Starlight Live and Outreach

[HiloDon]

Hi All,

Had a good week on Mauna Kea here in Hawaii with the Ultrastar C and Starlight Live for outreach.  On Monday we did an internet broadcast on Nightskiesnetwork.com using our CPC1100HD at F5.0.  Yesterday we used the same scope at the MK visitor's center at F2.0 with Hyperstar.  Here are a few captures from both sessions.  Paul's Starlight Live software makes EAA viewing a pleasure.  Thanks, Paul, for making astronomy so enjoyable for so many.

[AKB]

That's quite a haul - makes me sorry to have missed the internet broadcast.  I thought I was set up with notifications from that site, but apparently not.   You didn't capture the session so you can post on YouTube or somewhere?

Love the Sombrero and Horsehead, just to name a couple, but what a great set for two nights.  Hoping this all goes into another of your image gallery albums.

You really are making that Hyperstar / Ultrastar combination very tempting...

Forward EAA (and Starlight Live!)

AK

[RobertI]

Amazing captures Don, detail and colour are superb. The C11/ultrastar combo at F5.0 creates a very nice image scale for galaxies. I bet there were plenty of gasps from onlookers at the visitor centre?

[stash_old]

How about leaving some for the rest of us 

Very impressive as normal.

Just shows you how big M101 is as an object.

I presume anything with F2 is the Hyperstar ?

[HiloDon]

Thanks, All.

AK - We don't record the broadcast, but we are thinking of doing that in the future.  I'm hoping NSN implements that feature in the new site they are working on.

Rob - We feel the same way about F5 with the C11.  Still fast enough, but perfect image scale for most galaxies.  We get great comments from the Visitors.  They can't believe it's a live view from an amateur scope.

Stash - I think there might still be a few objects left.  M101 at 27mly away is almost twice the size of the Milky Way.  It's low surface brightness makes it very difficult to observe visually.  Even with EAA, it's a tough object to get all the details.  The dark skies and good seeing here really help.  All the F2 captures are with Hyperstar.  The two captures of the Needle Galaxy show the difference in image scale between F5 and F2.  All the captures are full image saves from SLL with no post processing except for the Flame/Horsehead being rotated 180 degrees.

Don

[Martin Meredith]

Hi Don

The audience must have been blown away by these. I've not seen so much colour in an EAA image as your HH/Flame. I wonder how many are inspired to take up the hobby as a result of seeing these images during one of your sessions.

Love the F2.0 Needle, especially the very faint edge on aligned similarly (NGC 4565C, 5 times distant re the Needle). You've got a great sense of depth in that shot.

Seeing your M83 reminds me that I'm heading to latitude 36 in a few weeks and must take advantage of the location to revisit one of my favourite galaxies.

Martin

[HiloDon]

Hi Martin,

We get great reactions from many of the visitors that watch the show.  Many ask about the equipment and cost, and are surprised to hear how affordable it is.  I think we have inspired some to take up the hobby.  The youngsters especially.

Your work always inspires me and gives me ideas on what to look for.  M83 is one of my favorites as well, and we're lucky to be here at 20 dregree latitute to take advantage of the southern sky.  On Friday we were going to get some views of Eta Carinae about 9:00pm, but we had some stubborn clouds move in the south and they just wouldn't clear.  We will get some in the next few weeks.  I want to do some NB Ha stuff too.

Thanks for your comments.

Don

[roelb]

Speaking of M 101:

SE 6 @ f/5 (f = 762 mm) (FOV: 29' x 21') - Lodestar X2 Mono - Dark area

SLL V.3.3: 5 x 20 s mean
 

[elpajare]

Combination of ICX825 ( same as Infinity) and a 280 mm scope, and of course clear skies, is outstanding.

 

Congratulations for all. Very nice pictures.

[shirva]

Never seen a broadcast since Joe first launched the new nsn, glad to see it's still operating ..great captures don,, would have been great to see live

[Paul81]

Wow - outstanding! Hyperstar is proving to be spot on for EAA!

Always glad to see the software proving to be useful! I haven't had much time to work on it recently - I must look into the OSX bug with the image repeat so you can upgrade to the latest versions :-)