Posts Made By: Mark Keitel

February 20, 2003 08:36 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Re: 9mmType 6 Nagler Vs. Meade 8.8mm Ultrawide

Posted By Mark Keitel

Tom,

First
ON the Meade 14mm vs the Nagler
I would never choose an ocular due to size and compactness
the Meade 14mm is also a keeper for me
as is the Nagler 20mm TypeII and Nagler 31mm( this ocular lacks edge sharpness though with suck a wide field I can live with that)

Personally when I am looking for a wide field ocular, I want flatness, dark background, and compactness does not enter into my mind.

Last year a few of us did a side by side comparison on the Nagler 9mm type 6 and the 8.8 Meade
The first comparison was done at WSP2002
From refractor,SCT,Dob,and Dall-Kirkham we all agreed that the Meade was better.

easier on the eye, blacker background, flatter field.
We tried this test again in May 2002 at another Star Party different conditions and found the same thing

Now I can say that the Meade is a big piece of glass and heavy, So if you are having balancing issues with a Dob then that may be the way to go with the 9mm Nagler. But if you want a more pleasing view and blacker background then opt for the OLDER Style Meade 8.8.

By the way
We hade (2) 9mm Nalgers that we tried at WSP2002 and (2) Meade 8.8 one of the 8.8 is mine and was bought new about 1996
The other Star Party we tried (2) different 9mm Naglers in fact I bought one on Amart just for this test. The Meades were my 8.8 again and another 8.8 that someone else brought

This is just what a few of us found and what we felt about the two oculars ( three of us at WSP2002, same three at other Star Party and had 2 more people added the second go around



February 21, 2003 10:59 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

HorseHead and Flame

Posted By Mark Keitel

This is a work in progress
This is the portion in Ha, and have not gotten the color done yet due to very cloudy nights, and of course the moon. This image was taken over three nights with the full moon and when there was a break in the clouds

Tak FSQ, SBIG8e
Have not delt with the blooming yet since I figure I would do that after I have the color data.

Comments appreciated
Thank you

February 27, 2003 01:31 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

NGC2244 a rose?

Posted By Mark Keitel

here is another try at Ha for me
70m Ha 10nm filter

Any comments or help would be appreciated
I did a stretch in maxim, then a few curves and levels in Photoshop.

Thank you
Mark

March 2, 2003 09:45 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Ha image

Posted By Mark Keitel

This is a 250 min Ha 10nm image
Taken with Tak FSQ, SBIG 8e
focusing done by hand, with the help of Maxim DL
I have to thank Andy for the help in processing this though since I am not good enough at processing yet to have brought out this image like this.

I used Ron's de-blooming software to take care of the blooms and to show that Alnitak is a double star in fact

Here is a better resolution of this image
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/galaxyquest/CCD%20Images/IC434Ha.jpg

March 11, 2003 10:07 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

M63 WSP2003 image

Posted By Mark Keitel

I took this image at the WSP 2003. I did the original processing there, and now that I have gotten slightly better at this I re-processed the image yesterday. This image you can actually see the distant galaxies in the background

Sbig8e
120 min exposure, Mewlon 300, FL/2700,F/9.1
I was told that since I have this long train on the end of the scope that my FL is really longer but I am not sure exactly what it actually is

Thank you

March 12, 2003 03:17 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Lumicon back??

Posted By Mark Keitel

Is Lumicon going to be back in business?

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_898_1.asp

March 19, 2003 12:34 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

GPS systems will they be correct?

Posted By Mark Keitel

This is to all the people that use GPS systems for their scopes, and or cars
In time of Military action, the United States Military has the authority and the means to change the GPS satellite coordiantes, making the GPS system useless to the public and in turn to the enemy. This is a world wide affect

Just a heads up, if you find your GPS system screwed up, this will be why.


March 19, 2003 01:57 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

THE FOLLOWING CAME FROM A H.S. class on France

Posted By Mark Keitel

QUESTION
HOW MANY FRENCH SOLDIERS DOES IT TAKE TO DEFEND PARIS


Answer:

No one knows, since in the history of France it has never been done

This came from my daughters 12th grade AP history class yesterday

Think about it

March 26, 2003 02:44 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

SBIG8XE first light

Posted By Mark Keitel

I finally got a SBIG 8XE and was excited that I would no longer have to wait for those long downloads on my 8e camera
Last night was a clear night and was all ready to image. I still focus by hand and was only able to get a 4.97 FWHM in Maxim when focusing. No that good for around here but I decided to image at .69 arc/sec anyway.

I knew that I was going to be sending my reducer back first thing in the morning to have a part made for it so no flats were going to be taken. Oh well

I decided to image NGC4565 and was very happy with the results
The mount was polar aligned with CCDops and the SBIG camera on the AP 1200 mount.
12 8min exposures were taken at .69 arc/sec
I did a Dark subtract, and a stretch in Maxim, nothing else done to the image. Since there were no flats I did not want to spend allot of time on this. My main concern was tracking, and to see how fast the downloads really were. Also to make sure that I was able to actually get the driver to work too.

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/galaxyquest/CCD%20Images/NGC4565.jpg

Was about to do the color but noticed that the tracking was off and then noticed that the refractor that I had the STV on for guiding was all dewed up, I had forgotten to turn on the heater. Since I never have this problem with my main imaging scope, even if the tubes are dripping water from the humidity.

It was 1am and decided to sleep, instead of waiting for the heater to work and keep going, since I knew that there were not going to be any flats done I figured why not get some sleep for another day

So this long winded message
Thank you Michael for selling me your camera

Mark






April 3, 2003 11:07 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

NGC4631

Posted By Mark Keitel

Thought that this Galaxy was different so I imaged it Tuesday night
now I wish that I had done color too

9 x 8 min
Sbig8XE camera
Mewlon 300 with reducer 9.1