Phèdre, Three Decades Later

Title page of the 1678 edition

When I was twelve, I spent a school year in France with my maternal grandparents. At lunch time, my grandfather, François Dessaux, was fond of reciting classical works of French literature. His favorite was a dramatic passage from Phèdre, a tragic play written by Jean Racine (1639-1699) based on the Greek story appearing in Euripides's Hippolytus. In this long passage, Theramenes describes to Theseus, the violent death of Hippolytus.

My grandfather tried, with much patience but little success, to get me to memorize the lines as well. Though I was enthusiastic, my command of French at the time was not up to the task. I remembered something about a guy on a chariot and some horses, something about Neptune, and not much else.

Recently, I was reminded of these lunchtime literary forays and looked up the text on the internet. I also found a great amateur dramatization on YouTube by Pierre Thurias which inspired me on how it should sound when read in a dramatic style.

After 36 years, I resolved to fully understand this work and to finally memorize it in honor of my grandfather who passed away a few years ago. This turned out to be less daunting than I had feared. The alexendrine poetic meter of Racine's works and the vivid action described in the passage made it easier to memorize than expected. After learning a few lines each evening, I finally finished this week.

Here is the text in modern French along with my own attempt at an English translation; I was not enamored with the translations that I found.

La mort d'Hippolyte, suivant le récit de Théramène
Phèdre, Acte V, Scene VI

A peine nous sortions des portes de Trézène,	Scarcely had we left the gates of Troezen,
Il était sur son char. Ses gardes affligés	He was on his chariot. His sorrowful guards,
Imitaient son silence, autour de lui rangés ;	Gathered about him, imitated his silence.
Il suivait tout pensif le chemin de Mycènes ;	He followed the road to Mycenae, deep in thought,
Sa main sur ses chevaux laissait flotter les rênes ;	His hand on his horses, held loosely the reins;
Ses superbes coursiers, qu'on voyait autrefois	Those superb horses, that we used to see,
Pleins d'une ardeur si noble obéir à sa voix,	Full of noble passion, obeying his every word,
L'oeil morne maintenant et la tête baissée,	Now, with eyes mournful and heads lowered,
Semblaient se conformer à sa triste pensée.	They seemed to reflect the sadness of his thoughts.
Un effroyable cri, sorti du fond des flots,	A horrible cry, risen from the depths of the water,
Des airs en ce moment a troublé le repos ;	Now troubled the restful atmosphere;
Et du sein de la terre, une voix formidable	And from the womb of the earth, a tremendous voice
Répond en gémissant à ce cri redoutable.	Moaned in response to that fearsome cry
Jusqu'au fond de nos coeurs notre sang s'est glacé ;	To the bottom of our hearts, our blood ran cold;
Des coursiers attentifs le crin s'est hérissé.	The horses, attentive, bristled their hair.
Cependant, sur le dos de la plaine liquide,	Meanwhile, on the surface of the liquid plain,
S'élève à gros bouillons une montagne humide ;	There arose,  boiling, a watery mountain;
L'onde approche, se brise, et vomit à nos yeux,	The wave approached, broke, and vomited in our eyes,
Parmi des flots d'écume, un monstre furieux.	Amid flows of foam, a furious monster
Son front large est armé de cornes menaçantes ;	His large forehead was armed with menacing horns;
Tout son corps est couvert d'écailles jaunissantes ;	All his body was covered in yellowish scales;
Indomptable taureau, dragon impétueux,	An untamable bull, a raging dragon,
Sa croupe se recourbe en replis tortueux.	His rump bent on itself in tortuous folds.
Ses longs mugissements font trembler le rivage.	His long roars caused the shore to tremble.
Le ciel avec horreur voit ce monstre sauvage,	In horror, the sky witnessed this wild monster,
La terre s'en émeut, l'air en est infecté ;	The earth was disturbed by it, the air was fouled with it;
Le flot qui l'apporta recule épouvanté.	The flow that brought it retreated in fright.
Tout fuit ; et sans s'armer d'un courage inutile,	All fled, and without taking useless courage,
