Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

NGC 2239, portion of the Rosette Nebula

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In short, I missed. In the upper right hand corner of this image is NGC2239, a chunk of The Rosette Nebula. I meant to try to cram in the whole thing, but […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

M35, Open Cluster in Auriga

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First time shooting M35. I don’t particularly dig open clusters (with the exception of The Pleiades), but I needed something to shoot for a little bit before Orion rose high enough for […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports

M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

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First try at the spring galaxies this year. This was a “gimme” image — the stupid sky wouldn’t cloud over and it was 1:30am, so I said “why not?” and fired off […]

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Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports

Re: Grand Canyon by moonlight

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Those are awesome! There is a light near the upper right-hand corner (about 2 x 1 in) that shows. Any idea? a distant town? Amazing how bright it looks under a full […]

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Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports

Thanksgiving in the Grand Canyon

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Not strictly qualifying as “astronomy” photos, these are a set of photos that I shot while on a trip to the Grand Canyon over Thanksgiving 2007. It was a full moon night, […]

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Long Exposure Photography / Techniques / Technology

Re: Narrowband with DSLR

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>I keep making attempts at narrowband imaging, but I haven’t been able to >make it stick yet; one downside to a DSLR is that you need 2” accessories, >and finding a filter […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

M45, The Pleiades Cluster in Taurus

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M45, The Pleiades, Open Cluster/Reflection Nebula in Taurus Second try at M45 with the new 66mm refractor. Still a little noisy; under a very bright waxing gibbous moon. 2 hours of integration […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

B33, The Horsehead Nebula in Orion

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Pumpkin first light. I was wrapping up for the night, knew I had the FOV to sort of aim in the general area and probably get my target, and shot one 3min […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography

M45, The Pleiades Cluster in Taurus

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First light with Pumpkin, the new 66mm refractor. It’s been awhile since I hand-focused, and I really need my diffraction spike focusing rig. This little scope has plenty of FOV to spare, […]

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Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Optics

M42, The Great Orion Nebula

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A ho-hum version of M42. The FOV on Pumpkin is really too side for this target (I had the whole Sword of Orion in the FOV. vertically.) but I was having fun […]

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Techniques

Polar Alignment Calculations

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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 […]

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Gear / Observatory / Telescope

Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O

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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 […]

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General / Maintenance / Observatory

Dome shutter is motorized again!

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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 […]

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ATM

Trixie 2017 – tube mods

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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 […]

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