Flight Case

The flight cases that I making for my mount are taking shape

Updated picture of my Imaging Setup

Here are a couple of better pictures of my current imaging setup.

Scope: Maxvision 127mm f7.5 APO

Mount: EQ6pro
Camera: QSI 532WSG

Guide Camera: Loadstar

Not Beer Drinkers??



No beer for the TC??



Apparently the members of my astronomy club are not beer drinkers or they fail to pick up the Chill magazine (official magazine of the Beer Store) while at the beer store. Because if they would have picked up the September 2010 issue they would have seen a two page article titled “Backyard Astronomy” on pages 20 -21, a simple article on what you can see from your backyard so to speak. And no one in my club has mentioned it...  

The author of the article even contacted Dr. Doug Welch (the Sky Quality Meter Guy) who is quoted for a couple of things in the article; by the way Dr. Welch will be speaking at the David Dunlap Observatory on September 25^th. I am wondering if Doug got any free beer...



There are a few errors (None from Doug)....the Perseid meteor shower is not cause by the comet Perseid it is caused by the debris left from the comet   Swift-Tuttle and the picture of Constellation Orion what they are trying to call Orion’s belt is wrong.

But hey what the hell if this article get a few more people interested in the night sky good for them...hopefully next time they will contact our club for some information and maybe we will get some free beer...

Here is a link to the online September 2010 edition go to page 20-21 http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?m=3267&l=1

And as you can guess the reason that I saw the issue....I was in the beer store getting beer...

David Dunlap Observatory

Last night I helped out at the David Dunlap Observatory,  and to my surprise I had to speak about the telescope to the first group...I managed...but I have a lot of work to do on my public speaking skills...

Asus Netbook “Ford Tough”

I forgot to mention that while I was at the cottage and doing some observing one of my neighbours came over  and he accidently knocked my Asus Netbook off the porch railing and it tumbled about one metre to the ground, I ran over and picked it up the system seemed locked and then the screen went blank and I thought it was done.....surprisingly an few moments later it started to reboot and has worked fine ever since, a bit of hanger rash, and I had to snap the monitor cover closed.  ......my fault I should have never left the unit on the porch railing...

Moon and Venus at Sunset

Here is a picture of the moon and Venus just after sunset on September 10th 2010.

Moon is at the left middle and Venus to the upper right. Knowing were Venus was in relation to the Moon it was quite easy to find it in day light just before sunset.

Sunset at Cottage

Sunset has always being on of my farvoite things at the cottage. Here is a shot of sunset on September 10th 2010.

Permanent Telescope at Cottage

Its being quite awhile since I have posted here and I have decided to give this a whirl again
I decided to bring my 12" LightBridge up to the cottage and leave it there, this way I believe I will use it more often. Also I have been getting pissed off at all the times I didn't have it up there and the sky's were clear. Now all I have to do is to bring up an eyepiece case and figure out away to load the scope and all the necessary gear onto my "beach" wagon for transportation to the beach so I can get the low southern objects.

My Imaging Setup

Here is a picture of my imaging setup

More Imaging from Deanlea Beach Observatory

Well I tried some more imaging on June 25th while at the cottage.

And I think one of my better shots was of M27, I just let the camera and software do its thing and here is the unprocessed result.

I tried again for M51 and M13 but with lackluster results so they are not worth showing.

Imaging Attempt June 17th 2006

Location- Cottage

Above is a result of an imaging attempt at M57

Equipment 8"LX200R F 6.3 Meade DSI Camera, in alt Az mode approximately 52 images @ 15 seconds.

Here is an attempt at M51 same equipment as above but with longer exposures.

I am still getting a bit of feild rotation, so I think I sould be trying to select stars at a greatter distance on the image for the software to stop rotation better, or I should start trying to image in polar alignment. Also I think I should start saving all the images as fitts so I can process each picture before stacking. I am still using the DSI sofware to stack and save the images as jpegs .