Posts Made By: Roland Christen

Mark jenkins and Trent Kjell from Big Cigar observatory sent me this image taken last night with a consumer digital camera.

Mark used his Canon 50D camera on the back of his AP130 scope mounted on a Mach1 mount. 2 minute unguided exposures, 30 exposures stacked. Full frame image reduced to 1/4 size. No field flattener used, so corner stars are somewhat elongated.

Rolando

The image is extremely small. No way to comment.

Rolando

Image taken by Gilles Cohen from urban area near Nice with 155EDF refractor, ST8XME, Custom Scientific 10nm H-a filter, 30x 10 minute exposure.

Gilles Cohen has sent me this image, which I processed in MaximDL and CS3 Photoshop. Left part is part of LBN174, right part is Sharpless 2-101 Tulip nebula. The image was taken last 2 nights in a heavily light polluted urban area near Nice, France.

Image details - 155EDF operating at F5.3 with 155TCC compressor, ST10XME, 7nm Baader H-alpha filter, 20x15 minute exposure, internal guided at 6 seconds, 900GTO mount.

It's finally clear here and I can image tonight. For weeks on end the skies have been either cloudy or hazy. Tonight is clear and decent seeing. I've got the big 305mm F3.8 fired up and the first couple of exposures are just so satisfying. The scope and STL11K are working at their peak. Stars on my laptop screen look like powder sugar sprinkles - thanks to perfect focus with my new Bahtinov mask. I hope to bag a few goodies tonight.

Rolando

Very nice, Dave. Mucho gracias.

Had a short but interesting conversation on a blog yesterday with an elderly gentleman who claims to be a retired engineer and was asking about my qualifications. We were talking about manufacturing in America and other stuff. Anyhow, here is the exchange:

HrrPa9 3:56PM Aug 5 2009
Stick to your phony BS Chris1011. You still have not answered any of my questions put to you. I do enjoy amateur astronomy a good bit. Enough to go to my property in the country to view(no city lights). Do you sell geosynchronous units? Do you sell photo adaptive units or are the systems built in. Can I view thermals with your equipment. Do you have solar adapters for projection images. How do I view your models or if they are all made to order what spec range do you make. Are yours lensatic or mirror optics. Do yours come with GPS and starlight locators? Right now I am in shopping mode as I just purchased another high end toy for my wife's gym and me some new running shoes. So tell me whatcha got?

Chris1011:
I'm not sure that you would want what we sell. You sound like a newbie in the astronomy hobby, so I would suggest that you visit a local dealer, or go to the Celestron or Meade website and read about their products. The cheapest setup we make is on the order of $10,000, and there is a long waiting list. Our stuff is handcrafted and takes a while to make - long while. If, after you see your local dealer or these websites, you can't find what you're looking for, give me a heads up.

By the way, if you have a nice dark site away from city lights where you can see the Milky Way, you might want to just view the stars with a good pair of binoculars 7x50 or 10x50. This is the best way to observe the heavens for a beginner. The summer Milky Way is spectacular, so go out and enjoy the view.

HrrPa9:
Well Chris if your stuff is hand crafted then what are you doing with CNC machines. That's machining automation ******* finest. NOT HAND MACHINING. With hand machining the machinist must be very skilled at reading a micrometer, and a caliper. They also must be able to use dial indicators accurately. Just how accurate do you machine to? Since I'm a newby why don't you tell me how to calculate deflection..hmm. Why do you care if I'm a newby...a sale is a sale. So what if I have to go on a waiting list. Why do you care. Question forya Mr. veteran telescoper..how do you tell the difference between a star and a planet with the naked eye? There is a simple answer. Why don't you go Google that one. Look forward to your response.
The guy is recommending that I view the Milky Way with a pair of binos. He's a riot. We live in the Milky Way. Chances are that if you stare ata starry sky on a clear night ALL YOUR GOING TO SEE IS THE MILKY WAY!

Ya gotta see this: http://www.switched.com/2009/08/13/orange-county-choppers-goes-green-with-electric-motrocycle/

And now for something new, not an amateur image but striking and something to strive for, taken with the Danish 1.5 meter scope at LaSilla, Chile:
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC7293DK15L.html

(I wonder what the FWHM of that image was)

Hi all,

This week I was able to image for a couple of days. I did a very fast M13 shot as a prelude to shooting something very much fainter. This image is only 1/2 size. It was taken with my STL11K and 305mm F3.8 Honders. Exposure is five 1 minute subs. Gives you some idea of the speed of this scope. I did not bother to do much processing to remove the column noise, as you can see. Hope to post my other object soon.

Rolando