Posts Made By: Paul Mikulecky

Hello Folks,

I have a 10" Skywatcher Newtonian on an EQ6 mount. I have recently purchased an Orion 120mm Skyview Pro Refractor that I am planning on using as a guide scope.

I have the original rings on the Orion and I'd like to mount it piggyback on my Skywatcher, but I'd like to be able to point the orion a little off axis so I can pick different guidestars... I could mount the rings directly onto the rings of the 10", but that won't get me that extra bit of movement.

Is there a mounting solution for this? I can add a dovetail bar, but is there a 'gizmo' that will attach the new dovetail to the existing rings on the 10"?

I hope this makes sense...

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

Hey Folks,

It's my first comet shot, taken with my 10" Newtonian SkyWatcher. Prime focus, at 5 minutes.



Question about tracking comets... Notice how my star trails are sort of stop and go? How does one get such nice star trails when guiding a comet? Is it the mount or my poor tracking ability? It was tough trying to keep the nucleus centered in the cross hairs. I'm using an HEQ6 stock mount and I use an Orion 120mm SkyViewPro Refractor for manual guiding. Sometimes the mount wouldn't respond as fast as I would like and I'm considering a number of different upgrades to the mount. Would autoguiding improve the trails? Should I have tracked on the stars instead? Any tips would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

Well, four rolls later... here are some of my first astrophoto shots:

http://www.lostpencil.com/astro.html

Currently I'm in search of a good dark site so I can pull out more nebulas and details, so if anyone knows of an astro-friendly farmer about 1 hour away from the Calgary/Airdrie, Alberta area - please let me know!

Here are some things I've learned so far that stand out in my mind:

1. Fog limit in my back yard is about 15 minutes
2. Teenagers sneaking/cutting through yards at 3:00am can scare you witless.
3. Use the hat trick method to keep camera shake down (that should be fixed by getting my new Nikon D70... soon really soon...)
4. Make sure you have adjustable rings on your guidescope so you can pick a better guide star and keep the object of interest in the center of the field of view.
5. Dress warm - sitting at 32F for four hours can chill you to the bone.
6. Bracket your shots.
7. Scaring the teenagers that scared you at 3:00am by pointing a red light at them is very satisfying.
8. Read as much as you can about Astrophotography, and then practice, a lot... weather permitting
9. It's not so bad manually guiding for 15 minutes... but I'm looking at some inexpensive autoguiding anyway.
10. Scaring away cats lurking about at 3:10am that scare you first is almost as fun as scaring the teenagers.
11. Lift weights so you can lift your 45lb unit onto the stand without passing out.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

Hi Folks,

I have a 10" Newtonian SkyWatcher and piggybacked onto it is an Orion SkyViewPro 120mm refractor. I want to add a tube balancing system to it so I can fine tune the balance when I add/subtract the film camera/digital camera/web camera/eyepieces. Is there a system for the Newtonian that will allow me to easily balance on the declination axis? Homegrown or commercial is cool. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

I love macro photography, almost as much as astrophotography. Here is my contribution to the little critters:



(and you can find some more of my photo's here: http://www.lostpencil.com/freeimages.html)

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

Hi Folks,

I'm not sure this is exactly the right forum to ask this... but...

I'm starting to wear a nice circle in the grass in the middle of my yard where I setup my scope. I would like to 'beautify' it a bit, but I know concrete is not something that is recommended due to the heat capacity and slow dissipation. What do you recommend for the ground where you observe a lot? Paving stones? Gravel? Just Grass? Any suggestions much appreciated.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

"The art of character animation is to try
to catch lightning in a bottle.... one volt
at a time." Brad Bird

Here is my first shot at Pluto. The conditions for the hunt and the shot were, I think, as bad as it can get. Just about a full moon, right next to the shooting area, high cirrus clouds reflecting the light all around, transparency poor, just over a major population center, low on the horizon, and a very poor selection of guide stars.

The shot was taken with a 10" Newtonian using a D70 for an exposure of 133 seconds. Here is the link, a mouse over of a star chart also downloads (both images total about 160kb).

http://www.lostpencil.com/pluto.html

Not much to look at, but it was fun trying to find the needle in a hay stack.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

Total exposure time approximately 80 minutes, taken with a Nikon D70 at prime focus of 10" Newtonian.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

Hello Folks,

I have a f4.8 10" SkyWatcher that I'm using for DSLR astrophotography and I'd like to get a coma corrector.

My question... I don't have a lot of backfocus. I have only about 1/8" of in-travel for my focuser. Currently my connection to the scope is: 1) the focus tube (which has an internal thread), 2) threaded into that is a low profile 2" eyepiece adapter, 3) inserted into that is a small T adapter which fits into the 2" focuser on the scope end and whose other end is screwed into a TRing. The camera (Nikon D70) is connected directly to the TRing.

I'd like to get a coma corrector, but where does it fit into the optical path and where can I get one that will fit my setup? I've also heard that some coma correctors add to the back focus - which would be cool. Any suggestions are most welcome.

Cheers,
Paul Mikulecky
Lost Pencil Animation Studios Inc.
http://www.lostpencil.com

Oh... never mind, I think I answered my own question. Guidescope rings would probably do it...

Cheers,
Paul