Author: Russ

11/08/2025

Outdoor sensor unit batteries replaced (2 AA Lithium). Rain gauge cleaned and tipping cup lubricated with WD-40. Temperature sensor cover cleaned. Wind gauge lubricated.  Indoor receiver-display console batteries replaced (2 AA Lithium).

03/22/2024

Rain gauge cleaned again. Tipping cup appears to be moving freely now. Awaiting rain for final check before calling rain gauge operational. During maintenance, station recorded 0.93 inches of rain. Rain zeroed out, but was reported to MesoWest.

03/21/2024

Rain gauge cleaned again, debris removed, WD-40 applied to tipping cup axle. Tipping cup still getting stuck.
Rain gauge non-operational. Estimated return to operation March 31, 2024.

03/08/2024

Spider nesting inside rain gauge rendered gauge non-operational. Spider removed. During removal, gauge reported additional 1.25 inches of rain. Gauge reset to 0.00 inches for the day, but some services (e.g., MesoWest) apparently cannot update corrected amount. Since returning gauge to operation, actual 0.30 inches of rain have fallen with more on the way for today. Rain gauge now operating normally.

04/30/2023

Station has been intermittently down or offline from April 29 15:40 – April 30 10:30 CDT. Ambient WS-2080 weather station retired after 12 years of operation. Replaced with Ambient WS-1965.

03/21/2023

Cox internet service restored. Weather station online. Operations normal.

03/17/2023

March 17, 2023 00:01 CDT. 

Station has been offline since March 15, 2023 at 16:30 CDT as a result of internet service failure.  Internet service provider, Cox Communications, can provide no information as to when service will resume.  

11/25/2022

Station down for maintenance 12:54-14:37 CST. New batteries installed in outdoor sensor unit and upstairs and downstairs indoor receiver/display consoles. Rain gauge cleaned of spider web debris (spider removed approximately two weeks ago). WD-40 applied to rain gauge rocker arm assembly.

02/25/2021

09:00 CT:  Relative humidity offset set to +5.00%.

02/25/2021

12:45 CT:  Barometric pressure offset set to -0.110.

02/24/2021

Station down for maintenance 13:30-15:30 CT. New batteries installed in outdoor sensor unit and indoor receiver/display console. Rain gauge inspected. Very clean. No spider webs. Recalibrated barometer. Continued barometric pressure offset as -0.10 inHg.

06/02/2020

Retired Acer Aspire Netbook as weather station interface to Internet. Replaced with Ambient Weather Weather Bridge (Meteobridge). Reset barometric pressure offset to -0.10 inHg.

01/27/2019

Wind sensor returned to operation. New windcups installed.

01/22/2019

Wind sensor inoperative. New windcups ordered. Estimated return to operation 02/12/19.

11/04/2018

Station down 12:00-15:00 for routine maintenance. Replaced sensor-transmitter batteries, cleaned all cable terminals, cleaned sensor screen cover, replaced original rain gauge with new rain gauge.

05/01/2017

Defective indoor console receiver unit with barometric pressure sensor is replaced with a new unit. Pressure readings are now being accurately reported.

04/20/2017

Barometer went out today.  Replacement unit ordered. Estimated fix 05/06/2017. Until then, pressure readings will be incorrect.

01/15/2017

Wind vane, anemometer, rain gauge frozen solid. No wind or rain data today.

Jupiter through C8 Telescope2 Jupiter_1_26_2014 3_13_51
Raw Video Final Image

I was having another look at some video sequences I took of Jupiter a year ago and thought it might be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of the raw video and a finished image.

The raw video image on the left is pretty close to what was displayed on my netbook as the video was received from the telescope via the ZWO ASI 120 MC camera.

The image on the right consists of a stack of the best 507 video frames from the sequence of approximately 1500 frames. The individual frames were stacked, aligned, and sharpened (with wavelet processing) in Registax. Color saturation and levels were adjusted using GIMP.

I rate the seeing on this night as fair to poor, or 2.5 on the 5 point Peach scale.  The Peach scale, devised by renowned planetary photographer Damian Peach, defines fair and poor seeing as follows:

3. Fair Seeing – Slight or moderate undulation or fuzziness. Reasonable contrast. Minor planetary details occasionally seen.

2. Poor – Very Poor seeing – Severe undulations or fuzziness. Poor contrast. Large scale detail poorly defined. Minor details invisible.

Based on Peach’s written descriptions and example videos, which you can see at his website, I peg the seeing for this imaging session somewhere between 2 (fair) and 3 (poor), or 2.5.

What do you think?

Details:
Date: 26 January 2014 03:13:51 UT
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma USA
Telescope: 203mm f/10 SCT (Celestron C8), 2x Barlow
Camera: ZWO ASI 120MC

The top image is a view of Mars from my backyard in Edmond, Oklahoma USA on the night of March 31st (morning of April 1st UT).  This was my first look at Mars for the 2011-2012 close-approach season.

In this image, clouds are visible over the Tharsis region on Mars’ eastern limb. There are also some high clouds over the western limb.   South is at the top.  Wayne Jaeschke, over at Exosky.net, has some great images of the Tharsis region with the tops of several martian volcanoes poking through the clouds.

It is early summer in Mars’ northern hemisphere right now so the North Polar Cap has shrunk to a tiny size, at least as viewed from this angle.

Mars was at opposition on March 3rd, and at its closest approach for this two year cycle on March 5th.  At that time Mars’  equatorial diameter as seen from Earth was 13.9 arcseconds.  By the time this image was taken, the distance between Earth and Mars had increased and Mars’ apparent size had shrunk to 12.6 arcseconds.  At the time of this observation, Mars and Earth were nearly 112 million kilometers apart.

This image is a stack of 161 frames from a video sequence taken with a Meade Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI). The telescope was a 203mm Celestron 8 (C8) with a 3X Barlow lens (full details below).

For comparison, the bottom image is from the NASA/JPL Solar System Simulator.  It shows the predicted view of Mars as seen from Earth at the time of my image.

Image Details:

01 April 2012  02:55:46 UT
203mm SCT (C8) f/10, 3X Barlow, Meade LPI  161 frames
Seeing 2/10, Trans 3/5,  Edmond, Oklahoma  USA
CM  42 degrees, Eq. Diameter 12.6 arcsec, Distance 111.529 mil km
see also http://www.arksky.org/alpo/alpoimg/Mar170DB8B9.jpg
Image captured using K3CCDTools.