My New Mount 2012-02-25

After a few years of using my EQ-1 for my astro work, I decided to finally buy something better. Part of the reason is due to a heavier 8 lbs scope I bought from a friend(thanks Henry), which my EQ-1 can't carry. I didn't want to sacrifice grab-and-go, so I decided to settle for a light-medium capacity mount, a Synta EQ-3/CG4. Although this mount is not a fine mount for astrophotography, I'm betting that it can do at least a 30-seconds unguided exposure.

After a few months' wait, I finally got my used CG4 mount. I went to Fairview to pick it up from Alex. Boy! It was heavy.

After unpacking, I attached some ropes to act as the tripod spreader. The tripod is already a battered one with cracked plastic lock and the spreader missing. These problems can be remedied with simple mechanical skills. Maybe I'll replace it with wooden tripod in the future.

I decided to make some plate to allow me to attach cameras and other scopes to the mount.

I whipped out my Apex 127 to try and do a simple test. Instead of using big and expensive D size cell, I used some "battery fat suit" to allow an AA size cell to fit the container.

During initial test, the mount showed a bit of play on the declination axis. While I was surprised that the Apex  showed a near perfect airy disk, because as far as I can remember my old test have shown that the Apex had a little bit of collimation error.

The following day, I bought a 6-ft long chain to act as spreader instead of the plastic ropes for added security. As an added bonus, the chain will allow me to compress or spread the legs at will. I disassembled the mount and fixed the declination axis problem as well. Fixing the dec axis wasn't hard, but I had to check several sections at first in order to know which screw will fix the issue.

4 Birders in Action 2012-02-26

Last Saturday, Jun, a WBCP friend, asked me if he could come with me when I return to the Angono Petroglyph. I informed him that I will be going back on Sunday. After some conversation, we decided to meet at Antipolo together with Riana, his daughter, and Mailyn, another WBCP friend.

On that day, we meet as planned and proceeded to the Petroglyph. As we approached the tunnel leading to the site, we saw another vehicle parked outside. We immediately thought that there must be other birder present. Indeed when we walked to the site, we saw a bird photographer. Those Philippine Eagle-owl has been attracting a lot of attentions! He was there earlier than the 4 of us, so after a few minutes he's ready to pack and leave.

Some very annoying mosquitoes are enjoying themselves with our blood as we're enjoying ourselves looking at the birds. Here's one dead bugger.

After a short look at 2 of the owls, I stayed outside the National Museum bldg. and chat with Roden, the guy in-charge. A few minutes later, some people arrived: a large group of students and a small group of foreign tourists.

Upon seeing the group, my friends told me to set-up my scope for those visitor to have a look at the birds. As they took turns looking at the bird, we heard some comments like "look at that eagle" (it's an eagle-owl, not an eagle) or the students teasing each other.

After they left, we switched from birdwatching to lizard watching as we observed and photographed several flying lizards on a tree.

Mai, Jun and Yana stayed at the observation deck to look the look at the owl and look for the third one while I went back and chat with Roden for I've seen the owls several times already.

Later another group arrived. They're the bikers who frequent the place. They just went there to take a short break before they continue. They're really noisy! I wanted to tell them to turn off their noisy radios which are somehow scaring the birds away, but decided not to, to avoid offending them. After they left, I was relieved and started observing nature again.

When the 3 came down from the platform, we stayed a little bit and left.

Here are some images I took.

 Pregnant dragonfly, the bulge at the end of the tail holds the eggs.

 The 3 birders just came down from the platform.

Leaf fungus

Cloudy Mars 2012-02-24

Another day of clear sky, means another evening to enjoy astronomy. Mars was shining like a bright orange star as seen on my way home. After a little R&R, I set up my light bucket and imaged the red planet. Here are the results.

Fortunately the seeing has been pretty good. I was able to observe the cloudy right side of the planet After Mars, I scan around to check if there's anything interesting. I then tried to image the Orion nebula using medium magnification to capture specifically the star forming region.