Blog Archives

Busy Day at Houge Park Hall 5/3

Posted on May 3, 2015 by by

The Houge Park Hall was buzzing with activity today with several programs going on at the sametime. The SJAA Fixit Program, SJAA Library and SJAA Advanced Loaner program were all open today to serve our members and public. We had people coming for help with telescope collimation questions, eyepiece and lens cell questions. We also did collimation procedures on some scope being returned for the Advanced Loaner Program. We had people stopping by to check out scopes for the Advance Loaner Program too. Our wonderful Librarian Sukhada Palav was busy checking and cataloging books and evaluating future books for the Library.

We also had a bonus activity going on too. Question? How many astronomers does it take to setup a really big telescope? Answer: 4

Rob Jaworski, Phil Chambers, Teruo Utsumi and Vini Carter were busy assembling the 20 inch Obsession Telescope that was graciously donated to the club by our dear friend Dr. Robert Armstrong and his family. The intent was to learn how to setup the telescope so we can share some views with it with the public and club members soon. Looks like with the braintrust of the fabulous four they had it assemble and figured out in no time. Thanks for the effort guys. Can’t wait for the views to be seen. I documented the big event with photos

Enjoy,

Ed Wong

Posted in Articles

2015 Astronomy Day Campbell Park

Posted on April 25, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

2015 Astronomy Day At Campbell Park

Sunspot count 79 (NOAA) C-Class Flare Observed Live in H-Alpha @ 11:30AM

We were so very lucky to see the Sun between the clouds at the get go as were 3 public bystanders. One long stringy (35 Earth Diameters!) C-Class H-Alpha flare was seen stringing out from the solar disc from AR-2324. We Stayed until 3PM sharing views with about 60 people walking or biking the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Happy Astronomy Day, stellar cheers and enjoy the below pics.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

C-Class Flare Observed. This Gif was taken a day earlier so flare is just inside the solar disc.

Sunspots for Today. This Image was taken a day earlier. Today’s Sunspot count was 79 NOAA

Entire Solar Disc in H-Alpha, note Prominences and Filaments. Credit Wolf W.

Image taken today in H-Alpha courtesy of SpaceWeather.com

Susan O’Neil Teaching On Our Sun’s Atmospheres

Wolf and his Scope (Far left), Bill O’Neil, Michael Packer and his scopes (Far right)

Bill O at SJAA’s 100mm H-Alpha Scope

Posted in Articles

SJAA 2015 Earth Day

Posted on April 11, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

Cupertino’s Earth Day Was A Stellar Success Despite Some Cloud Layer

At the end of the day SJAA’s 5 scopes shared the power of the sun with 100’s of Earth Day patrons. We handed out a couple dozen info sheets and signed lots of Eco-Passports (Fill-in cards that get kids and adults to visit an learn). Enjoy the pics below.

SJAA at 2015 Earth Day City of Cupertino.

Simply said our Sun drives life on Earth.

Bill at Club’s scope. We had several prominences all in the 2-3 earth diameters range.

Terry at her H-Alpha. Lot of girls stopped by today.

Bill’s 10-inch Dob saw more sunspots than estimated by NOAA. Terrific faculae today.

Walking around Earth Day and the art of connection.

Santa Clara Audubon’s Booth

Malika sharing info on Sunspots

Thanks to are volunteers who brought a smile and awe to all!

Thanks for looking and save the date for Astronomy Day at Campbell park Saturday April 25. See the details at our Meetup.com site. Bring yourself or a solar scope and enjoy a day in a park.

Posted in Articles

April 2015 Lunar Eclipse Shots

Posted on April 3, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Member April 2015 Eclipse Shots

Members, send us one or two of you lunar eclipse photos (max size 720×1280) to
m.dot packer at yahoo dot com and we’ll post here. People shots welcome!

“look for oranges, reds, greys and turquoise“

The source of the turquoise is ozone. During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the Moon passes through the stratosphere, and is reddened (can look orange) by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer” This can be seen as a turquoise fringe around the red.

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Marilyn Perry, Canon T3i, f/5, 0.6 sec, ISO800, 200mm

Christopher-Calubaquib Nikon D7000, 300mm

Christopher Calubaquib San Jose Nikon D7000, 300mm

Posted in Articles

SJAA 35th Spring Auction Results!

