New Pic (finally)

Here I am taking shots of Orion again w/ nothing more than a tripod. :)

I don't care as long as I'm out there doing new things and tonight was my first attempt with a digital SLR (new Canon t3).

10 second sub got me this shot - then I went to photoshop to do levels and add labels. It's not much, but at least I didn't leave the cap on this time :)

I took this in my front yard with streetlights all around and using a tiny (4 inches tall) tripod I was holding to keep steady. So with these humble beginnings I still had fun.

First Light with Stellarvue

Tonight I finally got a clear evening to try out my new mount / telescope setup. I struggled with alignment basically because the two star method wants to use stars nearer the horizon than I have access to. It's hard to do alignment when you can't see lots of stars in both directions.

Anyway - I had some success with doing a one star alignment and spent some time looking at some crowd pleasers. I started with Polaris (since I was doing polar alignment) and eventually looked at Orion (Betelgeuse and Orion's Nebula). Then once I had the alignment working tried Pleiades and it centered perfectly in my 40mm. Super tight alignment isn't possible the way I'm doing it, but I was reasonably happy with what I could see and the clarity of this scope is insane. Even though things aren't as bright, they are super sharp. Looking at the trapezium is fun because it resolves to huge spaces between the four stars rather than one blob.

I had to try the camera and wasn't all that surprised when I couldn't see anything at all. I'll work through the book once I get the new timer and hopefully start making progress.

In any case I'm glad to be out there again in the cold and my observing chair worked perfectly :)

Starting over

I just recently sold my XT10 and my Atlas Mount. I liked both of them, but they were pretty big and heavy which kept me from getting them out very often. I'm now trying to get started in Astro-photography. I've ordered a Canon EOS Rebel T3 (12.2 megapixel) DSLR and hopefully this will be a good camera to try Deep Sky imaging with. I'll be attempting to learn the camera with the 70mm refractor I bought to let Harrison use. It's nothing special and pretty light weight, but I think it'll make a decent starter for imaging.

Anyway - hopefully I'll soon have some pics to share - stay tuned.

Double Processing - Copernicus Crater and Saturn

So it turns out... AVIStack is supposed to do alignment faster (and better) than Registax, but the wavelet processing on Registax is better at bringing out detail. Here are some shots that have been processed both ways.

I used AVIStack to create the initial image and then Registax to bring out the details. I'm pretty proud of the results :)

Copernicus crater on the moon

Here's what I have so far - more shots to come, but this was fairly quick to get processed.

Copernicus is the large one in the bottom left.

Supermoon and Saturn

Last night was the culmination of a 1.5 year journey towards taking a picture of Saturn. The press was all atwitter about it being "Supermoon" night, so I felt obligated to try and get some shots of the moon as well. I did a composite of 13 different shots (300 stills each so 3900 total images) and aligned them this morning.


I'm pretty proud of the final shot and you can tell it's the real deal due to a chunk missing in the lower left corner :)


I thought it'd be neat to take a closeup of where we first set foot on the Moon.


Here is my first shot at Saturn - made up of 1500 stills stacked with Registax and tweaked with Photoshop.


Second attempt - the camera is set to Overexpose, but all other settings were defaults (then tweaking w/ photoshop again)

My equipment is the following:

• Orion XT 10 Classic Newtonian Refractor (10")
  
• Orion Atlas EQ-G (German Equatorial Mount)
  
• Orion Starshoot Solar Imager IV (camera) - basically a powerful webcam that's built to use in a focuser (instead of the eyepiece). The closest visual approximation I have is an EP around 6mm.
  
• Notebook computer running EQ-MOD
  
• Gamepad to control the scope from the eyepiece (atop a step ladder... man that mount is tall)
  

First light w/ new camera

So tonight I made two jumps in my learning curve for the new mount. :)

1. Use the PC to align and control the mount - Not only did I get the PC controlling it, but I plugged in the gamepad and used it to do the alignment and syncing. It took some getting used to, but I successfully got it aligned and it worked well.