Dans le temple voisin chacun cherche un asile.	Everyone sought asylum in the nearby temple.
Hippolyte lui seul, digne fils d'un héros,	Only Hippolytus, worthy son of a hero,
Arrête ses coursiers, saisit ses javelots,	Stopped his horses, seized his javelins,
Pousse au monstre, et d'un dard lancé d'une main sûre,	Pushed towards the monster, and with a dart thrown by a steady hand,
Il lui fait dans le flanc une large blessure.	He made in its flank a large wound
De rage et de douleur le monstre bondissant	In rage and in pain, the monster, bounding,
Vient aux pieds des chevaux tomber en mugissant,	Came to the horses' feet and fell roaring,
Se roule, et leur présente une gueule enflammée	Rolled, and showed them his flaming maw
Qui les couvre de feu, de sang et de fumée.	Which covered them with fire, blood, and smoke.
La frayeur les emporte, et sourds à cette fois,	Fear took them and, deaf this once,
Ils ne connaissent plus ni le frein ni la voix ;	They knew no more, neither brake nor voice;
En efforts impuissants leur maître se consume ;	In ineffectual attempts, their master was consumed;
Ils rougissent le mors d'une sanglante écume.	They reddened their bridle bits in a bloody foam.
On dit qu'on a vu même, en ce désordre affreux,	It is even said that there was seen amid this atrocious chaos,
Un dieu qui d'aiguillons pressait leur flanc poudreux.	A god that, with a prod, goaded their dusty flanks.
A travers des rochers la peur les précipite.	Across the boulders, fear drove them on
L'essieu crie et se rompt : l'intrépide Hippolyte	The axle screeched and broke : the intrepid Hippolytus
Voit voler en éclats tout son char fracassé ;	Saw his splintered chariot fly to pieces;
Dans les rênes lui-même, il tombe embarrassé.	In the reins, he himself fell entangled.
Excusez ma douleur. Cette image cruelle	Forgive me my pain. This cruel sight
Sera pour moi de pleurs une source éternelle.	Will be to me an eternal source of tears.
J'ai vu, Seigneur, j'ai vu votre malheureux fils	I saw, my lord, I saw your wretched son
Traîné par les chevaux que sa main a nourris.	Dragged by the very horses which his hand had fed.
Il veut les rappeler, et sa voix les effraie ;	He wanted to call them back but his voice frightened them
Ils courent ; tout son corps n'est bientôt qu'une plaie.	They ran; all of his body was soon but a single wound
De nos cris douloureux la plaine retentit.	The plain rang out with our painful shouts.
Leur fougue impétueuse enfin se ralentit ;	Their headlong fury soon slowed;
Ils s'arrêtent non loin de ces tombeaux antiques	They stopped not far from those ancient tombs
Où des rois ses aïeux sont les froides reliques,	Where kings, his ancestors, are the cold relics.
J'y cours en soupirant, et sa garde me suit.	I ran gasping and his guard followed me.
De son généreux sang la trace nous conduit,	The generous traces of his blood guided us there,
Les rochers en sont teints, les ronces dégouttantes	The rocks were stained with it, the disgusting brambles
Portent de ses cheveux les dépouilles sanglantes.	Bore the bloody remains of his hair.
J'arrive, je l'appelle, et me tendant la main,	I arrived and called him. He, reaching with his hand,
Il ouvre un oeil mourant qu'il referme soudain :	Opened a dying eye which he closed again suddenly.
"Le ciel, dit-il, m'arrache une innocente vie.	"Heaven," he said, "has ripped from me an innocent life.
Prends soin après ma mort de la triste Aricie.	Take care, after my death, of the sad Aricie.
Cher ami, si mon père un jour désabusé	Dear friend, if someday my father, disabused,
Plaint le malheur d'un fils faussement accusé,	Complains of the misfortune of a falsely accused son,
Pour apaiser mon sang et mon ombre plaintive,	To assuage my blood and my mournful shadow,
Dis-lui qu'avec douceur il traite sa captive,	Tell him to treat with care his captive,
Qu'il lui rende ..." A ce mot, ce héros expiré	That he return to her ..." At these words, this expired hero
N'a laissé dans mes bras qu'un corps défiguré,	Left in my arms but a disfigured body.
Triste objet, où des dieux triomphe la colère.	Sad object, where the gods' anger triumphed.
Et que méconnaîtrait l'oeil même de son père.	And whose father would not recognize him by sight.

