My Telescope And Gear

I realized that I have not posted any pictures of my telescope and gear.

 This is my 8" Skywatcher reflector scope with an EQ5 mount.  The focal length of the tube is 1000mm and the primary mirror aperture is 200mm, making this an F/5 telescope.  I added an Orion Duel Axis controller afterwards for about $125.  Two Plossl eyepieces came with it:  a 20mm and a 7.5mm.  Also purchased separately is a 2x Orion Shorty barlow lens.





I have owned this setup for about 3 years and I thoroughly enjoy using it.  The shipping weight was somewhere around 65 lbs, which makes it fairly difficult to move around when fully assembled.  I was completely lost on how to operate the equatorial mount the first time I attempted to do so.  It doesn't have free range of motion, but moves along the declination axis and right ascension axis.  This was a little tricky for me as a beginner.

The eyepieces are decent quality Plossl style and are pictured below.  They are both 1.25" and fully coated.  Calculating the magnification that each eyepiece with deliver is pretty simple.  Just divide the focal length of the telescope(in mm) by the focal length of the eyepiece(in mm).  So for my 20mm eyepiece I divide by the focal length (1000mm):  1000mm / 20mm = 50.  My 20mm eyepiece with magnify objects 50 times bigger than the naked eye.  My other eyepiece is 7.5mm.  1000mm / 7.5mm = 133x.  This makes objects appear 133 times bigger than the naked eye.  Using my 2x Shorty barlow will double the magnification of both eyepieces.  This sounds good but a lot of light is lost at these high magnifications.  I tend tend to only use the barlow when looking at brighter objects.

7.5mm and 20mm Plossl eyepieces.



Object tracking was something I realized right away that I really wanted.  Not only is it nice to have an object stay centered in the eyepiece, but I wanted to take pictures also.  I bought this Orion Dual Axis device:

  Orion True Track Electronic Drive

Powered by 4 D size batteries or an AC to DC adapter, this unit controls the declination and right ascension motors attached to the scope via two cables.  While tracking, only the RA motor is utilized to follow an object across the sky.  The DEC motor is only used to slew the scope to the desired position.
Of course the only way to get decent tracking is to have a properly aligned and leveled mount.  Doing so will provide up to 15 to 20 seconds of tracking good enough for a little astrophotography.  If you simply want tracking good enough to share the view with friends without having to constantly adjust the scope, this works very well.






 That's my brief introduction to my telescope and gear.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

Apertura AD10 Dobsonian Reflector Telescope

      10/20/2012

      My buddy Doug from Cincinnati came up this weekend with his new 10" Dobsonian "in hand".  This type of scope was new to both of us and I was excited to check it out.  Here is a pic...

Here are the specs for it copied off Apetura's website:

Technical Specifications and Dimensions

Primary Mirror Diameter:	10"
Primary Mirror Details:	34.2mm, Parabolic, 1/12 wave
Primary Mirror Coating:	Aluminum and silicone dioxide (SiO2); reflectivity=93 %
Optical Design:	Newtonian Reflector
Mount Design:	Dobsonian, clutch mounting with tension knobs
Focal Length:	1250mm
Focal Ratio:	f/4.92
Focuser:	2 inch, dual speed Micro 10:1 Crayford style
Eyepiece 1:	2", Superview 30mm, 68 degree FOV, Eye-relief=22mm
Eyepiece 2:	1.25", Super-Plossl 9mm, 52 degree FOV, Eye-relief=6mm
Finderscope:	Right-Angle, Correct-Image 8 x 50 viewer
Star Diagonal:	1.25 inch
Limiting Stellar Magnitude:	14.5
Optical Tube Length:	48.5"
Fully Assembled Height:	54"
Optical Tube Assembly Weight:	34.8 lbs
Base Height:	25.625"
Base Diameter:	22"
Base Weight:	31.4 lbs
Fully Assembled Weight:	66.2 lbs
WARRANTY	1 year for materials and workmanship

    

I was not involved in setting it up out of the box but Doug said it was not too difficult.  I was surprised by how long the tube was:  4' .5".  A little difficult for one person to load and unload from a vehicle.  Another issue was moving it around the yard once it was setup.  It took both of us to pick it up(fully assembled) to move it.  My backyard has a few trees in it so moving the scope is necessary to gain access to different parts of the sky.

It wasn't the best night for stargazing.  Clouds rolled in and out and the atmosphere was very turbulent.  We did view many objects though, but I can't give a good report on the optical quality of the scope because of the conditions.  Also, Doug found out that his eyepiece tube is out of square so every time we switched from a 1.25" eyepiece to a 2" eyepiece, the collimation would be off.  This seemed to effect the quality of the image through the scope.

I will post more about this scope in time when it gets a proper break-in.

Ring Nebula Photo

Ring Nebula - Taken on 09-08-2012 with Doug Elick.

This is a pic of the Ring Nebula (M57) taken at Hueston Woods in Ohio.  It was taken using my friends DSLR camera.

It was color enhanced just a bit in Photoshop.  I think we got lucky with the tracking because the scope was never polar aligned properly.  We basically just pointed the north leg on the tripod north and leveled the mount.  The tracking held up nicely for upto about 15 secs or so.

Little Update

I did some stargazing on this crisp night in Vandalia.  Lot's of stars and a few planets were out.

