Posts Made By: Mike Vollmer

I am planning a trip to the San Diego area in a couple of weeks and would like some suggestions on any good astronomy sites to visit while there. I plan to go to Palomar, but I have heard a lot on these forums about Mt. Pinos. Where is it, and is there any one central location of information on it? I have a limited amount of time and won't be able to take any of my equipment with me, but would like to do something while I'm there.

Mike V.

I have a Canon 20D with the Hap Griffin parallel cable interface to my laptop. I have been trying to use DSLR Control http://www.barkosoftware.com/Software.html to take multiple longer exposures with some problems. I have the camera set to M (bulb) and it seems limited to 1 second exposures. I am using LPT1 and D0. Does anyone else have any experience with this software? I am drawn to it by its simplicity, but if I can't get it to work with the 20D I may have to drop it.

Mike

I had an opportunity to get out last Saturday 10/29 and took this shot of NGC281 the PacMan Nebula. This was the first opportunity I've had to get out in many months so I was a little rusty. Minimal tweaks in Photoshop, looks acceptable on my flat panel monitor but may look off on a good CRT.

Takahashi FS102 on Losmandy Gemini G-11
Astro Physics guide scope
ST-4 autoguided for 60 minutes, marginal seeing
E200
Nikon FM2

Comments welcome

Sincerely
Mike

I am curious how other people store their slides, CD's of images, and images. I have somewhat of a disorganized filing system and it doesn't protect the slides as well as they should be, and it would be nice to have slides, CD's, photos (small) all tidy. How do the rest of you do it?

Mike

This is a shot I took of Sadr in Cygnus and some of the surrounding region on October 29 2005. I think the cluster may be M29, but I'm not sure. It was taken with my Takahashi FS102 with Tak field flattener, Losmandy Gemini G-11, Astro Physics guide scope with guiding supplied by my ST-4. 70 minutes on E-200. Minor resizing etc. in Photoshop. Coments are welcome, especially on the cluster.

Mike

Hi. My tried and true Dell Latitude P300 hard drive finally failed and I'm finding I may not be able to get a replacement hard drive for it. I have used CCDSoft Version 4 with Windows 98 with no problems at all for several years. My question is, will CCDSoft Version 4 be compatible with Windows XP if I have to get a new laptop? I know there are other software programs out there that will control the ST-4 that will work with XP, but some are pretty expensive. Anyone come across this before?

Mike

I have a Tak FS102 with the camera angle adjuster, focal reducer and CA-35 adapter for my camera. I ordered an IDAS LPS filter last week from ADA and was told the size I needed was a 52mm. It arived today and is too small for any of these components. Can anyone tell me what size I need, so I can be certain it fits when I return this one? Where does everyone else locate the filter in this assembly?

Thanks for the help.
Mike

Well after much thought, I've decided to take the plunge and build a roll off roof observatory. I've got Scott Horstman's plans, spoken with him, and ordered his wheels. I started digging the hole for the peir yesterday. My question is will a 3' x 3' x 2' deep hole be sufficient or should I go deeper? I have some ground water seeping in the hole at 2' because the observatory is in a low spot in my yard.

Mike

It's been quite a while since I've been out, and plan to shoot up some E200 in the next week if weather permits. Anybody have a good shopping list of nebulaes worthy of some effort?

Mike

It has been nearly impossible for me to get away from my home to my favorite dark sky site, due to increasing responsibilities at home, so I have finally taken the plunge to build. I am following Scott Horstman's plans and am building a 9'6" x 9'6" roll off roof observatory in my back yard. My location is far from ideal with lots of light polution, but it's the best I can do. I have the concrete poured for the pier, and have the deck almost done. I poured concrete for the corner posts today, and the deck is nice and level and square. I am having a hard time finding a suitably small door here at my local Home Depot and Lowe's. I would like to know how other people have overcome this obstacle. I found one place that would custom make me a steel entry door suitably short for almost $500, but I thought that was a little rich, and they wanted a month to supply it. I'd like a metal door for security reasons. I have not made the walls yet, so rough opening size is flexible. How have the rest of you bridged this problem.

Sincerely

Mike