Toyota RAV4 Side Mirror Wiring

I replaced my passenger side mirror on my 2009 Toyota RAV4 with the Kool-Vue replacement model (power, heated, turn signal).  There are some very good tutorials on how to do this.  I used one on YouTube by Mike Wilza: link.  He gives a quick and easy to follow demonstration on what to do.  However, my problem arose when the new wiring clip did not match the original clip.  After doing some research particularly on RAV4World.com, I discovered there were two RAV4 manufacturing plants, one in Japan and the other in Canada.  The mirror I was sent was the one from Japan while my RAV4 was from Canada. 

So rather than send it back as some suggested, I replaced the clip on the new mirror so it would work. Fortunately others have done this, unfortunately not with the heated model so I had to guess.  The following are the wiring connections I used:

Toyota:               Kool-Vue
green:                  red
blue:                    brown
yellow:                purple
white:                  white
pink:                   pink
black:                  black
black (white dot): black (writing)

It works well, however, one of the connections is reversed. When I want the mirror to point away from me, it points towards me and visa versa. The up-down works normal as does the turn signal.

I like this tiny anomaly so I am not taking anything apart again...

Attached is a photo of the wiring of the new mirror to the original clip. 

Astronomy Night at Boothe Park

The newly refurbished 16'' f/15 telescope at the Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society (BMAS) Observatory in Boothe Memorial Park is operational (thanks George).  At our regular meeting on Friday November 20, 2015 we finally had a good first light with all the equipment working as planned.  Meetings are open to the public and are from 8:00 - 10:00 pm the 1st and 3rd Friday's of each month.

Below are some images of the moon through the scope that I took and a link to a video survey that Elliott Severn shot.  The images of the Orion Nebula were taken through my Orion ED80.  There was nothing fancy about it I just had few minutes and decided to take a 30 second unguided image.

Link to the video survey by Elliott: video survey

Moon Images

Location: BMAS Observatory, Stratford, CT

Date/Time: 11/20/15 10:53 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Telescope: 16 inch Reflector Telescope

Mount: Huge Sturdy Dinosaur (Unk)

Autoguiding: none
Focal Length: 6000mm

f/15

Exposure: 250s 

ISO: 800

Post Processing: none

M42 - Orion Nebula

Location:  BMAS Observatory, Stratford, CT

Date/Time: 11/20/15 10:44 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount

Autoguiding: none
Focal Length: 600mm

f/7.5

Exposure: 30s 

ISO: 800

Post Processing: PS

The Thermite Reaction in slow motion!

The Thermite Reaction in slow motion!  See molten iron fall from the reaction vessel (flower pot)! An initial reaction of sucrose (C12H22O11) + potassium chlorate (KNO3) + a couple drops of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is used to initiate the more violent thermite reaction in which the reactants, iron III oxide (Fe2O3) + aluminum (Al), produce iron (Fe) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3). 

The person in the hold my IPAD is Mike Sirowich (The Physics Teacher at Seymour High School) who was busy recording the demonstration with his new thermal imagining camera (Video 2).

Video 1 - Slow Motion

Video 2 - Recorded with the Thermal Imager

New Images for the Messier Quest

Testing out a new autoguider and obtaining new shots for my quest of imaging all 110 Messier objects with an ED80. My old autoguider was the Orion G3 Color Imaging camera. This did work but it took a while to go through the alignment process in PHD guiding and since I never used it for general imaging, I decided to sell that on Ebay and get a monochrome camera that was dedicated as an autoguider. I chose the QHY-5L-II-M, which is equivalent to the Orion Starshoot Autoguider Pro only less expensive. This camera aligns much quicker than the G3 ever did and I can use it for solar system objects and star clusters.

M15 and M52 were both visible from my front lawn for few hours the other night and I was able to get some pretty decent shots, although I had to set up a screen to block my new neighbors three flood lights that they installed. A bonus with M52 was the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) which I was not sure I would get with my Orion ED80. Since it came out better than I expected, I will revisit the Bubble sometime in the future.

M15 - Globular Cluster (33,600 LY, 100,000 stars)


M15 - Globular Cluster
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 11/3/15 9:27 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Exposure: 9-60s, 9-90s (total exposure, 22.5 min)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: DSS, PS, Picasa3 (crop)

M52 - Open Cluster (~5,000 LY, ~193 stars)


M52 - Open Cluster
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 11/3/15 10:44 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Exposure: 30-90s (total exposure, 45 min)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: DSS, PS, Picasa3 (crop)

NGC 7635 - Bubble Nebula (7,100-11,000 LY, emission nebula)


NGC 7635 - Bubble Nebula
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 11/3/15 10:44 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Exposure: 30-90s (total exposure, 45 min)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: DSS, PS, Picasa3 (crop)