Hi All:
Yes, I know - it's been many moons since I've posted here. Life has a way of taking up a lot of time. I came across this astrophotography website today and just had to share it. It hosts photos of the heavens and of gear - two of my favorite things. Give it a peek and I'm sure you'll find something of interest:
http://www.astrophotogallery.org/
Oh yes - I did finally get a clear sky and some time in the DMO pod last night. I spent some time looking at a couple favorite objects, including M31 and then decided to re-do my mount's periodic error correction curve. To do that, I fired up a CCD-Soft software package called PEMPro II. Basically you point to a moderately bright star to the south, just west of the meridian and the software tracks and records the error in your mount's mechanics. It analyzes the error, creates a correction curve and then uploads it to your mount (a Celestron CGE in my case). The mount then offsets its tracking with this cyclical correction data to null out the error inherent in it. The result is more accurate tracking. To go thru the process requires collecting about an hour's worth of tracking data from one star. So not exactly exciting if you catch my drift (no pun intended ;-) Anyway, got that wrapped up and then explored a few objects around Cassiopia and Cephus. All in all, a productive night in the pod! Hopefully I'll get some new photos up soon as I do have some data stashed that needs a bit of stacking and processing to make some nice astrophotos. Cheers!
Peace & blessings,
Donn / The Astro Monk...
Monday, September 10, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Finally an Update on the Observatory
Hi All. Is it only me or do whole weeks and months seem to disappear into the ethers? Well it's not that I haven't been doing anything but just finally decided 'I've got to put an update on the blog'!
After spending some time getting my 102mm APO (refractor telescope) mounted beside my main 11" SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope) and working things out for the past few months, I've come to realize that this is one of those cases where 'less is more'. It was great having a nice big refractor mounted beside my SCT which always seems to have a camera mounted on it. With the side-by-side arrangement I could use the refractor for visual observing (ie - eyeballing what the camera was looking at.) This was the idea any way. In reality, it worked fine for visual observing, but the mounting arrangement and extra weight actually impacted the mount's tracking and pointing accuracy. The total load was still below the stated maximum for the CGE mount, but I had broken the rough rule of thumb that for astrophotography, always run your mount at no more than half it's rated capacity. Oh well, it was a fun experiment, but I'm back to just the SCT now.
One of the things I have found to be an inconvenience, is having to switch from one camera to another, depending on the type of imaging I want to do. As well, I'm building a spectroscope to add on to allow me to do some real science with my setup. So how to avoid rewiring and 're-plumbing' every time I want to go from planetary, to astrovideography to deep space astrophotography? Enter the "Sidewinder"...
After spending some time getting my 102mm APO (refractor telescope) mounted beside my main 11" SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope) and working things out for the past few months, I've come to realize that this is one of those cases where 'less is more'. It was great having a nice big refractor mounted beside my SCT which always seems to have a camera mounted on it. With the side-by-side arrangement I could use the refractor for visual observing (ie - eyeballing what the camera was looking at.) This was the idea any way. In reality, it worked fine for visual observing, but the mounting arrangement and extra weight actually impacted the mount's tracking and pointing accuracy. The total load was still below the stated maximum for the CGE mount, but I had broken the rough rule of thumb that for astrophotography, always run your mount at no more than half it's rated capacity. Oh well, it was a fun experiment, but I'm back to just the SCT now.
One of the things I have found to be an inconvenience, is having to switch from one camera to another, depending on the type of imaging I want to do. As well, I'm building a spectroscope to add on to allow me to do some real science with my setup. So how to avoid rewiring and 're-plumbing' every time I want to go from planetary, to astrovideography to deep space astrophotography? Enter the "Sidewinder"...
"So that's what that thing is on the back end of the scope? ... What's a Sidewinder you ask?" You're looking at what is generically referred to as an "optical manifold". It will allow me to mount up to three cameras or devices (such as my spectroscope when built) and switch between them by simply sliding the knob/tube at left back into the housing and rotating it to bounce the light off an internal first surface mirror to the desired device. There's even a special port to add an off axis guider camera on the far right (not visible in the photo.) The sidewinder is an highly precision-built accessory that is made by Paul VanSlyke of VSI Engineering (http://www.observatory.org/). Paul makes a whole array of well thought out accessories to such precision that many professional observatories use his gear. Not seen in the photo, but an important part of the system, is a a rotary optical joint called a "Zerotator" that allows the whole manifold assembly with the attached cameras to be rotated (for framing the object being measured or photographed.
