Birding Archives - Page 6 of 112

August 24, 2016August 24, 2016

Saturn, Mars, and Antares August 24, 2016

Wednesday evening I went outside and took some pictures of a rough alignment of the planets Saturn, Mars and the star Antares. The ruler straight alignment occurred earlier in the day so I had to settle for a slight bend. Vertically from the top, near the center of the frame the bright stars are Saturn, Mars, and Antares. If you know your constellations you can also make out the pincers of the scorpion on the right as Antares is the heart of Scorpius the Scorpion.This was shot with a Canon Rebel T5, 75mm lens, 1 second exposure, at f4.5, ISO 1600.

July 24, 2016

Binocular Mount

I just “finished” this parallelogram binocular mount. I will probably make refinements after using it. The tripod is borrowed from my small Nexstar altazimuth mount. The lumber from leftover bamboo flooring I’ve been holding onto for when I would need it for a project. The counterweights borrowed from a dumbbell set. Those are 7×50 binos you see. I’m going to use this for the Astronomical League’s Binocular Messier Club and maybe more. No idea if I will like binocular astronomy but I will find out. I plan to try the larger binos at the RRO with it as well.

July 24, 2016July 24, 2016

Finale of the Extreme Makeover Telescope Edition

If I had a schedule I guess I’d be about 10 months behind it. You may remember last summer’s Extreme Makeover Telescope Edition. I put a lot of work into turning a 10 inch tube assembly into a working Dobsonian reflector. Then I got a 9.25″ SCT and the 10″ just didn’t seem so important. Well, after working on the Library Telescope Project with CAAS and CALS I got energized again and decided to finish the project. See the picture. We had first light about a week ago and the Moon looked just fine. The yellow elastic band acts as a variable counterweight and seems to be just right.

I plan to use this on my quest for the Astronomical League’s Messier Club which does not allow for the use of goto mounts. I’ve seen them all before, I’ve even photographed them all before (though I’ve lost them) but now I start over. I plan to also work on the binocular version of the same club.