All About Astro

Mother Nature and Her Milk

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:55:00 +0000

So this is what happens to astroimagers desperate for action! Just after 7PM CST, Mother Nature cleared her throat and warned us of the impending storm. But preceding the line of strong showers that would come, the good mother decided to take the time to show us some of her special goodies.

Called "Mammatus Clouds," so named because they look like, well, you know - the bodacious tatas in the picture are actually the bottoms of cumulonimbus clouds, which is the indication of a severely unstable weather system. They are not all that common, kinda like a getting to second base on a ground-rule double in baseball, so they are worth documenting when the proverbial door knocker sounds. It is a firm, but perky reminder to us all that even the enemy of astronomers (clouds) can be worth coping a feel. -- Post From My iPhone!

The Onion Makes an Asteroid Cry

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:38:00 +0000

Funny stuff from my favorite Internet satirical website, The Onion.

It's adult reading, but hilarious!

Poor Asteroid!!!

Enjoy!

-- Post From My iPhone!

Congrats to Mr. Jones!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:39:00 +0000

I had to miss this year's Texas Star Party. First time I missed since 2002. And, yes, I was a little down about that!

But word is that my good buddy, Phil Jones, won the TSP award for the best Deep Sky Photograph in the annual astrophotography contest. His image is a brilliant shot of IC 1396/Elephant Trunk, a hydrogen-alpha and RGB blended image. As you can see here, Phil does a masterful job of processing this most difficult type of astrophoto dataset: I've mentored Phil a little bit, so some of his processing choices have a little hint of my own signature. But really, the result speaks more to his ability to achieve excellent data and his understanding of what makes for an aesthetically pleasing image.

In other words, Phil isn't afraid to break the rules a bit. This image is cropped from a much larger field taken with an AP 160 refractor and his amazingly large chipped Apogee U16 camera. Because he does not have a field flattener for the scope, the scope produces a large amount of unusable real estate around the perimeter. Thus, despite the prevailing thought that you need all those pixels to make an image, in fact, you can get remarkable images with even fractions of a larger chip.

Therefore, Phil has proven something I have preached for sometime - that with good composition skills, you can produce world-class images with smaller chips - or croppings from large chips.

Congrats, Phil, on this award-winning effort!

-- Post From My iPhone!

Peyton at 6 Years Old

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Well, she doesn't have phases or craters, and we don't count her age in term of days anymore (like with Luna in my last blog entry), but Peyton did manage to make it all the way to six years old today.

Pictured here, Peyton opens some of her presents this morning, though her real birthday "party" isn't until next weekend. By the way, how do you get a kid to understand the difference?

"Yes, little Bitty, you are 6 years old today, not next week!"

Peyton shares her birthday with her grandmother Lori, so happy birthday to Grossmutti as well!

Luna at 6 Days Old

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:18:00 +0000

As my astronomy friends know, I've never been much of a lunar fan. Now there's nothing wrong with the moon. I mean, it's actually quite remarkable. And while none of us has ever seen any other than the same face of the moon, the play of shadows at differing phases makes for an always changing perspective that is good for a lifetime of observation.

For me, when the moon is out, it's harder to see all the faint deep sky objects that I like to photograph and observe. So, it's not so much that I don't appreciate good ol' Luna, but rather that I desire to see other objects more.

But in the early process of setting up the TOA-150/AP900 combo at the house, I thought I'd catch this simple shot of the moon, taken through a hydrogen-alpha filter for increased contrast - also functioning as a neutral density filter for the very sensitive STL-6303e camera.

It's just a single image of .01 seconds, taken at the full 1100mm focal length of the TOA-150 (f/7.3). Processed in Photoshop CS2 to bring out increased contrast and sharpened to really make the craters "pop," even away from the terminator.

I'll add the image to the main site soon, but for now, I hope you enjoy it here on the blog.

Facebook Report

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Well, I'm up to 70 friends now. Isn't this Facebook thing just awesome?

