one on the hard drive.
Seeing was lousy and it needed a lot more exposure time. So I never
processed it. With the tools I had at the time that was impossible. I
reduced it to half size to hide the seeing. No resolution was lost in
the process and it saves bandwidth. Only a hint of the outer shell is
there. This was in white light. It is really too low for my 47 degree
location. It takes a special night for seeing to work that low.

14" LX200R@f/10, 6x5 min binned 2x2, STL-11000M, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...
For some reason the attachment was stripped when I posted it earlier
tonight. It was attached when I sent it. So if it is missing again
I'll yell at the ISP in the morning.

A bit out of season. I'd forgotten about this one on the hard drive.
Seeing was lousy and it needed a lot more exposure time. So I never
processed it. With the tools I had at the time that was impossible. I
reduced it to half size to hide the seeing. No resolution was lost in
the process and it saves bandwidth. Only a hint of the outer shell is
there. This was in white light. It is really too low for my 47 degree
location. It takes a special night for seeing to work that low.

14" LX200R@f/10, 6x5 min binned 2x2, STL-11000M, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Wow. Nice one, Rick. Worth the wait.

George

"Rick Johnson" wrote
....
....... I'd forgotten about this one on the hard drive.
Seeing was lousy and it needed a lot more exposure time. So I never
processed it. With the tools I had at the time that was impossible. I
reduced it to half size to hide the seeing. No resolution was lost in
the process and it saves bandwidth. Only a hint of the outer shell is
there. This was in white light. It is really too low for my 47 degree
location. It takes a special night for seeing to work that low........

Rick,

Nice image even with the problems! Ya just have to live with what the sky
gives ya!! What was the altitude when you took this?

I've never really looked for this object before about two years ago when
I hunted it down with my 20x80 binoculars (from a very dark location) and
found it bright and easy to see. One of these days I'll have to image it.

George N

George Normandin wrote:
"Rick Johnson" wrote
...

....... I'd forgotten about this one on the hard drive.
Seeing was lousy and it needed a lot more exposure time. So I never
processed it. With the tools I had at the time that was impossible. I
reduced it to half size to hide the seeing. No resolution was lost in
the process and it saves bandwidth. Only a hint of the outer shell is
there. This was in white light. It is really too low for my 47 degree
location. It takes a special night for seeing to work that low........


Rick,

Nice image even with the problems! Ya just have to live with what the sky
gives ya!! What was the altitude when you took this?

I've never really looked for this object before about two years ago when
I hunted it down with my 20x80 binoculars (from a very dark location) and
found it bright and easy to see. One of these days I'll have to image it.

George N


Unfortunately, I have a "protected" tree, a huge red pine, right on the
meridian. It blocks about an hour either side of the meridian. So with
low objects like this I can't get them at their highest point. I took
this about 40 minutes to 10 minutes before hitting the tree. Add an
hour to reach the meridian and take into account my 47 degree latitude
and that about covers it. I was going to get more data for a color
image and did get one more 5 minute red image. The next red was into
the tree and discarded. Then clouds moved in and I never got another
shot of it and forgot about it. House gets in the way west of the
meridian so when it comes out of the tree it is soon behind the house.

Visually this isn't at all the difficult object some seem to think it to
be -- if you have a dark site that is. I've even showed it to rank
beginners without a filter. One said, "Hey, a bed spring" when seeing
it in my Cave 10" f/5. I hadn't even put in the OIII or UHC filter yet.
But he is nearly full blooded Ojibway indian. Maybe there is
something to their legendary eyesight.

A protected tree is one you can't remove because it is in the shore
impact zone or on a designated bluff. In this case it is BOTH. Now if
I can convince some beavers red pine is good to eat... But they have to
swear to drop it away from the observatory, that is within range if they
drop it the wrong way. Considering I've seen a mummified beaver tail
sticking out from under a huge poplar it had dropped, their ability to
fell a tree where they want it is not always that good.


Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Beautiful picture Rick. If it weren't for your comments I would have thought
it was really good ;-)

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
For some reason the attachment was stripped when I posted it earlier
tonight. It was attached when I sent it. So if it is missing again
I'll yell at the ISP in the morning.

A bit out of season. I'd forgotten about this one on the hard drive.
Seeing was lousy and it needed a lot more exposure time. So I never
processed it. With the tools I had at the time that was impossible. I
reduced it to half size to hide the seeing. No resolution was lost in
the process and it saves bandwidth. Only a hint of the outer shell is
there. This was in white light. It is really too low for my 47 degree
location. It takes a special night for seeing to work that low.

14" LX200R@f/10, 6x5 min binned 2x2, STL-11000M, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

"Rick Johnson" wrote

Unfortunately, I have a "protected" tree, a huge red pine, right on the
meridian. It blocks about an hour either side of the meridian........

What you need Rick is an ice storm! About 3 or 4 years ago I lost 5 pine
trees behind my house after a 20-inch snow was followed a day later by a
heavy freezing rain. The same storms also cleared out the pines south of
Kopernik Observatory that are on someone else's land.

George N

George Normandin wrote:

"Rick Johnson" wrote


Unfortunately, I have a "protected" tree, a huge red pine, right on the
meridian. It blocks about an hour either side of the meridian........


What you need Rick is an ice storm! About 3 or 4 years ago I lost 5 pine
trees behind my house after a 20-inch snow was followed a day later by a
heavy freezing rain. The same storms also cleared out the pines south of
Kopernik Observatory that are on someone else's land.

