Category: Deep Sky
Astro knowledge / Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports / Optics
M42, The Great Orion Nebula
fullsize image I finally decided to try out Veronica (the 8” f/5 Newtonian) in the observatory, instead of the ED80. The reflector has two distinct advantages over the ED80; first, it’s about […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M81 and M82, Spiral Galaxies in Ursa Major
This is my first attempt at this pair with Veronica. The image was shot under a 16-day moon. I’m impressed by both the amount of detail I was able to pick up, […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M45, The Pleiades Cluster in Taurus
M45, The Pleiades, Open Cluster/Reflection Nebula in Taurus Finally got back around to some of the winter objects. Picked up some decent nebulosity.
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 2237, The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
An example of serendipity. I was trying to find this nebula, was using GOTO (on the CG-5GT), couldn’t be sure I had it, so I only shot one frame of it. Turns […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M81 and M82, Spiral Galaxies in Ursa Major
Another try at this pair. Starting to get some detail on the spiral arms on M81. More magnification wouldn’t hurt; I have plenty of FOV to spare (this was cropped by about […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M42, The Great Orion Nebula
Never thought it would take this long to get back to M42… This was my original attempt, a stack of ten 2min subframes. Here’s the image with some more data added (details […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
M81 and M82, Spiral Galaxies in Ursa Major
M81 and M82, Galaxies in Ursa Major Edge-on galaxy (Cigar-shaped) M82 and neighbor M81. First shots in awhile. Got some good weather all the way through December and into January, finally took […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Re: raw image from modified D70
Hi Jimbo, The image is a jpeg not NEF (Nikon’s raw format). My recollection is that there might be a plug-in from the Nikon website that Photoshop needs. I am using CS2 […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M20, The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius
I am continually amazed at how much data the modified camera is picking up down in the light polluted muck near the horizon. The weird “box” artifact is from the application that […]
RECENT UPDATE
Polar Alignment Calculations
Here’s a page that derives Polar Alignment Calculations. (update 5/2020: the original site is gone, so I found the text on Wayback and am inserting it below. This is by the original […]
Gear / Observatory / Telescope
Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O
The Astro Jedi needed somewhere to store his light sab—- I mean, bucket, and I was only too happy to accommodate him. I have decided that I need to come to a […]
General / Maintenance / Observatory
Dome shutter is motorized again!
I finally decided to bite the bullet and fix the shutter motor. Things went sideways last winter, and I’ve been opening the shutter manually (and tying it shut with rope, so we […]
Trixie 2017 – tube mods
I finally got around to cutting the MTA-UTA tubes to length; the only eyepiece that would come to focus with the focuser spacer in place is the Televue 55mm Plossl. If I […]
MOST COMMENTED
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – Time has come today!
General / Maintenance
First Light, a deeper look
Mount / Observatory / Telescope
Observatory 2.0 – Result!
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – The Pier goes in
Gear / General / Maintenance
Martin Farmer Wormblock installation notes
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Another beautiful night.