First Light for the Hyperstar - Finally :-)

Well I finally spent a few hours and got my Hyperstar focal reducer mounted onto my Edge C11HD telescope.  If you're familiar with camera exposures and f-stops and such, then what this does is changes my telescope's native f/10 ratio into an f/2.  This results in two things: a much wider field of view (from 2800mm focal length - ie SUPER telephoto - to a much shorter 560mm) and a much shorter exposure for a given scene (from say 12.5 minutes down to 30 seconds - a factor of 25!)  Here's a picture of my Mallincam Xtreme astro-vieo camera mounted on the Hyperstar...

If you look at some of the other photos of my scope / observatory, you'll notice the camera was in the back. With the Hyperstar the front secondary mirror is removed and the Hyperstar is screwed onto the front corrector plate.  The whole change takes about 5 minutes (that is after you spend a couple hours rerouting cables and balancing the scopes on the mount ;-).  Its like having two very different telescopes in one; one with high magnification for planetary work and small deep-space objects and one with a wide field of view for the larger deep-space objects like the Veil and Orion Nebulae and the Andromeda Galaxy.  I'll be using it initially with the Mallincam, but hope to soon migrate over to my QHY-8 CCD.  Stay tuned for some (hopefully!) very cool images ;-)  

Peace & blessings,  Donn...

Gotta Love Big Vintage Japanese Refractors!

Merry Christmas All! 

I just had to post a photo of one of my favorite vintage refractors: a 1970's Pentax-100 (D=100mm / FL=1200). It stands nearly 8ft tall, tip to floor. 

After many months of not getting it out, I finally got to bring it up from my basement 'man cave' and set it up last night on the deck. It was a very cold and very clear night.  Seems the coldest nights are always the driest and clearest - yielding the best astronomical "seeing".  I'm pretty sure last night / early this morning was the coldest day yet for the past ten months - around 21 degrees F.  

I don't remember open star clusters looking so sparkling - like the proverbial diamonds on black velvet. Definitely the best views of Jupiter I've had for at least a year or two, and the stars of the Trapezium (in the center of the Orion Nebula) never looked so good!  The Japanese and Germans have consistently made the best optics in the world.  This telescope is no exception.  Gotta love big vintage Japanese refractors! 

It's getting late, so I'll keep this short.  I pray this Christmas will be your best ever, with many blessings of friends, family and the Lord!

Peace & blessings, Donn

Another Favorite Astro Website (and YIKES!)

Yikes indeed!  I can't believe the last time I blogged here was early June! Life sure happens -- if you're not careful, it will keep on happening without you even realizing it!  (I think that's called 'autopilot' - hmmm.)

In any case - there's another really cool astrophotography related site I came across called "Pointing to the Universe".  It contains the astrophotography of Fabian Neyer and you can navigate over to his site here:   http://www.starpointing.com/index.html.   Fabian does most of his work out of the 'Antares Observatory' located way over in the in  the north-eastern part of Switzerland.  Kinda cool that it's a cooperative facility owned by roughly 100 members of the Antares Astronomical Society'.

There's two different photo galleries - one composed of shots taken with a Canon digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera and another one of shots taken with a high end purpose-built chilled CCD astro-camera.  For the most part, the DSLR shots are done thru short focal length camera lenses -- anywhere from a typical wide angle to a typical 135mm telephoto -- so the angular field of view is quite wide (ie, less magnification.)  The CCD astro camera was used with a 4" diameter refractor of around 640mm focal length so it was good for objects requiring more magnification.

My favorite photo is found in the CCD section and it's a set of some of the most common deep space objects of all time - collectively known as the 'Nebulas in Orion'.  Although a common target for amateur astrophotographers, you've likely never seen it this way.  It's a four frame mosaic with a total of 61 hours of exposure time!  Amazing detail and depth!  I've included a small version of it below but to really appreciate it, make certain you go to the actual image page and click on the higher resolution (3290x2220 pixel) version located here:  http://www.starpointing.com/ccd/orion.html  -- WOW!

The CCD image gallery represents a lot of very hard work, years of learning how to take and process images and tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear.  On the other hand, the DSLR gallery shows quite a bit more variety of images and investment.  Although the images in Fabian's DSLR gallery represent some of the finest DSLR images around, they are also within the reach of the average amateur astronomer - albeit, not quite at the same level of perfection without comparable experience.  A DSLR camera, lens and simple tracking mount can be had for under a thousand dollars and can form a tool-set for years of photographing the heavens.  Give it a try!

So look at the site and enjoy the beauty of God's creative heavens!
 

