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Joel Shepherd

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Everything posted by Joel Shepherd

  1. Have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the "clear sky chart" is fantastically accurate ... except when it's not, which is about 50% of the time. #weatherishard

  2. After close to a month of rain and cloud it finally cleared up enough tonight to be worth dragging the scope out. Despite the near-full moon and lots of ambient light, managed to track down M94 and M3, both firsts (for me). Looking forward to the weekend now.

  3. Joel Shepherd

    M-36

    From the album: Joel S's Album

    M-36 14 February 2015 RA tracking 26 subs at 2 seconds/sub 1x1 binning
  4. Joel Shepherd

    M-37

    From the album: Joel S's Album

    M-37 3 March 2015 RA tracking 23 subs at 5 seconds/sub 1x1 bin
  5. From the album: Joel S's Album

    NGC-2392 (Owl/Eskimo Nebula) 7 March 2015 RA tracking 28 subs at 10 seconds/sub 1x1 bin
  6. Me: I'm torn between trying to take pictures or just looking at things. Wife: Well, that's why you [should] get two telescopes. ... I'm a lucky guy.

    1. kalasinman

      kalasinman

      If she says that after she sees the bill, you are indeed blessed.

  7. Tore open my CG-4's declination gearing only to discover that most of the roughness is coming from an over-tightened sealed bearing on the fine adjustment shaft. Otherwise, pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of lube inside.

  8. Moon, fog, city lights ... My friend Jupiter is still shining through (with 5 moons?!).

    1. ronin

      ronin

      5 moons mentioned a day or two ago, seems it is a low mag star that is presently in line with the 4 actual moons. Being dim and in a line it appears as if another moon. As Jupiter progresses it will "drift" off line.

    2. Joel Shepherd

      Joel Shepherd

      That would explain it. An imposter! :-)

  9. First attempt at drift aligning, on a cranky CG-4 mount. Not perfect but good enough for 10-15 second exposures. Happy, :-)

  10. Okay, this isn't my "first of" ... it's my third, and the first that is not M42. This is NGC 869, one of the two clusters in the Perseus Double Cluster. From 30 0.8 second exposures, 2x2 binned and 30 darks: no flats, somewhat obviously from the vignetting. Scope is an unguided, completely manual 6" reflector, hence the very short exposures and small size. Camera is Orion G3 monochrome, stacked and (mostly) processed with Nebulosity. I know what I need to do next: motors on the mount for basic tracking, learn how to drift align, and work on focus. Oh, and get some flats. Still, as crude as this and my others are, I'm happy to have them, as they are at least fairly representative of what I can see with my own eye. Have had a lot of fun learning to get this far. -- Joel.
  11. Joel Shepherd

    NGC-869

    From the album: Joel S's Album

    NGC-869 31 December 2014 No tracking/guiding 21 subs at 0.8 seconds/sub 2x2 bin
  12. Joel Shepherd

    NGC-884

    From the album: Joel S's Album

    NGC-884 31 December 2014 No tracking/guiding 27 subs at 0.8 seconds/sub 2x2 bin
  13. From the album: Joel S's Album

    NGC-654 30 December 2014 No tracking/guiding 20 subs at 0.4 seconds/sub 2x2 bin
  14. Joel Shepherd

    M-103

    From the album: Joel S's Album

    M-103 30 December 2014 No tracking/guiding 21 subs at 0.4 seconds/sub 2x2 bin
  15. Beautiful clear day: check. Clear sky chart shows an hour of cloudiness but otherwise fine: check. Telescope out: check. Clouds overhead: check. Clear sky chart now says 4 hours of overcast: check. This weather is making me sad.

  16. Finally got my secondary back into position, with the milk-bottle washer trick. Never tinkering with that mirror again!

  17. Exactly a month since the last clear night. Quite willing to share it with the moon!

  18. Hmm. Is this thing a light bucket or a rain bucket? I forget.

  19. Collimation: The process by which one takes a well-adjusted reflector and, via a lengthy and delicate process, succeeds in misaligning on virtually every dimension possible.

    1. gooseholla

      gooseholla

      Yup. I went years without having to collimate my Newtonian, then purchased a Cheshire. I of course felt obliged to use it, and well, yeah....

  20. First clear night in almost three weeks. Move along, moon, move along ...

  21. Bright moon. Good night for a new open cluster: NGC 663 in Cassiopeia. M92 was also looking sharp tonight, despite a lot of ambient light.

  22. "Three pairs" last night: two doubles (Alberio and Rho Hercules), two clusters (M13 and M92) and two nebula (M57 and M27). Finally learning how to aim this thing ... ;-)

    1. Stargazer33

      Stargazer33

      Sounds like you had a good night. Cloudy here last night and now it looks like two days of rain! :o(

    2. jabeoo1

      jabeoo1

      Thats the way to go! I revisit those every time I can and never get bored :)

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