George N




We get those in Nebraska, just as Doug who was caught in a really bad
one. I had one Halloween eve 1991. Caused a tree to go through my roof
and took out the storage area all my prints and negatives were in. Lost
nearly all of my astro photos. I'm now starting over digitally. After
that experience I have no desire to go through another, even to take
down that tree. Some towns in Nebraska are still without power and with
major transmission lines, even towns like Lincoln have lost half their
power coming in from generators that they contracted with for power so
they are spending millions to buy power on the open market. It will
raise rates sky high for a year or two to come just to cover the losses
and they never lost power! An old client of mine that makes wood cross
pieces for transmission lines will have a super year however!

Up here it is just too cold for ice storms. We did get a minor one, the
first in a quarter century, but compared to those in Nebraska or
Missouri this year it was nothing. Just that now my road has a half
inch ice layer that will be there until April making driving in and out
a very slow go the rest of winter. I've attached a summer shot of the
road taken about a half mile from the house and two and a half miles in
from the county road, showing the longest straight stretch (and widest).
It's just the width of a car and now a solid ice sheet, slick beyond
belief. I've put 2 cubic yards of sand on it every couple weeks just to
stay out of the trees. Someone left a lot of white front left fender
and turn lights on a tree. Don't know who as we are the only ones
living here and don't own a white vehicle. That from a very rare and
minor ice storm. I'll go with the beavers.

Rick

"Rick Johnson" wrote

......... Someone left a lot of white front left fender
and turn lights on a tree. Don't know who as we are the only ones
living here and don't own a white vehicle........

Well if they were trespassing Rick at least they could have been nice
enough to take out your astro-offending pine!

Perhaps you could make a deal with the state to cut the big tree, but pay
to replace it with a number of small plantings. In New York in the
Adirondacks there are the same restrictions on removal of water front trees
but if you have a real need (like a tree that could come down on your house)
the state (Adirondack Park Agency) will be accommodating.

George N

George Normandin wrote:

"Rick Johnson" wrote


......... Someone left a lot of white front left fender
and turn lights on a tree. Don't know who as we are the only ones
living here and don't own a white vehicle........


Well if they were trespassing Rick at least they could have been nice
enough to take out your astro-offending pine!

Perhaps you could make a deal with the state to cut the big tree, but pay
to replace it with a number of small plantings. In New York in the
Adirondacks there are the same restrictions on removal of water front trees
but if you have a real need (like a tree that could come down on your house)
the state (Adirondack Park Agency) will be accommodating.

George N


The road is a quasi public dead end road that feeds several summer
cabins who have people to watch them in winter. So no trespassing
involved. I suspect it was one of those hired to watch the cabins that
clobbered the tree. It was a birch he clobbered. Far smaller than the
pine and it was much stronger than his fender obviously. Just lost a
bit of bark. The pine is far larger and 40 feet above the road on a
bluff. No way anyone can hit that but lightning. It bears a couple
lightning scars so even that is no problem for it. Yes, we could remove
trees that were diseased threatening others, and in fact were required
to. They are heating the house as I type this. I'm sure one
threatening the house would be no problem either. But blocking an
observatory isn't one of their exceptions. My best hope is the drought
will reduce the sap and pine bores will get in and take it. Then it
will meet the disease exception. With virtually no snow this year (what
we got was about as void of water as dry ice) and no rain this fall (but
zillions of clouds of course) that could happen. Itasca (official start
of the Mississippi), not far from me, has a real problem with them
killing their huge pines from a drought a few years back. Now if
they'll move 20 air miles southeast...

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:33:54 -0600, Rick Johnson
wrote:



George Normandin wrote:

"Rick Johnson" wrote


......... Someone left a lot of white front left fender
and turn lights on a tree. Don't know who as we are the only ones
living here and don't own a white vehicle........


Well if they were trespassing Rick at least they could have been nice
enough to take out your astro-offending pine!

Perhaps you could make a deal with the state to cut the big tree, but pay
to replace it with a number of small plantings. In New York in the
Adirondacks there are the same restrictions on removal of water front trees
but if you have a real need (like a tree that could come down on your house)
the state (Adirondack Park Agency) will be accommodating.

George N


The road is a quasi public dead end road that feeds several summer
cabins who have people to watch them in winter. So no trespassing
involved. I suspect it was one of those hired to watch the cabins that
clobbered the tree. It was a birch he clobbered. Far smaller than the
pine and it was much stronger than his fender obviously. Just lost a
bit of bark. The pine is far larger and 40 feet above the road on a
bluff. No way anyone can hit that but lightning. It bears a couple
lightning scars so even that is no problem for it. Yes, we could remove
trees that were diseased threatening others, and in fact were required
to. They are heating the house as I type this. I'm sure one
threatening the house would be no problem either. But blocking an
observatory isn't one of their exceptions. My best hope is the drought
will reduce the sap and pine bores will get in and take it. Then it
will meet the disease exception. With virtually no snow this year (what
we got was about as void of water as dry ice) and no rain this fall (but
zillions of clouds of course) that could happen. Itasca (official start
of the Mississippi), not far from me, has a real problem with them
killing their huge pines from a drought a few years back. Now if
they'll move 20 air miles southeast...

But an old banger and drive into it. Fast.
--
http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com http://www.petersphotos.com

Reality is for people who can't handle alcohol and joints.