114-AstronomyReport

ASTRONOMY REPORT 01 14

Name: Pedro Diaz-Rubin

Sky Conditions: Mostly Cloudy

Winds: None

Time of Observation (start- finish): 8:30 PM - 10:45 PM.

Summary:

The Astronomy team entered the Musk observatory at 8:30 PM.

The team proceeded with a two star calibration which included Alpheratz and Rigel, and then with a one star calibration with Betelgeuse

Joseph executed a collimation test on Rigel by purposely setting the star out of focus. After a snapshot, Rigel was focused in the reverse direction. The results show the telescope decently calibrated.

After the collimation test, the astronomy team focused the telescope on Jupiter. Then attached the CCD camera. The moon filter was not installed since we could not figure out where to set it up.

That night 4 moons displayed on the computer screen. Ganymede, Io, and Europa were at the left of Jupiter in that sequence. Callisto was by itself at the right. Europa and Io were on their way to Occulation. Europa Occulation was expected to happen around midnight and Io's at 14:00 PM on the following day.

Attached to this e-mail are 2 pictures of Jupiter and its Galilean moons. One has all bodies labeled and the other is unlabeled. The pictures were originally taken with the CCD camera and then resized and labeled in Microsoft Paint. Jupiter coordinates were RA 07 02 22, Dec +22 48 59.

Around 10:15 pm other members of crew 133 were invited to come into the Musk observatory to see Jupiter and its moons on screen. This was done under Pedro's supervision. Crew members were ask not to touch the telescope and to come close to the computer screen without bumping into the equipment.

After observation, the telescope was pointed into its home position, the dome was parked on the East, and the Musk observatory was closed at 10:45 PM.

List of Objects viewed:

Alpheratz, Rigel, Betelgeuse

Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.

Problems Encountered:

Mostly Clouded weather with moon light