Posts Made By: Alex McConahay

As some of you may know, Mike Unsold, developer of Images Plus software, will be in Southern California at the Nightfall Star Party in Borrego Springs October 19-22. He will be presenting an all day workshop on Saturday the 21st, and will be there the whole weekend for visiting and working with the Astro-imagers.

As of today, about two-thirds the seats for the Unsold Workshop have been sold. I have heard some people may be thinking of waiting until the conference itself to register. Some or all of those last minute people may be disappointed. The rooms in the hotel were all spoken
for last I checked, although I understand they plan to develop a waiting list at the Palm Canyon Resort. Also, of course, there are RV spots at the Palm Canyon, and other hotels in town (as well as the state park) for those who do not yet have a place to stay.

Information about Nightfall itself is at

http://www.rtmcastronomyexpo.org/nightfall.htm

If you want to register for the Unsold presentation, go to:

http://www.rivastro.org/ras_images_plus_reg.html

Mike has prepared two CD's of sample images for us to work through, and this promises to be quite an informative hands-on workshop. But I'm also excited about spending the evenings imaging with Mike puttering around the telescope field. I've got a few questions to ask.

Alex

From this weekend in in Borrego Springs at Nightfall.


Meade 10 inch F4.5 Starfinder Newt riding an ST-4 guided G-11. Canon 20D. 24 three minute exposures, ISO 800. Pre-processed in Images Plus and then Photoshopped.

I've finally put a few pictures on my website showing others what my little Outhouse Observatory looks like. It is a roll-off shelter--about the size of an outhouse. The whole thing rolls away to reveal a pier and scope setup in the back yard.
You can find it at:

http://users.adelphia.net/~alexmcconahay/Equipment/outhouse/outhouseindex.html

Alex

I get spots on my photos. I have assumed they were dust on the sensor of my 20D. But I am not so sure any more. I have cleaned my sensor. The dust spots do not consistently show in my photos.

Could they be from somewhere else besides the sensor dust?

COuld a wide angle lens actually focus a piece of dust on a skylight filter?

Could it be on the rear elelment of the lens?

What have you found?

ALex

Both of these are used to correct the color cast of a given film so that it looks normal, even though it was not taken in daylight. Basically, if you take a picture in Tungsten light, it will look redder than it should. These filters correct it back to what it would look like under normal daylight.

An 80a filter corrects 3200K to 5500K, and an 80B filter corrects corrects from 3400 - 5500K.

They don't have any uses in astronomy, as far as I know.

Alex

>> I primarily search for DSO's and look at the planetary objects

For solar system objects, being in town does not hurt, so if by "planetary" objects, you mean planets, then build a home observatory. As for "deep space" then dark matters. You can observe them, but they aren'yt easily observed or pretty.

>>Would this just be an adjustment in viewing habits? What would you do

depends on how valuable the space is.....an observatory is a good place to store your astronomy gear between monthly dashes to dark sky site. And it is a very good place for practicing and testing.

>>dome or slide-off?

Check local building codes and CCR's. Domes may not be allowed.
Roll-offs are cheaper, I think.
I have been told roll-offs do not suffer from seeing problems as much as domes--with only one opening to let hot air out.
Roll offs look like garden sheds--Domes look like they have expensive equipment in them....
Domes look cool!

>>heating the observatory

It would seem that this is not a wise idea considering seeing problems. However, I will leave that to people who have used heaters when observing...I never have.

>>security--

probably depends on the neighborhood. If you have to worry about it (after standard locks and stuff), well, maybe its time to move!!!

Alex

The "How hard is it to find objects" thread is getting a little long and off topic, but an interesting discussion has come up regarding whether it is better to use a planetarium program with a laptop or a printed chart/atlas.

I have plenty of uses for both. But for simple star hopping of decently bright objects, I find a good old SKy Atlas 2000 a lot easier to use than a laptop.

....I can hold a printed atlas over my head to line it up with the stars I can see. I suppose I could hold the laptop up, but I would not be as comfortable.

...the scale of the printed atlas is a lot easier to adjust to than the variable scale of my laptop. I know, I could adjust the scale on the laptop, but I still find it easier to distinguish the signposts and patterns I need on the paper map rather than the laptop.

...the size of the atlas pages, and the corresponding area of sky covered, allows me to get a better picture of where the objects of my desire are. (Maybe this is just another way of saying the last paragraph. But I do find it easier to see what I need.)

Any other advice for the beginners? (Or your opinion on what I offered?)

Alex

Canon 20D, Meade 10 inch F4.5 on Losmandy mount.

Canon 20D, Meade 10 inch F4.5 on Losmandy mount.

Canon 20D, Meade 10 inch F4.5 on Losmandy mount.