The first object I looked at was Jupiter and it's moons.  Three of the 4 moons were clearly visible while the fourth was hiding on the backside of Jupe.  Jupiter in my scope shows a fair amount of detail.  On the clearest nights the different atmospheric bands show up pretty distinctly.  I have also seen one of the moons cast it's shadow upon Jupiter.  At first I thought it a piece of dirt on the eyepiece, but then realized it was a shadow.  I've only seen this happen once and it was truely kickass.
The 4 easily seen moons of Jupiter are called the Galilean moons, named after their discoverer Galileo Galilei.  They are:  IO, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

The next object I searched out was Orion.  More specifically the Orion Nebula, located in the constellation Orion The Hunter.  Anyone can find the constellation Orion with ease, and the nebula itself is pretty easy also.  It can be located with the naked eye most of the time.  I would like to snap a pic of the nebula, but I need to hookup with my friend Doug, the DSLR owner.

I tried once again to find M1, the Crab Nebula.  Epic fail.  Kind of got too cold and tired.  I suck.  Plus it's sort of hard to find with my 8" scope.

I found a good amount of the Messier objects this past summer, but not all of them.  I need to make a list of which ones I've seen now.  Maybe later.

Till next time...

Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon

The sky tonight is cold and clear, and filled with stars, planets, and moons. I setup the scope out back just a while ago to get a glimpse of Venus especially, because Venus disappears quickly out of the sky being nearer the sun than most other objects.

Venus is pretty bright and makes a pretty good glare on my eyepiece. I assume that a filter of some sort would provide a better image. I didn't give the scope very much time to equalize its temperature to the cold outdoors, which was probably attributing to the bad image.

Jupiter was bright was always, and it's four Galilean moons were aligned perfectly. Two on each side of the planet, equally spaced. Sometimes you see less of them because one or more may be hidden behind Jupiter. Once I saw one of the moons casting a black shadow on the face of Jupiter. It was a small black dot that I could just barely make out in my 8" reflector.

The crescent moon looked neat, but I forgot to look at it through the scope. Oh well.

Goal for 2012

My goal for 2012 is to locate all 110 Messier objects in the night sky. What is a Messier object? Charles Messier was a French astronomer who sought comets but became frustrated by lots of 'fuzzy' objects that were not comets. He compiled these objects into a list now called Messier Objects. Examples are: Galaxies, Nebula, Globular Clusters.

I have already seen a few of these objects, but the plan is to start with M1 (The Crab Nebula), and move on through the list. I'm not sure at this point if it would be practical to start with the first object on the list and work my way through, because some of the objects may not be visible in the correct order. I assume I will be jumping around a lot.

I will post entries as I start to view them...

Picture of Uranus and Jupiter

Here are two different pictures put into one by Dave of Uranus and Jupiter. They were both taken with the same magnification, which really shows the size difference from our perspective (obviously size and distance are a factor). I was really happy to finally see Uranus. And to actually get a picture of it was really satisfying.

Both of these images were taken through my 8" reflector using Dave's Cannon DSLR. We are both fairly new to imaging celestial objects and found it difficult to get the image to focus. First we found the planet using an eyepiece, which is pretty tough in itself where the object is so small and faint like Uranus(Jupiter is no problem because it is so big in the sky!). Then we removed the eyepiece and attached the camera. The camera is heavy enough that it throws the balance of the telescope off, so it is necessary to balance the scope again. And hopefully the object hasn't moved out of view while doing so, because it can be difficult to find the object again through the camera's view screen.
So if you are lucky enough to still have the object in view, the next step is to achieve focus. This step is also very tough because you simply have to guess whether or not you are focusing in the right direction until you get a crisp picture. Once focus is achieved, you want to try a short exposure of maybe 15 seconds to see how well the mount is tracking the object. If drifting occurs at 15 seconds than the tracking needs to be fixed. This essentially means the camera needs to come back off and a new alignment needs to be performed again. I mentioned the 'drift alignment" method in an earlier post. The whole 'drift alignment' method can take all night if you are a newbie(like me).
Let me know if you have any comments or questions. I would love to hear them!

Any astronomers close by?

There just doesn't seem to be many astronomers out there. I know that performing a web search will show thousands of people whom all love to star gaze. But in my day to day life I just don't meet them.
I live in Vandalia, Ohio, which is near Dayton and I love to star gaze. If you live relatively close and would like to chat, send me an email! mbanta@bantacomputers.com.

Late year scoping

I was able to get my 8" Skywatcher out last weekend(12-03-2011). The temp was around 50 deg F and mostly clear. Not bad for so late in the year. I only viewed a few different objects that night but it was fun none the less.
Jupiter was the first object I went for. It comes out early and dominates the sky(here in Vandalia, Ohio). Next I went for The Orion Nebula which showed itself pretty well. I must say that I just love when Betelgeuse pops up over the horizon, burning red-orange color.
I also viewed the Pleiades, which always disappoints in my telescope. I would like to know what it takes to view some nebulosity there.

Passing of a friend

My best friend and favorite astronomy buddy died a little over a month ago from a heart attack. I will greatly miss him and the long nights in the back yard or at Hueston Woods staring at the sky. Every time I go out to scope I will be thinking of you. Take care Dave.