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| For my visual observations and sketches, I prefer my Astro Sky 12" Truss Dobsonian telescope built by James Grigar of Lake Charles, LA around a Hardin 12" f/5 Primary mirror and a Parks 2.6" Secondary. The optics in the scope are extremely sharp - having been refigured by Alan Raycraft to 1/14 to 1/16 wavefront. The scope's central obstruction is 22%, yielding excellent contrast on planets and globular clusters at over 300 -400x (on still nights.) With this scope, I've completed the Messier catalog visually and seen the central star in the Ring Nebula, the "Pillars of Creation" in M16, and the Horsehead Nebula from dark skies. |
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| My current mount is the Takahashi EM-200 Temma Jr with SE-S tripod. This medium-duty mount has a weight capacity of 45 lbs, which easily handles my TSA-102 or Epsilon 130 on a side by side plate with my Takahashi FC-65 guidescope. The GoTo system works by interfacing with The Sky 6 Serious Astronomer Edition software on my laptop. Unguided images of up to 5 minutes are possible, and far longer images are possible using CCD autoguiding. Unguided tracking accuracy is +/- 5 arcsec, while RMS tracking errors during guiding are usually under +/- 1 arcsec. |
| Messier Object Page |
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| My current medium focal length imaging scope is the Takahashi TSA-102S Triplet Apochromat. The scope is gorgeous visually at f/8 (816mm), and tack sharp edge to edge in its imaging configuration at f/6.3 (640mm) using the Takahashi TOA Reducer / Flattener. The scope is perfect match to my FLI ML8300 CCD camera and my Takahashi EM-200 mount. With practice, I can now routinely get 15-30+ minute guided images with less than 1 pixel tracking error in any direction., and there is absolutuly no false color to be seen anywhere in the image. The scope is built like a tank, too! |
| I also own a Universal Astronomics Unistar Heavy Alt-Az mount for quick visual astronomy trips. A heavy duty wooden surveyor's tripod and beefy aluminum head allow me to mount my Takahashi TSA-102S with ease and swap scopes in seconds using the universal Losmandy dovetail system. Light (15 lbs tripod and 7 lbs head), portable, and with a 30 lb carrying capacity, it's definitely a keeper. |
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| My wide-field imaging scope is the Takahashi Epsilon 130 Hyperbolic Astrograph. This scope is an imaging monster at 430mm, f/3.3 - capturing the night sky at an amazingly fast rate. With my FLI ML8300 camera, I get a big FOV of 2.4 x1.8 degrees square and pinpoint faint stars to the corners (with very cool diffraction spikes on the brighter ones!) Plus, its tube colors are like a crazy School Bus / Battleship, only less subtle... |
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| My CCD camera of choice is the FLI Microline 8300 monochrome camera with FLI CFW-1-5 filter wheel and Optec HaLRGB filter set. The camera has an 8.3 megapixel sensor with small pixels - 5.4 microns - but a high QE of 60% peak and 48% at the H-alpha line. The chip is both antiblooming and microlensed, making it quick and easy to capture high-detail images. The microline body has a 3-stage peltier cooler capable of cooling the camera to -55 to -60 degrees C below ambient air temperature. I expect lots of great images from this camera. |
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| Sh2-155 - Cave Nebula in LRGB 07-25-09 Mt. Laguna, CA Takahashi EM-200, Takahashi TSA-102 at f/6, FLI ML8300 LRGB 90:30:30:30 min at -30 C acquired in MaxIm DL Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
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| Mt. Laguna Star Trails 07-25-09 Mt. Laguna, CA Canon Rebel XSi 450D, NovoFlex adapter, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/4 30 min at ISO 200 Processing done in Photoshop CS2 |
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| NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy -Luminance 07-26-09 Mt. Laguna, CA Takahashi EM-200, Takahashi TSA-102 at f/6, FLI ML8300 L 120 min at -30 C acquired in MaxIm DL Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
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| NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy -LRGB 07-26-09 Mt. Laguna, CA Takahashi EM-200, Takahashi TSA-102 at f/6, FLI ML8300, ST-2000XCM L 120 min at -30 C acquired in MaxIm DL 45 min RGB from ST-2000 XCM taken 08-27-06 Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