Who'd have thought that 70 people would care so deeply about me to want to be my online friend! I mean, surely, it has nothing to do with bragging rights. There'd be nobody out there padding their FB friend stats just to feel better about themselves, right?

And what an honor it is to be invited by somebody on Facebook to participate in "Mafia Wars." How wonderful!

Oh, and I'm glad somebody cared enough about me to send me a plant!

But most of all, it's awesome that I can answer 10 of 10 questions correctly on an IQ quiz and score a 137! I have the same IQ as Einstein!!!

(Nah, I'm not being sarcastic right now...not at all.)

Meh.

There is something cool, though...and, of course, it's iPhone related......pretty cool to be able to do the Facebook thing with an app! I can even screen shot my wall for you!

Oh, and yeah, as my updated "status" implies, I was kinda nasty to Helen while ago. Sorry about that, Honey.

Like Father, Like Son

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:25:00 +0000

So, when you sneak up on my 8-year old son, Will, and he's reading his extra "minutes" for school, this is what you'll catch him doing.

Makes a daddy really proud!

Then, again, maybe he's not really reading, but rather just enjoying the astrophotos?

Like I said, he really makes Daddy proud!!!

-- Post From My iPhone!

The Stamp that Wasn't

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:41:00 +0000

Let me take you back 14 months ago...

The New York Giants knock off the undefeated New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl (and Tony Romo was dating a girl who wasn't fat).
"No Country for Old Men" wins the best picture Oscar.
President Bush offers a $700 million aid package to Tanzania because, you know, the United States has so much money to spare.

It was during this time that I was contacted by the Canada Post with a request to use one of my images on a new postage stamp, one of two in a series of stamps to be released in April 2009 that would commemorate Astronomy in Canada. At that time, the irony that I was not a "hoser" did not escape me, but I figured that if they didn't care, then neither did I. I mean, how exciting is that? How many other astrophotographers have had their work commemorated on something like that?

I was even surprised by how proactive they were. More than a year before the project goes to print, and they already had a working design for my stamp, as shown below:

The image they decided to use for this special project (the background of the right-side stamp) is probably my best image to date - a Hubble-mapped, two-frame mosaic of the Rosette Nebula's core taken a few years ago. Well, at least it was good enough to be selected by NASA as an APOD, shown here under the title of "When Roses Aren't Red."

After talking back and forth via email for a few months, filling out the permission forms, and sending a variety of image crops and file sizes, I settled into a patient waiting game that would last more than a year. And really, I never asked for much in compensation - perhaps a few First Day Cover issues and a few books of stamps (if indeed the Canadians do indeed have books of stamps) - merely the satisfaction of knowing that one of my images will be licked by thousands of Canadians.

So fast-forward the TiVo to last week, when I'm wondering when the Post will contact me again about the project, and to conduct my interview with their philatelist/stamp collector's magazine called "Details."

Alas, I received an email last week, but instead of good news, it was news stating that the Canada Post must adhere to the policy of using Canadian content where possible, and they would thus be required to go in another direction. By Canadians, for Canadians, I suppose.

Not sure what disappoints me more. Being led-on for over a year, like a girlfriend who would soon jilt me, or having my image replaced ultimately by one that won't be near as good mine.

Since I have many Canadian astronomy friends, any one of whom will likely be supplying the image for that stamp, I'll forgo any Canada jokes so that my more northern friends will not be offended...

...I'll resist the urge to point out how Canada is just a second class country; a USA wanna-be.

...I would never lower myself to the point of saying that Canada has an astronomy heritage about equal to Jamaica's pastime of bob-sledding.

...I'll be classy enough to refrain from pointing out that spoofs on South Park, the McKenzie Brothers, an SCTV re-runs are about the only thing that Canada is good for.

...and I'll certainly not express my belief that the world would have been much better place if the United States hadn't pulled out of Canada after we successfully invaded them during the War of 1812.