Posted on March 10, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

35th Annual Spring Auction

It was “good to see friends from other clubs like Tri-Valley, Mid Peninsula, etc.” – SJAA’s Bill O’Neil

2015 Auction. Credit for all photos goes to Ed Wong unless otherwise stated. Thanks Ed.

CLICK ANY IMAGE IN BLOG TO ENLARGE

A Little History

Computer Auction Organizer JVN over a decade ago. Credit Dan Wright.

Kevin Medlock started off the auction with a little history. The San Jose Astronomical Association’s First Auction was held 35 years ago at a Red Cross building in Los Gatos. The Red Cross is no longer there but the building still is. And there was a large crowd anticipating this first auction. But back then there was no computer or pizza to make the day go easier. In later years when SJAA did finally have an IBM computer to keep track of buys and sells for 100’s of items it was still a slow process. Jim Van Nuland recalls one seller who brought in over a 100 items(!) and then accidentally put one on the auction block at a low price. He had to buy it back by out-bidding everyone else.

Upfront Thanks

35 years later, SJAA has better computers but generations of new volunteer Board members and “better” software still can make the day a lot of work for our organizers. A special thanks to the SJAA Board, our Auctioneer Kevin Medlock and snack organizer Marianne Damon. You guys made it real, fun, made it real fun!

Seated left to right: Dave Ittner, Rob Jaworski and Teruo Utsumi

Kevin Medlock

Snacks provided by Marianne Damon

Results

This year we had 156 items for auction. SJAA sold $3,749 worth of stuff and Sellers sold $4,887. Congratulations to both Buyers and Sellers. Below are a few pics of the day.

—

—

–

—

—

Credit M. Packer

Below Left: Lee talking to private bidder from Russia.

—

—

—

Thanks to all of you for joining – see you in the field and at next auction!

—

Posted in Articles

First Sunday March 1 Solar

Posted on March 1, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

Solar Sunday: In Honor of Leonard Nimoy

Sunspot count 54 (SDIC) C-Class Flare Observed Live in H-Alpha

We talked about Leonard Nimoy at today’s Solar Sunday. There is no doubt that Star Trek is part of the amateur astronomy mind set. The common element of wanting to seek out and explore our universe, and of course imaging life out there is intriguing. And we amateurs get to explore and imagine with our telescopes. Just as appealing – is imagining Gene Roddenberry’s future – where there is no discrimination between a community of planets. Spock’s character brought that universe to life and Leonard Nemoy’s sensibility to the character endeared the minds of a staggering and still growing fan base that started 50 years ago. Many thanks Leonard for ensuring these ideals live long and prosper.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Leonard Nimoy 1931 – 2015

Sanjay’s daughter, below, iphoned this pic.

Sunday Solar had about 15 visitors today with many of them observing and talking about the sun for an hour or more. We counted 53 sunspots, 11 filaments (prominences), and limb prominences at moderately high power. Below are some of the dedicated patrons!

Terry K’s grab and go H-Alpha with new Eyepiece:

Below is Malika C. with her 66mm refractor and eyepiece projection system. An image of the sun is projected onto high quality rear projection HDTV screen material.

Malika

Carl R pointing out Sunspots

For those of use who observed after 3PM in H-Alpha, we got to see plage (chomospheric brightening) around AR-2290 rise and brighten into a conical flare. The event lasted about 20 minutes. AR-2290 was located perfectly near the solar limb. We had begun to noticed that the plage seamed elevated 1-2 Earth diameters above the photosphere. We then noticed it formed a conical shape, brightening, and extending vertically to a height of 5 Earth diameters. AR-2290 has created about a half dozen C-Class flares over the last couple of days (link). This flare below was recorded just hours before our observations:

Below Wolf W. showing H-Alpha views with his 100mm Lunt.

Below (Left) Bob W. at his 80mm Standard Filtered scope. Thanks to Bob – we were able to see the Sunspot AR 2290 at the edge of the solar rim with aid of his green and variable polarizing filters.

And above is an image of the sun Bob W. took. Another truly stellar day. Live Long and Prosper and Mag. -26.74 skies!