2. Camera - as you can see from the pics, I've got a new camera. It's for planetary, but the moon looked pretty good as well :)

This shot is of Pythagoras and Babbage (both cool math/computer names) - mine is the top one and the bottom is my moon guide showing that those were the names.

Atlas EQ-G First Light

Tonight was the most successful GOTO session I've ever had. Many things contributed to it, but I'd like to list the pitfalls I've experienced in the past.

• Power problems - Batteries suck. Less than stellar (painful pun) power sucks from non-standard outlets. Tonight I had an extension cord plugged into a bona fide Orion power supply and this thing didn't miss a beat. With the ETX 90 I'd tried before it would randomly reboot, etc and it looks like it had to do w/ the crappy power I was feeding it.
  
• Alignment pain and suffering - people who are in the hobby don't remember how hard it is to find Deneb. Yes, I know it's pretty danged easy, but to the newbie it might as well be in a different language. Newbies get GOTO scopes so they can find things easily, but the first problem they run into is finding the right stars to do a decent alignment. This mount is by far the best one I've ever used in this regard. I did a 3 star alignment and skipped to the visible ones (Sirius, Deneb, Capella) and it worked the first time!!! Not only did it align well, but with decent power I went 3.5 hours on one alignment. I've never experienced the joy of finding things effortlessly since I've been star-hopping (sometimes successfully) even by using my telrad.
  
• Lack of good eyepieces for alignment - I recently acquired a Meade 9mm illuminated reticle eyepiece specifically made for drift alignment. When you align w/ that one (133x magnification) you are seriously pointing at something. None of this 20mm out of the box pain for me :)
  

Anyway - I'm sure next time I'll fight something and fuss about it, but for now I'm happy with my investment. Sure it's heavy and you have to take a class to get it all put together and balanced, but once it's together and pointed it's a monster.

M81 and M82 in one EP - I've tried to starhop to these plenty of times and tonight was the first time I've seen them on my own. It almost felt like cheating to punch them in and just let the scope do the work. They were beautifully framed in my 40mm and I spent quite a while showing them to my wife and son. The best part was... after I'd seen them I looked at other things and when they came outside to check it out I just hit the button and showed them so they could go back inside (too cold) and go to bed. Convenience is not something to laugh at ;) when showing your significant other.

Anyway - M44 in Cancer (beehive cluster) was particularly nice in the 40mm as well. It's such a joy to sit and look w/o constantly moving the scope. I didn't realize how much I didn't like that part, but I'm probably hooked now :)

Sirius was brilliant as a blue diamond with huge diffraction spikes

M41 was nice (near it)

M46 and 47 weren't very bright due to light pollution and I couldn't see M101 at all, so I guess dark sky rules all.

All in all it was a very successful night and I am completely pleased with my 80lb behemoth of a mount. Now if only I had a nicer storage building or extra room so I wouldn't have to step over and around constantly...

Club star party

Back from Eustace, TX. Beat down from first members only star party. Had a good time and learned some things too. : )

There were three scopes present (and three members coincidentally).

Me - Orion 10 inch Dobsonian

Paul - Celestron C8

Don - Celestron 9.25 (the only Goto)

We had a good time visiting with Don's friends and neighbors that were there and once it got dark had a variety of targets to enjoy and show off.

Fingernail moon - almost invisible, but at the horizon you could see a sliver of the moon.
Jupiter
Pleiades Cluster
Hyades Cluster
M1 (Crab Nebula) in Taurus
Orions Nebula M42
Sirius (the dog star) - bright blue diamond in the sky. I could see diffraction spikes that really made it look fine.
Andromeda Galaxy
Clusters M67 and M44 in Cancer
Algieba in Leo - yellow and green double star (very pretty)
M81 and M82 in the same field of view
Saturn and Titan

Observing again

I've got my super nice mount, but no AC Adapter. I've got gear on the way, but it was clear tonight and not too cold. It's been since December w/o any observing and I wanted to just spend some time under the stars.