Off-Topic User Review: Pegasus Toilet

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:52:00 +0000

This has nothing to do with astronomy, but I thought I'd post my user review of our new toilet at work...

_____________________

Product User Review

Pegasus 1.28 gpf Toilet System

WHAT IS IT?

The Pegasus 1.28 gpf, Model cr@p2, is advertised everywhere as, “The Last Toilet System You Will Ever Need!” Featuring a host of high-tech features, from the modern, “flex” seat made of high-density polymers to the innovative flapper design, this Pegasus 1.28 gpf boasts very high standards for modern, 21st century toilet technology. Only the late, great Thomas Crapper himself could envision such luxury and performance mixed with such tremendous value. But does it live up to the hype?

FEATURES

The Pegasus toilet, newly installed in the men’s faculty “facility,” came as a surprise to all male staffers - and to the envy and dismay of the female staff. And why should the men NOT be excited? The economical 1.28 gpf (gallons per flush) system quietly, yet powerfully eliminates all but the most stubborn of waste products. It is nice to look at; elegant, yet still manly. It complements the rest of the restroom décor. And it boasts new technology that, until now, has never been available to the end-user’s end.

Of note is the mixture of high-tech modernity and old-world elegance; the wine-connoisseur feature-set, all on a beer-budget; the promise of comfort, all the while balancing durability. My gosh! THIS toilet promises the WORLD!

PROS

While this reviewer has long been an advocate of automatic fragrance dispensing systems for men’s’ restroom facilities – even having lobbied for legislation at the federal level for the betterment of mankind – it turns out that, when you consider the power of this toilet system, much of the typical male bathroom odors do not stand a CHANCE against the flushing power of this MONSTER! Similarly, if you use caution (more on this later), comfort is guaranteed as the new-age polymers certainly live up to their billing. No more circulation issues to the legs! Amazingly, entire ITP periods can be spent using this beauty, all the while being able to walk out of the restroom cheerfully on two strong and steady legs.

Likewise, aesthetics are amazing! Being used to a dingy, stinky toilet all year long (and recently with no tank-lid, a self-detaching chain, and the necessity for multiple flushes), I can affirm to you that this toilet invites you in, saying, “All ye who are weak, weary, and hurting…cometh unto me and I shall giveth thou rest (and relief).” Ironic that this toilet speaks in such a high-English dialect, because it certainly looks fancy and pretty enough to play the part!

But this toilet is not without balance. While this toilet exudes outward elegance, it also secrets an inner-strength that even the most confident of ubër-toilets cannot boast! Made with a thick grade of industrial-strength porcelain – named after its inventor and known in the industry as SEYMORE BUTTS-ceramic - I am quite confident that even Superman himself could not crack THIS toilet (assuming good aim, of course).

Functionally, the toilet is the proper height, though taller faculty members might suffer some back issues if they do not properly judge distance to the low-profile, ergonomic seat. The “splash factor” is a minimum; happy to say. The toilet rim does a good job of “Enclosing Extraneous Ejecta,” patented as the “Triple E” design™. And the quiet flush capabilities make you regret ending your business with the Pegasus toilet.

And talk about ease of installation! This puppy was setup before any of our male staffers even noticed, despite the above-average consumption of coffee on the morning of installation. This is a testament to the folks at Pegasus, who most certainly care about the average plumber, and/or do-it-yourselfer. Even so, kudos also to Toilet-Tech personnel here at work!

While female staff members have not yet reviewed this toilet, nor would I expect that they will have the opportunity anytime soon, I cannot speak to how this toilet would work for women. However, for the purpose of this review, I have pretended to be the other persuasion once, and I was left with the feeling that I would certainly enjoy this toilet if I were a woman…at least for longer than my sole hour of pretense.

CONS

Unfortunately, and sadly, no good toilet technology is perfect.