The Death of Hippolyte in Artwork

This 17th century painting by the master Rubens, captures much of the action of the death of Hippolytus including the horses balking at the half bull, half serpent, sea monster.  However, the attributed date of this painting (1611-1613) predates Racine by several decades so clearly the painting was based on and earlier Greek or Roman version, not on Racine's adaptation.  Perhaps that explains why the painting does not depict a bloodied body as described by Racine.

"La mort d’Hippolyte" (ca. 1612) by Pierre Paul Rubens - Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

This image by the 18th century French artist Jean François de Troy shows the god Poseidon astride his sea monster, goading the horses in their flight with his trident.

"La Mort d'Hippolyte" (1727), Etching based on a Painting by Jean François de Troy - British Museum

Here is another image from the early 19th century French painter, Joseph-Désiré Court.  Again, surprisingly unbloodied for a fellow that has just been dragged to death.

"Hyppolite renversé de son Char" (1825) by Joseph Désiré Court

Late 19th and early 20th century Dutch born, British painter, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema clearly shows the hero entangled in the reins and being dragged.

"The Death of Hippolyte" (1860) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Private Collection

Triangulum Galaxy

Image of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum.  It is sometimes incorrectly called the Pinwheel Galaxy, a name properly given to M101.

At 2.5 million light-years away, this galaxy is part of the "Local Group" whose three largest members are the Andromeda, Milky Way, and Triangulum galaxies. It can be found in the same region of the sky as the Andromeda galaxy which is easier to find with the naked eye.  I simply follow the "pointer" stars Beta and Mu Andromedae in the opposite direction.

Image was taken from Georgetown with a TMB-130SS refractor with a QSI-540 CCD and Astronomik RGB filters.  Exposure lengths of 500s R, 400s G, 600s B.  Diffraction spikes on the stars were added in post-processing.

Within the arms of the galaxy in this image, you should be able to find several large emission nebulae glowing pink.

Venus Transit Aureole Captured

The new October 2012 issue of Sky and Telescope has an article by Jay M. Pasachoff entitled "A Glorious Transit of Venus."  One of the items explained in the article is the occurrence of an "aureole" around the polar region of Venus caused by sunlight refracting through the upper atmosphere of the planet.  The article featured the results of a team of astronomers on Haleakala who were specifically observing this phenomena.

Hey, that's were we were ... well, almost.  This group was in the astronomical complex on the next hill over from our location at Red Summit.  I am sorry that their location was restricted; I should like to have met with some of the observers over there.

The article motivated me to look more carefully at my prominence-detail exposures around ingress and egress.  Sure enough, several frames during ingress show a clear illumination arc which I presume to be the same phenomena as described in the S&T article.

The one below, taken at 17h20 GMT, just before second contact showed the best detail.  Images were taken with a Lunt LS60T/PS Hydrogen-Alpha telescope with a DMK41 monochromatic video camera.  Since I was primarily trying to get full-disk images, I was not using any additional optical magnification.  The resolution is not great on these enlarged images but you should be able to see the arc.  You may have to brighten your screen intensity to see it as the contrast is still pretty low.

and here again zoomed in with annotation in both grey-scale and false-color gradient which is easier to view on darker monitors.

Venus Polar Aureole - Greyscale image in H-alpha light 

Venus Polar Aureole - False-color gradient map

No such luck during egress.  I am missing the prominence-exposure frames that might have shown something.

Testing the AP-27TVPH Focal Reducer

I just acquired a 0.75x Astro-Physics 27TVPH focal reducer for use with my TMB130ss refractor.  While waiting for some better skies, I did some initial tests to see if field curvature or vignetting effects are noticeable and am summarizing those results here.

Imaging Train

The imaging train for these tests is the following:

• TMB-130ss refractor,  focal length 910mm at f/7
• Feather Touch focuser option [Starlight Instruments, FT-3035]
• Replacement focuser end cap with AP 2.7" threads [Starlight Instruments, EC35-505AP]
• 0.75x Focal Reducer [Astro-Physics, 27TVPH] 
• Adapter from 2.7" threads to SCT threads, 8mm insertion length [Astro-Physics, ADA204]
• Adapter from SCT threads to T threads, 18mm insertion length [Antares]
• T-thread extension barrels, various lengths
• Baader T2 Quick-changer, 15mm insertion length [Alpine Astro, T2-6,7]
• QSI-540ws with T-thread mounting plate,  21.4mm diagonal

The camera I am using is the QSI-540ws which has a KAI-04022 sensor with 7.4um pixels.  The sensor is square with a 21.4mm diagonal.  Although all tests are based on that camera, the popular KAF-8300 sensor included in many of the new affordable CCD cameras has nearly the same diagonal size, 22.5mm, though not square.  I would expect nearly the same geometry and curvature results.

Geometry Results

For each T2 extension tube length, I measured the distance from the back edge of the AP-27TVPH focal reducer to the "seam" of the QSI-540ws camera body.  This seam between the blue and black parts is approximately 1mm in front of the CCD sensor according to QSI Imaging technical drawings.  This distance is reported in the table below as CCD (mm).

For each extension length, after bringing the image into focus with a Bhatinov mask, I noted the position on the measurement scale of the FT-3035 focuser.  This is reported in the table as Focus (mm).  You can see that the set of tests span most of the focusing range of the FT-3035.

To get an accurate measure of the reduction factor, I used the PinPoint plate solving feature in MaximDL to compute the image scale of each star field I imaged, reported as Scale ("/px), and the corresponding focal length.   The magnification factor, reported in the table as Mag (x),  is the ratio of the focal length computed with the focal reducer to that computed without the focal reducer.

CCD (mm)	Focus (mm)	Mag (x)	F-Ratio	Scale ("/px)
-	-	1.000	f/7.0	1.68
132	22	0.743	f/5.2	2.26
124	37	0.754	f/5.3	2.22
117	51	0.765	f/5.4	2.19
102	75	0.786	f/5.5	2.13
81	109	0.815	f/5.7	2.06

The specifications of the focal reducer state that CCD=118mm would give the nominal 0.75x reduction factor assuming I am measuring from the correct point.  My experimental results give this reduction factor at CCD=127mm.  I don't have an explanation for this 9mm discrepancy.

Field Curvature Results

For each setting, I shot a 20 sec, unbinned image of the star field around the bright star Sadr in Cyngnus to test geometry and illumination.  The image below shows the full frame for each of the focal reducer positions.  All images were subjected to identical gamma stretching so relative brightness can be compared.

Sadr star-field at each focal-reducer spacing

For each of the star field images, I then magnified the lower-left corner of the frame to see the degree of radial "smear" in the image.  Similar visual results for the other three corners are not shown.  These tests also show the effect of some under-sampling resulting from the use of the focal reducer.  My skies are usually around 2" to 3".

Bottom-left corner with no focal reducer

Bottom-left corner with 81mm focal reducer spacing

Bottom-left corner with 102mm focal reducer spacing

Bottom-left corner with 117mm focal reducer spacing

Bottom-left corner with 124mm focal reducer spacing

Bottom-left corner with 132mm focal reducer spacing

As expected, the curvature effects are more noticeable at the larger reduction factors.  The image for 81mm has more distortion than I expected.  Looking over the full frame, the 132mm configuration was noticeably worse.  I am going to try to stick with something around 120mm though the reduction is 0.76x at that distance.  The field is not as flat as I had hoped but will probably be a reasonable compromise in order to shorten the required imaging times.

Vignetting Results

For each setting, I shot a 0.1 sec flat field using an Aurora electro-luminescent panel.  For the focal reducer tests, this placed the peak intensity near the 40% grey point and about half that for the non focal reducer test.

In MaximDL, I used the Line tool to graph the illumination intensity across the diagonal of the sensor.  I also set the white and black point of the images to the span the range of pixels.  Each of the images below shows the stretched image and the line graph.  I do not have any more sophisticated curvature analysis software but this gives the general idea.

Eyeballing the lowest and highest averaged values along the curve and taking the ratio, the vignetting gives a 5% decrease in the corners without the focal reducer and up to 8% with the focal reducer.  Both of these are easily corrected with a flat-field normalization, so not much of a concern with this sensor size.

Flat-field illumination with no focal reducer

Flat-field illumination with 81mm focal reducer spacing

Flat-field illumination with 102mm focal reducer spacing

Flat-field illumination with 117mm focal reducer spacing

Flat-field illumination with 124mm focal reducer spacing

Flat-field illumination with 132mm focal reducer spacing

Flip Mirror Options

When imaging, I like having the ability to quickly switch to an eyepiece to get a wider field of view to provide context, to try looking at a target visually, or simply to align the mount without removing the camera.   I had been using an imaging train that I put together for this purpose.  However, with 120 mm to work with now, that system is no longer usable. The Vixen flip-mirror insertion length is too large.