Posted in Articles, Blog, Solar

Heads Up for GSSP

Posted on February 28, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

2015 Golden State Star Party (GSSP)

Wednesday, July 15
To Sunday, July 19 (4 nights)

GSSP is an imagers haven

The biggest and darkest skies you’re likely to encounter are there, about 6 hours drive from the south bay. Lots of great amenities, friendly people, wonderful gracious and open locals in an interesting and little-visited part of the state.

Last year’s obsidian hunting outing, led by Bob Czerwinski, was a fun highlight for me. I’d like to do it again. Lava Beds and Mount Lassen nearby are great day trips, as are the many hot springs in the area.

I really encourage checking it out and making the effort to attend. It is MUCH easier to be there than the uninitiated think.

Early (and less expensive) registration is on through March. Check it out: http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
Dark skies beckon!

Regards,
The Astronomy Connection (TAC) Team and SJAA

Posted in Articles

SJAA Annual Meeting + Potluck = Stellar

Posted on February 8, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

SJAA Annual Meeting and Potluck

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Elections were held, food served, and a few members were recognized for making SJAA shine. Greg Claytor did an outstanding job of noting all that our clubs does – and his son took the above picture of SJAA members in attendance. The Elected Board members for open seats in 2015 were Teruo Utsumi, Ed Wong, Lee Hoglan and Michael Packer. The Board has one seat open. If you wish to nominate yourself or another member please contact any board member.

Below are the folks who were awarded for their SJAA efforts. Each recipient also got a bonafied astronomy cup that shows the constellations when it’s heated up with coffee, tea, coco, broth… you get the idea.

Teri Rogoway given the SJAA Recognition Award by Greg Claytor for helping SJAA secure dark sky observing sites, late at night, and outside city lights. Much thanks Teri.

Gary Chock has showed up and shared the night sky at just about every dark sky event SJAA hosted last year – Wow – Thanks Gary!

Sukhada Palav has taken it upon herself to stock an Astronomy Library with books and magazines that both kids and adults can enjoy/utilize. Last year the Library really came to life! Thanks Sukhada.

Greg Claytor and Teruo Utsumi receive awards on behalf of Marianne Damon and Tom Piller (not pictured). In addition to her outreach, Marianne was the reason every SJAA meeting had coffee and snacks last year. SJAA recognized Tom Piller for his outreach last year his editorship of the SJAA Ephemeris News Letter. Thanks to you both! Below is a pic of three recipients in attendance – you might call these mug shots – seeing as they are holding their cups!

We also retroactively handed out constellation mugs to SJAA’s last year award recipients:

Left to Right: Jim Van Newland, Teri Kahl, Paul Mancuso, Bill O’Neil, Carl Reisinger

Below are a few more pics of the evening. Thanks to all of you for making SJAA a fun place to reach for the stars. And great food btw!

Posted in Articles, Blog, General Meeting

SJAA 3rd Year Solar Party

Posted on January 31, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

SJAA’s 3rd Year Solar Anniversary A Big Hit

—

Today with a Sunspot Count of 193 (NOAA) and one huge massive H-Alpha flare, SJAA shared some stellar views with the public along the Los Gatos Creek Trail at Campbell Park.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Above Left Today’s Sunspots and Active Regions And Above Right Malika Carter Setting Up Her Eyepiece Projection System

Justin Gallegos stopped by and snapped this iphone 4s image of today’s massive H-Alpha Flare. Thanks for sending our way! And below are more pics of today’s event. All in all, we had about 60 folks stop by.

Above Bill at Clubs H-Alpha

Kevin Lahey explaining the twisting of solar magnetic field at is 12″ Dob. A lot of bikers put the breaks on to take a view.

Mark McCarthy’s scope was a big hit

Veteran SJAA member and solar observer Terry Kahl at her grab and go Coronado H-Alpha. This scope revolutionized Solar Observing from an obscure hobby to popular astronomy

Wolf Witt explaining Solar Fusion. He brought out a 100mm Lunt H-Alpha.

Bill O’Neil with a Mother And Daughter who stopped by.

