My Observatories in
Australia
My first observatory was in South Australia in Elizabeth
some 20 km north of Adelaide. The observatory used half of a
galvanized iron garage with a slide-off roof and housed a 6 inch f/7
Newtonian telescope on a heavy mounting all self constructed around
1965.
My second observatory was in Canberra in Weston in 1970 and
used the double-door garage below the house with a roll out 10 inch
f/10 Newtonian (the Wearne telescope) as well as my home made 6 inch
Newtonian. Here the lunar occultation program was commenced,
initially with the Royal Greenwich Observatory UK, and later with
IOTA and then
ILOC,
the Japanese clearinghouse for lunar occultations.
My third observatory was in Paradise (longitude 138º
39' 22.3" E, latitude -34º 52' 04.3" S, elevation 56 m) 5 km
north of Adelaide in South Australia and housed my 6 inch Newtonian
telescope above my galvanized iron garage. This observatory also
featured a roll-off roof but was not very resistant to floor
vibration which effected the telescope. Here the lunar occultation
program was continued and my first video capture of a lunar eclipse
was undertaken using borrowed video cameras and VCR.
My fourth and by far, the most successful observatory to date was
in Canberra constructed at
Calwell
(longitude149º 06' 00.9" E, latitude -35º 26' 31.4" S,
elevation 630 m) in 1993 which housed the 6 inch Newtonian mounted on
a new pier and remotely controlled in both axes. The lunar
occultation program was continued and various refractors with a Sony
Handycam used for on-line transmission of many lunar eclipses and
planetary transits to my then, new web site. The observatory was
set-up temporarily in the suburb of Fadden, but little
observation was done due to the poor horizons.
My fifth Observatory is also here in Canberra in Theodore
(longitude 149º 07 ' 01.1" E, latitude -35º 27 ' 04.6" S,
elevation 704 m). Two instruments, the 6 inch Newtonian and a
Jason 360 Newtonian are used with video
and digital cameras on the telescopes, set-up on a concrete apron in
front of the house with a unobstructed view to the North East and the
ecliptic. As this observatory is near Tuggeranong Hill (885 m) a
clear view to the West horizon is not possible. Most of the
activities are centered on computer prediction and analysis of
lunar
and solar eclipse observations and the Observatory acts as a
clearing house for global lunar eclipse observations.
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In 2004 March, a 90 mm goto telescope, a
Meade ETX-90EC catadioptric with computer
control and GPS capability, was acquired for the Theodore Lunar Observatory. A Dell Inspiron 600m laptop was
also obtained to facilitate computer control of the Meade
telescope.
In addition, several components from my 6 inch Newtonian were
transferred to the Jason 360 telescope, a 1 1/4 inch eyepiece
focusing rack and pinion and the quartz motor drive for the polar
axis. The declination remote control motor drive was also removed
from the 6 inch and installed onto the Jason, now making this
telescope suitable for remote control. The 6 inch Newtonian has been
de-commissioned and donated to the Canberra Astronomical Society.
A telescope mounting for the Canon Ixus digital camera
incorporating a 40 mm (1 1/4 inch) eyepiece mount and remote shutter
release, allows the camera to be fitted to either the Meade or Jason
telescope eyepieces for direct imaging. A Panasonic digital
video camera with 24X optical zoom, model
NV-GS15/SUMM was purchased in December 2004 and fixed into the guide
scope mounting of the Meade ETX-90EC for improved imaging and later
for web-cam use. An example of this can be seen
here.
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My web site was
originally arranged with ISP Spirit here in Canberra but it was sold
to Asia On-Line at the end of 1995. Fortunately, I was able to
arrange continued support of the site through Brian Morris manager of
NetSpeed Internet
Communications shortly after. Each year the National
Library of Australia archives my pages so little data was lost,
particularly during the hectic change over from Spirit to Netspeed.
The Australian National Library (ANL
Eudora)
archives my pages in July of each year.
The most important aspect of maintaining an up-to-date web site is to
promote and collate observations such as crater timings during all
lunar eclipses from observers around the word, recently timings have
been received from South Africa and South America.
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Lunar eclipses can be seen from my observatory if the
circumstances are right and if the moon is visible above my local
horizon. A solar eclipse can only be observed in totality (or as an
annular eclipse) if we travel to that part of the globe where the
narrow path of the moon's shadow can be seen.
Transits of Mercury and Venus have also been observed when the
weather is clear, as well as sun spots and thin lunar crescents that
rise magnificently above the distant hills in the morning at
Theodore.
Most observations and images are transmitted to the web page and
comments are invited.
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A suite of Microsoft GWBasic computer programs were
developed in 1984 which were converted to QuickBasic programs
for the Macintosh to provide a comprehensive methodology for the
prediction, reduction and analysis of lunar eclipse observations. The
QuickBasic programs have recently been modified to run under Windows
98 or Windows XP. They have been provided for downloading to any PC
for execution. The CTR program and data files are in compressed form
and can be found
here.
They need to be expanded before use onto any available drive into a
folder named "Dev" without the quotes.