After much hunting,  I found a candidate solution using the TFlip mirror from Teleskop Service which has an 82 mm insertion length.  In the USA, I was please to find it offered by Optcorp.  I also found an on-line review by a Polish amateur astronomer.

The unit has female T2 threads on both sides of the imaging path and male T2 threads on the eyepiece port.  This is the threading standard I am already using and so no room is wasted working around other thread types or push-fits.   Back-of-the-envelope calculations verify that this will just fit into my system.  I will update on the results if I ever spring for the steep $250 purchase price.


Update 2012.09.02 - Last night, we had clear but slightly hazy skies under a full moon. I tested the focal reducer on the Pelican Nebula under H-alpha light.  The first processed image below is from a stack of 23 Ha images, each 15 min.  I chose the 117mm extension length giving 0.7657x according to MaximDL plate solve or a focal ratio of f/5.4

Update 2012.09.03 - The second H-alpha image below uses same configuration with 25 frames of 900s exposures. This is part of the Heart Nebula including the central star cluster and the "tip" of the heart formation. The stars in this second image were not nearly as smooth as the first one.  I had to do more clean-up work.

NGC-7331 Past and Present

Over the last two nights, I had a chance to image the galaxy NGC-7331 in Pegasus.  After preliminary processing of the data, I looked back over my imaging notebook and found that this was one my very early imaging targets.  I was interested to compare the two attempts.

The first was created from a series of approximately 20 unguided 1 minute color exposures taken back in October 2008 when I first started astrophotography.  Exposures were taken with an SPC-9000 webcam, which I had modified for long exposure, through a Celestron 9.25" SCT.  Image scale is 0.46 arcsec/px prior to de-Bayering.  Field of view is very small - this is an uncropped image!

The second was created from a series of approximately 20 guided 10 minute exposures through RBG filters.  Exposures were taken with a QSI-540ws CCD camera through a TMB-130SS refractor.  Image scale is 1.46 arcsec/px.

In looking back,  I am impressed what was possible with that little webcam.

In the same image frame as NGC-7331, I also captured the violently colliding group of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet.  The inset on the top left shows this group at the same image scale.  On the bottom left is an old image of the same group that I took in December of 2008, soon after replacing my wecam with a Canon DSLR.

Since the second night was the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, I looked through the frames to see if I had caught any meteors.  What I at first thought were tiny, short meteors, I soon decided were probably satellites:

This image is a superposition of three different 10 min exposures.  On the first night, at 2012.08.11 00h20 CDT,  there was a uniform solid trace, labelled above. A second dimmer trace occurred along a parallel path a few hours later at 2012.08.11 02h50 CDT.   I don't know if these are the same satellite.

Of more interest was the pair of traces in the frame from 2012.08.11 02h50 CDT  (one trace is below and to the left of NGC-7331 and the other to the left of Stephan's Quintet.)   Just 24h later, in the 2012.08.12 02h50 CDT frame, another identical pair of traces appeared (one is to the left of NGC-7331 the other is above and to the right.)  The similarities and timing seem too coincidental not to be the same satellite.  Since the traces are bright in the center and dim on the ends,  I assume this satellite is rotating uniformly.

Update 2012.08.16 - No success in identifying any satellites in this field of view within an hour of the observation in CalSky.com.

Curiosity Lands on Mars

Sunday 2012.08.05 - This evening we followed the landing of Mars Science Laboratory via NASA TV streamed from our iPad to the television.  At the same time, we followed the flight simulation on the NASA web application "Eyes on the Solar System."   I was most impressed with this simulation.

Picture perfect landing after the "7 Minutes of Terror" descent.  Odyssey successfully rotated and relayed telemetry and initial images from Curiosity before it went over the horizon.  We were thrilled to follow the nail-biting event live.  After watching the nightly Olympic coverage, this was like watching the engineering community win a gold medal in world record time.    I struck not only by the mind-blowing space-flight engineering but also the communications network that brought all of this live to my living room ...  brilliant!

Here is the flight simulation of the sky crane doing its thing in the last seconds of descent.  This is what we watched as NASA controllers verbally relayed confirmation of powered flight and sky-crane deployment with the rover dangling twenty feet below.