Solar Chair 3 Years Running Michael Packer

It is hard to believe SJAA and I have done Solar Astronomy for 3 Years. Every type of H-Alpha Flair observed – even ones yet classified, along with the biggest sunspot in 24 years, a transit of Venus no soul will see again in their lifetime and a rare California Anular Eclipse. We have a Transit Of Mercury to Look forward to along with a Partial Eclipse which is a Total Eclipse of the Sun from Oregon to South Carolina.

Mag -26.74
Packer

Posted in Articles

Send us your pics! Comet LOVEJOY

Posted on January 4, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Send Pics of Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) To
mDOTpackerATyahooDOTcom – We’ll Post Below

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Isaak Cruz, Canon T5i 16/30s images on Astrotrac Mount, 200mm f/2.8

Ricky Pan, Cupertino, Olympus OM-D E-M5 60s ISO 800 221mm f/6.3

Marilyn Perry, Sunnyvale, Tue 01/0615 9:20PM, Canon T3i, 8s ISO 800 200mm f/3.2.

Michael Packer, Los Gatos, Wed 01/07/15, Nikon D300s 4s ISO 2500 480mm f/6.3

With a pair a binoculars look for Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Folks with good skies can just make it out naked eye. In binoculars some folks have said it looks like greenish cotton ball. See below for its path in the sky:

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Posted in Anouncements, Articles, Blog

First Sunday Jan 4th Solar

Posted on January 4, 2015 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

BIG SUN, HUGE SUNSPOT AND ONE CLOUD BLANKET

—

Today January 4, 2015 at 6:36 UTC (04:36 a.m. PST) the Earth was at perihelion, closest to the sun!** Also on this day a sunspot, AR2253, equal in width to the diameter of Jupiter was about smack in the middle for prime-time viewing!! But, alas, a blanket of clouds covered the sky made for a sparse viewing of this celestial culmination of events. Eh – not quite magical. In fact we did not pull out the club’s H-Alpha, though Michael P. had his duel refactor set up, one side a H-Alpha 80, and Carl R. and Bill O had their SCTs. We, and about 10 visitors, did get to see the sunspots, all 78 of them (SIDC)*** and prominences but we had a few problems along the way aside from the clouds. Michael in his zeal to show Carl where he screws on his continuum green filter, screwed up is duel scope alignment. He’s lucky he didn’t loose a binoviewer to the effects of gravity at the scopes’ flip downward. And then Terry K. arrived. Now she correctly decided to not to bother pulling out her scopes but it wasn’t like she had a choice. Her trunk decided to lock along with her car keys inside. Nothing AAA could not handle in under 5 minutes. So even if first Sunday’s show was not entirely skyward we had enough entertainment here on Earth at Houge Park. Here are some pics of the day. And if you have time – Check out Sunspot 2253!! !! !!

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Michael Checking out Sunspot with Solar Glasses. The Sun was not bright enough through clouds for 2253 to pop. Look for this behemoth Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday if you got solar glasses and a patch of clear sky.

Below Carl and Bill shooting the breeze.

Below Bill and Wolf – not shooting the breeze at the moment.

**The word perihelion is has Greek roots: peri meaning near and helios meaning sun.

*** SDIC is Solar Influences Data analysis Center. SDIC is the keeper of the International Sunspot Number. If you write in the comments where the SDIC resides, 1st commenter get a pair of solar glasses free.

****Look for Comet Lovejoy over the couple weeks! Big Hint: Use binoculars and this link: https://www.sjaa.net/wp-sjaa-content/uploads/2015-Comet-Lovejoy.jpg

Posted in Blog, Solar

SETI TALK: Philae landing & 1st Results

Posted on December 11, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

SETI Colloquium

The Rosetta Lander (PHILAE) mission: landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Tuesday, December 16 2014 – 7:00 pm, PST

Directions

Jens Biele

DLR German Aerospace Center

The Rosetta Lander, Philae, landed on 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014. Before this could happen, a landing site had to be selected within just 2 months, based on data from the Rosetta Orbiter instruments and analyses on flight dynamics and illumination profiles. Philae was programmed to perform a First Scientific Sequence, immediately following touch down, and then enter its long term science mode.