"Gee, this all sound kinda complex!" Well, yes, in a way -- but in the end it will simplify the overall operation of the observatory. And if you were curious how I do control the mount, scope, cameras and other bits, here's a photo of the main "operations bay" of the POD observatory:
I've got the obligatory red (so it doesn't affect my night vision) observatory lighting cranked up pretty high so you can see the keyboard and surrounding bits. I still keep a paper observing log (on the right wall) to note my observations and hardware changes and issues. But the heart of the operations is a quad-core PC I built that runs 64bit Windows 7 Pro. The USB microphone at left is what I use to broadcast my voice when I'm broadcasting my astro-video observations on Night Skies Network (http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/). >> OK, insert big plug here! If you haven't been on the Night Skies Network website yet - or recently - you need to do it! Now you don't even have to sign up to receive the live broadcasts of astronomical video observations; you can click in as a guest. (You just won't be able to type in the chat window and ask questions / make comments.) Most nights, you can find at least a couple folks broadcasting their observations. Sometimes you can catch solar or lunar observations during the daytime. I'm listed there as "AstroMonk". I'll be doing more broadcasting on it in the coming months, so maybe you'll catch me some time.
This main observatory PC controls the mount and the cameras and the electronic focuser on the telescope. I'm running a couple different main software packages: MaximDL5Pro for image acquisition; SkyTools3Pro for planning observations and targets to be photographed; and a number of other programs to control specific cameras, record video, drive the focuser, etc. All together, it's got quite a large learning curve - but then again, I enjoy learning! (I'd be a full-time professional student for decades if I could get a wealthy patron to sponsor me ;-)
Well its getting late now, so I'll wrap this up. Do make sure you check out Night Skies Network; you can learn so much about astronomy just by watching the various broadcasts. (Parents -- its an incredible learning tool for kids of all ages -- watch it with them and enjoy the awesome beauty of God's creative handiwork known as the universe! Ciao for now.
Peace & blessings, Donn... aka The Astro Monk!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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...
Friday, December 2, 2011
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
Thursday, August 25, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
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.):
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-
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
Friday, June 3, 2011
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!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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...
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...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
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:
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)
Sunday, February 6, 2011
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...
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...
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Finally! Got to do Some Video Observing in the POD
Hi All:
Well last night (12/28) I finally got a chance to get out into the POD and do a little video observing as the weather and my schedule finally coincided! It turned out, my Edge C11HD wasn't showing Jupiter to be quite as nice, round and sharp as I expected. I decided to do a little tweak of the collimation. Good thing too - it actually was off a bit. After the tweak, everything was looking better and I didn't get near as much movement of stars in the field of view as I racked the electronic focuser in and out. So I decided to get a quick peek at the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I first got the focus fine tuned and then slewed the scope around to M31, tweaked the position just a bit and set the Mallincam up for Deep Space mode with 7 sec integration - VOILA! There it was in all its beauty. I realized I had to do some tweaking of the contrast, brightness, saturation and gamma of my HD video monitor and my computer's screen in order to really make out the dust lanes clearly. Anyway, this is what it looks like on my computer screen:
Well last night (12/28) I finally got a chance to get out into the POD and do a little video observing as the weather and my schedule finally coincided! It turned out, my Edge C11HD wasn't showing Jupiter to be quite as nice, round and sharp as I expected. I decided to do a little tweak of the collimation. Good thing too - it actually was off a bit. After the tweak, everything was looking better and I didn't get near as much movement of stars in the field of view as I racked the electronic focuser in and out. So I decided to get a quick peek at the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I first got the focus fine tuned and then slewed the scope around to M31, tweaked the position just a bit and set the Mallincam up for Deep Space mode with 7 sec integration - VOILA! There it was in all its beauty. I realized I had to do some tweaking of the contrast, brightness, saturation and gamma of my HD video monitor and my computer's screen in order to really make out the dust lanes clearly. Anyway, this is what it looks like on my computer screen:
