TAG Veronica
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 / Gear / Long Exposure Photography
M13, Globular Cluster in Hercules
M13, Globular Cluster in Hercules This is a fairly large stack (70 2-minute images), all taken unguided from my new G-11 mount. The mount is really a big improvement over the CG-5GT. […]
Deep Sky / Gear / Long Exposure Photography / Techniques
M8, The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius
This is from the first night after I performed the “filterectomy” on the Nikon D70. This is a stack of 12 30 second images shot from my light-polluted Newark backyard (”total imaging […]
Jupiter, Jun 23, 2006
One of the first shots from Ad Astra Observatory. 30 frames at 2m intervals stacked 2x and 2.8x (Klee) Barlows.
Re: Orion 8" f/5 + CR-1 +/- spacers
Hi Jimbo, Thanks for the info– that will help the next guy looking to do the same thing. Take Care Ron —– Original Message —– From: “Jimbo S. Harris” <jimbo@jimbo.net> To: “RONALD […]
Jupiter, Mar 6, 2005
Arguably my best Jupiter image to date. Stacked 2x and 3x Barlows 25 frames at 5m intervals The transiting moon is Ganymede (of which I picked up some surface markings, if you […]
Saturn, Feb 28, 2005
My best Saturn to-date, hands down. I could tell I had something special — this night was right after we’d had a few days of rain, so the air was clear and […]
Jupiter, Feb 12, 2005
5 frames at 10m intervals. 2x Barlow Celestron NexImage
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.