3 replies to this topic

[StupendousMan]

Hello, everyone.  I was hoping to try detecting the gravitational deflection of starlight during the eclipse -- just for fun, of course.  I prepared by taking images of the field on Feb 5, 2024, in order to measure the positions of stars under ordinary conditions.

 

    http://spiff.rit.edu...feb05_2024.html

 

Unfortunately, the weather was awful in Rochester, NY, so I couldn't use my equipment to take images of the field during the eclipse. I fled to St. Albans, VT, the morning of the event, but light clouds made detecting stars impossible.  At least my wife and I were able to enjoy the eclipse itself...

 

I don't have any images of my own showing stars during the eclipse, but perhaps I could use YOURS.  Sure, the job will be more difficult due to variations in the equipment, but that's a challenge I'm willing to take.  If you have images between 4 and 6 degrees wide, with a plate scale of 2-5 arcsec per pixel, taken during totality, showing stars clearly, and you're willing to share them with me, please let me know.  I can't use images with any image compression, or in a format such as JPEG.  Ideally, I'd prefer FITS, but I can handle Nikon NEF format as well. 

 

If you'd like to help, please post in this thread a brief description of the equipment you used, and, if you can, a section of one of your images which includes the star Revati = zeta Psc = 86 Psc.  If it looks good, I'll contact you via PM or E-mail so that we can arrange a method for transferring full image(s).   I will, of course, give full credit to you in any subsequent work using your image(s), and send you a copy.  No guarantees that it will work, but I'm willing to give it a try.  Maybe I'll learn something that will help for my next attempt during a future eclipse.

 

Thanks very much in advance.

[BobInBaltimore]

I have approximately 50 images showing up to 13 stars during totality. They were acquired using an untracked StellarVue 800 mm f/6 scope and a Nikon Z8. The focal length was 480 mm, yielding a plate scale of 1.8 arc sec per pixel. A field flattener was used, which may complicate the astrometry but it certainly improved the image quality! All but the faintest stars show clear evidence of trailing and thus are not hot pixels. A few of the fainter ones may be hot pixels.

 

 

The ISO was 64 and the exposure time was 0.7 seconds. I have another 50 images at 1/3 second which also have stars showing. They were acquired from Colebrook, NH. The skies were incredibly clear and the seeing was good. 

 

The Sun was approximately centered at the C2 and drifted off center during the 3 minutes totality.

 

 

A better quality image can be found at my web site at

https://www.scientia...-2024/i-799pCzr

 

and a larger image showing the 13 candidate stars is at

https://www.scientia...-2024/i-CLXngC4

 

Did you know that the original experiment that "confirmed" Einstein's theory got answers that were significantly different from Einstein's predictions? And a second telescope they had gave even worse answers and was suspected of ] (accused of??) having optical problems, It's data were not used.

 

 

[moshen]

I have calibrated and aligned FITs at 2.59"/pixel - 300mm with ZWO ASI6200MC(first image) and Canon R5 RAWs at 1.41"/pixel, 644mm (second image). Both with flatteners and at a range of exposures. Happy to help if I can.

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[maj]

About 1/4 frame of a heavily adjusted jpeg image taken with Nikon D850 mounted with a 500mm + 1.4 teleconverter (effective 700mm).  I counted almost 40 stars on my iPad.  I’m guessing about 3 degrees horizontal for the full frame (probably too narrow for your need).  I was shooting raw + jpeg-fine and haven’t looked at the raw (NEF) image.

​IMG_2866 by majmontana, on Flickr