Posts Made By: Peter Kennett

The 7th annual White Sands Star Party will be held this year on September 30th and October 1st at the White Sands National Monument (a.k.a. missle range) in Southern New Mexico.

Participants will be allowed to camp directly in the very dark dunes, but not the general public. Also, no one will be allowed in or out from 8: pm to 11:30PM to prevent car lights from interfering with observations. At 11:30 pm all non-campers must exit, and then no one else will be allowed to leave and the rest of the night is DARK and all yours! See the Southern Skies like you’ve never seen before!

There will be guest speakers, trips to the NM Museum of Science History, and free Pizza to participants! Ummmm... PIZZA

And while your in the area, take a trip up to Socorro New Mexico to the Very Large Array (VLA) on October 1st for a free guided tour! You can also swing over and visit the TRINITY test site, where the first Atomic Bomb was detonated in 1945. This is a rare event as the Trinity site normally only offers tours one day a year!

Come on out and enjoy the Land of Enchantment and the incredible Dark Skies of New Mexico!

Website link: www.zianet.com/wssp/
White Sands: www.nps.gov/whsa/
NM Museum of Space: www.spacefame.org/
VLA: www.vla.nrao.edu/
Trinity: www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/TrinitySite/trinst.htm

The Andromeda Galaxy is filled with globular clusters just as our own Milky way is. Here's a photo I took in which I labeled most of the clusters I could locate accurately. This is a very large file, almost 500K.

While I found many globular clusters, there are quite a few more I know are visible, but I'll get to labeling them later. I just found 3 around M110 too, but I have not labeled them yet either. I also want to research data on each cluster, to find magnitudes and any other cool data, which I will post on my website. Most seem to range from mag 15-18. Then I will locate all the OPEN clusters and various nebula visible in this photo. I know this has all been done on large research grade equipment, but it's kind of cool to see just what my low cost equipment can do!

The photograph was shot with a stock Meade LXD75 8" f/4 Schmidt Newtonian. The exposure was a single 40 minute exposure, hand guided with an Orion 910mm guidescope (thank you PEC!) on Fujichrome 400F Provia. The camera was an Olympus OM-1 and focus was achieved with an STI Stiletto.

Peter Kennett

We all know that depending on whether you are using a Reflector, Refractor or a diagonal the image in a eyepiece can be mirrored, or upside down etc..

What I want to know is will North always be in the same relationship to E and W.
Let me elaborate...

When you look at a star in an eyepiece with an untracked scope, regardless of what system you are using, the star will always drift to the WEST. Now I'm not concerned if that is up.down/left or right.. it drifts to the west and that gives me the EAST - WEST line. (---> = star drift direction)

E ----> W (the star moves to the west)

Now is North always is such a position that when I MENTALLY rotate or flip the view so that WEST is on my LEFT and EAST on my right, then North is UP.

.......................................... N
E --- > W ....becomes ... W <--- E

Is this ALWAYS the case? Or is there a place or equipment configuration that can change that so that I could see this:

W <---- E
........N

And if so.. under what circumstances?

NOTE: I do NOT care if the direction is left/right/up or down. I am also not interested in anything outside the eyepiece. I only want to know through the VIEW in the eyepiece, since I know which way EAST and WEST is, can I also tell which way North is based on the same star drift?

Thanks!

Peter

I have just finished a very detailed and comprehensive chapter on Polar Alignment on my website, and if anyone here has any difficulty understanding the Drift Alignment technique this web tutorial will certainly help.

The tutorial starts with a detailed explanation of HOW to perform the DRIFT ALIGNMENT technique of polar alignment, and then goes on to explain the WHY it works using very clear animations. It helps you understand why you use a star on the equator/meridian for E/W misalignment, and a star on the Eastern Horizon for N/S misalignment.

Additionally the tutorial includes a very detailed and workable Guiding Simulator - the only one ever created, that will let you practice the Drift Alignment or Manual Photo guiding technique at home on your computer. Please give this a try and send me your feedback and suggestions.