I was using WebcamMax (registered) to display and capture the video and to stream it thru Night Skies Network, Mallincam Control to remotely change camera settings and Stellarium to point the scope at different targets. I rang my wife Marye at this point (she was in the house, nice and warm while I was in the POD shivering ;-) and had her pull up Night Skies Network; she was able to watch the same thing I was seeing and could even do so on the big screen media-pc TV if she wanted to. After stuying Andromeda for a while, I thought I'd get a peek at the Great Orion Nebula / M42 - always a thrilling sight! So I pointed to Orion with my mouse, hit Ctrl-1 and wwhhrrrrrrrrrrr - the mount moved the scope to point at the nebula. Here's what I saw on my observatory PC's screen:
Considering the wind was blowing quite a bit with gusts up to 20mph or more, everything looked quite good! Now if you're an old hand at this, you'll be wondering how I got away with using an f/3.3 Meade focal reducer with an Edge series SCT (with internally corrected optics.) Well it is true that for optimum results, you need a special reducer only (not reducer / corrector like the Meade I'm using.) However, since no company, Celestron included, has physically put one on the market yet (although one company is 'really close' (right - like just around the corner, eh?), I decided to try it. With a CCD chip as small as the Mallincam uses, it actually works quite well. You can see some out of shape stars at the outer edges, but its really quite reasonable. Next round, I'm going to have to try the Hyperstar III, which turns the relatively slow f/10 optics into a widefield light eating monster at f/2! I can hardly wait!
Well if you'd like to see a few more of the actual screen capture images, you can take a peek in my web photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/donnwms/AstroPhotos4FB# (the last few photos at end.) Keep in mind, these are totally raw unstacked / single screen captures with no processing. If I put these in Photoshop or GIMP, I'll be able to adjust things so the center portions are not so bright / overexposed and the outer portions show more fine detail. You can also see a couple short 30 second video clips captured straight from the camera, live, on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/donnw22. More to come so check back some time.
Peace and blessings,
Donn
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Lunar Eclipse Dec 21st, 2010 - Clouds!
Hi All:
Well I was up until 1:30am or so preparing my Canon T1i DSLR and my Brandon 80mm Apochromatic refractor for some lunar eclipse photos. Went to sleep for about an hour and a half in spite of the excitement. I was able to drift off to sleep in confidence, knowing my gear was ready and the Clear Dark Sky Clock reported the sky would be clear - great! 3am - I pop out of bed at the first chime of my cell phone alarm, throw on a coat and hat and have the tripod mounted camera / refractor assembly on the deck in under 3 minutes - and what do I see? CLOUDS! Arghhh! I watch with futile hope, thinking those pockets of clear sky cloud gaps where I can occasionally see a couple stars would expose the eclipsed moon in it's beautiful orange-brown state. But nooooo - the sky only teased me with a very occasional porthole of a partial clearing. A quick snap was all I could get. Maybe 2 or 3 on one or two tries when the gap would permit.
Well in spite of the conditions, I did manage to snap around 20 or so shots at various stages after totality. I transferred them to my laptop and took a peek with iPhoto. Hmmm - pretty bleak for the shots. Very little info was there, but whatever amount there was, I tweaked within iPhoto and actualy wound up with16 decent images - not magazine quality mind you, but good enough to post on the web ;-) Here's one just for grins..
It really is quite amazing what you can do with the simplest image editing software to coax out detail that would otherwise be invisible. This shot and the others (which I posted in the lower online album shown at the right edge of this page) were at best, covered by some degree of clouds for the whole hour and a half during which I stayed up - waiting for even a tiny break. If you want to see all 16 shots, you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/donnwms/LunarEclipse122110#. Well maybe next time the weather will be a little more cooperative. Hopefully you had better luck at your spot on the globe ;-) In any case, Merry Christmas!
Peace & blessings,
Donn (aka The Astro Monk)
Well I was up until 1:30am or so preparing my Canon T1i DSLR and my Brandon 80mm Apochromatic refractor for some lunar eclipse photos. Went to sleep for about an hour and a half in spite of the excitement. I was able to drift off to sleep in confidence, knowing my gear was ready and the Clear Dark Sky Clock reported the sky would be clear - great! 3am - I pop out of bed at the first chime of my cell phone alarm, throw on a coat and hat and have the tripod mounted camera / refractor assembly on the deck in under 3 minutes - and what do I see? CLOUDS! Arghhh! I watch with futile hope, thinking those pockets of clear sky cloud gaps where I can occasionally see a couple stars would expose the eclipsed moon in it's beautiful orange-brown state. But nooooo - the sky only teased me with a very occasional porthole of a partial clearing. A quick snap was all I could get. Maybe 2 or 3 on one or two tries when the gap would permit.
