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My Telescopes

My Main Telescope - C14 and Paramount ME

My new Paramount MyT and 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien Telescope

MyT Hand Controller

My Meade 12 inch SCT on a CGEM (Classic) Mount

My 4 inch Meade Refractor with Sky Watcher Guidescope and ZWO camera on a CGEM (Classic) Mount

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Mount with Canon 40D

 

My Solar setup using a DSLR and Mylar Filter on my ETX90

DSLR attached to ETX90. LiveView image of 2015 partial eclipse on Canon 40D

Astronomy Blog Index
About the Site

 I try to log my observing and related activities in a regular blog - sometimes there will be a delay but I usually catch up. An index of all my blogs is on the main menu at the top of the page with daily, weekly or monthly views. My Twitter feed is below. I am also interested in photograping wildlife when I can and there is a menu option above to look at some of my images. I try to keep the news feeds from relevant astronomical sources up to date and you will need to scroll down to find these.

The Celestron 14 is mounted on a Paramount ME that I have been using for about 10 years now - you can see that it is mounted on a tripod so is a portable set up. I still manage to transport it on my own and set it all up even though I have just turned 70! It will run for hours centering galaxies in the 12 minute field even when tripod mounted.

 

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Saturday
May172014

Sunday 18th May 2014. In 2009 I had no mirror lock on my SCT - now in place!

Galaxy Run 17th October 2009

 

Only 49 Galaxies tonight - this was the first - NGC 676 - brighter than the normal range of galaxies imaged. (You can see that the images below are not well centred - a required refocusing shifted the images - an unwelcome feature of the LX200 in that focusing moves the mirror  - causing this shift! The Paramount of course does not know this and moves to where it thinks the centre is!)

Object name: NGC 676
Magnitude: 11.9
Equatorial: RA: 01h 49m 30s   Dec: +05°57'31"(current)
Equatorial 2000: RA: 01h 48m 57s   Dec: +05°54'22"

Size: 4.0 x 1.0

(Details from Software Bisque "The Sky")

Image 20' X 20'  Temperature ST9XE - 5 Celsius 30 seconds exposure

 

This was the 27th Galaxy Imaged

Object name: M 33

Other ID: NGC 598
Magnitude: 5.5
Equatorial: RA: 01h 34m 27s   Dec: +30°42'44"(current)
Equatorial 2000: RA: 01h 33m 52s   Dec: +30°39'29"

Size: 68.7 x 41.6

(Details from Software Bisque "The Sky")

Image 20' X 20'  Temperature ST9XE -5 Celsius 30 seconds exposure

 

Saturday
May172014

Saturday 17th May 2014 Electric focuser has solved the problems I had way back in 2010.

In 2010 not having an electric focuser was making my life difficult as in the report below from December 2010.

Last night was clear again - I managed to do a complete run of galaxies in the Perseus region using 30 second exposures.Issues encountered were:

  • The process of setting up the telescope is the most difficult. Although it is southern Spain, it is winter and (although it may be sunny during the day and not too cold)  the wind does tend to be chilly and very uncomfortable. I have trailing cables down the front of the Villa through the sitting room window to my laptop so once the setup is complete and the script is running I can monitor images in comfort. I need to connect my Netbook to the telescope on the terrace so that I can check alignment and focus. Focusing is quite difficult with the LX200 as I have to ensure that the main mirror is clamped then use the external focuser to get precise focus which I find quite difficult. It is very annoying to set the focus - disconnect the Netbook ,connect up to the laptop downstairs and then find that the focus has changed involving changing back to the Netbook again to refocus. 
  • Over an extended period it was necessary to stop the process and recentre the object although galaxies were always well in the field of view. When comparing new galaxy images with library images it is easier if the object is always in the centre.
  • The mount and OTA do tend to respond to the gusty wind that blows across the terrace with the result that stars can be enlarged and elongated during a 30s exposure.

This is one of the fifty images taken - NGC 846

Friday
May162014

Friday 16th May 2014 Images of Supernova 2012fm

In October 2012 I imaged supernova 2012fm.

   

 

 

Thursday
May152014

Thursday 15th May 2014 - DSLR imaging using the "Wilkinson" interface

On March 1st 2010 I tried out the Cable interface provided by Ross Wilkinson of the Bolton Astro Soc for the first time. Taking images with such a wide field of view certainly brings home the extent of light pollution in Leyland - even before the Moon rose!

My Sony DSLR (mounted on my piggy backed 102 mm Meade refractor) was linked to the computer by this device and used the free software "DSLR Shutter" to specify the length and number of exposures.

A bonus was that there was no difficulty in running the software at the same time as my SBIG CCD camera on my 12" Meade OTA which meant that I could start a sequence of DSLR exposures remotely from my study - although of course I could not see the results coming in. However it meant that I could use my SBIG camera as an autoguider which I did. I did not exceed 10 minutes as an exposure however as by that time the Moon was just above the horizon and images were beginning to white out!

