James4

Thanks Pat, my pics seem to have disappeared - will see if I can get them back ...

Hey Mr Saddo, your 300D works great on Deep Sky - so don't get rid of it. At some point you'll be glad you have it! Good luck

Jim, hope you get your roof sorted and the batteries haven't done in your equipment. But on the bright side, "flight cases full of gear" sounds like a good time - almost as much fun as observing!

It was third Friday of the month and that is Astro-Cafe night at Davis Bay by the ocean. After tea, coffee and hot chocolate, I was eager to get the scope setup. I left a half dozen members in the coffee shop while I drove round to the South end of the Seawall and began setting up the Scope. I had the Celestron C9.25 and the Alt/Az T-Mount. Without motors and power it was quite quick to set up. I pushed the scope to Venus and found a really nice view. The 9.25 has a long focal length 2305 mm which makes 180x with a 13mm eyepiece. Immediately a couple of passersby enquired what I was looking at. I invited them to have a look. They turned out to be Jack and Doreen and they were really interested to here my ramblings about Venus being thought to be our sister planet with lush vegetation and Venusian cities etc ... until Russian probe after Russian probe forgot to phone home - because they were crushed by the lovely Venusian atmosphere ... Venus is a billiant crescent but a little devoid in features - hence I felt compelled to continue my ramblings on Venus into the realm of Gallileo and him realising that the phases he observed through his new fangled telescope could only mean that the Earth was not the centre of the Solar System. Amazingly Jack and Doreen continued to enjoy the view through the scope. I moved onto Mars before they left as I wanted them to see The Red Planet. I used less power this time to avoid Mars moving across the FOV too quickly. We could not see any surface detail at 72x but Mars looked pretty amazing with its particular colour with dark sky around it and some field stars framing it nicely. Around 10 pm the rest of the Astro-Cafe crew arrived. Debra setup her 10" Astro-Tech Newtonian (Dob). Ed arrived then too and wanted to have a look for the recent Supernova in M95. Yikes I thought, my GoTo is at home and this is only my 3rd time out with the Alt/Az T-Mount. We broke out our star maps and found M95 in a small flock (yes flock) of galaxies. How are we going to pick M95 out of this group. I went pointed roughly to 53 Leonis - since it was visible naked eye and then I just drifted up and left until I wandered into a galaxy field. I was using a 32mm 2" and despite the street lights, and traffic lights the moonless sky showed the galaxies well. After mistaking M96 for M95 I then noticed the small triangle of stars near M95 and thought that's the one! Ed and Debra concurred on the 10" Newtonian - we then proceede to debate which star was the Supernova - could we even still see it. Turns out Yes. I could see it above the cloud of M95 and when I checked in the 10" I saw it below the cloud which was a good cross check since the SCT and Newtonian present different views. At first it needed averted vision to see the star away from the galaxy core - but after a while it could be seen almost directly. Later we went to Saturn and it was a really nice view. I gradually saw one, then two, then three, and finally four moons - my first Saturnian view with the SCT. Just then a super bright flashing LED light came along the road. We all looked up to see what kind of vehicle this was. Turns out it was Bruno on his way home from work on this bike, with his little dog safely in a box like min-housing on the back of his bike. He saw our scope and doubled back to have a look. I showed him saturn and four moons - woohoo! Another great moment in Astronomy! At 12.10 pm my 5am rise began to catch up with me and I began to dismantle the rig. A good first 'almost summer' Astro-Cafe.

"and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance ...." Lee Ann Womack

Hey mr saddo, its really difficult to get anything good with single images. You need to take video and you need to either shoot video through an eyepiece (small pocket digital camera's are quite good at this) that's giving a reasonable sized image, or attach the camera to the focuser with either a couple of barlows in front of it. or use a camera adapter that allows you to put an eyepiece inside - try a simple 5mm or 6mm plossl. Then use Registax to stack the video. I have the 300d too and its great through the scope for Deep Sky, but single frames don't work well at all for planetary. Here's a link showing how to do it with a pocket digital camera - I got quite good images this way: Planetary Imaging Here's a link to how I do it now - I upgraded my DSLR to one that shoots video: I found the better the camera the less well it worked pointed into the eyepice! The smaller the camera the better it worked into the eyepiece. Ultimately though, you want to go with the barlows - because that will work with real planetary cameras and DSLRs that shoot video - the results will be better. Good Luck and have fun!

Came back from my regular Saturday outing yesterday and decided to get the scope out for some solar observing. I have not done a lot of solar observing but I really like the casual nature of it. No need to worry about lights, or cold and no need to wear ski pants! I used The Explore Scientific 152mm Refractor with Thousand Oaks Glass Solar Filter. At first I thought wow - there is nothing here ... Just the Solar Disk. After about 20 seconds a small group of spots came into view in the lower right quarter of the sun. I boosted power to 60x (the sketch notes are incorrect - I was thinking about the SCT FL) and then found a nice detailed view of this little complex consisting of one major spot and several mini spots. I did shoot video but had real trouble seeing the spots in the LCD Screen - so I decided to sketch instead. I put together a time lapse video here (on YouTube) of a solar observing session on the driveway. The images were taken every 20 seconds on my DSLR which was setup on a tripod.