In an attempt to be aesthetically elegant, a MAJOR faux pas was committed…the toilet handle has been BOLDLY placed on the right-hand side of the toilet (as seen while standing). For the majority, right-handed male staff, this has the potential for minor inconvenience at the least, and severe brain-lock at the most. As we all know, one of the few God-given uses for the LEFT hand is to flush toilets. And to make matters even worse, the handle is not located on the front of the tank, but rather on the SIDE. The SIDE! My gosh! Not since the invention of the outhouse has there been such a travesty in the world of toilet-tech!

And I will not stop there!

In an attempt to be boldly innovative, there are two more issues with the toilet handle! The handle has too long of a throw, meaning that a deeper knee-bend is required to fully evacuate all human waste products. I can only imagine the potential for worker’s comp claims should a staffer, such as the bad-backed Mr. Alexander, forget to bend at the knees INSTEAD of the back. Similarly, there is very little resistance to the handle’s “action.” To express this in Newtonian terms, his third law of motion states that “for every action (or force) there must be an equal and opposite re-action (or counter-force).” Unbelievably, when you push down on the handle of this Pegasus toilet, it does NOT push back. The feedback when flushing is simply NOT THERE! IT’S GONE! HOLY COW, handle-feedback ERADICATED for the sake of innovation! Surely, this is an oversight on the part of the Pegasus design team!

Finally, in an attempt to be high-tech, the toilet seat itself falls short of perfection. Users MUST sit straight down on the seat. Likewise, side-to-side shifting must be avoided at all costs on this seat. Guys (and speaking only to the guys here), I mean AT ALL COSTS! Simply put, the fluted rim and small seat-stays combine to a higher than normal PINCH factor.

Comfort; but not without risk! User Beware!

SUMMARY

This new Pegasus 1.28 gpf toilet system definitely lives up to the billing, as long as it is used with caution. I must confess, however, that while I actually enjoy USING the Model cr@p2, it comes with great regret at the time of the concluding flush. Finishing lacks any hint of exhilaration. It lacks meaning. In fact, the flush isn’t excitement – it’s excrement!

Because of this reason, I fear that male faculty members might be persuaded to linger longer in the comfortable confines of the Pegasus 1.28 gpf toilet, enjoying too much of the journey and delaying the ultimate destination. At that point, it could rob us of one of life’s precious advantages to being a man. That is, being able to laugh heartily at the long lines found at the door of ANY women’s restroom.

Happy 6 Months to Sara!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:36:00 +0000

Well, today marks the six month anniversary of my baby girl's birth. To commemorate the occasion, allow me to post one of my favorite photos of her.

Don't know yet how much she'll be into astronomy, but when you're this cute, who cares! -- Post From My iPhone!

Eh, Facebook, I Relent!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:28:00 +0000

Apparently, this Facebook thing isn't your father's Myspace. So, what the heck, if my friends are going to bother me enough, why not do it?

So, if you are on Facebook, look me up.

Not sure what good a Facebook presence does, other than to force me to cross the paths of people best forgotten, but, eh, we'll give it a try! ;)

-- Post From My iPhone!

Noise Reduction Software - Part One

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:11:00 +0000

My friend, Russell Horn, in search of a good noise reduction (NR) software routine, asked my opinion recently regarding the best choices for astro image processing.

Obviously, there are many good noise reduction solutions for processing your astroimages. Because of this, it would be difficult to give ratings to various packages since the choices are largely made on the basis of the comfort level of the "processor," and the ability to put his experience into play.

So, what works well for me may not work so well for you.

But what I can do is tell you what I feel is important in such a solution. What features should a good noise reduction package offer? Are there different requirements for different camera types? How big of a learning curve can I expect? Will I be comfortable with the interface?

Today, I'll write about the features you will want as a part of any solution. In the next fews days I'll add parts that highlight specific noise reduction softwares that might be right for you and I'll cover some of the other features that these packages are marketing, particular as they concern specific camera types.

