Ad Astra Observatory

Sweet! I really like the M13 one. It is totally Star Trek – warp speed

captain!

—–Original Message—–
From: Jimbo S. Harris [mailto:jimbo@jimbo.net]
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 10:58 AM
To: A. P. James; My Darling Wife; W. A. Harris; forgreen@wildblue.net;
whaynbham@yahoo.com; Mooseducks Lead Guitarist; Pedroza, Melani; Alex
Benedict
Subject: Latest Astrophotos

Hi all,

The new telescope mount is really getting a workout. The new moon’s on
Wednesday, so by the weekend, “the astrophotography moon” (as I refer to

the phases of the moon between full + 3 days and new + 3 days, when the
moon is both not-so-bright and also not-so-much-up-at-night) will be

gone
for May.

It’s a mad rush to catch the Spring galaxies before they drift too far
West
and give way to the Summer nebulae. I’ve somehow missed Leo and Virgo
now
for 3 years straight, but I’m determined to make a stab at it. Having

said
that, my new galaxy photos are both up near the Big Dipper. (: It’s
starting to head for the West, too.

My first target with the new scope needed to be something easy; big,
bright, in a known location, and tolerant of experimentation during
post-processing. While giving the mount a good shakedown, I decided to
catch an early shot of M13. I actually took 70 images over the course of
2

nights. Each was 2 minutes, so this photo represents 2h 20m of total
exposure time:
http://www.jimbo.net/astro/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20070508_10_M13_69×2min_900×600.jpg One of
the
highlights of the image is that it was shot unguided, which is a
testament
to the accuracy of the new mount.

Shooting unguided made me feel good for awhile, and it helped to keep

the
number of variables down while learning how to use the G-11, but I
quickly
found that I needed to get serious and guide the mount; no mount is
perfect. The autoguider worked like a dream on the new mount. Unlike the

old mount, where things had to be “just so” in order to make it work,
default settings seem to work just fine on the G-11, and that meant that

I
can basically track the sky for as long as I want. That means that
instead
of the 1 hour integration times that I’d been doing before (usually
30×2min
images, but sometimes I’d try 20×3min, although I’d usually lose

several),
I can now set up for 2 or even 3 hour integrations, which means more
detail
in the photos:

http://www.jimbo.net/astro/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20070511_M63_24×3min_900×600.jpg still needs
more work; this is only 1h 12m, but…
http://www.jimbo.net/astro/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20070512_M51_40×3min_900×600.jpg (2h) is just

amazing compared to http://www.jimbo.net/astro/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/20070216_M51_20×3min.jpg
(1h)

I’m particularly happy with the M51 image.

I had my first setback with the mount last night — I zigged when I
should

have zagged, and the mount couldn’t hold tracking (I purposely
unbalanced
the mount, which is a good idea in general, but I think I unbalanced it
too
much, which is always, always a bad idea), so I lost a night’s work on
M81.
The image showed some promise, but I can do a lot better.

Jupiter is starting to rise around 11pm or so these days, so now that

the
planetary cam is back, expect some more shots in the next few months.
Jupiter is *really* low for the next few years (it’s in Scorpius this
year), but I’ll do my best. (:

Keep looking up,
Jimbo