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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Yes....Show us the inside of the observatory - give us a tour, and pictures of your camera to telescope attachment.

[Barry]

admin said:

Yes....Show us the inside of the observatory - give us a tour, and pictures of your camera to telescope attachment.

Its all on the site mate. I have added a new page detailing equipment.

www.aussiepeople.com.au/asignobservatory/Astrophotography.aspx

When I get a few photo's together and learn how to process them, I will be adding them to the page also.

Baz.

[Barry]

Broke the third crank mechanism! The dome is just too heavy! I wore out two round holes for a crank handle into oblong holes in just a few complete rotations. Two 1/2 inch holes through mild steel rhs turned into 1/2 inch by 1 inch oblongs.

So now i have built a SUPER CRANK MECHANISM out of two 25mm roller bearings side by side. I'll be getting Ron to put it on the site for me, on the support ring page.

www.aussiepeople.com.au/asignobservatory/Supportring.aspx

Until then, heres a pic.

www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25239&d=1175432984

Baz. ;DVery Happy
_________________
A.S.I.G.N. Observatory

www.aussiepeople.com.au/asignobservatory/

[Barry]

All fixed! The dome is going great and I am now doing astrophotography!

Loving it!

Built a new page on alignment too.

www.aussiepeople.com.au/asignobservatory/driftalignment.aspx

Baz.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Great news on the observatory!

I do anticipate your astrophotos and share them with us all.

[Barry]

I made a movie and put it on U-Tube.
I thought I would give it a go. It took some time, but it was a good experiment. What do you think?

Baz.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqe_-hvv0lE

[katodog]

Well, I'm impressed!!! That's sure one awesome looking observatory you have there!!

I'm super jealous now.

[Barry]

Thanks Champ! You could try your own hand at it.......?

Cheers!

Baz.

[Barry]

I managed to get this one done tonight just before the rain and snow came in.

Its a short and simple U-Tube video showing the opening of the slot and rotation of the dome.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1czS_-6xq4&mode=user&search=

Baz.

[Barry]

And now the photos come rolling out!
This one took me hours to set-up, photograph and process, but I am extremely happy with my little ED80 and Canon 400 D set-up.

Lagoon Nebula 17 minutes at F/7.5 ISO800 Darks and offsets removed blah blah. Processed with Deep sky stacker.

Manually tracked using an illuminated reticule on fork mounted C11 (polar aligned on an equatorial wedge)with the camera on the ED80, piggybacking on top.

I think I'm getting the hang of this.......

Baz.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Barry,

What a great shot of the nebula.

I had to search for an image of the ED80mm to make sure it was the scope I was thinking of. Amazing you could get such an image...manually!

17 minutes tracking by hand is almost an eternity..good job. And at 800ISO, the noise is imperceptible.

I took a peek at your YouTube video. Quite a windy day there you had, but I want one!

Thanks for sharing!...

[Barry]

G'day all,

I am just about finished building a new pier for my good friend Ron.
All the details are on the A.S.I.G.N DIY page. Check it out.

www.aussiepeople.com.au/asignobservatory/DIY.aspx

Cheers,

Baz.

[Barry]

Starting to get used to the new set-up now.

There was a waxing first quarter moon last night, which didn't help with all that extra light in the sky, but at least the atmosphere above Canberra was cold, dry,crisp and fairly stable.

Anyway, image details as follows...

Canon400D on Skywatcher ED80 prime focus. Piggybacked and manually tracked with illuminated reticule eyepiece on Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS.

13 x 2 minute exposures at ISO800 total exposure of 26 minutes. Stacked with Deep sky Stacker and darks subtracted.

I will probably give this one another crack on new moon.

Hope you like it anyway,

Cheers,

Baz

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Barry,

These shots you are sharing with us are fantastic!

At one time, such imaging was only available to the professional astronomer with thousands of dollar worth of equipment and a University/Museum behind them.

But now, amateur astronomers with talent, a few bucks, and an eye for good astrophotography can image beautiful deep space shots.

The first one you sent in seems a bit more sharper/clearer/brighter, but it's great nevertheless.

Too cool and keep them coming!... ;D

[Barry]

G'day all,

Thanks to my good friend Ron (Tailwag) at www.aussiepeople.com and his awesome guidance in web development, A.S.I.G.N. Observatory website is now ready to go it alone with its own dedicated domain name.

