The Observers Blog

Flight Case

2011-07-22T20:28:00.001-05:00

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

Updated picture of my Imaging Setup

2010-09-25T17:36:00.000-05:00

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??

2010-09-19T18:10:00.001-05:00

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

2010-09-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

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”

2010-09-19T16:43:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-12T19:49:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-12T19:34:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-12T19:22:00.004-05:00

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

2008-05-13T19:16:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of my imaging setup

More Imaging from Deanlea Beach Observatory

2006-06-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-06-19T18:33:00.000-05:00

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 .

My First DSI/LX200R Images Send Shock Waves Through Astro Imaging World!!

2006-05-01T19:46:00.000-05:00

I didn't think they were that good but look at all what happened after the images were circulated.Ok don't panic, Paul didn't shave his head, I am exaggerating a little, but the fun you can have with MS Publisher.
...:-)

April 28, 2006: First Kind of Serious Attempt at Imaging with New 8" LX200R Scope at the CAO

2006-05-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

Well this past Friday I decided to go up to our club's observatory
(CAO) and try some imaging with my new scope. I figured this would be a good time due to the fact that 4 of our clubs better imagers would be there(great for assistance since I am just getting into Astrophotography) and also the weather prospects were very good.

Equipment I was using Meade 8" LX200R with a DSI and 6.3 focal reducer.

I set up my scope in the Alt-Az configuration to simplify things by not having to go through a polar alignment routine.
I planned to image M51 and M13 and started with M51.

I was saving the images just as jpegs since I didn't want to bother with processing yet.

My first try at M51 and a jet flew through the picture.
I tried another with this result, I am figuring that my exposure times are not long enough .

My third attempt the camera hit the fork and the telescope stopped tracking. Hence a picture not worth posting. ( actually most of my pictures are not worth posting)

Since M51 got to high in the sky for me to image in the Alt Az mode, I decided to give Jupiter a
try. I know I need to change the f ratio and add a barlow but since the scope was focused I thought I would take a shot.

So onward to M13, I let the camera stack about 50,15 second exposures. And here is what I got.I took another shot and decided to save every image as FITS so I can "Stretch"( new word I learned from the imaging crew that was present) the best images, and then stack them, and hopefully improve the image. I will post that one when its done, and if there is an improvement....don't hold your breath.

I just want to thank Deitmar, Steff, Joel and Paul who are some of the best imagers in our club for all their assistance and tips they gave me that night. By no means do my results have anything to do with their advice, just check out some of their excellent images at these web sites.

http://www.astrogarage.com/site/Default.aspx

http://www.backyardastronomer.com/

Well its a start and hopefully my images will improve with practice and time.

CAO in Infrared

2006-04-29T21:52:00.000-05:00

I took some pictures in Infrared at our club's observatory today.
Paul let me try on of his lenses and an infrared filter on my camera, and below are the results.

I shot them in full manual 5-8 second exposures , I just held the camera on the hand railing of the entrance deck.
The building you see is our Observatory with the roof closed.

This is a shot looking ~ South west.

Ok I know its not infrared and its not in focus but I got a chance to try another of Paul's lenses a 15mm fisheye , and it looks pretty cool.

March 29, 2006 Solar Eclipse: Libya

2006-04-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

My wife and I traveled to Libya to observe the total solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. We traveled with the Sky and Telescope/TravelQuest International "Mediterranean Voyage to Totality". The tour was a 13 day Mediterranean cruise. We left Genoa on March 22nd and had ports of calls in Naples, Syracuse, Alexandria, Tobruk Libya (Eclipse Sight), Tripoli, Malta, Salerno and back to Genoa on April 3rd.

Life on board the ship was very comfortable, with tours at the ports of call, and Astronomical lectures in the ships' theatre, plus other on ship activities, made the days before the big day(Eclipse) past by quickly.

Time was also spent on practicing imaging the sun before arriving in Tobruk as seen in the photo below left. This is one of my practice shots below right.

Eclipse Day

We arrived in Tobruk the night before and in the morning we started to queue up for the buses. The bus ride was about 1 1/2 hours to the sight and about 1 hour of it was through thick morning fog, which was making a few people on the bus very nervous, but with about 1/2 an hour to go on our drive the fog lifted and we were presented with pristine clear sky's for the event.

As you can see from the next photos observing space was "tight"

Next are photos of the eclipse that I took. Equipment was a 62mm refractor and a Canon 30D DSLR, I shot at 200 film speed and from 2nd contact I started at a shutter speed of 1/2500 of a second and worked my way down to 1/15 of a second. Remember this is my first time taking pictures of an eclipse, and I found out on the boat that I was making 3 big mistakes before I even started.

New equipment: I just purchased the camera 2 days before leaving
Missing equipment: I had no remote shutter release
Poor mounting: My tripod sucks!

Anyway here are some of my results:

Regardless I am very happy with my results for my 1st attempt at eclipse photography

And what is a trip if you don't mention the great people that you meet and traveled with? Above is a photo of M.E., and Dick, Myself and Elaine, Dolores and Vinny. Two great couples that we had the pleasure of dining and enjoying the eclipse with, you could not of asked for better people to travel with.

Well I think that's about raps it up for now. What a trip we had, great memories of the Eclipse, the cruise, tours and of the people that we met. What more could you ask for?

In closing I just want to thank all of the staff at TravelQuest for putting on a great tour and for the staff of Sky and Telescope for providing us travelers with some great Astronomy lectures.

And if anyone is thinking of doing a tour like this or something else astronomical related I would highly recommend TravelQuest. Visit them at http://www.tq-international.com/index.htm

Cheers

chas

New Observing Tradition?

2005-07-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

A member of my astronomy club(RASC Toronto Centre), has on every Halloween night (weather permitting) brought one of his telescopes out on to his driveway and gives trick or treaters who come to his house a look trough the telescope. I always thought this was a neat tradition and a good out reach activity.

Well I thought about doing my own kind of similar thing so I brought my PST (Personal Solar Telescope) to the beach at the cottage on the Canada Day long weekend, and it was a big hit.
I had 15 people look through it and they were all amazed at what they were looking at.
What really impressed me was that every one of them wanted to know if it was safe to look through the scope at the sun (I guess the message is getting out about looking at the sun without proper protection) so I reassured them that it was safe and looked through the scope myself first to align the sun and then let them look through it.

I think I will start bringing it to the beach more often now. And hopefully start a new observing tradition.

This is a picture of a flare I tried to take through the telescope by holding a digtal camera to the eyepiece.