Published?

After posting some photos on fotothing.com I was asked if my image of Vega could be used in an impending newsletter for the Rose City Astronomers club from Portland, Oregon in the US.

I agreed to let them use the image and the result can be found here on their website on page 3 of The RCA August 2008 Newsletter.

I was also asked for the same image to be used at a kiosk in a visitor centre in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.



This was one of the first images I captured through the Skywatcher and I was quite pleased with the result.

later
Mitch

Well, we've been pretty much fogged out here the last few days, so much that Heathrow airport have cancelled half their flights. The last chance I had to use the scope was last Saturday evening, objective was to test out the recalibrated Polar scope.

Got the scope aligned fairly quickly and then started with some piggy backed shots, this time I wanted some shots of Cygnus....



Quite pleased with this 10 minute exposure (longest yet), this shows the rear section of Cygnus with Deneb showing nicely, this is a very rich section of the sky as the Milky Way runs through here. The image below has some lines drawn to show the outline of the constellation, Deneb is top right and is in fact the tail star of the swan.



Next I thought I'd have another go at Lyra as it was higher in the sky than last time and therefore out of the glow of light pollution....



Another 10 minute exposure at ISO:400, 35mm equiv 90mm focal length.

Then I tried some prime focus shots and also using the camera attached to the Barlow lens. The Barlow lens seems to have a blurring effect though.

Also I ran into some camera shake again, I've tried everything to eliminate shake. I purchased a 2 metre extension lead for the remote shutter release, this was then isolated by being clipped to a photo stand next to the scope with plenty of slack between the scope and the stand.

I tried shooting with the mirror lock up function also, all to no avail. I've come to the conclusion that there's either a fault with the drive or my patio (made of concrete slabs) has a bounce in it so that as I walk away the scope is picking up vibrations.

Next opportunity I get I will downsize the camera by removing the battery grip and using the camera in its standard configuration.

Just looked outside and...more fog.

cheers
Mitch

No chance for any clear skies since Friday. Ian, I tried to reply to your comment, without success. The photo of Vega was taken using a Canon 350D SLR attached to my newly aquired Skywatcher 200mm Newtonian reflector on its HEQ5 motorised mount. The equivalent 35mm focal length would be 1600mm and the aperture of the scope works out at f5. The photo was a 2 minute exposure using the HEQ5 mounts motor drive to track the sky.

cheers
Mitch

Well, as it got dark the high cirrus clouds rolled in yet again. I had moved the Skywatcher outside before it got dark so was disappointed again. Then a clear patch revealed Polaris so I decided to have a go at aligning the HEQ5 mount.

I had been quite apprehensive about this, the instructions that came with the scope were very good but I was still struggling to get my head around some of it. I resorted to running Stellerium and choosing the "Equatorial mount" view, all became clear as to how it should work!

So tonight I bravely got on my knees to peer through the Polarscope and managed to align the mount. I will post some tips on this at some point, assuming that I succeeded...anyway, due to the poor seeing I decided to try out the camera mount with the mounts' tracking ability.

After a few attempts I managed to get this image of Vega....



This 2 minute exposure would appear to prove that the scope was aligned sufficiently for this exposure length :o)