Posts Made By: Ralph Encarnacion

More bats

Ralph

Wow Wes, that picture is really awesome! I thought you got rid of that camera a while back? If you did, you better go buy it back.
Ralph

I have the older Toucam and that is exactly how it works. If you use it as a webcam with the factory lens, you focus it by screwing the lens in or out. If you use it on your scope, you take the factory lens off, put the 1.25" adapter on and use the focus knob on the scope to focus the camera.
Ralph

Here is my version of my home made guide scope. It started off as a Antares 8x50 right angle finder. I removed the diagonal and installed a Borg mini focuser. I normally have an ST-237 hooked up to it and use it as my autoguider guide scope. Works better than an Efinder. With the Borg mini focuser, it is easy to adjust the focus on it. I have it mounted to my scope with a Losmandy finder scope rings, so it is mounted solidly.
Ralph

I'm not only impressed by all your great images Wes, I'm impressed that you know the name of all these craters!
Ralph

I thought M101 was the Pinwheel Galaxy and M33 was the Triangulum Galaxy. I may have them confused. Either way, nice shot.
Ralph

I made my own scope converter for less than 5 bucks. What I did was I bought an extra rear lens cap for my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens. I then drilled a 1.25" hole in the center of the cap and glued a William Optics DCL-28 treaded eyepiece in the hole. I made it so I could use my Nikon 5000 digital camera with that high dollar lens. It works pretty good as a telescope, but everything is upside down, so I had to flip the images over with photoshop. You can see my test here: http://www.pbase.com/panotaker/cp5000_superlens

Ralph

Come on Wes? Your killing me! That's better than your Best of 2004 shot that you posted earlier. You need to stop right now or you are going to force me to buy a bass boat and take up a different hobby;-) Are you using your Toucam in raw mode or regular?
Ralph

Are you going to be moving it from inside the house to outside the house, or are you going to be moving it by car?I leave my tripod setup inside the house in a spare bedroom with one leg loose and the other two legs tight. I also have the gem resting on top of the tripod. I have the scope (a C11)on the floor sitting next to it with a TV-85 piggypacked on the scope. I have my eyepieces in one case, and power supply, level, screws and everything else I need in another case. I leave the weights in my truck, since I setup in my driveway. When it is time to setup, I take the loose leg off the tripod and carry the tripod with the two legs on it in one hand, and the other leg in my other hand. I set the tripod up in the same spot every time so the level is usually pretty close. Then I bring out the eyepiece case and the other case with all the screws and power supply and level. I quickly level the tripod and go back inside and get the gem head and put it on the tripod. I then go in the truck and get the weights and put them on the shaft. Then I go inside and get the scope and put that on the mount. I do a quick polar alignment and I am on my first alignment star within 10 minutes of when I started. Take down is even faster. I make one more trip in the house to get my cameras, computer and autoguider. I keep all those in an Igloo cooler with all the wires all hooked up from the cameras to the autoguider and laptop. I carry the cooler in one hand and a folding table in my other hand. I take the computer and autoguider out of the cooler and set them on the portable table and only have to plug one wire in for power and I am ready to boot the laptop up. Once you have a routine, you can set up pretty fast.
Ralph