While I was awaiting delivery of a new CGEM, I made the mistake of visiting the new scope shope that opened up within lunch time driving range of work. I immediately noticed an large wooden tripod with Alt-Az T-Mount atop. I've been looking out for a large Alt-Az mount for some time - for those nights when you don't intend to stay out too long. I wanted one capable of supporting a 152mm Refractor or the 9.25 inch SCT. A strange thing happens when visiting the scope shop - I call it 'Scope Shop Psychosis'! The bank manager in my head seems to take a lunch break and suddenly I'm looking at binoculars at $199 and thinking - wow look at that, just $199 - yeah I'll have three of them! In this case though it was the T-Mount. I made a quick decision (before the bank manager came back from lunch) and said yes please, I'll have one. The stated load capacity is 15kg each side. Both my scopes weigh around 22 lbs without accessories. I setup the wooden tripod on the driveway and brought out the C9.25. It looked like it would be awkward to attach the scope to the Vixen Style saddle plate. But I found the best technique was to bear hug the scope and tip it into the wide open plate - then crank it down fast. It felt odd pushing the 9.25 around without any counterweight attached. But the mount was quite stable. There is a small counter weight shaft on one siide and I purchased the small 7 lb mini-weight. This is really meant for the scope on that side which means it can move somewhat independantly. But I attached it and unlocked that side so that it would point down. Moving the mount around felt odd but worked well. The motions were very smooth and I was using 180x on Venus and Mars. If you balance the scope carefully you can leave the locks off and just push it around. I had the scope a little front heavy and used the push to target, lock the clutches and then use the slow motion controls technique. The real benefit came during breakdown. After detaching the scope there really was no breakdown - I just lifted the tripod with mount attached inside the garage. You can carefully fit the tripod with mount in a big Orion Scope bag and then into the car. My driveway is uneven and I found two things happening. When pushing the scope around in Azimuth the tripod had a tendancy to skitter - just a little. Also the wooden legs slowly sank a couple of times - they need to be locked quite hard. But overall I was very pleased with how quickly I can be using scope without cables or power and no counter weight shaft to be attached (I just leave the mini-shaft attached and remove the small weight). The tripod extends quite high and with the mount attached it puts the saddle plates at about the same height as my CGEM. I did later experiment in the garage and attached the 9.25 SCT on one side and the 152mm Refractor on the other side. It held steady and was able to move around allright. But I've yet to try this in the field. All in all I'm pretty happy having this option available now.

I'd love to build a large observatory in my backyard - it would have the biggest most powerful spot lights allowed by law! As soon as the first neighbour decides to come out (becuse they heard a noise) and turn on their back porch light - I turn on my 500 Mw spot lamps! "What - is this too bright?" Oh - sorry, maybe we should both turn off our lights? Plan B - use 5000 MW spot lamps so they can't even see what they are looking at. "What - You'd rather I didn't shine these lights in your yard? - Oh, very well then - I'll turn them off" No explanation in light abatement required!

Thanks Isabelle, I was looking at The Sun again today and it was even more quiet with just one small group of spots (smalls ones too). On the equipment side, I think maybe (just maybe) I've finally tried enough different scopes to have a clue of what I like and what their strong points are. I usually sell off the old gear to part pay for the new gear - slowly edging towards the ultimate scope setup -I wonder what that will be :-) James

Another outing with the new CGEM - this time in daylight. I had the Explore Scientific AR152 Refractor on board with a Thousand Oaks white light glass solar filter. I used 'Quick Align' then slewed to the Sun. You allow The Sun to be displayed on The Planet Menu by going to Utilities and enabling it. Although the Glass Solar Filter is not quite as sharp as the Baader Astro Film, I really like the safety aspect of it. It can't rip or blow off in the wind and apparently the glass is quite hardy - scratch resistant etc. I just feel better with the Glass Filter. I need to remind myself what The Sun looks like as we approach The Transit of Venus on June 5th at 3.00 pm (PST). OK changing the subject now. Since I got the CGEM I've been looking around for cases. The Refractor came with its own metal case, but I need cases for the C9.25 and The CGEM. The prices are disgraceful - I'm just not willing to pay $450 for a case! So I headed over to Walmart with an $100 budget. I was planning on checking out a Stanley 24 Gallon Mobile toolbox - but instead (in true Walmart fashion) I found two 31 gallon toolboxes for $25 each! They are just corrugated plastic. But because of their size they are really quite robust. You can easily sit on them without any problem. I used the firm but soft foam that came with the scope and some extra computer foam to basically jam the scope in. This is not a flight case by any means but works great to transport the scope in the car and stop it getting banged around. Likewise The CGEM mount. The Mount is really quite heavy and it will do damage to your other gear if left to slide around the back of your car. Lets see - instead of 2 cases at $450 = $900 - these cases cost $50 in total - leaving $850 for eyepieces! Yipee! Stacked together they make quite a good platform for maps, tea mugs, or to put your accessory cases on top. P.S. The Sun was very quite - just one medium sized spot and maybe three very small ones. Should it not be busier?

Isabelle, WOW! That is a stunning image of The Moon! Well done! No exaggeration - superb! crisp fine detail and you can see right into Copernicus. I'd hang that on the wall. A great blog - you always have such great personal observations and not just technical ramblings as we guys often tend to do. The Auroras must be superb where you are. I have only seen very weak versions where we all go "oh is that some auroro I'm seeing? - Oh No it just car headlights!" Not joking we've done that. I bet that will keep your Astro fires burning for ages ... Hope you see them again soon! James