Back to the West (For a Week)

 

Yesterday’s high (temperature) was only about one degree Celsius but there were some sunny breaks, allowing me to do some solar photography.  Sadly, I missed the lunar eclipse, but it was not too spectacular here in the East anyway, so I put my solar telescope to good use.  The scope is a Coronado  60 mm Solarmax which is equipped with a Ha (Hydrogen alpha) filter that passes only light from hydrogen and helium and also has an interferometer to compensate the for Doppler Effect of light.  It can only be used for solar photography, but I have other scopes for traditional night time observation and photography.  At least with the Solarmax I don’t have to worry about light pollution!

 

 

For night time astronomy, I have an 8 inch Schmitt-Cassegrain manufactured by Celestron and it is shown here mounted on an HEQ5 Pro computerized German equatorial mount.  In the photo you can see the Orion 80 mm short tube scope (the white one) on top of the Celestron and this is used as a guide scope.  The small camera at the end is for guiding and it is interfaced with the computerized mount and my laptop.  Once the main scope is polar aligned and tracking, the guide scope holds the relative position within one pixel of the object I’m photographing, permitting long exposures.  For imaging, I use a digital Canon T3i that is also interfaced with the laptop and is controlled by a program called “BackyardEOS” that also measures various critical parameters of the camera, for the example temperature of the sensor.  We usually take 30 or more 5 minute exposures and stack them in a program called “Registax” that sorts the frames by quality and combines the best images, eliminating noise, dust particles or fingerprints.

 

The solar telescope is mounted on a Celestron computerized mount that is not as accurate as the HEQ5 mount, but only short exposures, like 1/250 or 1/500 of a second are required to photograph the sun.  Both mounts are what are called “Go To” mounts;  that is I can input any one of 45000 celestial objects in the computer and the mount will automatically find the target and guide on it. 

 

This all sounds very technical and complicated but it really isn’t and it is fun to learn.  Relatively inexpensive equipment (wives don’t think so) like this allows us amateurs to take spectacular astrophotographs.  You might ask “Why bother with all this when you can see beautiful photos taken from professional observatories or scopes like the Hubble?”  We would reply “Why would you paint a picture when you can purchase one, or compose poetry when you can obtain a book of poems from the library?”  Oh, and by the way, I also do a lot of observing with binoculars.  There are excellent publications about binocular astronomy, so you don’t require elaborate equipment to enjoy the wonders of the firmament.

 

Having loaded you with all this technical stuff, check out the solar photos that I took yesterday.  Believe it or not, the camera was handheld, pointing down through the telescope eyepiece!!  I processed the images on my computer order to enhance the contrast and improve the clarity.  Unfortunately, I have not yet learned how to show both the surface details and the peripheral prominences (flares) of Old Sol on the same image,  but that will come, as I am still on a steep learning curve.  The solar surface shows details like filaments and sunspots that are due to electromagnetic activity and eventually give rise to flares.  The larger sunspots may be as large as 4 earths and the filaments are perhaps several thousand kilometers long!

 

Well, this is a bit of a departure from the usual storytelling, but I’m taking a bit of a break, as tomorrow, December 12, I am flying out to Medicine Hat for a week to visit Uncle Olaf (Olaf Martin Skjenna) and will have the privilege of a lutefisk luncheon with Olaf, Mary and Dennis, hosted by Doris and Ed Kornelson.  I wish that Pat could come with me but she is in the midst of making fattigmann, krumkake, rosettes, pepper cookies, lefse and other Norwegian delicacies.  Our daughter, Laura, and Graham’s wife, Carole, pitched in with Pat to do some baking last weekend, but the goodies are rapidly disappearing and we need more before the annual traditional lutefisk supper.  We still celebrate our Nordic ancestry – as my father once said “Be a Canadian first and with the time left over celebrate your Norwegian heritage.”

 

I enjoy visiting Uncle Olaf as he has many tales to tell about his life in Buffalo and Norway, and in the RCAF during the War, here in Canada, England and on the European continent.  Perhaps the motivation also arises from the fact that I did not, or could not, do the same thing for my parents or other uncles.  I am trying to record and remember the stories that he relates and I will pass them on to you whenever I can.  I don’t dare tell you about all of the secrets he has shared with me as some of his exploits are, not just the stuff of legend, but could incriminate him (and perhaps, me and other family members - ha-ha).

 

Uncle Olaf is the last of my uncles and we have many precious memories to talk about and share – times when I lived in Buffalo and Bindloss and afterwards.  We also share an interest in aviation and funny stories.  Although he is pretty well confined to bed and a wheelchair, his mind is extremely sharp.  He is loved by all of the staff at the “home” as he has a great sense of humor and they tell me that they have never had anyone as positive as him in residence.  We did give him a tablet computer as a gift last summer and he was using it almost immediately.  In addition, he also was by far, the first of the residents to figure out how to use the rather complex television cable receivers installed in the rooms.  He also enjoys contemporary films like Avatar, especially when he sees “his” name in that film’s credits.

 

Last summer when I was in the ‘Hat, it was announced that there would be an airshow at the airport, mostly  static displays including some WWII airplanes.  When asked if he would like to go, Uncle Olaf responded eagerly in the affirmative so began the attempt to solve the logistics of transporting him in his wheelchair to the airport.  When the Medicine Hat transit people were first contacted they told me that there was nothing available on the Monday and could we book the bus for another day.  I informed them that we wished to attend the airshow on Monday.  The very kind lady asked me if Uncle Olaf was a veteran.  When I informed her that he was, she, without hesitation stated that she would find a way to accommodate us, which she did, and we were able to attend.  When the bus pulled up we found out that there were others who were anxious to attend and arrangements were quickly made.  The driver would not accept fares from any of the elderly enthusiasts, so thank you kind lady and driver! 

 

The pilots of the vintage (and modern) aircraft were very interested in what Uncle Olaf did during the war, especially when they learned that he was involved with Spitfires (every pilot views the “Spit” with reverence).  Both of us had a great time inspecting the airplanes and swapping lies with the crews.  I am so glad that our veterans are treated with respect and are honored for their contributions to our peace.  Let us never forget!

 

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Sir Winston Churchill