Any amateur astronomers post here?

[pylon]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

That shop has the 4SE model of that same one for $550 (which is currently less than half of the 8SE). As a complete noob I figure that would probably do the trick.

The thing takes batteries -- eight of them, and that seems like a hassle. I see you bought the Power Tank thing but I don't know if I'd need that. Can you plug this rig into a regular old extension cord instead of running on batteries or the Power Tank?

Visit All-Star scopes, and check them all out for yourself, hes got about 25 models on display. 4SE has a built in wedge which is nice, but all my research led me to wait a couple more months and get the 8". Ken at All Star says his number one scope is the 8" as it is kinda of the jack of all trades. Exceptional for planetary stuff, and just enough for deep sky. I am going to eventually get the CG-5 German equatorial mount once I figure out the whole photography bit, but I couldn't express how happy I am with what I bought. As far as batteries, just buy the power tank, its about 100 bucks and will save you tons on batteries, as they will eat through them fast.

[troutman]

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/stardome/default.aspx

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/

Giant Jupiter returns to view in the morning sky low above the southeast horizon, and gets more conspicuous each morning. The planet spans 33" this week and grows to 47" by the time it reaches opposition in July. The telescopic view of Jupiter will improve markedly as it climbs higher in the coming months, but you can still practice observing this planet and training your eye to see detail.

http://www.nightskyinfo.com/maps_ima...upiter_map.htm

[SinceDay1]

Jupiter is pretty close to the sun right now but you can still catch a glimpse of it low on the western horizon right at dusk. Had a peak at Stellarium and it looks like Jupiter is going to be a daytime object all spring. It should be visible in the late evenings again by mid September. I guess if you're really keen, you might be able to see it rising after 2 am by mid June.

[SinceDay1]

Heads up for any astronomy geeks, there will be a couple of interesting things to look at this weekend. On Saturday evening, a 5 day old moon will be very close to the Pleiades. Should look pretty cool through a pair of binoculars.

Saturn will be in opposition on Mar 21. It will be at it's biggest and brightest as it's at it's closest point to Earth all year. Worth a look if you access to a telescope. It will be visible all night, rising in the east at sunset and setting in the west at dawn. Best time for looking will be 1:45 am as it will be directly south and at it's highest point in the sky.

[metal_geek]

Man.. just after I leave Calgary I find out other CP's are members of the RASC as well.. They are great there...

I've been doing astrophotography for a while with an SLR.. Alot of work to get figured out, but once you do it's awsome..

When I was in calgary I was in the Auburn Bay area and from my back yard I took this pic of Andromeda.. I labled it, and the resolution of this PIC is terrible but you get idea.. the full resolution one is much nicer



I took that with a Digital SLR, and a Nikkor lens at 200mm.. Using my telescope mount that tracks across the sky so it's not a star trail picture. I had the mount hidden in the shadow of my fence so the cursed street light didn't shine directly on it

I often use a camera lens vs my 4" ED refractor cause my telescope is F9 and the lens is f2.4... I use a heq5 mount with EQMOD and a computer to drive it. I use a 4" short tube orion and a modified SC900 web cam to guild it. I even take pics with the web cam once in a while for fun.. Took this one of the ring nebula one night with the webcam..



After we moved, this is the new dark sky i've got outside my back door, you can see the corner of one of my sheds in the picture.. I took this picture with my camera sitting on a piece of wood on the ground..That't the Milky Way, not clouds....



You can do some pretty good astrophotograpy right in your back yard in calgary if you want. Once you get your tracking and guiding figured out you can process out alot of light polution..

Here are a few more I took from my back yard. Most planetary stuff is done using video and CCD's but I took this one of saturn using my SLR, trying to show someone what Saturn looked like through a telescope.



Even if you you want to start out small and not have to worry about light polution in calgary, the moon is always a great target.



Feel free to ask me anything about astrophotograpy in the city and I'll be happy to tell you what I've learned.. mostly learned the hard way...

[3 Justin 3]

Now you have me all excited for my Astronomy class. I don't have it until next year though.

[Redliner]

^^^

Those photos are awesome. I messed around with a telescope my parents had when I was a kid, but it was nowhere near as good as these ones. This thread makes me want to get into this now - as if I didn't have enough hobbies already.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by metal_geek

Man.. just after I leave Calgary I find out other CP's are members of the RASC as well.. They are great there...

I've been doing astrophotography for a while with an SLR.. Alot of work to get figured out, but once you do it's awsome..

When I was in calgary I was in the Auburn Bay area and from my back yard I took this pic of Andromeda.. I labled it, and the resolution of this PIC is terrible but you get idea.. the full resolution one is much nicer



I took that with a Digital SLR, and a Nikkor lens at 200mm.. Using my telescope mount that tracks across the sky so it's not a star trail picture. I had the mount hidden in the shadow of my fence so the cursed street light didn't shine directly on it

I often use a camera lens vs my 4" ED refractor cause my telescope is F9 and the lens is f2.4... I use a heq5 mount with EQMOD and a computer to drive it. I use a 4" short tube orion and a modified SC900 web cam to guild it. I even take pics with the web cam once in a while for fun.. Took this one of the ring nebula one night with the webcam..



After we moved, this is the new dark sky i've got outside my back door, you can see the corner of one of my sheds in the picture.. I took this picture with my camera sitting on a piece of wood on the ground..That't the Milky Way, not clouds....



You can do some pretty good astrophotograpy right in your back yard in calgary if you want. Once you get your tracking and guiding figured out you can process out alot of light polution..

Here are a few more I took from my back yard. Most planetary stuff is done using video and CCD's but I took this one of saturn using my SLR, trying to show someone what Saturn looked like through a telescope.



Even if you you want to start out small and not have to worry about light polution in calgary, the moon is always a great target.



Feel free to ask me anything about astrophotograpy in the city and I'll be happy to tell you what I've learned.. mostly learned the hard way...

Awesome !!

[Thor]

I'm picking this hobby up again when I'm back in Iceland, no way I'm not abusing their clear skies.

[photon]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...ation-tonight/

Something to watch tonight if you are up late/early!

[pylon]

Okay people. I finally took my first astrophotos. Not the best quality, but I am pretty satisfied for a first attempt. This is a picture I took of Jupiter using the Neximage CCD camera. Basically a modified Phiilips webcam optimized for astrophotography. It was a tedious process to get Jupiter in the field of view, as the CCD camera it narrows it quite a bit, I would estimate about 80%. So it was a lot of trial, error and scope realignment to get it to track long enough to keep it on my laptop screen without wandering away. I can definitely see the merits of a German Equatorial mount, and I will be adding one very soon. Anyway, this is a stack of 30 seconds of frames, at 5 FPS. I am pretty sure you can see the GRS just on the lower right. Focusing was a bitch, as I had to do it manually by turning the knob, so a motor focuser is in the cards as well, as it allows for ultra fine adjustments.




I will add the actual movie file I used fonce I load it to youtube.