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M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

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Posts Made By: Walter Hamler

January 16, 2003 09:47 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

Auto Guiders

Posted By Walter Hamler
Does anyone know what how I might interface one of the new CCD autoguiders with a drive controller that uses push buttons that changes the drive speeds to a synchronous motor and reverses polarity to a 12vdc dec motor? I am very happy with my GEM so I don't want to invest in a larger unit just to be able to take an occasional piggyback photo with a longish telephoto lens.

Walt

January 19, 2003 12:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Digital Setting Circles

Posted By Walter Hamler
I have come by a set of Lumicon Digital Setting Circles; encoders, cables, and control box. It runs off a 9v battery.
As far as I can determine it works, display lights, menu works, and turning the encoder shafts produces readings. However, I don't have instructions for use, and don't know if it will work in alt/az mode on a dob. The installation instructions tell how to install on a C-14 fork mount but no other instructions. Lumicon has gone away apparantly, so I'm hoping someone out there may know where to get a set or give some quick instructions.
Thanks,

Walt

January 20, 2003 06:38 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Sky Vector Instructions

Posted By Walter Hamler
Ok, check the pic a few posts earlier (Digital Setting Circles) and let me know if you may have a set of instructions on this setup. It will either be called a Lumicon Sky Vector or a Celestron Astromaster. Reportedly made in the late 80's. I will be willing to pay copying costs and postage.
Walt Hamler

January 21, 2003 09:05 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Returning to a sphere

Posted By Walter Hamler
A friend has a 10" f/2.9 mirror that was mistakingly parabolized by the maker. Additionally, it has some minor scratching at the center. I am going to attempt to return it to a sphere for his purpose and eliminate or reduce the scratches. Would it be best to make a dental stone tool, populate with tile and return to 320 grit or so, or attempt to polish it out. The origional tool is missing and I have a 10" tool that I have made a lap for and started the polishing process, but I'm wondering how much time this may take with cerox!!

January 28, 2003 03:59 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

First Digital Pics Saturn

Posted By Walter Hamler
Got my first chance to shoot some tonight. Seeing was so-so.
These are single images, haven't got the stacking software yet. Tweaked curves and sharpening a little.
8" f/6 newt with 9.7mm Speers-Waler and Coolpix 4500.

Walt

February 10, 2003 07:18 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Refractor Baffles

Posted By Walter Hamler
I have a 4" f/10 refractor that has 3 baffle rings inside. I think they are too restrictive and are reducing my illuminated field for a 2" 40mm eyepiece. Is there any way to check this? Could I remove the baffles and replace them with black flocking paper with the same net result (as far as reducing glare, etc).

Walt

February 11, 2003 01:23 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Io and Ganymede lat night

Posted By Walter Hamler
Last evening's Io/Ganymede event was really neat. I had my 4" refractor out checking out a new drive corrector and doing an accurate polar align. I took a break and looked at Jupiter through the trees. It was obvious that two of the moons were very close so I checked the S&T chart for Jovian moon events. Sure enough they were heading for a collision (well, it looked that way through the eyepiece!). The 4" showed them merge and then some 10's of minutes later began to seperate again. Then about 40 minutes later Io's shadow darkened Ganymede to the point it was dimmer than Io, but not by much. I was quite taken by how quickly these "real time" events transpired.

Walt

February 14, 2003 04:06 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Jupiter and Saturn last evening

Posted By Walter Hamler
Last evening I was checking out a new club scope, a Nextar 8. The GOTO function was almost flawless, but the image quality seemed somewhat lacking. I tweaked the collimation somewhat and the images improved dramatically! I was astounded at the quality of the images at up to 300x. The red spot on Jupiter was obvious even at the edge of the limb as it was beginning to appear. The numerous white spots on one band were easy to observe, and I swear I could detect the presence of markings on Ganymede. Saturn was equally impressive in all respects.
The drawings simply don't do justice to the quality of the images, but I felt I had to try. I sure wish I had Sol's and Carlos's artistic abilities!!
Walt

February 25, 2003 08:51 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

Astrophoto with 350mm lens

Posted By Walter Hamler
Here is a shot I took last evening with my 350mm T-mount lens. Ektachrome 200, about 8 minutes @ f/5.5. Pushed 1 stop in processing. This is a copy made with the slide copy attachment on my Coolpix 4500 and it is putting a hotspot in the center for some reason. Will have to work on that, but I'm happy with the pretty sharp stars. Considering the light pollution from nearby Orlando, I guess the amount of nebulosity is ok.

Walt

March 19, 2003 03:14 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Tripod Value

Posted By Walter Hamler
I was in the local surplus store today and they had an old Pro type motion picture tripod. It has some pretty massive legs and looks to be adjustible from about 2.5 feet to maybe 6 feet. One leg casting is cracked but it has an effective patch bolted over like a splint that seems to work. Each leg has a large 6" dia pad that it sets on and the whole thing was very solid on a concrete floor. It had a "brand name" that I now don't recall. The asking price is 125.00. Any idea the value of something like this? It would be very easy to mount a largish eq head on for a really stable refractor setup.

Walt

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