Category: Astronomy Report

Astronomy Report
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/21/2018

Sky Conditions: Cloudy all the day long but clear sky from 4:00 PM.

Wind Conditions: no wind

Observation Start Time: 16:30

Observation End Time: 17:30

Summary: Today Mick wanted to learn how to manipulate the telescope. Therefore we have benefited from a thinning to go the Musk observatory during one hour. It was a short observation but efficient. We took one beautiful shot.
Objects Viewed: dark spot on the Sun + small prominences

Problems Encountered: iCap had some difficulties to open at first. But we have finally managed to work with it.

Cheers,

Sophie Wuyckens

Astronomy Report
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/20/2018

Sky Conditions: Cloudy all the day long but very clear sky from 5:00 PM.

Wind Conditions: no wind

Observation Start Time: 17:00

Observation End Time: 18:30

Summary: I haven’t gone to the observatory for the last few days because of the bad weather. Therefore when I saw a clear blue sky at 17:00, I jumped on the occasion. I took 3 pictures of the Sun. They were taken in the excitation and in a short time so they are not amazing. I hope to enjoy the telescope with nice ends of afternoon like that for the last days of my stay at MDRS.
Objects Viewed: some little solar eruptions and surface of the Sun

Problems Encountered: I had a small problem with ICap : When I want to take capture each 35s, a message pops up " Error writing bmp files" and it stops the captures. I didn’t have the problem for my last pictures.

Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/17/2018

Sky Conditions: Clear but sometines some clouds

Wind Conditions: High wind all the day long

Observation Start Time: No observation

Observation End Time: –

Summary: I didn’t dare to use the the observatory today because the wind was very violent.

Astronomy Report 3
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/14/2018

Sky Conditions: Very cloudy sky and rain all the afternoon

Wind Conditions: Strong wind

Summary: No observation because of bad weather.

Astronomy Report

Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/13/2018

Sky Conditions: Very clear sky

Wind Conditions: No wind

Observation Start Time: 12:00

Observation End Time: 15:00

Summary: I continued my training with the telescope. I got 2 pictures (see jpeg attached) of the Sun, they are not very fancy but unfortunately the Sun has no real relevant activity. I am trying to create gif and videos of the mini solar eruptions.
Objects Viewed: some little solar eruptions and surface of the Sun

Problems Encountered: No problems

Astronomy Report
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/12/2018

Sky Conditions: Very clear sky in the morning and some clouds in the afternoon

Wind Conditions: No wind

Observation Start Time: 11:30 – 13:00 & 15:30-17:30

Observation End Time: See above

Summary: First day of observations. I became acquainted with the telescope all the day long. I got 3 pictures (see jpeg attached) of the Sun.
Objects Viewed: Sun, a little solar eruption and surface of the Sun

Problems Encountered: I had some trouble in order to find the Sun in the afternoon but it was just due to the fact that I had to pass to PM mode given that I passed from the morning to the afternoon. A Beginner Error, I guess. Peter is the one who told me how to fix my bug. It was good after.

Hello Capcom,

Astronomy Report
Name: Benoit Floquet Crew: 189
date: 2018/03/05

Sky Conditions: The sky was clear.

Wind Conditions: No wind

Observation Start Time: 02:00 pm

Observation End Time: 05:00 pm

Summary: Just a casual afternoon of observation

Objects Viewed: Sun Filament

Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report

Name: Benoit Floquet Crew: 189
date: 2018/02/19

Sky Conditions: The sky was clear during the window of observation. Before and after that it was cloudy

Wind Conditions: Quite a lot of wind but not that much during the window of observation.

Observation Start Time: 03:00 pm

Observation End Time: 03:30 pm

Summary: I went to the Musk Observatory to get a first experience with the telescope. I followed the instructions with success until I had to take a look at the Sun. It was not well aligned with the Sun Tracker but I couldn’t succeed to use the Hand control to make it right. Then I changed the set up ( time ) to get the Sun aligned and it was already to cloudy to take a good look…

Objects Viewed: none

Problems Encountered: I didn’t find the instructions to use the Hand control in order to move the telescope.

Astronomy Report

Name: Julia DeMarines

Crew: 188

Date: 02/07/2018

Sky conditions: Clear

Wind conditions: low to none

Observation start time 2:10 pm

Observation end time: 4:45 pm

Summary: The last several Sols have been overcast or extremely windy. An attempt to observe yesterday, during a clear patch, was stymied by high winds. Also, I came down with a cold yesterday and have been moving at a slower pace. Today the conditions were too perfect to pass up, even if feeing a bit under the Martian weather. After we helped today’s EVA crew get out the hatch, I had to take the role of Hab-Com until our Commander, Ryan, was finished with his dust experiments which are conducted at the time of the departure and return of the EVA’s. Sometime between 1pm and 2pm I made my way out to the dome and attempted to observe the Sun. I was having difficulties seeing it through the eyepiece even when it was in the Sol Spotting scope. Yesterday I tired to align it using the arrows but still saw no movement in the spotting scope. Today, I tried again and realized it helped to have your eye in the eyepiece. After getting the Sun in the eyepiece, I was finally able to toggle the focus knobs to bring the Sun in focus. I started taking some photos and almost immediately after taking photos, I caught an airplane eclipsing the Sun!

Objects viewed: Sun

Problems encountered: Had to trouble shoot to get the sun in the eyepiece. Was not able to observe the sun through the computer program today. It took too long to set up the camera.

Further questions: I probably will have some questions about the computer program but hope that it goes smoothly tomorrow and that weather is clear and calm.