Finally! A Clear Night & Some Free Time!

Hi All:

Well, miracles do indeed happen.  Last night I actually had a few hours of uncommitted time AND a nice clear / dry / cloudless night with just a sliver of a moon. (When observing faint deep space objects, a full moon is about the equivalent of shining a search light into the sky - makes observing of faint objects virtually impossible.) So out to the Pod I went - popped open the dome, fired up the mount, computer and video gear and voila - within a short time, I was observing.  I piggy backed my Canon T1i camera with its 100-400mm L series zoom lens and shot a few dozen moon pics.  Then I pulled up the astro video camera control software and watched the moon for a while.  The atmosphere wasn't terribly still, but not too bad either. (When observing the moon and planets and such, the varying amounts of turbulence in the upper atmosphere causes the objects to seeming dance around in the eyepiece or camera. Some nights are reasonably good, but most are pretty jumpy.)

I then logged into http://nightskiesnetwork.com/ and started broadcasting what I was observing on the internet.  Since this is the first time I got everything back up and running after having to do a complete observatory computer rebuild, I had to take some extra time to make sure all the options and parameters for everything were set up properly.  I decided to try my luck with a couple deep space objects.  I pointed the planetarium software cursor to M81, pressed control-1, and whrrrrr... the mount started moving and within 20 seconds or so was pointing right at M81.  This object was originally known as Bode's Nebula -- although it's actually a galaxy -- but back in Bode's days, scientists all thought the milky way was the entirety of the universe and all these other fuzzy things must just be nebulae.) With the camera integrating at 28 seconds, up came the image. Here's what I saw on my computer screen (direct screen capture - no processing, stacking etc.):

Not bad at all!  Remember, this is a direct screen capture of live video coming off the telescope - no stacking and processing to pull out the image.  The astro video camera - a Mallincam Hyper Color Plus model - does it all automatically by capturing all the photons received during a given sample period (28 seconds in this case.)  As an interesting side note, the photons my camera received from this object last night (and you now see on the page) left the galaxy about 12 million years ago -- or in other words, its 12 million light-years away from us!  Just for grins, I also took a peek thru my eyepiece on the other scope mounted side-by side to my my main scope.  The view thru the eyepiece was just a faint colorless smudge barely perceptible over the background sky.  I really like my Mallincam!

Not too far away (in the 'canopy' of the sky) is another cool deep space object  cataloged as M82 and also known as the Cigar Galaxy.  Also located about 12 million light years away, this is now known to be a starburst galaxy.  It is incredibly bright - about 5 times as bright as our whole Milky Way galaxy.  And perpendicular to the main body you see below, are two huge jets of xray emissions.  The creativity of God is without limit!  Below is a snapshot of what I was viewing on my computer screen:

Again, taking a peek thru the eyepiece, I only see a little fuzzy patch of light.  Although it's happening a little slowly at first, my bet is that astro-videography will one day become THE way for amateurs to observe the heavens.  

Since I still had my DSLR piggy-backed on the scope, I decided to drop the zoom to 100mm and take about 50 or so 45 second exposures of the area of sky where M81 & M82 reside.  I'll have to bring the data into my main PC in the house for some stacking and processing.  My hope is that I was able to catch the two objects together in the wider field of view of the 100mm lens and the DSLR's bigger CCD chip.  Time will tell.  To stack and process these 50 or so images into a single hi-resolution image will take at a minimum of about 4 to 5 hours.  That's why astro-videography is so much more fun and more like traditional observing -- instant gratification ;-)  So if the image comes out - that will be my next post. Stay tuned - and keep looking to the heavens - and the God of heaven!

Peace & blessings... Donn

Greetings all!  Ok - I know - I'm way overdue for a post here.  No, I didn't fall into a black hole or get lost in another dimension (well... I definitely didn't fall into a black hole!)  I've been on a bit of travel and just busy living life - at least life as our culture defines it.  My wife and I finally got to take a trip to IHOP-KC in Kansas City Missouri. Before you ask, no we didn't travel all that way for pancakes.  We visited the International House of Prayer - a place where prayer and worship has been going continuously 24-7-365 for over 12 years - a place that we share much spiritual DNA with. 


Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and it really stirred some things in my spirit.  So one of the things I did since getting back was to start doing some reading - you know - that pile of books that keeps growing while you keep saying "yea, I gotta read that one"?  One of the books I read was called "The Finisher".  Sounds like the title for some kind of weapons-a-blazing blood and guts action story.  But its not (I don't really care for that genre.)  Its really a book about walking with the One who created the universe and put all the stars that we look at in their place. (See, there is a tie in to astronomy ;-)  So below is a little review for it that I posted on Amazon -- check it out...
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I just finished reading "The Finisher" by Jan Kinne Conway. I must say, it has been some time since a book has been this impactful. My wife (the love of my life after Jesus) met Jan at a YWAM University of the Nations / Kona Writer's Workshop last year and brought home a copy of the book. At her suggestion, I picked the book up and started reading. Not being able to put it down, I finished it in one sitting. This gem of a book was just the tipping point I needed! Our Jesus adventure has been in low gear in recent years, but I know that's all about to change! It's so easy to get caught up in the grind of daily life as defined by our culture. You know the deal - big house, nice cars, etc, etc. Somehow, no matter how much of the so called American Dream that we attain, it just never feels enough - never fulfilling. But this couple took the chance and jumped into real life with both feet. Thru it, they learned and held on to what we had just started to learn - and subsequently forgot; that life is truly found not in the accumulation of things, but in the pouring out of yourself into others. 

The book is very well written and easy to digest. It's easy to see yourself in the midst of Jan and her husband's life events as though witnessing the various adventures. There is a flow and an underlying message that are smoothly woven throughout. I won't reveal any details of the second half, but suffice it to say that after hitting midpoint and reading about the woman in Albania who knew there was a Creator but didn't know His name, I lost it - the rest of the book was read thru tears. What an amazing life story they lived. The most amazing thing is that like many others who have taken that first step, they didn't have to be super-saints who were perfect in order for God to use them in the Kingdom. They just made themselves available and trusted God. 

I can tell you, the American Dream in reality is an empty falsehood at best and a nightmare at worst. Isn't it time you listened to that small voice of the Spirit within and learned what life is really all about? This book will show you how and will encourage you to step into the life that God has for each one of us who will say "here I am - send me". He will -- and you'll find riches everlasting. If you love the Lord, are over 40, and believe there's more to real living, I challenge you to invest the cost of 2 or 3 fancy coffees with Italian names into something that may truly take you from 'making a living' to 'making a difference'... I double dog dare you! 

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So there it is - now take the challenge and read it - it will do wonders for your spirit and soul!  If you can't find it locally, you can get it at Amazon:
---  http://www.amazon.com/Finisher-Jan-Kinne-Conway/dp/1935529102/  ---

Peace & blessings... 

New Periodic Feature: My Favorite Astro Website

Hi All:

Its (again!) been too long since my last post.  I decided to start a more or less irregular feature on my blog called "My Favorite Astro Website" where I'll post an astronomy-related link that really impressed me.  I'll likely add some comments but for the most part, I'll allow the sites to speak for themselves (ie, if you don't follow the link and check it out, you'll not really know what you're missing ;-)  Don't worry, I won't direct you to any bad sites or places that are trying to scam you or sell something.  Nor will there be any links to places where I get something in return for your visit (that would be rather distasteful for a personal blog :-o So slide back into your favorite easy chair and enjoy the first one -- here goes...

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Here is a favorite link of mine that will take you to an album of some of the most beautiful and inspiring astro images I've seen from an amateur astronomer: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/114940395878239509473/AstronomyImages#

The owner Fred Herrmann is an amateur astronomer from Huntsville, Alabama who has been doing some incredible imaging lately as his Google Picasa album attests to.  He's a very experienced and very prolific imager, thanks in part to his permanent observatory and some software called CCD Autopilot.  The software controls the pointing, imaging, focusing and everything else that needs to be done. You just pick your list of objects and exposures and it does the rest.  According to Fred "Most of the image collection is done either while I'm watching TV, reading or sleeping." Nice work Fred! 

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So there you have it!  Make sure you click thru the thumbnails to see the images up close - really very inspiring and very beautiful.  It still amazes me how so many with a deep understanding of science and physics can look at the world and the universe and say 'this was all created by chance' - ruling out the possibility that there is a Creator behind it all (ie, God of the Bible!) When is the last time you saw an incredible work of art or moving piece of music that was created randomly?  Hmmmm...

Peace & blessings,

The AstroMonk  (aka Donn)

Update from the Chill

Hi All:

Well its been waaay too long since I posted any updates.  Actually a couple weeks ago, I came down with this nasty flu that kept me pretty much flat on my back for four days plus another day or two to gradually come back to full vertical status.  About a week prior to that, my observatory PC and DVC100 video grabber both went on the fritz.  I've had some weird nagging problems for months with the PC so I decided to build a new one.  I built up a new system piece-mill based on an ASUS motherboard and an AMD Phenom Quadcore.  I decided to go out on a limb and use Windows 7 Pro 64 versus my mainstay for the past few years - Windows XP Pro.  So far, the system is up and running, fully updated and I'm starting to bring up the various applications like Maxim DL Pro 5 (for control of all the imaging), FocusMax, PEM Pro and Sky Tools 3 Pro (for planning my observation or imaging runs.)