| 07-26-09: Even with alternating bouts of marine layer and monsoon debris clouds sweeping in every couple days, I was able to grab a couple clear nights here and there and have put them to good use including three shots this month from my "home" observing spot in Laguna Niguel. There were around 8-10 people out at Mt. Laguna last night trying out a new spot I'd found the month before - which worked out even better than I'd hoped. Temperatures were in the high 50s all night and wind was almost nonexistant, but the humidity kicked in hard after midnight. I still got a few good shots in, including my planned target Sh2-155, a star trails image, and 2 hours of luminance data on NGC 253 - my favorite galaxy.. Next month there will be no new moon star party - because next month is Julian Star Fest! I will be working the event with OPT and hope to see some of you out there. |
| 08-06-09: Star Party Time! With Julian Star Fest taking up new moon weekend, we're just going to have a local observing night at Ortega Highway on Saturday, August 15th. The cloud cover can be unpredictable to to the monsoon influence from the east, so check the weather before you head out. |
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| H-alpha Moon 08-08-09 Laguna Niguel, CA Takahashi EM-200, AstroTech 6" RC, FLI ML8300, Optec 8nm Ha filter Ha 0.02 sec at -25 C acquired in MaxIm DL Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
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| NGC 281 - PacMan Nebula in H-Alpha 08-22-09 Julian Star Fest - Julian, CA Takahashi EM-200, Takahashi TSA-102 at f/6, FLI ML8300, Optec 8nm Ha filter Ha 120 min at -25 C acquired in MaxIm DL Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
| NGC 281 - PacMan Nebula in HaRGB 08-23-09 Julian Star Fest - Julian, CA Takahashi EM-200, Takahashi TSA-102 at f/6, FLI ML8300, Optec 8nm Ha filter HaRGB 120:30:30:30 min at -25 C acquired in MaxIm DL Processing done in Photoshop CS2 and Maxim DL |
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| Grandview Milky Way 09-19-09 Grandview Campground, CA Kenko SkyMemo R mount, Canon Rebel XSi 450D, NovoFlex adapter, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/4 5 min at ISO 200 Processing done in Photoshop CS2 |
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| Summer Triangle 09-20-09 Grandview Campground, CA Kenko SkyMemo R mount, Canon Rebel XSi 450D, NovoFlex adapter, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/4 15 min at ISO 400 Processing done in Photoshop CS2 |
| Taurus Rising 09-20-09 Grandview Campground, CA Kenko SkyMemo R mount, Canon Rebel XSi 450D, NovoFlex adapter, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/4 15 min at ISO 800 Processing done in Photoshop CS2 |
| 09-22-09: I just got back from a weekend up at Grandview Campground at 8600 feet elevation in the White Mountains near Bishop, CA. I had heard various people that the site had some of the darkest skies in California, and I have to say that I was blown away! I used my Unihedron Sky Quality Meter several times on both nights and got a reading of 21.98 mag/sq. arcsec on Saturday night and 3 seperate readings of 21.99 mag/sq. arcsec on Sunday night - which corresponds to a ZLM of 7.6 - 8.0! I have seen skies nearly that dark before, but never with such transparency. Mt. Laguna is usually 21.7-21.8 (mag. 6.6-6.8) with noticeable light domes to the west and south, while Grandview has a tiny dome toward Bishop (west) and black horizons any other direction. My EM-200 was undergoing some maintenance, so I brought out my 12" AstroSky dob and picked off nearly every nebulae in Cepheus listed in the Pocket Sky Atlas as well as dozens of galaxies in Pegasus, Andromeda and Cetus. I hit the showpiece targets as well - and the Veil with a 40mm Pentax eyepiece and an OIII filter showed details I've only seen in photographs before. I did take a few new wide-angle pictures (in the Gallery) with my Canon XSi and my Kenko SkyMemo R camera tracker. They do a good job of conveying how dark the site was. My dad met me at the site and we drove up to 11,500 feet to visit the Bristlecone Pine forest - home of the oldest living trees on earth (nearly 5,000 years old). I'll put some images in the General Photo section when I am able. |
| Astrophotography |
| 10-10-09: Lots of changes to this page and others. With the coming switch from Geocities to Yahoo web hosing, I decided to implement a number of changes I've been planning for some time. There is a new front page with links to this page as well as a new Photography page linking to my non-astro images. I had so many images (more than a year's worth) that I didn't want to put up here, so I gave them a new layout on different pages. The Weather and General Photography pages have been moved over to that side of the site. My EM-200 mount came back and the first test I did show it in perfect working order. Expect some new images soon! |