Kepler 3

I've been using the SynScan WiFi adapter for a while and it's been working fine and have an Atlas Pro Az/Eq-G mount in equatorial mode with an iphone. I nowstart in polar alignment but when I do a 1-star alignment- say Arcturus- it will slew completely past the star, pointing toward the ground. Today, during the daytime, it had it go to a star up during the day and it seemed to be close. I've deleted and re-applied the app. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Dick

Hi, I was using the adapter last night and initially I turned on the mount and did a 1-star alignment on Vega from the home polar aligned position and it slewed fairly accurately. I had then turned off the mount and restarted but when I tried to 1-star align the mount stewed way off of the target, Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong. I noticed that when I retried that the mount was in Equatorial mode and did not have to re-connect. Thanks Dick

Hi, I live in an apartment in town and the only observing that I can do is with my H alpha scope-so I now use iTelescope. This morning I got up at dawn and found that the 24" Planewave scope in California was available and used it to get an image of globular cluster G1 in M31, and was pleased to see some of the nebulosity-considering that it is 2.5 million light years away. In that dawn was just starting there also I was able to get one frame with a 180 s exposure. G1 is in the apex of the triangle in the lower middle of the image. Dick

I have an Alpy 600 with the guiding module and the calibration module. It is low resolution and is a sturdy, good quality piece of equipment but not cheap. I use it with it's 23 micron slit. I use Demetra, which was designed for the Alpy, to do the data reduction. Attaced is a profile of type Be star- 60 Cyg- that I got with the Alpy set up and a 10' Meade SCT with a f/6.4 reducer-Dick

Hi, How does LOWSPEC 3.0 compare to the Alpy 600 as far as resolution, dispersion, etc? Thanks Dick

Hi, I've done some spectroscopy with SA-100 and have seen a presentation on LOWSPEC 3.0. I downloaded the files to produce the parts, but where can I get more information on the assembly, use, access to optics and how to use 3D printer. I am not a particularly gifted craftsman. I'm checking out the feasibility of building a LOWSPEC spectrometer. I also saw that a metal housing was also being considered. Thanks Dick

Thanks Dave, I got to Task Manger, stopped Infinity from running and was able to install Infinity software, but the program won't open-I use Windows 10 and maybe it's a problem with my OS. Dick

Hi, I was imaging last night using my Atik Infinity camera and it was working fine and then stopped. I checked connection and the were okay. I then tried to reopen Infinity program and it would not open. I then deleted Infinity software and attermpted to re-install the Infinity software-unsuccessfully. As it was preparing to install it stated that 'the following applications are using files that need to be updated, etc and allow Setup to automatically close the applications. Then it showed 'Error' setup was unable to close all applications and recommended that I close all applications that needed to be updated by Setup before continuing. Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed? I'm really not computer literate. Thanks Dick

Hi, I was out the other evening and imaged Arp 220 and 244-both of which are the merging of 2 galaxies. While the visible light image of Arp 220 may not be very impressive, it is an Ultraluminous Infared Galaxy (ULIRG) with an infrared luminosity placing it in the luminosity regime of quasars. Most of the energy output is a result of a massive burst of star formation triggered by the merger of 2 smaller galaxies. An interesting aspect of Arp 220 is that, until recently, it was considered a rare local oddity, but very numerous highly red-shifted galaxies have been found with spectral energy distributions similar to Arp 220. These numerous ULIRG's play an important role in understanding galaxy formation in the early universe and the relatively close Arp 220 (~237 million ly away) is an important template in studying the dynamics of these galaxies. Both were imaged with a 10" f/4.7 Newtonian, an Atik Infinity monochrome camera, and a Astronomik CLS filter. Arp 220 was 30s x 10 and Arp 244 was 11s x 15. Both were in a light polluted area-with the Arp 244 image the worst-being barely over the top of my house, but I am happy to get what I can- especially sitting out on a warm lovely spring evening. Thanks Dick

Hi, I was out last night (04/27/2020) with a clear night and the Moon had set. In spite of really bad light pollution and a malfunctioning mount I was able to get a fairly decent image of M101. I used an Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian, Atik Infinity monochrome camera, and an Astronomik CLS light pollution filter-which I think helped quite a bit. The image was 19s x 15. An article in the current Sky & Telescope has a good article on M 101 and its Hll regions, so I got the image and have labeled some of these regions. Arp labeled this galaxy as Arp 26 in his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies because of its asymmetric disk. The arms are not logarithmic spirals but has some straight arm segments (faint in my image)-as a result of gravity perturbations caused by some of the supergiant Hll regions that are seen in the disk. Also two of the close-by satellite dwarf galaxies-NGC 5474 and NGC 5477 probably cause some of the perturbations. Thanks Dick

Hi I have an Orion Atlas Pro mount and there is quite a bit of slack in the dec axis. When the dec clutch is locked there is about 1.5 degree movement-the scope can move about 1/2 inch side to side. How can that be corrected Thanks Divk