This is the simulation of the rover on the ground

As the seven minutes of entry proceeded the atmosphere in the control room was charged.  Each new bit of telemetry information confirming that this complex choreography was coming off as planned.  Once a safe touch down was confirmed, the room erupted in to applause, hugs, and tears.  This video captures the moment as we saw it live.   I tried to get a shot of the celebration but everyone was jumping around too much.  I finally got a shot of controllers watching in awe the downloaded images.

Here is the first high-res shot of Curiosity's wheel. We took a picture of our television broadcasting the NASA TV feed so its pretty fuzzy.  The previous shot had been the 64x64 thumbnail of this same image

This next high-res shot on the left is of the shadow of Curiosity on the Mars surface.  The dust covers are still on the camera lens. These were later popped off.

What an experience.  I anxiously look forward to the science results MSL will generated over the next couple of years.  Way to go NASA!

Monday 2012.08.06 - This XKCD cartoon summarizes what today is going to be like

XKCD 2012.08.06 - http://xkcd.com/1091

Today, NASA/JPL treated to some more detailed images. This first image is taken by the  High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  It shows the rover descending on the parachute several minutes before touch-down.

This next image is from the left rear hazard camera looking back towards the rim of Gale Crater.

This image is from the front hazard camera, dust cover off now. The rover is facing Mount Sharp,  about 6km distant, its main destination.

Solar Prominence Animation

This weekend, I created this animation from a series of frames captured 2 min apart from 22h00 to 23h30 UTC July 21, 2012.  Most of the very active sunspot regions have rotated out of view. I wonder what active section of the sun this corresponds to.

Here is a single frame of the animation.

And here is a link to YouTube with the animation sequence.

Images were taken with DMK41.AU02 camera, 3x Powermate, and Lunt LS60T/PS Hydrogen-Alpha telescope.

View of AR-1520 Sunspot

Between clouds, I had a peek at the sun this evening and got a nice shot of AR-1520 in a quiet state.  Far cry from the X1.4 class flare it released yesterday at 11h52 CDT according to news reports.  I will try to watch over the weekend weather permitting.

This image was taken at 19h25 CDT using DMK41.AU02 camera with 3x extender through a Lunt LS60T/PT Hydrogen-Alpha telescope

Ecoxotic Panorama Pro LED

This weekend, I replaced the lighting fixture on my 185g reef tank.  Previously,  I was using a Hamilton Cebu Sun fixture with three 250W 14k single-ended metal halide bulbs and four 72" T5 actinic fluorescent bulbs.  Main reasons for this replacement were to reduce electrical costs and generated heat and eliminate the cost and hassle of replacing bulbs every 6 months

Original MH/T5 fixture suspended from ceiling

MH and T5 ballasts needed to run lights

After much debate, I picked the Ecoxotic Panorama Pro fixture.  I obtained three 24" modules.  These have a mixture of pure blue modules (2) and 12k/blue modules (3).  To each panel I added a fourth 12k/blue module.   There is room in each panel to add 3 more modules if I purchase additional AC adapters.

The panels do not come with mounting hardware since several options are available.  I did not want to suspend my lights again so I ordered wall mounts.  These however, were intended to be mounted behind a tank flush with the wall.  My tank has a 7" space behind it.   To deal with this, I built a 1.5" thick wood frame from plywood to which I attached the three wall mount brackets.  This frame also gave me a place to tie down all of the messy wiring.  I mounted the 6 dimmer switches on the outer edge of the frame for easy access.

Wood frame acts as a "fake wall" to mount brackets

  In addition to mounting the lights to this "fake wall", I also only inserted the light panels part way onto the support arms.  I left 7" spacing between the back of the panels and the mounting bracket.  This allowed me to center the lights on the tank.

Once assembled, the whole unit slipped behind the tank onto the back lip of my tank stand.

Lighting assembly mounted to the back of the tank stand

From the front, you can see the LED panels are place 6" above the water surface.   I created a pair of L-shaped wooded trim pieces for the top rim of the tank.  To these I fastened a section of black plastic panel.  These lift off individually.  When in place, they completely hide the glare from LED fixture yet don't trap any heat in the tank. Since each panel is driven by two AC adapters, I can have each of these on a different timer so that I can turn on lights in the tank progressively.  In the photo below, note that each panel has only half the modules turned on, both blue and one 12k/blue. 

