Observatory Updates 2005.04.18 - Updated index page. - updates updates for the first time in a month, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton of info! 2005.04.17 - Private session 9 - 11 pm 2005.04.16 - Had a public session tonight. It was a beautiful night with a mild temperature (30-40 F) - Around 35 people showed up throughout the night, many from Hetzel Hall. 2005.04.15 - Sent in rebate for Plextor converter. Gave the Plextor to Ed to check out to make sure everything is working alright on it. He tested the S-video and RCA cables and said it was working fine. - Created new icon for galleries and put it up top Created a link to the NHPTV NH Skies shows. - Fixed the FAQs. The table font color was black and couldn't be seen with the black background. 2005.04.09 - Private session for Hampton Falls Cub Scouts 2005.04.08 - Private session for Woodman Park 3rd Grade classes. 2005.04.01 - Public Session 2005.03.18 - Discussed returning the Framegrabber and seeking another method of digitally recording the images. - Right now it looks like we're going to get a WinTV device that has USB 1.1 & 2.0 output and composite input and costs a tenth of the price! - I posted a few public session fliers at the Dover and Durham libraries, Rivers' Camera and the Durham Town Hall today. 2005.03.17 _ Met Ed Tedesco at the Observatory to work with StellaCam and video recording techniques. - Experimented with tweaking the image in various ways with the StellaCam handcontroller. - We found that most times the image comes out best with the gamma off. - We took quite a few images of the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula and found quite a few faint stars that I've never seen using an eyepiece. We saw a few cosmic rays as well. - We found that the image was far better through the Sony monitor rather than collecting it in the framegrabber. I tested the recorded TIFF images on various computer monitors and found it to be dissapointing on every one. - Arranged a special session for members of the Durham Public Library for July 21 st 2005.03.16 - Found a program to record the output MCI stream from the framegrabber. - Took a clip of saturn that came out pretty well! 2005.03.14 - Updated some of the image galleries (domemove, relocation, groundwork) to now have quickjump thumbs and links to previous sites. - Updated the updates page. 2005.03.13 - Purchased an extension cord, surge protector, ice breaker, and components to make a lamp for the guestbook for the observatory. - Went out to the observatory and smashed a 4' area of ice around the door away and setup dikes for when the melting runoff comes towards the observatory in the coming months. - hooked up surge protector and extension cord on pier and met Ed to learn more about the StellaCam II. - Setup a field of view in Starry Night Pro that is the size of the StellaCam II. We looked at a few objects and got a feel for how sensitive it is. It can easily see 13th magnitude stars and saw a lot of stars that weren't in the Hubble Stars catalog in Starry Night Pro. 2005.03.11 - Updated the public page to get rid of the old location description that Ankur pointed out (Thanks!) - updated updates. 2005.03.10 - Called Grounds & Roads to get the path to the observatory cleared up for tonight. - Updated updates webpage - Hung a public session poster and left a stack of cards at the Woodbury Shaws in Portsmouth - updated Index page - updated moon page - Picked away at ice for a while after the plow came - Finally got into the observatory and tested out the StellaCam II. The second attempt didn't get much further than the first. The BNC connector came off of the wire and we couldn't get an image on the comptuer. - Ed is going to bring a monitor next time and I'm going to get a power strip and extension cord for the pier. 2005.03.09 - Borrowed BNC-BNC cable from John Macri's lab. - Went to test out the StellCam II at the observatory, but the door was frozen shut once again! 2005.03.08 - Installed AstroArt 3.0 (demo version) - Installed plug ins for the StellaCam II and the ST-6 - Installed Registax - Installed Starry Night Pro - Went to test out the StellaCam II, but we need a BNC-BNC cable to connect the StellaCamII to the Framegrabber card and the items didn't come with one. 2005.03.05 - Haven & Jamie helped to install stair lighting to the observatory - Installed PCI Flashbus MV Framegrabber card into the computer. - Showed a few people who came to the observatory while I was out there the sun through the C14 (with a filter on) - Had a great public session that night with about 30 attendees. - George came with his 8" to help out and John handed out images of Saturn and Jupiter that we took with the webcam last year. - Morgan O'neil (the future observatory manager) and her father, Steve, came to see the observatory for the first time. - The clouds rolled in around 8:45pm to stop the show early, but for the time being we saw some really nice objects. - Installed CCDOPS on the computer in the observatory and looked at the few images John took at the Blue Sky Observatory the night before of some galaxies. 2005.03.04 - Purchased some stair lighting along with a pale to keep some salt at the observatory for the entrance. - Salted the entrance to the observatory and shovelled out a lot of ice chunks. 2005.03.01 - Updated the Total Lunar Eclipse page to have a "quickjump" table making it easier to navigate through all the images. - I also made the slideshow work for the Lunar Eclipse Page. - Made the page for the observatory images. Had quite a bit of fun with it too!! - Made the groundwork slideshow. - Made the relocation slideshow. 