The first diffficulty was focusing. The DSLR has a rotatable viewing screen which I thought would make   it possible to see a bright star so I slewed to Procyon which was just east of south. I set a 1 second exposure which gave this image - my first DSLR image of a star!

 

 

 

 I tried again after racking out the focus

 

 

 

and again

 

 and finally

 

 

Other images were taken of M44

 

 and NGC 2419 the globular cluster.

 

 

 

Wednesday
May142014

Wednesday 14th May 2014 - One Second Image of M13

Globular Cluster M13 - 1 second exposure.
On Friday May 14th 2010 I was still using the 12" Meade as my main instrument and was focusing the telescope on M13 using 1 second exposures and realised how much detail was captured in that brief time. M13 was high in the Sky (Airmass 1.064 - 70 degrees altitude) which makes a huge difference in Leyland due to light pollution nearer the horizon - as well as having less atmosphere in the way). I decided to save this raw image (ie no image enhancement or processing) just as a record of what can be captured in 1 second with a 12" OTA and SBIG camera at -5 degrees C..
Len Adam

Tuesday
May132014

Tuesday 13th May 2014 - An Inspiring Astronomer's House - 19 New King Street in Bath

William Herschel lived at 19 New King Street in Bath (now a museum) at the time he discovered the Planet Uranus. The following photographs in and around the house were taken by me ( I had to pay to be allowed to take photographs in the house and garden ) on 25th May 2010. The images must not be copied and cannot be used commercially.

Herschel lived here between 1777 and 1782 although for part of that time the Herschels lived in River Street - nearer the Assembly Rooms. He was certainly in residence in March 1781 when he discovered the Planet Uranus.

The back garden where Herschel carried out his observations is shown below.

Back garden at 19 New King Street looking back towards the house.

There is an extension at the back of the house (to the left in this picture) in which Herschel carried out much of his telescope making. It is not certain whether Herschel observed Uranus from the garden itself or the roof of the extension. You can just make out steps leading to this roof at the left of the extension. The garden has been restored to replicate the likely appearance at the time of the planet discovery.

 

Herschel's back garden at 19 New King Street.

Herschel discovered the planet Uranus using a 6.2 inch reflector that he constructed. 

The house contains a replica of the telescope which is shown below.

 

 An altazimuth mount was used on the Newtonian telescope which allowed "fine" adjustment in altitude and azimuth using the handles in evidence at the middle of the telescope tube. The focal length of the telescope was 7 foot (2100mm) and the mirror diameter 6.2 inches (155 mm). This gives an f-ratio of f/13.5 approximately.  I did not come across any eyepiece information but I know that he used large magnifications during his Uranus observations of X227, X460, X932, X1536 and X2010! (As reported to the Royal Society on 26 April 1781 regarding his observations of a "Comet" - in fact Uranus). This implies eyepieces of 9.25mm, 4.37mm, 2.5mm and 1.3mm focal lengths! I assume Barlow lenses were not in use as Peter Barlow the inventor would only have been 5 in 1781 even though the multiples could potentially indicate that! More research is needed! I believe that the eyepieces were made by William's younger brother Alexander but that his reported magnification claims led some scientists to doubt his observations. The National Maritime Museum has some of Alexander's eyepieces including one with a f.l. of 0.35 mm!!

 The discovery of Uranus made Herschel famous and he sold a considerable number of 7 ft models of this design. He was selling this model for 100 Guineas in his 1794 price list. Many of these still survive in Museums throughout the world - including the National Maritime Museum and the Science Museum which has the Uranus discovery telescope(it is believed) and Caroline Herschel's telescope.

Monday
May122014

Monday 12th May 2014 Using a single shot colour remote telescope to image the Eta Carina Nebula

The Eta Carina Nebula taken on 20th March 2013 at Siding Spring observatory. A 5 minute exposure. Processed in IRIS.

 

Sunday
May112014

Sunday 11th May 2014 - Using a New Mexico Telescope to follow up on a reported Optical Transient

 

 Using a remote telescope to follow up on a reported optical transient can get around the difficulty of local cloud or being in the wrong part of the world to observe it and allow useful scientific data to be obtained. This example is of the OT that I imaged in December 2012.

 

  

 

 

 

Saturday
May102014

Saturday 10th May 2014 The visual double star Mizar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday
May092014

Friday 9th May 2014 - NGC 6946 using two telescopes.

NGC 6946 was the first galaxy imaged on Saturday 13th October 2012. 30 second exposure 14.76' X 14.76'

 

 

I imaged this galaxy again last night using the Sierra Stars 24 inch Cassegrain telescope in California.  2 minute exposure 21' X 21' Field of View.

OK its a lot better but it is 10 inches bigger and took 2 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds on my C14 

That means I can image more potential supernovae galaxies using a shorter exposure.