Well in spite of the conditions, I did manage to snap around 20 or so shots at various stages after totality. I transferred them to my laptop and took a peek with iPhoto. Hmmm - pretty bleak for the shots. Very little info was there, but whatever amount there was, I tweaked within iPhoto and actualy wound up with16 decent images - not magazine quality mind you, but good enough to post on the web ;-) Here's one just for grins..
It really is quite amazing what you can do with the simplest image editing software to coax out detail that would otherwise be invisible. This shot and the others (which I posted in the lower online album shown at the right edge of this page) were at best, covered by some degree of clouds for the whole hour and a half during which I stayed up - waiting for even a tiny break. If you want to see all 16 shots, you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/donnwms/LunarEclipse122110#. Well maybe next time the weather will be a little more cooperative. Hopefully you had better luck at your spot on the globe ;-) In any case, Merry Christmas!
Peace & blessings,
Donn (aka The Astro Monk)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Visit to the Hood College Williams Observatory
I had the opportunity to visit the Williams Observatory at Hood College, Frederick, MD - home of a beautiful 8" Clarke refractor! The astronomy professor there has graciously offered to open the observatory from 8:30pm to 9:30pm every clear Wednesday night thru December 8th, with the exception of Nov 24th. You can find more info here:
http://www.hood.edu/adminservices/news.cfm?featureID=2462.
I took a couple quick snaps that I'm posting here for your viewing pleasure. (If you appreciate old / vintage refractors, you'll love this one!)
Myself and Steve Berte, (both members of TriStateAstronomers) had the opportunity to actually view thru this historic instrument. We saw Jupiter, the Moon (of course!) and the Ring Nebula. Views were quite impressive, as was manually moving the beast and the heavy dome. I was surprised to see a bit of false color in this F/14 scope, but in all likelyhood, it may have been from the Unitron Unihex, which was a bit loose and may have even had a slightly tilted prism. Regardless, the views were great and it was a thrill finally getting my hands (and eyes) on a legendary Clarke refractor. Great fun! Make sure you check it out!
http://www.hood.edu/adminservices/news.cfm?featureID=2462.
I took a couple quick snaps that I'm posting here for your viewing pleasure. (If you appreciate old / vintage refractors, you'll love this one!)
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| Clarke 8" Refractor - Gorgeous! |
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| Me at the Business End (with Unitron Unihex EP Set ;-) |
Peace & blessings to all...
Updated POD Photos and Next Step in AstroPhotography Adventures
Well, I promised a shot or two of the new side-by-side arrangement for the Digital Monastery Observatory, so here they are:
This really turns out to be a much nicer arrangement. I thought it may be much more difficult to balance (which is critically important for optimal tracking during astrophotography) but it was actually quite easy to achieve a decent balance. I really like the arrangement too as I have the ED102 APO for intermediate F/7 widefield or intermediate planetary and the C11 for F/10 high magnification planetary (straight use) or with the Starizona Hyperstar III auxiliary lens for ultra widefield F/2 imaging.
Now that I pretty well have my hardware set up (all except for my electronic focuser for the C11, which I hope to install this week), I've turned to seriously look at the software for imaging and observing. I've been using SkyToolsPro3 for a few months as a core planning tool. Whether observing or photographing, it is an amazingly capable program and I will continue to use it as a core element. After much reviewing and studying and trying out some of the less expensive packages, I've come to accept that MaxIm DL 5 is THE package to use for years to come. There won't be any outgrowing this one. I 'bit the bullet' and picked up the Pro Suite, which includes MaxPoint software that learns and models your rig and yields improved pointing accuracy. I've installed it and am hoping to get a chance this week to go thru the online tutorials and fire it up for some initial imaging runs. The thing I need most now, is a good dozen or so opportunities to get out there under clear skies and jump headfirst into the hands on learning curve. Lord, I pray for clear skies and time and grace to be out there in the POD for a number of fruitful imaging sessions!