You can find the tutorial at:
http://www.petesastrophotography.com/tutorial/polaralignment.html
FLASH required.

(NOTE, your browser will have to load the original frames first, so just wait until the screen stops jumping around before you can navigate it.)

This is just one small part of a very comprehensive website under development, but I thought you would enjoy a sneak peak of the work in progress.

Enjoy!

Peter Kennett

I have just finished a very detailed and comprehensive chapter on Polar Alignment on my website, and if anyone here has any difficulty understanding the Drift Alignment technique this web tutorial will certainly help.

The tutorial starts with a detailed explanation of HOW to perform the DRIFT ALIGNMENT technique of polar alignment, and then goes on to explain the WHY it works using very clear animations. It helps you understand why you use a star on the equator/meridian for E/W misalignment, and a star on the Eastern Horizon for N/S misalignment.

Additionally the tutorial includes a very detailed and workable Guiding Simulator - the only one ever created, that will let you practice the Drift Alignment or Manual Photo guiding technique at home on your computer. Please give this a try and send me your feedback and suggestions.

You can find the tutorial at:
http://www.petesastrophotography.com/tutorial/polaralignment.html
FLASH required.

(NOTE, your browser will have to load the original frames first, so just wait until the screen stops jumping around before you can navigate it.)

This is just one small part of a very comprehensive website under development, but I thought you would enjoy a sneak peak of the work in progress.

Enjoy!

Peter

To my fellow astrophotographers..

I have finished the chapter on Polar Alignment and the Drift Method on my website, and created an animation that I think really demonstrates WHY the Drift Alignment method works. I also created a unique Guiding Simulator that may help users learn the drift method and manual guiding.

Of course there's lots of text, animations, and the Guiding Simulator, but the please take a peak at the LAST section of the tutorial and let me know if it makes Polar Alignment easier to understand and why you use a star on the equator/meridian for E/W misalignment, and a star on the Eastern Horizon for N/S misalignment.

You can find the tutorial at:
http://www.petesastrophotography.com/tutorial/polaralignment.html
FLASH required.

(note, your browser will have to load the original frames first, so just wait until the screen stops jumping around before you can navigate it.)

I hope this tutorial helps!!

CF

This shot shows the exceptional wide field of the Meade LXD75 8" f/4 Schmidt Newtonian. This is a single 30 minute exposure on Fuji Provia 400F slide film. It was hand guided with an Orion 910mm focal length guidescope using a 5mm reticle. Camera was an Olympus OM-1 and focused with an STI Stiletto. No filters, minimal post processing.

The Omega or Swan nebula is named for the telescopic view - which shows only the brighter central portion and appears like a swan or the Greek Omega symbol. This is a deep exposure to capture the wonderful outer regions of faint nubulosity.

This fine nebula lies just about 2 degrees from the Eagle nebula (M16) and is located within the same spiral arm of the Milky Way.

While not particularly bright, this nebula is a very active star forming region, with a mass of over 800 Suns - more than the star forming region of the Orion Nebula.

Enjoy!

Peter

Here's a full 35mm frame of the Eagle Nebula (M16) in a single 40 minute deep exposure.
This was imaged at prime focus through a stock Meade LXD75 8" f/4 Schmidt Newtonian and hand guided using an Orion 910mm FL guidescope. My trusty 25 year old Olympus OM-1 was focused with an STI Stiletto.

This is a montage of these three Messier jewels, created from two images. These two photographs were single 30 minute exposures on Fuji 400F Provia slide film. The photos where captured with a stock Meade LXD75 8" Schmidt Newtonian using an Olympus OM-1 and hand guided with an Orion 910mm focal length guide scope. Enjoy!

This is a single 20 minute exposure with Fujichrome 400F Provia using a Meade LXD75 SN8 and manual guided with an Orion 910mm guidescope. Camera was an Olympus OM-1 and focused with an STI Stiletto.

Peter Kennett
www.PetesAstrophotography.com