Panels are hidden behind decorative trim

The wall-mounts have a built-in device to allow the panel to rest in this 30 degree position.  This is very convenient for cleaning and accessing the tank.  Actually more convenient than the adjustable hanging system I was using on the previous fixture.

Cleaning position for the panels

This final photo shows the completed system with all lights turned on.  Though hard to make a comparison between these photos, to my eye, the new lights have significantly more blue in the spectrum and the coral colors "pop" much more.   I did a quick test with a Lux meter when I got the new lights.   I found that I was getting about 40% more light in the upper part of the tank but about 30% less light at the bottom of the tank.

Ecoxotic Panorama Pro - fully turned on.

It remains to be seen how the corals and nuisance algae will respond to the new lighting regime.

Update 2012.08.24 - The fixture is still really easy to work with and keep clean.  The added blue light makes coral colors stand out more, especially the fluorescent greens.  The corals are growing at about the same rate as before.  Cyanobacteria has not bloomed as it was doing with the aged VHO/MH combination I had before but it is not completely absent.  So far, I am still pleased with the change.

Update 2012.09.20 - I have now had two of the 24V 60W AC/DC adapters fail.  Ecoxotic was very easy to deal with; simply filled out an on-line return request and emailed receipt photo.

Update 2012.12.01 - I had put the remainder of the adapters on a "heat sink" and put a little fan across them.  No new failures.

Update 2013.03.20 - Over the past few weeks I have gotten failures on several dozen LED elements.  These mostly on the modules that are on for the longer photo-period so have had more total run-time.   Not sure what is going on because these, unlike the AC adapters,  are out in the open in a cool room with plenty of circulation around them.

You can see on these 6 modules the number of dark slots.  I measured a temperature of 106 F on the sides of the modules which are lit.  Ecoxotic specifies a required temperature of 131 F or less.

Update 2013.04.06 - I received and installed the replacement LED modules.  I also raised the lights from 6" to 8" above the water.  6" was the minimum height specified by Ecoxotic.  Temperatures on the modules when lit range from 89 °F to 109 °F.

Update 2013.05.05 - Two more modules of the original batch are failing,  these being from the shorter photo-period.  Ecoxotic has replaced these as well.

X1.1 Solar Flare in AR1515

Serendipity strikes again!  Yesterday evening, after getting home from work, I decided to check out the solar conditions and to look at the new sunspot complex just coming into view.   For reference, here is a NASA white-light image showing the position of various sunspots today.  The new complex is on the lower-left and AR1515, which has been very active recently, is on the lower-right.  Note the size of Earth in comparison!

I set up my Lunt LS60T/PS Hydrogen-Alpha telescope with a DMK41.AU02 camera and a 3x tele-extender.  There was lots of activity across the entire surface so I decided to make a high resolution mosaic image of the surface and the prominences.  

Near the beginning of my sequence, I obtained this image of AR1515 at 22h52 UTC.  Some activity in the region, but nothing spectacular.

AR1515 Sunspot - 22h52 UTC

After sequencing through about 20 frames, I went back to admire AR1515 again. To my amazement, it looked quite different.  After verifying that I had not inadvertently changed the exposure parameters,  I captured this image at 23h16 UTC.

AR1515 Sunspot - 23h16 UTC

Clearly a flare had erupted in the intervening 24 minutes.  I did not have enough experience to judge if this was a large or small event, but it was bigger than anything else I had seen in my telescope. 

Since the camera was saturated at this exposure, I reduced the exposure length by a few stops to see more detail.  I continued to capture frames at this exposure as the flared died down.  A few of these are shown in the sequence below.

AR1515 Sunspot - 23h17 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h21 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h23 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h27 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h33 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h35 UTC

AR1515 Sunspot -23h37 UTC

This was my first capture of an obvious flare in progress.  The next morning, I received a news bulletin on my iPhone application "3D Sun" indicating that a class X1.1 flare had occurred at 23h08 UTC in the AR1515 complex.  Right in the middle of taking the mosaic.

Solar Bulletin received on iPhone

This event has even made it onto a number of internet news sites as the biggest flare event of the summer season, though not nearly as large as the X5.4 event on March 6, 2012.  Never know what you are going to see when you look at the sun!

UPDATE  2012.07.08 - Completed the original mosaic image of solar disk and prominences.

Mosaic including flare image from 23h16 UTC