Peace and blessings to you all...
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| Edge C11HD w/ Explore Scientific ED102 APO |
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| Front View Showing ADM Side-by-Side Bar |
This really turns out to be a much nicer arrangement. I thought it may be much more difficult to balance (which is critically important for optimal tracking during astrophotography) but it was actually quite easy to achieve a decent balance. I really like the arrangement too as I have the ED102 APO for intermediate F/7 widefield or intermediate planetary and the C11 for F/10 high magnification planetary (straight use) or with the Starizona Hyperstar III auxiliary lens for ultra widefield F/2 imaging.
Now that I pretty well have my hardware set up (all except for my electronic focuser for the C11, which I hope to install this week), I've turned to seriously look at the software for imaging and observing. I've been using SkyToolsPro3 for a few months as a core planning tool. Whether observing or photographing, it is an amazingly capable program and I will continue to use it as a core element. After much reviewing and studying and trying out some of the less expensive packages, I've come to accept that MaxIm DL 5 is THE package to use for years to come. There won't be any outgrowing this one. I 'bit the bullet' and picked up the Pro Suite, which includes MaxPoint software that learns and models your rig and yields improved pointing accuracy. I've installed it and am hoping to get a chance this week to go thru the online tutorials and fire it up for some initial imaging runs. The thing I need most now, is a good dozen or so opportunities to get out there under clear skies and jump headfirst into the hands on learning curve. Lord, I pray for clear skies and time and grace to be out there in the POD for a number of fruitful imaging sessions!
Peace and blessings to you all...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
More Tweaking with PEMPro
Well last week I spent another few hours out in the POD doing an upgrade to the imaging setup and re-doing the polar alignment and periodic error correction of the mount. From the previous run with PEMPro, I could see a large improvement, but I felt it could be better. After polar alignment, my first pass with PEMPro showed an uncorrected periodic error on the order of +/- 25 arcsec. After calculating and loading the correction curve, with PEC turned on, I was seeing about 10 arcsec pk-pk tracking error. Respectable, but not as good as I wanted. Previously I had the EdgeC11HD installed with a dovetail on top so I could slide on an 80mm APO for guiding and widefield imaging. However, because of the design of the POD, having the guidescope on top of the big C11 resulted in too many times where the dome half would totally block the guidescope. So I decided to do a side-by-side arrangement of the two scopes. This would help with the blocked scope issue but what about the PEC?
After thinking things thru, I realized that in initially trying to dampen out mount vibrations with very large metal washers and high durometer silicon washers/bushings, I actually introduced a small but significant degree of flex in the whole mount that would change depending on the position of the scope. Out came the bushings, the mount base was re-levelled and the mounting nuts were tightly snugged down to the pier bolts. The mount was noticeably more rigid now (and I really don't have to worry about vibration anyway, as I have a wooden pier, rather than metal or concrete - both of which make great lightning conductors!)
I picked up a side-by-side mount from ADM and installed the C11 on one side and my slightly larger APO refractor - an Explore Scientific ED102 - on the other side. Next I carefully balanced the two scopes in reference to their mounting center and the two mount axis. Once darkness fell, I fired up everything and did a quick 2+4 alignment (2 alignment stars plus 4 calibration stars.) Next I re-did the polar alignment adjustment using PEMPro and got it down to less than 1 arcsec of error. I ran thru the PEC measurement and calibration and when done, had a total pk-pk periodic error of just under 3 arcsec! Hoorah! Patience and nit picking paid off! Most $5k to $10K mounts don't do that well out of the box - and mine cost way less than half that. Thank you Lord!
I'll post a picture or two of the new scope / mount arrangement this weekend. Needless to say, I am quite happy with the mount tracking accuracy. Next I have to install MaxIm DL 5Pro Suite with MaxPoint so I can refine the go-to pointing accuracy (although it is already much better now that the PEC has been further refined.) The saga continues...
Peace & blessings! Donn
After thinking things thru, I realized that in initially trying to dampen out mount vibrations with very large metal washers and high durometer silicon washers/bushings, I actually introduced a small but significant degree of flex in the whole mount that would change depending on the position of the scope. Out came the bushings, the mount base was re-levelled and the mounting nuts were tightly snugged down to the pier bolts. The mount was noticeably more rigid now (and I really don't have to worry about vibration anyway, as I have a wooden pier, rather than metal or concrete - both of which make great lightning conductors!)
