Astronomy Archives - Page 64 of 71

April 9, 2016December 16, 2020

Sunspot 4/9/2016

Here is a reasonably large sunspot group shot with my 80mm Celestron Onyx ED and ASI120 MM camera. I got the monochromatic camera to complement the color ASI120 MC camera I use for planets and it did a good job here. I got the scope and the light duty Celestron Nexstar mount with next year’s total solar eclipse in mind. All three performed well today although I have to work on my technique. I had to have Jack focus the scope while I ducked my head under a towel and peered at the laptop screen. I’m planning to get some easy to pop up canopy for the eclipse sometime and that would help here too. A better focuser might help. Not Jack, he did fine, but a dual speed replacement for the OEM focuser.

November 26, 2015December 16, 2020

Full Moon 11/25/2015 (Thanksgiving Eve)

Wednesday night the clouds were starting to roll in for the start of five days of clouds so I grabbed my Canon SX50 HS with 1200 mm equivalent zoom and leaned against the car to get this shot. I was impressed by how much detail was there. I tweaked it a little in Photoshop, blackening the background and bringing out some details on the surface. Look how the rays from Tycho in the south can be seen across vast distances.

November 21, 2015November 21, 2015

New Astronomy Set Up

I’ve had the 9.25″ Celestron SCT for several months now and have now added a new (to me) CGEM DX mount. I picked that up one week ago today on November 14th. Much like the mouse and the cookie I fund I need more. For example, I had to replace the Vixen style dovetail on my SCT with a Losmandy style dovetail so I could attach it to the mount. I had to get a second one to attach the guide scope and autoguider (bought with mount). I also bought a JMI NGF-S remote focuser and Shoestring Astronomy FCUSB so that I can focus the scope from my laptop. Problem with that is I didn’t count on the motor running into the scope’s focus knob so I’ve had to order an SCT thread extension which has not arrived yet. Once I have that I hope to be able to achieve really good focus. Maybe even autofocus though I’ve encountered a 32 bit v 64 bit driver conflict with that software. I picked up up a 2″ DSLR adapter so I plan to start doing DLSR deep sky photography along with the planetary imaging I occasionally do.