Sorry-I hit 'Enter' by mistake. My M87 image, 14sx31 subframes, if you zoom, the plasma jet can be seen at about 7 o'clock. M82-5.5sx29, M104-8sx26, M95-11sx20. M96-12sx35, M105,etc-20sx20, and I got other images that I didn't post. I must say that I really enjoy my Atik Infinity and it's software for EAA. Hope everyone is staying safe and health during this trying time- my telescope and the cosmos are keeping this time bearable. Thanks Dick

Hi, Had a great evening last night with moonless dark sky, but, as with Peter, i live bordering a public park with many bight lights-one is about 60' away. I block as much as I can with black cloth and I just got a light pollution filter, which helps. I set my 10" f/4.6 up in my back yard and did a good polar alignment using SharpCap Pro and keep my scope set up covered with a TeleGizmos and a 10'x10' canopy. I can start from Park with my Atik Infinity monochrome camera and get going right away. I guide my scope at the present with Orion's StarSeek 5 on my iphone-via WiFi. Considering the amount of light pollution I am very pleased with the results. The M87 image

Hi, Under current self isolation in place I setting up my telescope in a very light polluted setting-I've done what I can with black curtains blocking of the direct light-but quite a bit of light is still reflected off of the walls and in the sky. I had been using my 6" Celestron SCT, but it was disappointing. I pulled out my old 10" f/4.6 Newtonian and bought a fairly inexpensive Astronomik light pollution filter and these are the first images that I got with this set up-and am very pleased with the result. I use an Atik Infinity monochrome camera. The image of the 3 galaxies in Leo were captured with 15s x 21 exposure and M51 was 7.5s x 21. I really glad that I am able to cruise the cosmos a bit during this situation that we are all facing and appreciate this forum to interact with others. I do some spectroscopy and about 20 of us got together for a Zoom conference last week-one member was from Greece and another from Iceland-it was great. Thanks Dick

Hi, My backyard has really bad light pollution, but I've wanted to be able to do observing without having to, at my age, drive out of town and set up-so I set things up in my back yard. I have a 6" C6 SCT with f/6.4 reducer, an Orion Atlas mount, and an Atik Infinity monochrome camera. I set it up outside of my office area and decided to give it a try. I used SharpCap Pro to get my polar alignment done accurately and a 3-point star alignment-all of which I hooked up to my computer with USB cables(you can see my office setup in attached photo). I mainly used my iphone StarSeek app to operate my scope. I had a great time last night-I was comfortable and even was able to brew some a cup of tea while one of my images was stacking-what luxury. I captured M105/NGC3384/NGC3389 20s exposures x 20 stacks, M51 25s x 13, and M82 20s x 22. I also observed other fainter objects in Leo with less success-very washed out. I have ordered a UHC filter and will try to block out more of the light pollution (my yard borders on a public park with a bright sodium street light 50' away). I just wanted to share this-I think it's going to work. I plan on doing some spectroscopy with an Alpy 600, so hopefully, the light pollution won't be such a problem. Thanks Dick

Hi, My backyard has really bad light pollution, but I've wanted to be able to do observing without having to, at my age, drive out of town and set up-so I set things up last night in my back yard. I have a 6" C6 SCT with f/6.4 reducer, an Orion Atlas mount and an Atik Infinity monochrome camera. I set it up outside of my office area and decided to give it a try. I used SharpCap Pro to get my polar alignment done accurately and a 3-point stat alignment-all of which I hooked up to my computer with USG cables (you can see my office setup in attached photo). I used Stellarium with some success but had to rely on my iphone StarSeek app-which works fine. I had a great time last night-was comfortable and able to brew a cup pf tea while one of my images was stacking-what luxury. I captured M105/NGC3384/NGC3389 20s exposure x 20 stacks, M51 25s x13, and M82 20s x 22. I also observed other fainter objects in Leo with less success-pretty washed out. I have ordered a UHC filter and will try to block out more of the light pollution (my yard borders on a public park with a bright sodium lamp 50' away). I just wanted to share this-I think it's going to work. I plan on doing some spectroscopy with an Alpy 600, so, hopefully, the light pollution wont be such a problem. Thanks Dick

Hi, Here is an image that I got a few weeks ago of NGC 1232 with a 10" Meade SCT, f/6.3 reducer, and an Atik Infinity monochrome camera-60s x10 exposure Bin 1. I enjoyed roaming around Eridanis that evening while it was in view. Dick

Hi, I just got Stellarium to control my telescope- my mount is an Orion Atlas. I configured my telescope and it shows that it is connected. I aligned the scope, but Stellarium doesn't show where my scope is pointed and when I click on a particular star I hold Ctrl and press 1 (my scope) but my scope doesn't slew to that star. I have Stellarium 0.19.0. Any suggestions? Thanks Dick