Feature Set

For the most part, any good solution will provide all or most of the following features...

16-bit Processing - You don't want to spend thousands of dollars on your 12-bit DSLR or 16-bit astro CCD only to be forced to truncate your data to 8-bits for the noise reduction steps. Not so much a problem today as it was a couple of years ago, but it's definitely a good reason to upgrade your older software, and it's certainly a good reason to opt for the "pro" version of many of the stand-alone NR packages.

Batch Processing - Do you ever need to apply the same noise reduction steps to many images at once? If so, then you'll appreciate the ability to load multiple images singularly into computer memory and automatically apply your routines to an entire stack. Truthfully, I fail to see the utility in this, since we are normally working with master channels of specifically luminance, red, green, and blue images, and thus would want separate applications of NR on my channels. However, I could see a need in some tasks to clean up individual sub-exposure frames prior to the master combine step. As a fan of early NR application in a processing workflow, this might be something worth exploring, particularly in low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) data sets where either you lack enough subframes for outlier rejection combine methods (e.g., median, sigma) or those methods cannot guarantee sufficient clean-up of certain pixels.

Type of Package - Standalone "exe"? Integrated routine? Plug-in? Photoshop action? Often, the biggest decision when choosing a noise reduction solution comes in deciding the type of interface you need in your NR software. Adobe Photoshop is a big player in this decision, simply because it dominates the processing landscape, and a tidy add-on makes a lot of sense, whether it expands the core options in the form of a filter "plug-in" or it takes advantage of the "action" macro. Other software makers take a different approach and realize that there is a market for a solution that stands on its own and does not require prerequisite software. These often reasonably priced "executables" are powerful options because they afford the opportunity to investigate multiple, advanced, or "smart" algorithms and batch processing modes without the heavy encumbrance of bulky memory overheads of larger core processing kernels, such as with Photoshop. (How long does it take PS to load on your PC?). Finally, there are integrated solutions as standard fare with many of the processing software you already use (e.g. Photoshop and MaxIm DL). These options need to be investigated if only to discover if a more powerful, third-party solution might be required.

Manual Filter Controls and Multiple Undos - No matter the software, the ability to affect the amount of aggressiveness or to completely undo an effect is very important. This is the advantage of a program like Photoshop, as plug-in filters and actions can be controlled by the opacity settings and adjustment layers, or by retracing your steps in the workflow history. Or some people might like the ability of programs to offer a wide number of parameters to give weight to particular aspects of a filter, and then to preview the effect in a "preview" mode, after which dumping the result with the "undo" function should it not meet expectations. In other words, the option to control the parameters of a filter manually are important, and you will appreciate a program that will do exactly as you set it.

Intelligent or "Automated" Mode - The converse to controlling the NR process manually is to have a processing mode for total automation. The nice part about a lot of solutions is that, in many cases, the user can push a single button and remove noise as the program identifies it. Beginners are especially fond of filters that do all the work for them. But for some people, they are reluctant to give up that control, fearful that the aggressiveness cannot be tamed, or that it might not apply NR to the right areas. But for the most part, especially when coupled with a good preview mode or undo button, automation can be a nice feature to have. Also, such an algorithm is commonly called "noise profiling," so be on the look-out for this when examining the specifications for various tools.

Grayscale vs. RGB Modes - I'm not as big on this aspect as others might be since I believe NR should be done early in a workflow and/or primarily in grayscale channels only. However, a one-stop chrominance NR tool is certainly helpful at times. Global color noise algorithms, if intelligently identified and removed, are nice tools for the arsenal, especially if they do not detract from the fidelity of the luminance data. However, because RGB images are 3 times the file size of grayscale images, noise reduction for chrominance noise will require a little more computer memory and processing power.