The paper will report on the actual landing and the very first results. The landing was successful, though the operational sequences had to be modified ad hoc: Philae did not anchor upon first touchdown at 15:34:06 UTC but rebounded at least once, finally settling – fully operating all the while – at a place not ideal for long-term science. A wealth of science data has been received.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta’s Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

Posted in Articles

Santa Cruz Solar

Posted on November 16, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

The Return of Sunspot AR-2192 — Yet

A Santa Cruz Solar Day was 1/2 hour of bliss followed by Vader clouds

It would have been a glorious day had that sun just been around a bit longer but views turned to checking out scopes and talking to folks – with an ocean view in the background however. Here’s proof the sun was briefly out. Thanks Bill Seiler for this photo.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Full solar disc with a B&W crop to see AR2209

Along with Sunspot AR2192, re-numbered to AR2209 for its second trip around the sun, were two massive prominences – 100,000 by 80,000 miles easy in size. About a dozen folks got views of this stellar solar face before the clouds rolled over. Along with Bill Seiler we had Michael Packer, Jeff Gose and John Pierce. But I have to say it was great to have both clubs viewing together and collectively being able to do outreach for any Californian who walked by from Ocean Shores to North and South Bay. The Bike/Walking path is a great place to set up scopes for passerby’s.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Posted in Articles

Fall 2014 Swap Happiness

Posted on November 9, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Remember Friday Night Observing This Nov 14 at Houge Park weather permitting. See Calendar

2014 Swap made many a stargazer happy!–

There is something beautiful about a swap meet that beckons back to the day of selling a sheep for wool coats. Shear Poetry Ha Ha Ha! Well OK – anyway folks sold equipment that they no longer need to folks who can’t believe they’re walking home with telescope, eyepiece, tripod, binocular. On the club side of things – SJAA provided pizza and drink – and we got donations. Stellar Cheers, Stellar Gear – Thanks go to all.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

More Pics

And don’t forget – Houge Park Star Party coming up Friday – Mag 7’s

Posted in Anouncements, Articles, Blog

First Sunday Nov 2nd Solar

Posted on November 9, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

Terrific Folks and a So Long for AR-2192 – See you on the spin around?—

Last month the eclipse and sunspot AR-2192 were superb – unlikely but perhaps the sunspot will last a month, long enough to spin back in view. If it does look for it on ~ Nov 18th. Here’s a nice image of today’s sun from the handy site SolarMonitor.org

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Solar Sunday Regulars Bill, Kevin, Jack (relaxing), Carl

Solar Sunday saw about 15 folks stop by – Join us next month December 7th (Dec 14th is back up date in case of low sunspot count or weather)

Posted in Blog, Solar

23rd October 2014 Partial Solar Eclipse

Posted on October 24, 2014 by by

Rob Jaworski

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada publishes each year its Observer’s Handbook, which is a wonderful reference of astronomical data and phenomena of the year. Its target time period is mainly relevant for the year of publication, but much of its content is a wealth of information applicable to any time period of the epoch. The 2014 RASC Handbook noted four eclipses of the year, a total lunar eclipse in mid-April followed by an annular solar eclipse two weeks later (which was visible only in the far southern and eastern hemispheres), then another total lunar eclipse in early October and finally a partial solar eclipse on 23 October. This last solar eclipse was well situated for us observers in the western edge of North America.

The San Jose Astronomical Association hosted an event at its base camp, San Jose’s Houge Park for this partial solar eclipse. The objective is to allow people to safely view the eclipse, share views with each other and the public, and to simply socialize. The club’s solar workhorse of a telescope, a 100mm hydrogen alpha scope made by Lunt, was doing its thing. A host of other telescopes were set up by club members and other people, many of which had filters attached for safe viewing, or projection systems installed so that the image could be viewed by many people at once, not unlike viewing the event on a small smartphone screen. Some people even brought out colanders, ie, spaghetti strainers, the holes of which act as numerous pin hole cameras, projecting numerous crescent sun images onto the ground, a white piece of paper, or even a hand.