In addition, several image analysis commercial suites of software
were applied to analyse the many images of lunar eclipses obtained
personally, or from overseas observers, to investigate the change in
size of the umbra during more recent lunar eclipses.
David Herald (see
IOTA)
has developed sophisticated Visual Basic programs which
include the prediction and reduction of Baily's Beads observation at
solar eclipses, and these have been used extensively for the
prediction and analysis of many solar eclipses, total and
annular.
The application and results from these computer programs can be seen
in the favourite links given below.
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The Microsoft GWBasic computer programs were written and developed
in 1984 in DOS, using a 16-bit computer known as the Sirius developed
by Sinclair, well known for the Commodore range of computers.
These programs were later converted to QuickBasic for the Apple Power
Macintosh, initially on a 6100 series DOS Compatible machine, then on
a Macintosh IIci running in 16-bit mode. This machine is connected
via a 10/100 ethernet card to my OS 9.1
iMac machine with a USB 100 Mb
ZIP external drive and a 2.2 Gb ORB external hard disc
with removable cartridges. This arrangement runs fairly fast, and the
ORB provides a good backup to the ZIP software and the numerous data
files generated by the 16-bit software. It is planned to convert the
lunar eclipse software suite to Visual Basic in due course so as to
be independent of the older 16-bit machine.
The iMac is used to convert many of the 16-bit datasets to web pages
using Claris Homepage 2 and Graphic Converter for image
manipulation. The iMac uses Interarchie to up-load these files
to my web pages on the Netspeed domain.
The Dell Inspiron 600m laptop obtained to facilitate computer control
of the Meade telescope was loaded with the Meade Autostar
Suite of software which includes a Lunar and Planetary Imaging
(LPI) camera and the Rikaline GPS-6010 receiver. These units and
software will provide flexible remote computer control and full
imaging capability for the Observatory. Only the USB 100 Mb ZIP
external drive with removable cartridges can be used with the Dell
Inspiron 600m laptop. Work is required to interface the USB 2.2 Gb
ORB external hard disc with the laptop.
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Several types of imaging devices have been used including a T70
Canon single lens reflex photographic camera with a command back
to control exposures and to provide a timing source, an Oscar
OS-450 monochrome surveillance video camera with telescope
adaptors, and a Sony Handycam 511E video camera with a Sony 2
X lens to produce solar and lunar eclipse images for later
analysis.
A Canon Ixus 2.1 Mpixel digital camera with a telescope
eyepiece mount is also used on my 6 inch Newtonian, Jason 360 and
Meade telescopes, this gives great results for lunar observations and
of the Sun using my solar filters with due consideration of the
camera's inherent exposure and brightness controls.
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http://www.netspeed.com.au/minnah/2006/Rhodes_2006.html
for the 2006 Solar Eclipse cruise
http://www.netspeed.com.au/minnah/Finder.html
for the eclipse Finder for most lunar, solar eclipses and
transits
http://www.netspeed.com.au/minnah/LEOx.html
my home page to find anything on eclipses (well almost)
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E-mail address
mailto:minnah@netspeed.com.au
Web address
http://www.netspeed.com.au/minnah/LEO.html
Office phone
Australia +61 26292 8448
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Analysis of the Total Lunar Eclipse of 2004 October 28
The Total Solar Eclipse cruise south of Rhodes in 2006 March
The Solar and Lunar Eclipses web pages and my Observatory pages
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I am a research amateur astronomer specialising in solar and lunar
eclipse observation, prediction and analysis. I have observed and
analysed over 48 lunar eclipses and travelled to and
successfully observed total solar eclipses in Java (1983), New
Guinea (1984), Bangka Island off the north coast of Java (1988),
Zambia in Africa (2001) and Ceduna in South Australia (2002), as well
as the annular solar eclipse in Geralton in Western Australia
(1999).
I have maintained my web pages on lunar eclipses, solar eclipses and
transits including many "live" web casts since 1997.
I am a past member of the
British
Astronomical Association, and of the
Astronomical
Society of Australia and member of the
Canberra Astronomical
Society.
1976 B.W. Soulsby, Proceedings of the National Convention of
Amateur Astronomers (NACAA), various from 1976 to 2004.
1984 B.W. Soulsby, Journal of the British Astronomical Association,
Volume 95, Number 1, JBAA95 (this is large
file of the scanned paper)
1985 B.W. Soulsby, Australian Journal of Astronomy, Volumes 1, et
seq
1990 B.W. Soulsby, Journal of the British Astronomical Association,
Volume 100, Number 6, JBAA100 (this is a
very large file of the scanned paper), or down-load the 760 Kb pdf
file
here.
1992 B.W. Soulsby, Journal of the Astronomical Society of Australia,
Volume 10, Number 2,
ASA92
(a 291 Kb pdf file).
2005 B.W. Soulsby, Canberra Astronomical Society, My 50th Lunar
Eclipse
(a 761 Kb pdf file)
Astronomy
Computing
Gardening
Travel
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Last revised 22 October 2005
22/10/2005 9:55 AM
