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[patrickm]

Think I'm gonna set up at Horner this eve. I have a new SLR adapter to try out and would like a darker environment to do that than Adler, where visitors would preclude photography anyway. I will be there in spirit.

If anybody wants to join, I'll be at the hill.

Attachments:

[patrickm]

I tried to get the word out about Astro Joe's Adler session along with mine up north. Clearly, with 90 visitors at Adler, I did a better job for Joe than for CA North. In spite of getting the word out, I had a fun solo night. The gang at Adler had 95 visitors. Me: 1, but that's cool, actually.

I got to Horner about 7:30 and, much to my delight, I found a dark spot right here in the middle of town! Crazy! Many of the park's street lights were sporting burned out bulbs! THANKS Chicago Park District budget cuts! Rarely in Chicago is the Moon the brightest light! The Horner hill was easily the darkest spot I have found in the city, including the CA Undisclosed Location #1. While there is less of a dome there toward the lake, there were still street lights hanging about. Last night at Horner, almost none. Once the distant tennis court lights kicked off after 11, it was glorious. I know it won't last, but for now it's pretty cool.



I set up on top of the hill and by the time I was ready, Jupiter had already peeked over the top of the trees along the Chicago River. I have been getting the astrophotography bug for a while now, but have been largely successful in fending it off until last week. Instead of a standard t-ring, I found this prime focus adapter from TelescopeAdapters.com that seems to work great and is supposed to allow a wider aperture for the chip. It took me a while to get the hang of it, if indeed I have. It was immediately obvious that Jupiter was too low for any good imaging to take place, but the first time that it appeared on the LCD screen I am sure that I let out an audible gasp.

I switched over to the Moon and started imaging, playing with shutter speed and aperture trying to find the right combination by hit and miss. Turns out, the Moon is REALLY bright! Who knew? Another highlight was seeing a haphazard shot of M57 show up on the LCD. Wow.

After a couple of hours at it, I inadvertently unplugged the hand controller which shut down the GoTo on the mount. I would have to stop and realign. Bummer. I decided to take an astro break to listen to the Tigers home town call as they beat the Yankees. Thanks to Steve's iPhone, I could sit in a deserted Chicago park and listen to radio from Detroit. Thanks, Mr. Jobs. :-)

After the game was over, I reprogrammed the mount and away I went. The Moon was easily the brightest obstacle, but I got more good lunar viewing of the second quarter Moon. Weird high clouds moved in from the southwest around 11, but they were more an annoyance than a hindrance. After 11, it started to cool off quit a bit, but every once in a while I would get a strong gust of very warm south wind that would shake the scope and warm me up, like somebody opening a convection oven–a fairly weird phenomenon.

I always lose myself in the skies for long periods of time. When I am at the park by myself, especially after hours, I do my best to remain cognizant of my surroundings. I got very occasional bikers, walkers, joggers, and a dog walker, but all at a distance from me. The only sounds were a few passing geese and some intermittent barking and howling from dogs across the river. A little creepy. Still, it pays to stop and look around every once in a while.

Around midnight, I caught movement on top of the hill out of the corner of my eye. I quickly looked to my left and saw a dark shape moving low, from south to north, along the crest of the hill at about fifty feet. I froze and stared. It froze. We stared. Possum? Dog? Cat? Coyote? It was dark, backlit by the Moon, and pretty good size. I thought coyote. I reached for the only light I had, which was my green laser, but it didn't provide enough light to do much of anything. We continued staring and my heart rate accelerated just a little bit. I grabbed my powertank battery and flashlight, and being a good astronomer and trying to save my hard won night vision, I turned on the the red lamp. It threw light all of about three feet. Keeping its distance, the coyote moved a few steps toward my right before stopping again. We continued our staring contest as my heart accelerated further.

These things are supposed to be scared of people. WTF?

I had no weapon besides a folding chair and a 41mm Ethos. I decided I'd take a bite from Mr. or Mrs. Coyote before I'd sacrifice my nice eyepiece. Perhaps I could blind it with the laser! Once my thoughts raced to this point, I decided to sacrifice my night vision and turn on the bright 55w halogen lamp. Better my night vision than rabies or an infection. Just as I was coming to my decision, the coyote seems to turn sideways to me and puff itself up even taller. This show of force freaked me out. I immediately fumbled for the lamp's on switch and lit it up as the adrenaline hit me. I was now face to face with a large, black Jewel bag. As soon as the light hit it, a simultaneous gust of south winds did also, and it rolled off down the hill toward the tennis courts. So ended my encounter with the Jewel bag coyote?. I am not hard at work trying to find an excuse to start a new band just so we can use that name.

I found focusing at prime to be very difficult. This is weighed out by how soft many of these photos look. What are the ways around this? The little LCD can only show so much, and it seems like my factory focuser may be too course to really nail it. Tips most welcomed!

I am also struck by the pink/yellow glow from our light dome that appears on many of the photos. I've tried to adjust for this, but am just now seeing that it is threaded on bottom for 2" filters. Will have to try a 2" Skyglow if I can find one and see if it helps cut this gunk out!