I picked up a side-by-side mount from ADM and installed the C11 on one side and my slightly larger APO refractor - an Explore Scientific ED102 - on the other side. Next I carefully balanced the two scopes in reference to their mounting center and the two mount axis. Once darkness fell, I fired up everything and did a quick 2+4 alignment (2 alignment stars plus 4 calibration stars.) Next I re-did the polar alignment adjustment using PEMPro and got it down to less than 1 arcsec of error. I ran thru the PEC measurement and calibration and when done, had a total pk-pk periodic error of just under 3 arcsec! Hoorah! Patience and nit picking paid off! Most $5k to $10K mounts don't do that well out of the box - and mine cost way less than half that. Thank you Lord!
I'll post a picture or two of the new scope / mount arrangement this weekend. Needless to say, I am quite happy with the mount tracking accuracy. Next I have to install MaxIm DL 5Pro Suite with MaxPoint so I can refine the go-to pointing accuracy (although it is already much better now that the PEC has been further refined.) The saga continues...
Peace & blessings! Donn
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Learning the Fine Art of PEMPro
Hi All...
Well after two sessions in the POD trying to fine tune the polar alignment of the telescope's mount, I think I'm finally learning how to speak PEMPro :-) PEMPro is a piece of software that enables an amateur astronomer to improve the performance of the mount with some assistance from the computer. For those that haven't shopped for a telescope and mount recently, telescopes can be had for some very reasonable prices with very good performance. Mounts? Forget it! They're extremely expensive to get one that has good enough accuracy to use for serious astrophotography. So what to do if you can't drop the price of a Kia (automobile) on a telescope mount? You by a less expensive one, tweak it to eliminate any gross errors and then use software like PEMPro to measure and correct for the remaining tracking errors. I must admit, it was quite aggravating to sit under clear dark skies in my POD last week and not be able to LOOK at anything besides the little zigzag track of a solo star on the screen as I learned my way thru the software. Last night I had to do the same thing, but alas - now my mount is accurately polar aligned. Next session I'll be able to get a good characterization of the residual mount errors and null them out. Then I will finally be able to start some serious astrophotography - Yea!
After all that time in the POD without any actual viewing time, I had to pull out my little 60mm Zeiss Telementor II vintage refractor and point it at a couple double stars and Jupiter. This little scope so amazes me! It is an example of German engineering at its finest! The views thru it (with original Zeiss eyepieces) are incredibly sharp and very contrasty. I always see as much thru that little scope as thru most 80 to 100 mm scopes. That's why Zeiss scopes have consistently appreciated in value. Good idea for us too -- whatever we do, do it without compromise and absolute best we can and in return, we will appreciate in value to others...
Well after two sessions in the POD trying to fine tune the polar alignment of the telescope's mount, I think I'm finally learning how to speak PEMPro :-) PEMPro is a piece of software that enables an amateur astronomer to improve the performance of the mount with some assistance from the computer. For those that haven't shopped for a telescope and mount recently, telescopes can be had for some very reasonable prices with very good performance. Mounts? Forget it! They're extremely expensive to get one that has good enough accuracy to use for serious astrophotography. So what to do if you can't drop the price of a Kia (automobile) on a telescope mount? You by a less expensive one, tweak it to eliminate any gross errors and then use software like PEMPro to measure and correct for the remaining tracking errors. I must admit, it was quite aggravating to sit under clear dark skies in my POD last week and not be able to LOOK at anything besides the little zigzag track of a solo star on the screen as I learned my way thru the software. Last night I had to do the same thing, but alas - now my mount is accurately polar aligned. Next session I'll be able to get a good characterization of the residual mount errors and null them out. Then I will finally be able to start some serious astrophotography - Yea!
After all that time in the POD without any actual viewing time, I had to pull out my little 60mm Zeiss Telementor II vintage refractor and point it at a couple double stars and Jupiter. This little scope so amazes me! It is an example of German engineering at its finest! The views thru it (with original Zeiss eyepieces) are incredibly sharp and very contrasty. I always see as much thru that little scope as thru most 80 to 100 mm scopes. That's why Zeiss scopes have consistently appreciated in value. Good idea for us too -- whatever we do, do it without compromise and absolute best we can and in return, we will appreciate in value to others...
