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Captured by
Douglas Rollain

M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

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Posts Made By: Dmitri Kulginov

July 10, 2007 08:27 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Hawaiian reef fish

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Jim,

Great photos, and you are apparently having great time! I've been snorkeling and diving in the Carribean for some time (going home on Friday), so I understand how you feel 8)

How deep are the photos taken?

Dmitri

July 26, 2007 07:58 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter from Murrumbateman, July 25

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Stunning.

Dmitri

August 1, 2007 11:30 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Rich field scopes - nobody consider Newtonians?

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Inge,

I've got an 80mm achromat, an 80mm and a 100mm apo, and two pairs of binoculars, 10x50 and 15x70. The best rich field views are in 15x70, from my experience they beat the views 120mm achromat with 2" long focus eyepiece. A high quality binocular can be had for 350-400USD.

However, I feel that a [ fast ] ED doublet will suit your needs best. It will show wide views, and you can go to high powers to see neat stars that a newtonian would never show. There are many variants, from a short WO 110mm doublet (that will have plenty of CA, but will be better and more versatile than an achromat anyway) to a longer Takahashi FS102, and they don't need much of a mount.

Dmitri

August 1, 2007 06:33 PM Forum: Refractors

Cleaning a Fluorite Doublet

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
It's OK to clean it as long as you don't use canned air. It can be so cold after expansion that it could crack the fluorite.

Dmitri

August 10, 2007 04:21 PM Forum: Eyepieces

DEJAVU

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
The best eyepiece is the eyepiece that is used most.

Dmitri

August 25, 2007 05:49 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Surface brightness values of nebulas

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Try Karkoscka's The Observer's Sky Atlas. It contains surface brightness for all 250 or so DSO in it.

Dmitri

September 1, 2007 06:24 AM Forum: Refractors

Ronchi on a refractor

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Nice and smooth, with tons of CA 8)

David, can you make a picture with fewer stripes, 2-3-4?

Dmitri

September 1, 2007 06:21 PM Forum: Refractors

5" f/6 double refractor

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Dietmar,

Have a pity for us!

Dmitri

September 18, 2007 02:45 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Some thoughts after trip to La Palma

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
I thought I'd be adding some comments along with Inge's posts. The trip was absolutely phenomenal. Here are some statistics of my own observations:

I made about 240 observations, including 90 with my own C8 (mounted alt-azimutally), 180 with Inge's 12.5" Portaball and around 20 with Eckart's 8" Newtonian. All three instruments performed as good as one could expect from them. My only failure was splitting Sirius, we could not see the companion however hard we tried.

We observed many galaxies which often came in groups (Glx in the attached pie chart; Gcl stands for galaxy clusters), globular clusters (GC) mainly in Scorpius/Sagittarius which were visible after the sunset), and bright nebulae (DN). Open clusters (OC) received less attention. Inge found many fine planetary nebulae (PN), and I tried to find some dark nebulae (dkN) for the first time.

Dmitri

September 19, 2007 02:28 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

The Sculptor galaxies

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
NGC 253 is one of the absolute highlights of our trip. I had seen it in 80mm achromat and 15x70 binocular before, and it was impressive in both because it is large and has considerable surface brightness. But the extremely dark and steady skies of La Palma together with good aperture of 20-30cm make it a totally different story - the best photographs can only hint of its glory.

We used powers from 60x to 215x to study very rich light and dark detail of this galaxy, and it was excellent at each magnification. In 7mm Nagler many dark regions can be seen by direct vision, including one long stripe that seems to mark a spiral arm. The very central part is elongated and bright, and I suspected a bright core there. At the same time, a quick look with averted vision would instantly reveal the full extent of the galaxy even at high power; it is longer than the FOV of 9mm Nagler. Both ends are very mottled, and there are many foreground stars of different brightness that make the view even more appealing.

Dmitri

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