Posts Made By: Steve Thornton

This is perhaps my best Mars so far; it was shot early Sunday morning with a ToUcam 840 and an IR filter with my C11 and a 2.8 Klee Barlow on a G-11 mount. I just love the image scale I get with this system at a focal length of 7800 mm.

Hello all,

I just imaged Mars this morning and came up with some white spots on the planet; you can see them on this photo at the bottom, towards the left. I think they may be clouds or something real on Mars and not a digital artifact because they are on the same area on the planet on all the AVI sets I took.

Has anyone imaged the same thing? From the Planet Observers Handbook, white clouds are dust that has been carried to the upper atmosphere. Could be a harbinger of dust storms to come.

Here's a shot of Gassendi I took with my C11, 2x barlow, red filter and ToUcam. It was pretty decent seeing with apprximately 500 frames stacked. Temps were in the 40's. I'm very pleased with the amount of details inside the crater. Hopefully with better seeing, I can get even better details.

Steve Thornton

This is third time I've shot Saturn and finally got some excellent seeing; probably 8/10. My equipment was a C11 with 2x barlow and ToUcam with an IR blocking filter. At a quality setting of 80%, I was able to stack 1500 frames out of an AVI set of 2150 frames.

Here's a shot of the Mercury transit I took yesterday. I lucked out having clear skies and being able to view the entire tansit. It was shot with an Orion 127mm Mak and ToUcam Pro at prime focus. throughout the transit I was struck by how easy it was to view the disk shape of Mercury.

Here's another image using the same equipment as before

It took working two hours in 40-degree temperatures, but I took advantage of the best seeing I've ever had to get this image of Saturn. I took it early this morning. I'd estimate the seeing was 8 or nine on a scale of 10. This is the first time I've got Cassini's division clearly all the way around.

I shot the image with a C-11 on a Losmandy G-11 with a Pro ToUcam and IR filter. Approximately 650 frames stacked using Registax 4.

Has anyone had any experience with the Thousand Oaks hydrogen-alpha setup? I saw it mentioned in Astronomy Magazine and a set of the filters goes for under a grand. I'm sure the resolution is not as good as Coronado, but it seems like a tempting way to get into hydrogen-alpha, past a PST.

Steve

Has anyone tried out or heard about the new Orion SSCI II webcam? At 1.3 megapixels, it should be better than a ToUcam. Maybe not as much for the planets as for a lunar imager.

Steve

I just recently put the finishing touches on my classic six-inch refractor; a project that has gone through several incarnations since I bought a six-inch, f/9 Starfire triplet lens assembly from AstroPhysics in 1990. I love refractors and always have and have enjoyed this lens and its superb images after building the OTA .

I started out with a homebuilt mount and suffered through its performance for years until finding a used Losmandy G-11 about siz years ago. After that, having always admired classic antique refractors, I came up with an idea of producing a refractor that looked as good as it was looking through. My first idea was a brass tube but considering the weight and availability of brass, came up with the idea of finishing the OTA in an oak veneer, coming close to the look of some short-focus Clark refractors and Fitz refractors. It worked out really well and just recently I finished the OTA when I needed a new focuser by extending the oak veneer to the tailpiece. The OTA now consists of a fiberglass tube, a sonotube lens hood and PVC tailpiece, all covered by real oak veneer. I stained the oak with a mahogany gel stain and sealed it with a polyurethane spar varnish. I then put brass end bands on the lens hood and tube.

Continuing the theme, I built a wooden accessory tray between the tripod legs with holders for a battery, eyepieces and various small tools. For the tripod extension, I constructed a solid oak plaque with holes drilled in for a clock, thermometer and hygrometer. Here’s a photo of the entire set-up and I’ll send some other photos of close-ups of some of the features.

It’s been an eventful 17 years with this telescope through its different versions. Several times I’ve given serious thought to selling the telescope to fund my burgeoning solar interests but always I‘ve come to realize how special this telescope is. It’s a beautiful scope to look at as well as look through.