Multiple NR Algorithms - The problem with old versions of Photoshop, among others things, was that you were limited on the types of filters for noise reduction. "Despeckle" and "Gaussian Blur" are the standard old routines, which can be effective if used on small selections in the image; however, they convolute pixels by averaging groups together. The result is normally a blurring of image details in the areas you do not want. They lack sophistication and global control. Newer versions of Photoshop actually have more intelligent filters geared specifically for "noise removal." These do a much better job by differentiating noise within the lower S/N areas, allowing you to set the parameters for reduction and thereby applying its function more selectively. Many other software NR solutions will bundle lots of nice algorithms for a wide variety of uses. As such, there can be more versatility and power to the user. However, more functions can mean a steeper learning curve.

Extra Algorithm Bonuses - Aside from giving noise removal tools, many packages, especially Photoshop Action sets, can give a wide-range of additional tools as well. Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools Actions for Photoshop represent a tremendous value once you account for all the other slick and powerful actions. So, such solutions, while giving excellent NR algorithms, will also beef up the rest of your processing toolset as well!

Astrophotography Specific - Many packages, particularly those in the stand-alone category, may not be designed specifically for astroimaging. The reason is obvious: noise infests terrestrial images too and that market is much larger! Keep in mind that some NR algorithms may have adverse effects based on the fact that it might have been designed with terrestrial images in mind (and this makes manual programming of the filters even more important). Similarly, these packages may not have as many usable tools as one that has "astronomy" as its focus. For example, Photoshop actions designed for astronomy could add routines for handling star clean-up, removal of column defects, and vignette removal as well. Lastly, be careful of file format options with your non-astronomy specific solutions. Most all solutions will offer output to 16-bit TIFF formats, which is my preference in Photoshop anyway. But for those who like to work their images in FITs, you might be limited to certain NR packages, else you will be forced to convert to another bitmap format such as TIFF.

User-Friendliness and Learning Curve - Often going hand-in-hand, these two aspects are probably the most important choice. Inherently, Photoshop actions will get lower marks in this area simply because many people do not understand them. Similarly, the simple task of loading a Photoshop plug-in may prevent a person from ever using it. Photoshop is synonymous with "learning curve," and this fact alone might have people seeking easily loadable "executable" programs with their own interfaces. For example, I have many friends that own the affordable and powerful Astronomy Tools Actions mentioned above, but seldom use them either because they find applying actions to be confusing or they have a limited knowledge of Photoshop adjustment layers.

Part One of this article has dealt with aspects of good noise reduction software. In the next Part, I will focus on some specific packages.

More later...

Oops, Sorry Andy!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:57:00 +0000

So, I go and tell the world just how nice it is to have friends around like my buddy, Phil Jones, to take neat pictures of me with all the gear, but then I'm told that it wasn't Phil who took that shot of me with the TOA-150 that I posted last month, but rather another astro buddy of mine, Andy Cheng.

Andy is a gifted terrestrial photographer who is just now getting into some serious astroimaging himself. In fact, I'm jealous of some of his DSLR sky animations, like this one seen here:

Thanks for taking the shot of me, Andy, and sorry for the oversight!

Gotta stop giving Phil more credit than he deserves. Heck, he's already got more APODS than me, so he doesn't need any more ego-boosters. :)

-- Post From My iPhone!

Expanding Demographic

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Well, apparently there are a few Sunday School teachers reading this blog, as I've gotten a few emails about it being not so "family-friendly." Okay, point taken. I'll keep the use of metaphor less colorful from now on. :) -- Post From My iPhone!

More iPhone Coolness

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Not to brag or anything - okay, maybe I'm bragging a little - but I discovered a neat app for my iPhone that lets me write and publish directly to this blog. Called "BlogPress," it works well with all the major blogger services. In fact, the last posting I made about "Balancing Life" was done entirely on my phone.

Pretty cool, huh?

So now, I'll be able to do some quickie posts, just to share a thought or a picture. Keep dropping in; you never know what juicy tidbits you might be missing.

-- Post From My iPhone!