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Matzoh Balls: The Answer to the Expanding Universe
OK, so astrophysicists have been hard at work studying and trying to understand our universe. In my lifetime, the popular scientific understanding of our universe has changed dramatically multiple times. Now we know (theoretically) that the universe is not just continuing to expand from it's moment of creation but is actually expanding at an ever increasing rate. "Dark Matter" has been theorized to handle issues of calculations involving the expanding universe and the amount of matter in it. Amounts of baryonic matter (matter made up of protons, neutrons & electrons - you know -- 'normal' matter) don't add up properly in the various equations. There has to be more matter, so invisible dark matter must be present. And things just don't seem to add up regarding the increasing rate of expansion of the universe - it would require more energy than is known to exist. Thus "Dark Energy" is theorized into the modern astrophysical landscape.
Well I'm certainly not an astrophysicist, but the other day I had an epiphany after eating matzoh balls. I made a big batch of traditional matzoh ball soup (aka, "Jewish Penicillin") that would have made any Jewish grandmother proud. Naturally I had to have a bowl right away and did so, including a couple of those potentially dangerous matzoh balls (often referred to as "matzoh bombs" by those in the know ;-) Well if you've ever eaten this stuff, you know the rate of expansion of a matzoh ball in your stomach and the resulting mass is way more than that wee box of cracker crumbs can account for! No, they don't double in size, they grow by at least an order of magnitude - totally beyond logic and reason. The result is a matzoh stupor.
The point is, if astrophysicists would start studying the mysteries of matzoh ball soup, which they can experimentally replicate and document, they could well unlock the mystery of the expanding universe. Is the universe that different from a matzoh ball? I think not! Oy vey!
Shalom & blessings :-)
Well I'm certainly not an astrophysicist, but the other day I had an epiphany after eating matzoh balls. I made a big batch of traditional matzoh ball soup (aka, "Jewish Penicillin") that would have made any Jewish grandmother proud. Naturally I had to have a bowl right away and did so, including a couple of those potentially dangerous matzoh balls (often referred to as "matzoh bombs" by those in the know ;-) Well if you've ever eaten this stuff, you know the rate of expansion of a matzoh ball in your stomach and the resulting mass is way more than that wee box of cracker crumbs can account for! No, they don't double in size, they grow by at least an order of magnitude - totally beyond logic and reason. The result is a matzoh stupor.
The point is, if astrophysicists would start studying the mysteries of matzoh ball soup, which they can experimentally replicate and document, they could well unlock the mystery of the expanding universe. Is the universe that different from a matzoh ball? I think not! Oy vey!
Shalom & blessings :-)
Monday, August 16, 2010
Now That's What I Call Customer Service!
Hi All: One of the features I had to add to my observatory video setup was the ability to control the multitude of camera settings directly from the computer. The alternative is using five tiny pushbuttons on the back of the camera to navigate thru menus of all these settings (and not all of them are intuitive!) A much better way is to use the free MControl software to set everything from the computer. MControl comes with a few "presets" or collections of settings that you simply click on to match what you're obvserving: Deep-space, Planetary, Lunar, Solar, or User-assinged. Since switching from one type of viewing to another (or even from one deep space object to another) may involve changing a half dozen or more camera parameters, the MControl route is THE way to go.
My Mallincam MHCP is a recent vintage "Green LED" version. (If you really want to learn a lot about the Mallincam, go to the Yahoo Mallincam Users Group - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mallincam/. There you will find just about everything you could possibly want to know about this great little astro video camera.) Accordingly, to get my computer to talk to the camera, in addition to dwnloading the free MControl software from the group, I had to buy or build a special camera interface cable. I also had to convert the computer's RS-232 serial port (supplied by a USB to serial dongle) to RS-485. After doing some research in the group and on the net, I found a web based company - ZEngineering - that sold the cable and an RS-232 to RS485 adapter package at a very reasonable price. (You can find them at http://zengine.ho8.com/Mallincam%20Control%20Cables.htm.)