I won't go through each target, but will leave that for my viewing list below. A few short comments are attached to them as I found the time to stop and document.

Here's my Flickr set with my first ever astrophotos. Please be kind!


Setting second quarter moon illuminates the Celestron EdgeHD scope by pmonaghan, on Flickr

Here is my observation list w/notes.

100611 Horner

Jupiter
(Planet in Aries)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 21:00:41
"First scope imaging!! Moderately successful.
3(4) different imaging times. Ended with GRS transit at about 1am!!"

Neptune
(Planet in Aquarius)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 21:33:14
"Faint w/Moon nearby. Bluer than recent obs?"

Vega - Alpha Lyrae
(Variable Double Star in Lyra)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 22:15:58
"Imaged for focus Bag coyote!"

Ring Nebula - Messier 57
(Planetary Nebula in Lyra)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 22:30:17
"Imaged. Wow!"

Pleiades - Messier 45
(Open Cluster in Taurus)
Observed Oct 6, 2011 22:45:10
"Too damned bit for a shot. Imaging bottom half gives better results."

Andromeda Galaxy - Messier 31
(Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 23:00:35
"Imaged. No companions visible in photos."

Messier 34
(Open Cluster in Perseus)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 23:15:59
"Imaged as high clouds move in"

Double Cluster - NGC 869
(Open Cluster in Perseus)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 23:38:53
"Imaged. Beautiful!!!"

Capella - Alpha Aurigae
(Double Star in Auriga)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 23:40:14
"Focus star"

Starfish Cluster - Messier 38
(Open Cluster in Auriga)
Observed: Oct 6, 2011 23:47:36
"Imaged"

Owl Cluster - NGC 457
(Open Cluster in Cassiopeia)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 0:08:54
"Imaged. Nice!!!"

Pinwheel Cluster - Messier 36
(Open Cluster in Auriga)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 0:29:04
"Imaged but fuzzy"

Messier 37
(Open Cluster in Auriga)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 0:31:14
"Imaged!!!"

Moon
(Moon of Earth in Aquarius)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 1:15:30

Messier 2
(Globular Cluster in Aquarius)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 1:22:27
"Imaged. First view!!!"

Orion Nebula - Messier 42
(Bright Nebula in Orion)
Observed: Oct 7, 2011 1:05:07
"Imaged!"

Crab Nebula - Messier 1
(Bright Nebula in Taurus)
"Was on my list but no luck here. Waited until the end of the session and it was lost. I think the Moon right next door didn't help much either. Would like to see this sometime."

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

These pics are all very nice....

In time, you will find the sweet spot for the pics and I find that Jupiter is the prime target for experimentation. The surface features allow for delicate focusing. And...the JMI motorized focuser on my C11 makes for tiny minute focusing after getting the gross focus with the primary.

Solo time with the cosmos is a great way to spent a few hours....I do it not as often as I would like.

The Mag Light that I sport behind me during Chicago Astronomer Star Parties...is not just for finding lost screws or caps, but is a weapon against whatever encroaches on my site in a negative manner. There's a reason that the Chicago Police no longer are allowed to carry them...but I can.

Highly recommend it...even against covert coyote bags...

[patrickm]

Joe,
Even with a finer focuser, Jupiter is a tiny speck on the camera's LCD screen. Can't tell if it's focused or not. Finer movements would help, but not being able to see the object larger than 1/4" makes focus rough with or without fine focus. With no lens, no autofocus either unless I've missed something.

How much of a pain to install a MoonLite?

A pepper spray was also recommended. I guess having something wouldn't be bad.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

What camera you using?

Link me to it please.

[wwpierre]

Oct 7, 2011 17:51:08 GMT -6 patrickm said:

I found focusing at prime to be very difficult. This is weighed out by how soft many of these photos look. What are the ways around this? The little LCD can only show so much, and it seems like my factory focuser may be too course to really nail it. Tips most welcomed!

You can achieve perfect focus with a Bahtinov mask. agenaastro.com/farpoint-bahtinov-focus-mask-astrophotography.html

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The mask is good, I use it from time to time...and I think we tried it on Patrick's scope once.

With digital cameras, we get instant feedback on our efforts.

A quick review on the LCD screen will show immediately if we are out of focus..then we take another one and another one...till we narrow it down. Most cameras allow one to blow up the image and see what's going on. Works, even if the object is a pinpoint.

[patrickm]

On suggestion from fine CAs last night, I found a feature buried in the bowels of my SLR settings that will magnify the LCD screen. Perfect for prime focus photography!

Once focus is attained, Bill also suggested using the mirror locks to hold the focus--one focus for planetary and one deep space.

Can't wait to try these out! Thanks gang.

[patrickm]

Thanks for Flickr photo comments, Paulie! I am waiting on my 2" Orion Skyglow filter to show. Now have to figure out my clutch knob problem first before anything else. May be stripped. Bad timing there w/great viewing next few days.

All comments super appreciated!

[Paulie pchris00]

Patrick, I have a few things I want to add here, but I'm trying to catch up from a very busy week. I'll get around to it soon, I promise.