2005.2.28 - Mark gave me the Stella Cam II along with the PCI card and f/3.3 Telecompressor. The group is still trying to decide what software to purchase for starters. - I purchased a steel shovel to chip away at the ice that's in the observatory still. 2005.02.26 - Had a public session on what turned out to be a surprisingly clear night. John was in Washington, so it was just me. A few Hall Directors from the Residence Halls here at UNH came to scout the place out. They seemed really pleased and said they couldn't wait to pass on the good word about the place! Now the students of this campus might actually find out about us! (that's a good thing) 2005.02.24 - Hung Posters around Campus 2005.02.18 - Finally got the slots for the posters printed up thanks to my brother (he printed them). - Fixed the moon link on the page (I didn't realize that it talking about November!) 2005.02.14 - Mark McConnell bought the Coronado telescope for the observatory/astronomy classes. - John Gianforte donated an eyepiece for it. - Public session on 5th of February had approximately 50 people attend! - Public session on 11th made up for it. One person attended (guess they all came the week before!) - Updated webpage today. - Public session posters printed up. Not hung yet. - Slowly preparing for webcam view of Asteroid Vundtia occulting a star. 2005.02.1 - Finished Public Session poster for this semester. - Fixed Machholz Page. 2005.01.31 - Installed Fugu for an SCP client and played around with Textwrangler to optimize it. Both work very well now. -Setup Glossary on webpage - Had a mass updating of just about every page. - Returned items to the physics server finally - Added google websearch for glossary pages. All for the word, coma. I'm sure the list will expand, though. - Dumped 610 images that were somehow erased from the server back on - Created the page devoted to the moon. - Created glossary directory - Put a link to this site on the webpage - Configured Google Glossary Bar to fit in with the site - Went out to Observatory with Rich, Trevor & Astronomy Lab 2005.01.30 Tried to figure out SCP and text editting on a Mac for updating webpages. Failed. 2005.01.28 First clear public session of the semester. 15 attendees on a very cold night. I spoke with the Administrative Manager Katie Makem who had everything setup for us with the PA Money and ready to spend. She also asked if we wanted space heaters for the observatory. She called the Grounds & Roads to doublecheck and make sure the path to the observatory was plowed! 2005.01.26 Observatory path and perimeter plowed extremely well! Ten shovelfulls in front of the door was all it took and we were in! 2005.01.26 Professor Mark McConnell said the PA Grant money for the webcam, CCD, focal reducer, Cornado H Alpha Solar Scope, etc... is in an account ready to be spent! 2005.01.25 Called facilities services to see if they'd plow! Martha, the customer service representative, was very helpful and got everything taken care of for us! 2005.01.22 Setup voicemail service at the observatory. Played phonetag with Mr. Hobson of Woodman Park and finally got in touch with him to setup a special session for his school. 2005.01.21 Met with Paul Henry and Frank at the observatory (it was -2F outside and very windy!) and discussed what to do with the water problem at the observatory. Temporary solution will be sandbags until the ground thaws in the Spring. The observatory had a moat around it due to the runoff from the hill above. Trenches will be dug in the spring. For now, dykes will be raised with sandbags. 2005.01.18 Requested that Aaron, the Demeritt computer guy, reinstate my account, and make it so that I can add pages to the server rather than having them on my personal unh pubpage. 2005.01.15 Shoveled and sanded path to the observatory! 2005.01.13 Observatory Magnets came in. One is placed on the door to the observatory. 2005.01.10 Jack Walsh came accompanied by his cub scout group of 19 children each with an adult. 2005.01.8 First session is cancelled due to inclement weather. 2005.01.5 Observatory Pulic Session Cards came in the mail! 2004.12.20 Finalized Spring 2005 business card for observatory. Met with Professor Ryan and John Gianforte to discuss current situation of observatory. Created mug images for observatory. Redesigned items for observatory cafe press store . Purchased 50 mugs in bulk for observatory to have on hand. Updated "updates", "public sessions" and "main" pages. 2004.12.19 Created Spring 2005 business card for observatory. 2004.12.17 Decided dates for public sessions. 2004.11.28 Updated a lot of the webpage. 2004.11.23 Created some more of the lunar eclipse image pages. Changed the date of the next session to be accurate. Created an image and Added a link to the new galleries page. Created another image for the Lunar Eclipse link on the galleries page. 2004.11.17 Commented about the Aurora possibility on Friday and put a link to spaceweather. 2004.11.16 Created "updates" (which is this) page. Clarified titles for directions. Clarified Text versions of directions. 2004.11.15 Added information about the Leonids and posted image to the front page. Hooked up computer in observatory, bought RCA jacks and started hooking speakers up in the dome. Internet is working. Keys were made for parking lot lights. Moved Chairs, toolbox and file cabinets into the observatory. For more information: Email: unh (dot) observer (at) unh (dot) edu Or call us at: 603.862.3996 Last updated August 14th 2005 |