Special solar viewing glasses, which make it safe for people to look directly at the sun, were made available to all attendees. Kids and adults alike were able to wrap these glasses across their eyes and have a safe, direct view at anytime. And when we did, we were treated not just to a portion of the moon covering the sun, but there was also an additional treat: An unusually enormous sunspot was clearly visible to the naked eye. Everyone who knew what they were looking at could easily spot the aberration on the face of the sun. What made this special is that sunspots are typically much smaller, and not visible without some amount of magnification. The eclipse today was accentuated by this sunspot, which did not at any time become obscured by the moon’s limb, and whose size is fairly rare.

During the roughly three and a half hours of the event, an estimated seventy five people attended. Some were seasoned amateur astronomers who were ready with their own equipment, while others were families that stumbled across the event and were invited over by friendly volunteers of the SJAA. Kids and retirees alike viewed the eclipse (and sunspot) in amazement, while everyone enjoyed the mild autumn weather of northern California.

This will be the last solar eclipse that will be visible in California for the next few years. In August of 2017, however, a large swath of North America, in particular the United States, will host a total eclipse come through. This will be a highly anticipated event, so now is the time to plan for seeing this total eclipse, which should be on everyone’s list of thousand-things-to-do-before-you-die!

Posted in Articles, Blog

2014 Eclipse Pics: Send Us Yours!

Posted on October 23, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Members – Send us 1 or 2 Eclipse pics

We will Post Below

Send People Shots, Equipment Gear Shots !

Send Eclipse, Sun Spots, and H-Alpha images !

Please send jpg format – [1200 x 675] pixels or smaller to m.packer@yahoo.com

!! CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE !!

First Contact Alexey Bobkov:

Credit to Glenn Newell BelowCredit to Glenn Newell BelowBelow Image Credit Michael Packer–CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Credit to Frank Geefay for below time lapse.

Two (above and below) Credited to Robert Duvall Two below images credited to Hsin I Huang

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGECLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Credit for above and below images: Manoj Koushik

AR 2192 NASA Image Click to enlarge

Must see Full Screen! 1 minute video of entire eclipse using 200 HR images

Click icon lower right for full screen – credit R. Duvall

Posted in Blog, Observing Reports, Solar

iSUN & iMOON Member images

Posted on October 10, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

iSUN & iMOON Member Images

Two remarkable pics from iphones submitted by members:

This first one is crazy good for an iphone and 80mm – Dare iSay lunar crazy good:

Photo Credit: Gary Pappani

This second image is the best iphone shot I’ve seen from the sun in H-alpha held at the eyepiece of a 100mm Lunt – and I’ve seen a lot of them (taken by me)

Photo Credit: Wolf Witt on October 1st Sunday Solar

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Posted in Articles

Partial Solar Eclipse Party

Posted on October 6, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Partial Solar Eclipse Party

When: The Eclipse Time is Thursday, October 23, 1:30pm – 4:30pm

SJAA will set up Solar Filter Scopes ~12:30pm an hour earlier

Where: Houge Park, San Jose, CA 95124, United States (map)

The moon will cover up to 38% of the sun this afternoon.

SJAA will be there with telescopes to see it.

Join us, it’s free and open to all!

That means kids and you!

Posted in Articles

1st Sunday Oct 5th Solar

Posted on October 5, 2014 by by

Michael Packer

Observe The Sun Safely! Never look at the Sun without a proper filter!

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park weather permitting.

Click Here For Details

Another SJAA Member goes H-Alpha – 3 major prominences – notable filamentary “proms” – Sunspot Count 106 (NOAA) – unusually good seeing

Please welcome Paul Mancuso to the H-Alpha wave where one casually observes the 4th state of matter. Paul still uses his vintage Questar but he out fitted it with a front and back H-Alpha Filter system. Notable Companies that sell these filter sets are Lunt, Day Star and Coronado. Below is Paul M. with his scope and Michael P. showing off the Magnetic Sun Poster.

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

—

Wolf brought his recently acquired 100mm Lunt. Wolf dropped a washer and Terry pulled out her metal detector – no joking! Well OK there was lots of joking. The washer was found under Wolf’s car.

Terry and Bill are Solar Sunday’s regulars as is “Calcium K” Carl. Below is a pic Carl (foreground) Bill (background) and a pic of Terry at her scope with more of today’s visitors. About 20 folks both public and SJAA members stopped by to take a gander at the Sun.