Posts Made By: Louis Marchesi

Not to be overly petty, but where is MINE

I threw a couple of coins in the tip jar on or about 1/20 and figured I'd be sipping my Sunday morning brew from my new mug by now ...

This is my first attempt at imaging the Ring. Let's get the particulars out of the way:
LRGB 60:24:24:24, 6 min subs, colors binned 2x2, imaged at 1200mm, f/7.9, Astrodon LRGB
This is a crop of a larger frame.

So, do these colors look right to you? Suggestions?

Lou

I am looking for suggestions on a binocular for the mother-in-law. She is probably 90lbs soaking wet, so I'm wanting lightweight, easy-to-use, for bird-watching at backyard distances. Image stabilization is not required. Prefer weather-sealed and of course, not bank-breaking. Figure in the $200 range or so, if that's do-able for the price range.

Does the D7000 in movie mode make a good 'webcam?' I was thinking of sticking on a 'scope (3200mm with 4x Powermate) and seeing what happens. Thoughts?

The Moon and Venus pairing caught me by 'surprise.' This is the view looking over the James River in Newport News, Virginia at about 6pm.

A larger, non JPEG is available here:
http://www.astronomiae.com/latest/luna-and-venus/luna-venus.html

Ed,

M102 is, according M. Messier himself, a duplicate observation of M101.

Since people like a "mystery" it has been proposed that it is NGC 5866 in Draco. So there are 109, unless you are working on your AL observing certificate, then there are 110.

Louis Marchesi
New London Township, PA

Inge,

I found this object to be difficult in my 152mm refractor from a dark sky site and with a UHC filter. An arc in the northern section was most prominent, and I did see a complete oval, which I thought might have been my mind/eye playing tricks on me.

Regards,
Louis Marchesi
New London Township, PA, USA

Hi Shawn,

I am by no means an expert in photography, astro- or otherwise. But, I've been considering getting a DSLR to replace my ageing point-and-shoot digital camera. While doing the research on the Nikon D70 I came across this website:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm

Mr. Rockwell is not an astrophotographer, but his articles about film vs. digital resolution and the megapixel myth (in the consumer p+s cameras) I thought were very well done.

Hopefully this site contains some information you might find useful.

Regards,
Louis Marchesi
New London Township, PA

Ed,

I'm glad you're liking your new scope! I've been socked in with clouds here since the New Year and haven't had an observing session yet, so I'm glad to get an opportunity to do some "virtual" observing and maybe help out.

M105 and NGC3384 are accompanied by the fainter (mag 12.4, size 2'.8 x 1'.3) galaxy NGC3389. According to my observing log from last March, I was *barely* able to discern this galaxy at 55x in my 152mm refractor from my ~mag 5.5 skies at my backyard observing site. I noted the extremely faint, irregular patch of mist which I later determined to be NGC3389. You can see it if you look for a photo of M105. At higher magnifications it evaporated from my view.

Regarding M35, my suspicion is that you got a glimpse of NGC2158 (mag 12.1, 5'.0), a smaller, fainter, irregurly-shaped open cluster at the "edge" of M35. My log entry for this object notes that at 55x in my 152mm refractor it appeared as a hazy patch that hinted at stars. At 133x a few stars popped in and out of my visual threshold. In a scope your size a higher magnification should reveal it as an open cluster.

Regards,
Louis Marchesi
New London Township, PA

Hi Gregg,

I checked with SkyTools 2 and here is what I found ...

The galaxy is PGC 13696, aka UGC 2838 and MGC 4-9-5
RA: 03h43m44.6s, Dec: +24°03'39" (2000) in Taurus
Magnitude: 17.30
Size: 1.0'x 0.1'

Light Time: 0.3 Gyr
Mean Surface Br. 23.9 Mag/arc-sec²

Comments:
Hubble Class: Spiral c
Orientation: Edge on