Category Archives: Images

Images, Observation Log

Moon Jan 17, 2006

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With the temperature around 61º F, I went tonight just after midnight to grab a couple shots of the moon. Once again I am really disappointed with the results. The camera continues to bounce slightly when the shutter is opened… perhaps a little more weight added to the other end. The photos themselves seem OK but they are not sharp. They say practice makes perfect (who are “they” anyway?).

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Weather permitting I hope to catch a glimpse of the New Horizons probe when it launches. If nothing goes wrong that should be about 1:24 PM EST.

Eqiupment, Images, Observation Log

Better Mount, Better Moon

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I was able to get out tonight and get a few shots of the Moon before a hazy cloud layer streamed in. The temperature was 63º F with 88% humidity so a felt a bit warmer then Monday night’s 64º. Of course my son in his “PJs” was at the back door “I need to come out… I NEED to see the Moon!”

I cobbled together a temporary counterweight setup as I was getting SERIOUSLY worried about stripping the DEC axis of my telescope mount. The last two times I had the scope out with the Canon EOS 300D attached at prime focus I was seriously torquing the DEC clamp in order to hold the telescope in position… and then only barely. The camera assembly with the added right angle viewfinder adds 2.08 lbs to that end of the scope so it wants to pull the OTA back.

During the summer period — when the viewing here is at it’s worst and the jungle bugs are biting — I researched and ordered 2 of these counterweight sets from Astro Engineering (I mainly wanted the weights and the OTA screws and not the eyepiece mount) with the expectation of making something more permanent before this winter’s clearer skies arrived… I did not. So tonight I went into the garage and within 15 minutes emerged with these:





Clamped onto the dew shield they total 1.57 lbs. The telescope now holds in perfect balance with the DEC lock totally loosened. It will now pivot to any altitude and hold perfect balance without stressing the DEC lock in ANY way. I’m a happy camper! I will at some point fashion the design I originally had in mind which would allow me to easily add and/or remove weights in the dark. However in the interim, this works like a charm.





In turn the whole setup is now also stable against the camera’s shutter action, although I did STILL notice some wobble that needs to be addressed if I’m going to do exposures longer than fractions of a second. 🙁 But anyways as I started to say at the top of this post I was able to get a few shots before the clouds rolled in and nearly ALL of them came out better then the other evening. I’m still not quite “there” yet but I’m FAR more satisfied with the results I got against the effort I put in tonight.

While I’m here I thought I would point you all to this post on Space Photos that shows a time-lapse sequence of Venus taken over many months as it swings around to pass between us and the Sun. I get a weird “inspirational-our-place-in-the-cosmos” kinda feeling watching it. It’s VERY cool!

Images, Observation Log

First Session of 2006

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I took the scope out tonight in manual mode — with the EOS300 Digital Rebel mounted at prime focus — to take some shots of the waxing gibbous Moon. The illumination was at about 84% so it was bright and the skies were about as good as they get. It was a chilly 64º F! 🙂

I was once again a little disappointed with the shots I got. I took a number of different exposures as usual and although some of them came out “OK” I really didn’t capture it. It always seems like I forget something until I get back in the house with everything put away. Tonight, in addition to the manual exposure settings I had wanted to take some shots at full auto… the Moon nearly filled the frame so the camera would have probably handled the decisions better then I. Here was the best of the lot.

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The upside to tonight’s excursion was that I had my 3 year old son out with me and he got his first look through the telescope. He was awfully impressed! You may be asking “How impressed can a 3 year old be with a telescope view?” Well, to kind of put things in perspective, “Moon” was one of the first words he learned after the requisite “Mama” and “D” (don’t ask me, that’s what he called me) and it was one of the first objects he identified for us “out of the blue” by pointing. He is also aware of what a telescope does, “it makes things look bigger” (thank you Dora).

I lifted him up to peer at the Moon through the 40mm eyepiece, “OOHHHH!! The Moon Daddy… the Moon!” He then seemed to be inventing adjectives to describe it, “It’s so ??????, it’s VERY ??????.” Then he’d look up to the sky, back to the eyepiece, back to the sky again as if to verify his “findings” 😉 We then swung around to Saturn and I switched to the 9.7mm eyepiece. He evidently is “aware” of Saturn as well as he exclaimed “Y’ook Daddy, it’s the planet with the Goldie Ring!”

The final clue that he enjoyed himself came after we’d gone inside and put everything away. Every 5 minutes for the next half hour he would say “S’ank you Daddy I had a very good time.” My wife and I were floored! He’s NEVER said ANYTHING like that before. He couldn’t stop himself. He even had to repeatedly check to see if I had a good time too. “Did YOU have a good time Daddy? I had a good time.” It was too cute!

Seeing the light of the Moon illuminate his pupil the first time at the eyepiece… listening to him fumble with his limited vocabulary trying to express himself… realizing that he is FAR more aware than he typically lets on. It was truly an unforgettable experience.

Eqiupment, Images, Observation Log

Tuesday Two-fer

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Well at long last the sky has cleared up and the haze has lifted. The temperature is 47º F (which is so cold for us here that I’m tempted to express it in Kelvin… but anyway) and I’d say the seeing is about as good as it ever gets.

I took the scope out on Christmas day and pointed it at a distant terrestrial object (a tree) in order to train the drives but clearly I did something wrong. I went out tonight and began the alignment procedure and the telescope asked me to verify it was pointing at Sirius — the first “alignment star” it chose — not even close. Back to the old drawing board I guess. I didn’t need Autostar to find something like Saturn so I set up for imaging anyway. Here is the result of my labor.

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Yes, not the prettiest but I consider it practice for the Jan 27th opposition. You can clearly see the Cassini Division and some banding in the atmosphere (South Equatorial Belt). Also you can note the sliver of a shadow the planet is casting on the left hand side of the rings behind it. At the eyepiece there wasn’t as much color as captured here, but there was far more crispness and detail in the ring system. There has got to be a better way to do this.

Earlier in the evening just after sunset, I pulled the scope out in manual mode with the Canon EOS 300D at prime focus. I took a number of shots of Venus at varying exposures, 1/200 sec came out the best which incidentally was the first one I took.

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I found that with any longer exposures, shutter-induced vibration blurred the image as the scope (with the camera attached) was sorely out of balance. I need to quit talking about making a counter-weight for this configuration and just do it! I have all the freakin’ parts for crying out loud.

Lastly, for Christmas Santa left me a Canon Angle Finder C, a Canon Timer Remote Controller TC-80N3for me Digital Rebel (300D), and the Orion Deluxe Stargazer’s Filter Set for the telescope. Hopefully I’ll get to give all these items a good workout soon!

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday!