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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I hate letting a clear sky go unused if I can help it. This evening, although not really clear and transparent, I et up the scope in my yard and manged a quick session.

My only clear view is due East so I focused on Cygnus and surrounding area. Again I attempted to locate some nebuli, but was unsuccessful. I did split the double-double star pair off of Vega. I rather enjoyed scanning the area better with binoculars than with the scope this evening.

Clouds started to come in from the North, and I concluded the session.

How boring...ain't it?"

[Al Degutis]

Joe,

Boring? Only if it was completely overcast. For the shorter sessions sometimes its better to use binoculars. I just hate the bouncing stars.

I, too, went out briefly last night. My mission to was experiment with astrophotography. I wasn't planning to accomplish much. I just wanted to get some initial, simple results. I had dabbled in astrophotography with the Meade 4504 but the only good results were via piggyback.

Last night I connected my Canon Digital Rebel (300D) to the LX200 8" for some prime focus experiments. I haven't trained the drives for Periodic Error Correction (PEC) yet and I just did a quick alignment in alt/alz mode. Most images had streaking stars in part due to me be set up on my deck instead of the firm ground. I probably need to collimate also. That's the next thing I need to learn.

Here's a couple that came out okay. These are just quick and dirty. I did a minor level adjustment on M57 in photoshop. The images are between 20 and 30 second exposures, 1600 ISO, f/10.

M57


M57 - cropped


M3


M3 - cropped


I should be able to get better results when I have more time to config and adjust things.

Al

[stargazer]

Al,

The pics look good. I to was out last night getting ready for the upcoming Star parties. We had problems with the scope but I was able to see M13, M92, M57 through the Binos. I also located a Star with a known Planet circling it. Joe if you want that info on the Stars with Planets circling them let me know. I have a chart that shows 14 of them from the NSN.

Looks like I have a good night clear night for the Girl Scouts. I will post how it went in the morning.

B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Al,

Your quick pics are really cool. I have always found digital cameras tempermental and not cooperative. But your submissions are very nice. It clearly shows the errie greenish hue of M57 and the golden spread of the M3 cluster. I would recommend a personal tag on your images of somesort to claim them as yours. Something small and in a corner.

You had mentioned about collimating your scope. On another forum I picked up this excellent Macromedia production of collimating a newt. He makes it very simple. Take a look:

www.andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html

I'll place it in the links section as well.

Keep sending them in!

[Al Degutis]

I didn't tag the photos, and typically don't. I normally just put them on my website with a a description of what it is and how I did it. I don't think I have too many prize possessions, maybe a comet pic or two. As for these posts I just wanted to share them with the group. It's more time consuming to post them on my site which I'll eventually do. Actually, I'm hoping to get out over the weekend and spend more time on imaging. Hopefully I'll get better results.

As for collimation, I've seen Andy's site before. Very helpful info on reflectors. Unfortunately my main scope is Schmidt-Cassegrain.

Al

[sarwat]

The pictures are nice. I managed to catch an hour and a half of observation too. Jupiter and some doubles. Did manage to see ring nebula. Not much else... thankyou sodium and thankyou mercury.



A famous Sanskrit prayer goes "(Lead us) from darkness to light...". One should be careful about what one wishes for.

Sarwat