Astronomical Files from Black Oak Observatory
38.38° N, 122.91° W • elevation 560 feet - near Occidental, CaliforniaFiles in this directory are provided for public use as is, without warranty, assurance or accepted liability of any kind.
Comments or corrections, please email Bruce MacEvoy at: drollere@gmail.com.
Observatory Design & Construction
Site & Building SchematicsDocumentsBuilding a Personal Observatory - PowerPoint presentation (52.4 Mb)
Amateur Telescope Making - A historical appreciation and personal experiences in amateur telescope making.Data SetsMy Astronomical Library - A list of titles, with idiosyncratic reviews.
Traditional Star Names - A list of star names, alphabetized by name and by constellation.
Constellation Origin and Pronunciation - A list of constellations, with pronunciation guide and origin.
Astronomical Seeing (Optical Turbulence)
• Part 1: The Nature of Turbulence - The physical nature of turbulence and a description of its optical effects.Astronomical Optics• Part 2: Seeing Measurement Methods - Summary of various rating scales used to describe optical turbulence.
• Part 3: Observing Techniques - Procedures the amateur astronomer can use to minimize the effects of turbulence.
• Part 1: Basic Optics - Introduction to Gaussian optics and the ray tracing of eyepieces.A Telescope Dolly - Materials list and construction guide for a simple tripod dolly.SCT Eyepiece Parameters - Magnification, exit pupil and true field, for a 12" ƒ/10 SCT with a 2" diagonal.
Distance from Distance Modulus - A lookup table.
Angular Size, Distance & Physical Dimension - A lookup table.
Double Star Astronomy - PowerPoint presentation (8.7 Mb)
*These datasets are in .xlsx (Excel Workbook 2005+) format. Pre-2005 versions of Excel will not be able to read these files.Image FilesYale Bright Star Catalog* - Version 5, with all notes (3 Mb).
Washington Double Star Catalog* - Version of 02.09.2012, in red type on black background, including system count and distance modulus calculator (35 Mb)
6th Orbital Catalog* - orbital solutions for about 2100 double stars, with links to orbit graphics - Version of 03.15.2012 (645 Kb)
Star Plotter* - plots the configuration of a multiple star from its components' PA and separation - Version of 09.01.2011 (50 Kb)
Sternberg General Catalog of Variable Stars* - Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Version of Sept. 2009, with all notes and references (8 Mb).
São Paulo Catalog of Galactic Open Clusters* - São Paulo Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics & Atmospheric Sciences, Version of Nov. 2010, with notes and references (561 Kb).
Harris Catalog of Globular Clusters* - William Harris, McMaster University, Version of Dec. 2010 (106 Kb).
The William Herschel Double Star Discoveries
Celebrating the groundbreaking double star achievement of one of the greatest visual astronomers• The William Herschel Double Star Catalogs Restored - HTML splash page for my Herschel datasets.
• The Complete William Herschel Double Star Catalog - HTML list of all 805 of his confirmed double star discoveries, sorted by right ascension.
• The Herschel 500 Double Star List - HTML version of the essential observational information on his best double star discoveries.
• The Complete Herschel Double Star Catalog* - XLSX spreadsheet of all Herschel's double star discoveries, with current positional data, celestial coordinates and catalog designations. (Version of 2/15/2011; 805 binary/multiple stars, 562 Kb.)
• The Herschel 500* - XLSX observing list of the 500 double stars, with current positional data and celestial coordinates, catalog designations, and difficulty rating. (Version of 2/15/2011; 500 binary/multiple stars, 173 Kb.)
History of Eyepiece Design. Desktop/screensaver image of 25 major eyepiece designs; background in Mac OS blue.Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. From the Hipparcos-Yale-Gliese database, a plot of stellar absolute magnitude on BV color index, also showing surface temperature and radius; 30,600 stars within 120 parsecs (400 light years) of the sun are indicated by spectral type; farther stars are indicated by luminosity class.
The Yale Bright Star Catalog
• Yale Bright Star catalog I. Full sky chart of stars from the catalog, white stars on black sky with Milky Way background image, in galactic coordinates.
• Yale Bright Star catalog II. Full sky chart of stars from the catalog, color coded by spectral type, in galactic coordinates, with principal named stars.
Reimaging the Naked Eye Stars - The 9300+ naked eye stars plotted in celestial coordinates using four fundamental star attributes.
• Visual Magnitude. Full sky chart of stars down to visual magnitude 6.5 binned by visual magnitude, white stars on dark sky.The Constellations - Stick outlines of the major constellations.• Absolute Magnitude. Full sky chart of stars down to visual magnitude 6.5 binned by absolute magnitude, white stars on dark sky.
The Brightest Stars - Stars with absolute magnitude > –3.• Distance. Full sky chart of stars down to visual magnitude 6.5 binned by distance from the Earth, white stars on dark sky.
The Nearest Stars - Stars with a distance of 24 parsecs (78 light years).The Farthest Stars - Stars beyond 192 parsecs (625 light years).
• Spectral Class. Full sky chart of stars down to visual magnitude 6.5 binned by spectral class (O, B, A, F, G, K, M & N), colored stars on dark sky.
The OBA Stars - Stars with above average mass and luminosity.The FGKMN Stars - Stars of below average mass and luminosity.
The Starry Sky
Stereographic projections of the celestial sphere as seen from latitude +40°, in 2 hour intervals of sidereal time at the end of astronomical twilight for the dates shown. I prefer this presentation to the conventional monthly format as it highlights the way in which the night sky seems to progress slowly or quickly as the altitude of the sun causes twilight to end earlier or later in the evening. All files are about 270K.• 0h:00m - 18 December - Alpheratz
[25 days]
• 2h:00m - 13 January- Hamal
[24 days]
• 4h:00m - 6 February- The Pleiades
[25 days]
• 6h:00m - 2 March - Betelgeuse
[24 days]
• 8h:00m - 26 March - Pollux
[23 days]
• 10h:00m - 18 April - Regulus
[22 days]
• 12h:00m - 10 May - Denebola
[22 days]
• 14h:00m - 1 June - Arcturus
[28 days]
• 16h:00m - 29 June - Dschubba
[42 days]
• 18h:00m - 10 August - Eltanin; Galactic center
[57 days]
• 20h:00m - 6 October - Altair
[42 days]
• 22h:00m - 17 November - Enif
[31 days]
The Spitzer Milky Way Panorama
Infrared imagery of a two degree wide strip along the galactic equator from L 65° (Vulpecula) to 295° (Centaurus), showing hydrogen emission nebulae (red and yellow, 24 micron), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or "carbon dust" molecules (green, 8 micron), and visible wavelengths of starlight (blue, 3.6 micron). (All are .tif files, about 6.6 Mb.)Photopic Sky Survey - Nick Risinger's 5 billion pixel Photopic Sky Survey, formatted for a 27" Apple cinema display.• 65° to 58°
• 58° to 50°
• 50° to 41°
• 41° to 33°
• 33° to 25°
• 25° to 17°
• 17° to 8°
• 8° to 0°
• Galactic Center Portrait
• 360° to 352°
• 352° to 344°
• 344° to 335°
• 335° to 327°
• 327° to 319°
• 319° to 311°
• 311° to 302°
• 302° to 295°
Last update 05/12/2011 - All files not in public domain or in other copyright are ©2011 Bruce MacEvoy.
With attribution to this site, files may be linked, downloaded or printed for personal or educational use.