So far, so good - everything seems to be installing properly and booting up right.  The acid test will be when I get the system back out to the observatory POD and hook it up to the mount and cameras.  To date, I've primarily been using the Mallincam Hyper Color Plus astro video camera - an amazing little device! It is really more oriented for vastly enhanced observing than imaging, although getting single frame grabs from it is incredibly easy and impressive, considering the ease of it all.  I'm really getting anxious though to fire up the QHY8, which is a Peltier cooled one shot color camera with an 8 Megapixel APS-C sized CCD comparable to a modern DSLR.

I've seen some incredible results posted on the web from users of this camera, although it is indeed a more involved process.  Data collection typically requires 30 minutes to a few hours of image data, along with a number of "darks", "flats" and other frames used to correct for various common image defects like hot or dead pixels, dust bits on the optics, CCD electronic noise, etc.  Then comes the image processing; for the typical hour or so of collected image data, you will end up spending at least five times that with stacking and photoshop tweaking.  So every time you see one of those beautiful deep space images on the web, remember that you're probably looking at eight, twelve or maybe even many tens of hours of painstaking work.  A lot of the Hubble images you see may be upwards of 100 hours processing per hour of collected data!  In spite of the effort required and the steep learning curve, I'm looking forward to diving in head first.

Well hopefully, the weather will be a little more friendly so I can get the observatory up and running by the end of this next week. (I'm going thru astro withdrawal and really need some telescope time soon!) Well enough for now.  Hopefully you will all have some good weather and free time to get your eyeballs on the heavens!  Ciao...

Trying Out the New 100-400 Zoom Lens

Hi All:

Well in spite of the brutal cold tonight -- 20F / 10 or so with wind chill -- I thought I'd try to get a couple of quick snaps with my Canon T1i and the new lens I just got for it.  The Moon and Jupiter being so close together compelled me to do it!  The lens is a Canon L series 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS/USM.  The thing is a beast!

Here's a quickie shot of it extended to 400mm.  It weighs 3.1 pounds and is quite a handful.  I guess stuffing 17 glass lens elements into a single metal barrel makes for some beefiness.  Fortunately I found one used as I would never have paid list for one - even used it was a stretch.  However from what I've seen so far of it in my own experience and the glowing comments others have made on it, there is a reason they're pricey.  This is nothing like the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 kit lens that we got prior to this one.  I tried some lunar and assorted evening sky shots and the internal reflections and false color were terrible.  Granted, the little guy isn't bad in the daytime for casual snaps, but the 100-400 L series stomps on it for astro use.  If you really want to see how good a lens is, take some shots of the moon.  Look for signs of internal reflections, false color at the edges of bright objects, lack of sharpness, etc.  This lens excels in those areas.

OK, enough jaw flapping - here's a couple shots with minimal processing that were taken on a tripod in 15-20MPH winds.  First the moon:

Not bad for a quick snap on a tripod in the blowing wind!  Here's one of the moon and Jupiter:

OK - granted, not visually stimulating to most, but the absolute lack of false color is impressive.  Finally, here's a shot of Jupiter.  Now remember, this was extended to its max - 400mm - and in the full frame, it is still just a dot.  I had to crop it to about 10% or less of the full frame:

Again, not too terribly visually exciting, but for a tripod mounted snap, it again shows the sharpness and lack of false color.  I'm hoping for some friendlier weather in the days ahead so I can piggy back the camera and lens on my observatory mounted scope and do some longer exposures of deep space objects.  A planetary lens this is not -- just not enough magnification.  But for the Moon and deep space objects, this should be killer!  At three pounds, it is still light enough that it could be mounted on small tracking mounts like an inexpensive / homemade barn door tracker.  Well enough for now -- but some future deep space shots with this lens should be coming :-)

Oh, one last shot - couldn't resist.  This is our little girl, Penelope (yes, we're empty nesters ;-)  She's a 'teacup' Yorkie and weighs in at  three and a half pounds, full grown.  She's also a diva - and she knows it!  I had to giver her a quick bath and some grooming after I came in from the shoot:

Come on now - you must admit - she's a cutie!  Ciao!

Peace and blessings, Donn