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 :)

Geminids

Tonight was my first bona fide meteor shower. I don't know that I'd call it a shower as much as a trickle since I only saw about 13 spread out longer than 3 or 4 minutes each. I have a feeling the light pollution near my house was the main culprit, so I'm not overly downtrodden. I'd have liked to see fireballs streaking through the sky, but I saw 13 of them and that's worth mentioning. It doesn't help that it's midnight on a school night and 36° F outside. Sitting on a fold out sunbathing chair trying to stay warm isn't what I would call fun, but it was nice listening to the rustle of leaves and watching Orion climb in the night sky. It's enjoyable to revisit constellations I first learned a year ago and see how different they look now that I've been paying closer attention.

First Star Party

Tonight Harrison and I are heading to Lindale to participate in our first star party. It's only a couple of hours and we're only taking his scope (70mm refractor), but I'm looking forward to seeing how the Astro Society of East Texas conducts themselves. So far they seem like a great bunch of folks and I'm mostly just hoping to listen and learn. Once I get more comfortable w/ them I'll bring out the big scope, but it's too much of a hassle on top of me not really knowing what to expect out there.

New Telescope

My brother James basically gave me his astronomy stuff for super cheap, so now I'm the owner of a Meade ETX 90 w/ a nice eyepiece kit (much more complete than what I had). It's sad in a way because he gave me all of it, but that also means he can upgrade next time across the board. In any case here's what I'm learning so far.

My first scope was a Goto - this is a Goto. They have their advantages and disadvantages...

Alignment still eludes me, but I'm getting closer. Getting it polar aligned the other night worked pretty well and it sure was nice having Jupiter stay in the view rather than sneak out.

Batteries suck - soon as I can afford it I'm getting an AC adapter so I can stop worrying about messing with them. I'm always worried that I'll run out of juice and be dead in the water.

All in all the optics are really nice, but I do notice some strangeness near the edges that isn't apparent in my 10"

The eyepieces (Meade 4000 series) are much nicer than I realized and I need to back off on the TV's and enjoy these. The truth is... I can't see the difference being such a beginner, so why complain?

Still haven't gotten to the observe stage w/ this scope - still learning it's curve.

Anyway - I'm glad to have it, but I need some patience while I work out the technique for using it effectively. Then I'll work on taking some pics :)