Balancing Life

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:22:00 +0000

The other night, before the ice got so thick on my butt that I had to break it with a chisel, I did manage to catch at least a few views of the sky with a variety of instruments, including a 6" SV-152 apo refractor and the 30" Obsession dob.

However, it was my friend Jeff Barton's new C-11 where I realized that it wasn't just my butt that was freezing, but also my brain.

Jeff was doing some old fashion star-hopping around the Big Dipper. Fun stuff, especially the Messier objects around that vicinity. Seen them hundreds of times and I have no problems pointing a scope to any of them, even that lame, poor excuse of an object, M40, that Charles Messier must have catalogued when he was high on crystal-meth, or at least, the 18th century equivalent!

I stood back for a while, watching Jeff enjoy the pleasures of deep-sky hopping, knowing that Jeff was safe and cozy by virtue of the batteries that powered his electric vest. You see, Jeff normally spends most of his time with the aforementioned SV-152 looking at planets and brighter deepsky objects, so I was proud of Jeff for gunning for some of the more challenging objects that are better targets for 11" scopes.

So when he started looking for the M97/M108 combo, I was excited. Now normally I'd have no trouble just jumping in there and helping with an object, and when he started having some problems finding M97, as much as I wanted to help, I decided that I wouldn't butt in. Certainly, he's capable. Certainly, he's having fun in the search.

So I stood behind his scope, just kinda double-checking it myself...

"But wait a minute. Which dipper star is it off of? Megrez? Dubae? Crap. Why is the dipper standing on it's handle? Has it ever done that? My gosh, what's going on in jay's astronomy world? Oh god, don't tell me I'm gonna have to look at...gasp...a STAR CHART! I don't even have my red light; and my iPhone is warming in the jail. Oh my god, my head is spinning! Is this the southern hemisphere? What's that bright star over there? M97, the Owl, an object I've found dozens of times and enjoyed with an OIII filter, is fading from my memory! Ahhhh!"

So today, after thawing out my brain, I'm left to wonder what could have happened? Just earlier that evening, I pointed directly to NGC2903 in Leo on the 30" dob without so much of a hickup. Admittedly, it's not the most challenging of objects to find, but at least I have definitive proof that before the "M97-Incident," as it's come to be known in this region, I was actually of semi-sound-mind-and-frozen-body.

So what happened? Why am I losing my sky knowledge? I know that I'm not able to spend as much time with the sky recently, but could it also be an early onset of Alzheimers?

Nah, I think that perhaps it's this...

As much as I gripe to my astronomy friends about how busy I am, and how I don't get to do astronomy as much, the truth of the matter is that THE universe is not as important to me as MY universe. Little Sara Ryan, now nearly 6 months old, is M42, Saturn, and the Veil Nebula, all wrapped up in one. Helen, Will, and Peyton are my Sun, Moon, and stars. I like MY universe.

So the next time you hear me wailing and moaning about how unfortunate I am to have all this great equipment and I don't have time I use it, feel free to tell me to shut the hell up!

Age Must Be Setting In

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:31:00 +0000

Spent last weekend at Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus near Crowell, Texas. Several times a year you can catch me setting up under the stars, ready for a weekend of fun. But the other night, it was cold. Damn cold.

Back in the day, when I was in my youthful, exuberant early to mid 30s, there wasn't a time when the cold weather would set me back. In fact, perhaps five years ago, I held an imaging seminar out at the Fort Worth Astronomical Society's (FWAS) dark sky site near Cottondale, Texas, and proudly braved 22 degree temperatures as a dozen participants and myself enjoyed some fantastic imaging, not to mention Louise Greve's hot-sandwiches. Wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Last Saturday night, before it got down to 22 degrees F, at around 10PM, I called it a night in the warm, cozy confines of the "jail," what we affectionately call the Comanche Springs bunkhouse. Yes, I was the first to call it quits. I was the sacrificial lamb in order to assure good skies for the rest of the dozen or so astronomers on hand. Nah, I'm just kidding, my altruism stops at the point of a frozen butt. I just wimped out; pure and simple.