This image shows the Hyades (lower left) and Pleiads (upper right) both in Taurus. I spent some time admiring the Hyades and enjoying the view through the 70mm refractor. I don't normally like observing with anything less than my 10", but this was easy to grab and I didn't anticipate spending long out there (an hour at the most). Using a 40mm EP to get a wide view was optimum.

We often spend so much time hunting faint fuzzies that we forget how beautiful individual stars are. Sirius is a blue diamond floating in the sky that just gets brighter and brighter the longer you look at it. Below I looked at M41 and the stars in it were pin-prick sharp.

Regulus in Leo was another very nice star to observe tonight. I enjoyed myself and for a school night that's about as much as I can ask for. I'm sure my camera and AC adapter will herald the coming clouds. Hope not, since I've got a star party to attend Saturday. I promise not to bring any new equipment as long as I can go and enjoy the sky.

Snow, Rain, Clouds and a new mount

So I'm home from Louisiana with my newly acquired mount. It's an Atlas EQ-G and heavy enough to get the job done. I'm embarrassed to say that I've not been able to find an extra $40 to get the power adapter, so it's essentially an office statue extolling the virtues of engineering and astronomy. I had some success getting it connected to my shabby laptop and if I can get the power situation worked out I'll be in good shape to get some guidance out of it.



The seller had a few other items that I ended up needing and one was an 8mm Orion Stratus wide field eyepiece. I have to say it's pretty amazing to see Orion's Nebula using an EP like that. You have some difficulty seeing everything it has to offer without moving your eye around. It's truly a window into space :) I looked at the Nebula, Mizar (in the Big Dipper) and just casually looked around at various stars. I've not had much ambition lately, but getting new equipment and waiting the week for the clouds to blow off has made me more patient somehow.



If I had the ca$h to get the power adapter I might not be so patient :)

Resolve... to save

So I've been struggling with choices. I've sold (via the forums on cloudynights.net) several pieces of equipment and amassed a little over $1000 towards my ultimate goal of having an imaging setup. Playing w/ the DSI 2 (last post) has given me a taste of what imaging would be like and I like it (for the most part). The learning curve is steep to say the least, but I think with the right equipment I'll be able to get it figured out.

I spent a bunch of time considering smaller mounts and trying to talk myself into compromising (like the V6 instead of the Hemi) and it looks like this time I'm going all in and getting the big one. I'm looking at the Orion Atlas Goto Mount and even though I have to save up to get it I'm confident it'll be the last mount I need for a long, long time. It's 76 lbs fully assembled, so it's a beast and from the online reviews looks to be awesome for photography.

The other items I'll need are as follows:

- Deep Sky Imager (probably one of the PRO versions that has a mono camera and uses filters on a slide or wheel)
- Electronic Focuser (so I can get it aligned and completely control it remotely)
- Bahtinov Mask (a nice one instead of my cardboard one so I can get the focus nailed)
- Possibly a nicer focuser (I'm using the stock Crayford single speed that came with the scope and I bet a feather touch or two speed would be nice)
- Guide scope (I might repurpose the little 70mm we have for this job w/ some piggyback rings and a small imager)

So... probably $1000 more beyond the mount and I'll have a respectable imager, but it looks like between now and then I can play around with my big scope and maybe grab a Planetary Imager ($99) to do some small stuff with.

Either way I'm on the road to full on astrophotography and I'm trying not to buy any throwaway items. :)

* * * (Orion's Belt)

I did pull the big black 10" out last night and right before the clouds set in got some looking at Orion's Nebula. I forget how badass that scope is until I whip it out (uncollimated even) and it shines. I'm glad to have the aperture (and to be working out regularly so I can carry it around).

First attempt at photography

First try at imaging - ETX 90 with Meade DSI II


Tycho (sorry about the dust circles, but that's part of the learning curve).


First attempt at Orion's Nebula - At first I wasn't too impressed, but below is after I used photoshop to tweak the levels down a bit :)