Henceforth, the new address for A.S.I.G.N. is www.asignobservatory.com I would love it if you included this link on your websites if you have them...(Nothing like a free plug, hehehehe) Incidentally, I have a links page on mine, where I would be happy to return the favor and include your links.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone for your advice and support along the way. This little project just started off as a home project, that became a passion, obsession and a runaway train that has developed into a beaut website that is ever growing.

I had no idea that it would open so many doors and take me where it has. I have learned so much from people like all of you about photography techniques, processing software and telescope equipment. I am blown away by the fellowship of the beautiful astronomy community worldwide!

I am ever grateful for the friendship and camaraderie of all the amateur astronomers I have met on the forums, and will continue to be a contributor to my peers, adviser to those starting out and student of those more worldly than I.

God bless you all!

Yours humbly,

Baz.

[Barry]

M17 Swan Nebula.

I had a slight tracking problem, which means I will be doing this one again, however, I am still very happy with the image data. It was good practice.

7 x 4 Minute exposures, stacked on Deep Sky Stacker with offsets and darks removed. Cropped and resized.

Manual guided Canon400D on Skywatcher Pro series ED80.

Baz.

[Barry]

Had another crack at the Swan tonight, with better results.

Swan was 11 subs at 3 minutes each.

Also did the Helix nebula, 12 Subs at 3 minutes.

Imaging train: Canon 400D on Skywatcher ED80. Processed with Deep sky stacker and Photoshop. Manually tracked with Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS as Guide-scope.

[gryphter]

Amazing shots Barry!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Barry,

Amazing images from such short exposures. And manually tracking too!

That observatory of yours should be on the national register.

Anticipate your future efforts.

[Barry]

admin said:

Barry,

Amazing images from such short exposures. And manually tracking too!

That observatory of yours should be on the national register.

Anticipate your future efforts.

There's a National register?

[Barry]

M42 Orion Nebula and NGC1977 Running man Nebula 3 x 3min +1x 1min total 10min ISO800 Canon 400D on ED80 Manual guide. Processed Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.

NGC2070 Tarantula Nebula 3 x 3 min total 9Min ISO800 Canon 400D on ED80 Manual guide. Processed Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.

NGC253 Sculptor Galaxy 9 x 3Min total 27min ISO800 Canon 400D on ED80 Manual guide. Processed Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.

[Barry]

M27 DumbellNebula 13 x 3min total exposure 39Min Canon400D on ED80 ISO800. Manual guide. Processed Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.

[Barry]

Target: M16 Eagle Nebula

www.asignobservatory.com/nebulae.aspx

Date: 17 August 2007

Exposure: 14x3Min

ISO: 800

Camera: Canon EOS 400D

Scope: Skywatcher Pro Series ED80 Prime focus

Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

Comments, good or bad welcome. Do you think I need to go for longer exposures or more of them?


Baz.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Baz,

First off, I find your astrophotography just amazing.

There is not much I can add but here are my less than expert opinions...

Lower the ISO. It means a longer exposure, but the overall sharpness will be better and less post processing to eliminate the noise. I recall you do all manual tracking. Quite an arduous effort and easy for me to advise.

Both longer exposures and more exposures will bring out this space cloud in all it's glory. I don't know how many exposures Deep Sky Stacker will accept.

Have you done exposures in different filters?

Too cool man...

[Barry]

Thanks Joe,

Im going to try all of those things and more! Early days yet and the night is young!

Cheers,

Baz.

[Barry]

Hey Joe, I have registered three times under three different names now. I still cant login. It keeps telling me there is a problem with the username or password.

Thats whay I keep posting as guest.

Can this be fixed?

Baz

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Baz,

Some new potential members have had problems registering.

Are you using any capital letters in your screen name? If so, make them all small case.

If after you do this, and you still have a problem....send me your desired screen name and password...and I'll set it up for you.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Barry]

Joe, I have had nothing but problems trying to send message to you also. everywhere I turn the things set up need more passwords, verifications and such. I cant seem to get a private message to you to set up a login. I tried using lowercase and still nothing. it just keeps taking me back to the home page with invalid stamped all over it.

This thing is better protected than the Pentagon!

... I know its not your fault mate, but it is very frustrating.

Baz.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Baz,

Sorry for the difficulties.

Write me at my email: [e-mail]

Tell me what you would like as a screen name.

I have been under attack by Chinese spammers, and have to block large sections of IP addrsses.

We will get you fixed up.

Joe

[Barry]

Thanks Joe. E-mail sent mate.

Baz.