Amazingly, shortly after midnight, the temps really bottomed out...at 12.5 degrees F. Any regrets?

Nope. Hehe.

As much as I yearn for doing this hobby; as much as I used to endure just about anything to image the sky; I'm a wimp now. Or maybe, at the ripe old age of 40, I'm just gaining wisdom. What is the old adage? "A brave man likes the feel of nature on the face, but a wise man is smart enough to get out of the rain."

At 12.5 degrees F, when everybody else pitched in the towel, I was already snug under the covers. Pretty smart, eh?

Well, that's my story...I'm sticking to it.

My Phone is Better than Your Phone!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:04:00 +0000

I got my first cell phone back in 1992, a Motorola flip phone which, for the time, was quite an astonishingly small piece of gear. It was a phone. No Internet. No games. No contact list. No frills of any kind.

Got it because I'm a gear freak; a boy-toy junky...not because I particularly like talking on a phone. Frankly, it is quite the opposite. Most of the time, I prefer to be lost...be total anonymous...total unfound.

Even so, I'd alway said that I want my phone to just be a phone...nothing else. In fact, next to fax machines, I've always been kinda phone-stupid. If I needed something set correctly on the phone, I'd just let one of the local teens do it. Funny thing, really. Kids can navigate through a 1-9-7 menu combination on a Nokia...from memory...in a fraction of a second...to fix something that would take me days to fix...yet that same kid can't remember to keep his damn bike from blocking my front door.

I've never wanted my cell phone doing anything much but receiving calls...or being there for me in an emergency...or for when I'm required to "check in" with the aforementioned wife. By the way, I'm quite sure that makes me no different from any other married man with 3 kids, 3 cats, a dog, and a bunch of squirrels that infest the attic.

So it's ironic that my wife, Helen, would be the person who gifted me the first cellphone I actually enjoyed a few years ago, a Pocket PC that just happened to have a functioning phone built in. It had a stylus and a sliding keyboard, which we nice features, but the phone was otherwise a little clunky. Even so, it did a lot of useful things.

Now, I have a cell phone that is better than your cell phone. Yes, even better than your Blackberry.

So, next time you see me on the observing field levelling my scope's tripod with my phone...or checking the moon phase with my phone...or using my phone as a red flashlight...or controlling the laptop remotely with my phone...well, just remember that you too could have an iPhone!

Just a Beauty Shot!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:02:00 +0000

Nothing stirs the astronomer's soul like good equipment. Fortunate as I am, I still have access to Taks and APs - SBIGs and FLIs.

While my association with the Three Rivers Foundations is not a strong as it once was - my role is one of a consultant now rather than being on staff - it's still a blessing to be able to surround yourself with great gear...as well as great friends (such as the guy who took this shot of me, Phil Jones).

Taking on a new family and a recent newborn has yielded little time for life's hobbies. But I still love the sky. Still love the gear. And I still love sharing the passion of astronomy.

My goal for 2009 is to be more involved in astronomy than I have been in the past two years. No, I will not neglect those who are precious to me, but I will devote more time to my astronomy pursuits, my astronomy friends, and my astronomy writings.

I hope you'll take the time to check into ALLABOUTASTRO regularly. I promise that you'll find the new blog entertaining, informative, and educational.

New Blog is here!!!

jballauer@gmail.com (Jay Ballauer) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Welcome to the new Blog!

A long time ago when I created this website, I didn't know what a "blog" was. I did, however, know what an online journal was, and at that time I decided to call it "AstroUpdates," in keeping with the All About "Astro" theme and with the intent to update you on various things in the All About Astro world.

In looking at my last post, three or four YEARS ago, I figure I better do something about it...so I've gone with a simple "blogger" service.

I'll post more often now...and feel free to respond with your comments!