Clouds thinning out as the scope waits!
A hot August night!
Scopes...
Clouds thinning out as the scope waits!
A web browser's colors don't do justice to the intense yellow color in some of the clouds...
I've been told that's Larry Mitchell's 36" Obsession scope behind mine. Plus, murky skies right after sunset.
Things cleared up later in the evening. You can see light pollution from Houston to the east, maybe 30 degrees up or so?
The HAS site has very good skies to the South and I always try to shoot something in the deep south while I'm there. Check the position of the scope; my results indicated I was shooting too close to the horizon 8-(
Above: Various shots from the HAS site near Columbus night of 8/11/2007. Above all Nikon D200 ISO 500, 4 minutes, 18-200 VR zoom lens at 18mm f4.5
Prime Focus (to follow): x4min = minutes exposure at 800 ISO. Temps were around 79 F most this night, which is a major disadvantage when using my uncooled DSLR. Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), ISO , Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor), and Astro-Physics AP 900GTO mount.
NGC-7380
M16 Eagle Nebula (22 more frames)
All images: Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor) with the TAK flattener, guided with SBIG STV, Astro-Physics AP 900GTO mount. My current image processing workflow is here.
Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page....
Copyright © 2007 Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved.
Contact and Image Use Information
Notes:
NGC7380 DSLR images
http://eder.csillagaszat.hu/deepsky/350D/ngc7380/ngc7380_eder_en.htm
I have 80 minutes on this next but it's worth more, looks like a paw
M8-Area-NGC6559, IC4685, B303 Nebula - Prime Focus Photos
Notes Sat 11th
Camera times are 1 hour earlier than actual. 4:17 Camera Time is = 5:17 really
81 when darks started 9:09 p.m.
11:33 turned on PEM (play), but turned off as it looked worse
79 deg around 11ish
11:44 pretty big y erros x1.4 y 1.9 avg, spikes in y -2 and -3
11:55 messed with tracking & restart
12:10 averaging 3 and looks worse, x2.0 and y2.7
79 all night, last M16 not good focus, back in cephus did refocus tracking .5 .5
5:00 a.m. tracking avg .4 to .8
5:13 unscrewing finder and messing with heat strips = bad guiding camera time 4:17
2" in blue bag not seem to be working