I ordered one, and tried setting things up. After some communications difficulties, I suspected I may have a bad cable or adapter. Since they were so reasonable, I ordered a second set to try swapping out the first one. While waiting for the second package to arrive, I solved the problem and got it all working. (Turned out, for some unknown reason, that the camera and RS-232 to RS-485 adapter preferred to talk to a USB to Serial Port adapter, rather than my native serial port on the motherboard. Fine, no problem; I'll use the dongle.) So the second package arrived and I just set it asside to use with my portable GEM mount when I go to star parties and such.
Well today I just recieved another package in the mail from ZEngineering. Inside was a new RS-232 to RS-485 adapter with a note saying that in the previous batch of adapters recently shipped, there was a possibility of some of the adapters being defective. So rather than waiting for me to try it out and possible come up with no communications, this fellow sends out a new adapter to everyone who recently ordered the package. Now that is what I call customer service. Two thumbs up to a fine and reputable internet supplier! (And if you have a Mallincam, get the computer controlled setup - so much nicer!)
My Mallincam MHCP is a recent vintage "Green LED" version. (If you really want to learn a lot about the Mallincam, go to the Yahoo Mallincam Users Group - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mallincam/. There you will find just about everything you could possibly want to know about this great little astro video camera.) Accordingly, to get my computer to talk to the camera, in addition to dwnloading the free MControl software from the group, I had to buy or build a special camera interface cable. I also had to convert the computer's RS-232 serial port (supplied by a USB to serial dongle) to RS-485. After doing some research in the group and on the net, I found a web based company - ZEngineering - that sold the cable and an RS-232 to RS485 adapter package at a very reasonable price. (You can find them at http://zengine.ho8.com/Mallincam%20Control%20Cables.htm.)
I ordered one, and tried setting things up. After some communications difficulties, I suspected I may have a bad cable or adapter. Since they were so reasonable, I ordered a second set to try swapping out the first one. While waiting for the second package to arrive, I solved the problem and got it all working. (Turned out, for some unknown reason, that the camera and RS-232 to RS-485 adapter preferred to talk to a USB to Serial Port adapter, rather than my native serial port on the motherboard. Fine, no problem; I'll use the dongle.) So the second package arrived and I just set it asside to use with my portable GEM mount when I go to star parties and such.
Well today I just recieved another package in the mail from ZEngineering. Inside was a new RS-232 to RS-485 adapter with a note saying that in the previous batch of adapters recently shipped, there was a possibility of some of the adapters being defective. So rather than waiting for me to try it out and possible come up with no communications, this fellow sends out a new adapter to everyone who recently ordered the package. Now that is what I call customer service. Two thumbs up to a fine and reputable internet supplier! (And if you have a Mallincam, get the computer controlled setup - so much nicer!)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Video is Really Ready to Roll Now!
At left front of the rack shelf is the Mallincam DVE (Digital Video Enhancer); this is a nice little box by itself and whatever you feed it (at the S-video input or at the composite input) you will get outputs at BOTH the S-video and composite outputs. If you want a very simple Mallincam setup and still have some extra video enhancement capabilities, the DVE by itself is quite effective. Directly behind the DVE is little box that allows me to insert date/time text info on top of the camera's video. At right rear (behind the one-of-four selector) is a four channel video distribution amp. This allows me to send the single camera signal to multiple devices (monitor, video grabber, video processors, etc.) Underneath it all, is an ADC video processor. With everything wired up and installed back into the equipment rack, it looks much better (see picture at lower right - the "video bay".)Finally, I was able to make some tweaks to the sound. I had a simple passive desktop Logitech microphone, plugged into the sound card "Mic In" jack. While it worked, the output level was quite low and generally poor sound quality. I decided to try out a USB based "Yeti" microphone made by Blue Mic, which is more like a (lower end) studio mic with built in preamp and USB output. Once I was able to resolve an issue with the device driver, it worked great! Much better sound quality (using it in the directional / cardioid pattern mode.) It picks up my voice well, no matter where I'm at in the POD. As well, I can have some background music playing and it will pick it up too. So everything is ready to go for some real video broadcasting of observations -- just one minor detail: lots of clouds, heat and humidity for the foreseeable future! -- Oh well - patience, patience ;-)
Why do they call it the Dumbell Nebula?
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