Posts Made By: Stephen Fugardi

Last Weds, I attempted to finely tune my collimation using my 50um artifical star 100feet away, again (for the 5th time). Even after 2 hours of scope cooldown with the observatory door open & dew shield on, I am still suffering from nasty tube currents (see attached). Looking at my last Jupiter image taken before moving to my dome showed much better detail than I am achieving now. Previously, I could see the red spot visually no problem (of course in 2004 it was higher in the sky). Since my local seeing improves with a dew shield and having the observatory door open, I have to conclude that my 3+ tons of concrete foundation/base are retaining heat and slowly radiating it up to the scope affecting the tube currents. Next time out, I will use a floor fan to pull the air across the scope and floor out the door. Using this setup 2 hours earlier and maybe leaving the fan on should help. All this recent talk of air conditioners is making me think that besides observing comfort, the AC may be reducing tube currents as well. There's a lot to be said about not having sweat drip onto your 8.8mm eyepiece when observing Jupiter...

I think the roll off roofs have a big advantage here with tube currents since the entire area is open to the ambient. Does anyone else suffer from these currents and what do you do? I may have over-engineered the concrete and killed my own seeing...

Regards,
Steve

Folks, I just got done cutting and installing a couple of 6x8' exterior rugs from Home Depot. I added a thin blue flooring insulation layer under the first rug sitting on the concrete floor. Since the rug seemed thin, I decided to add another layer of insulation then a second rug on top. The floor is nice to walk on, so even if my dome seeing does not improve at least my feet won't hurt as much after a long night of observing.

I wasn't quite sure how to insulate the pier, so for now I just took the two 12" circles of insulation and shoved them under my top plate. I have plenty of blue insulation so I could wrap the pier with it, but I wasn't sure how to cover it. Originally I was thinking of covering it with another part of the rug and holding it in place with edging and small concrete screws.

If anyone has any ideas on the pier, please let me know. My goal is to improve my seeing by insulating all of my exposed concrete.

Regards,
Steve

Folks, With my Compustar C11 and a 2.5X barlow, I captured this image of Uranus as it reached it highest altitude approx 12:15AM in average seeing conditions. I was surprised to find it barely cleared the trees! Using my Toucam 840 with an IR filter, 1/25sec, 5fps, 50% br, 0% gam, 100% sat, 79% gain. I took the best 300shots from my 450sec avi and resized it by 2x. I tried adjusting the gain/gamma and found the best setup with no gamma at all but with a ton of gain. I have not subtracted the dark frame, but have one ready to go once I figure out how to do it. I did not use wavelets in Registax either but ran it through Neat Image 2x. I used my Kmart box fan to cool the observatory 2hrs before and during the session, and the seeing definitely improved.

Regards,
Steve

Switching from my eyepiece to the Toucam + 2.5x barlow has always been a problem for me. Using my Compustar C11, the "perfect" barlowed toucam focus meant that my TV55mm would have to be 1/4" outside the eyepiece holder. With 1 hand on the controller and the other gripping the eyepiece just above the holder, trying to re-find Uranus or Neptune was an adventure. Also on at least 2 occasions I missed imaging Venus and Jupiter for not being able to even find a focus before the planet sunk out of view.

After a trip to Home Depot, I glued a 1-1/4 coupler (slightly less than 2" OD) to a 2" adapter (2" ID) and now have a perfect adapter for my 55mm eyepiece that is Toucam ready. I am thinking of making another one for my 1.8x barlow and 1 for prime only. If the eyepiece requires partial insertion for those, I would try to make a 2" spacer ring by cutting the piece to hold the eyepiece out of the holder just enough.

For $2.56, my focusing problems have been solved. Maybe this cheap PVC adapter could help you?

Regards,
Steve

With the Mercury transit exactly 1 month away and having never witnessed one live before, I would like to try to observe & capture it with my Toucam. I have never looked at the Sun and would like some advice on what kind of basic filter to buy. I see Baader film and black polymer types and prices seem to reasonable in the $120-180 range. Also, I see where larger scopes are recommended to not use full aperture because of turbulence.

What filter would you guys recommend for a C11 scope? Also, would a barlow be a good or bad idea for the Mercury transit, considering it will only be a tiny 10" disk?

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Regards,
Steve

With above average seeing last night and a near full moon, I was able to capture my best Uranus so far. I used my new Lymax cat cooler, for 2 hrs before micro collimating my C11. With the fan on full and myself standing in front of it while imaging, I was able to back off the gain and capture a decent Uranus. Toucam 840 + IR, f25, 1/25sec, 5fps, Br 61%, Gam 35%, Gain 54%, Sat 100%, auto white balance. Best 113 frames stacked out of 2002 and resized 2x. I also selected the RGB shift in Registax which seemed to take the green out of the image, making it more blue. The bright moon seemed to have little affect on the avi quality.

Regards,
Steve

PS: Last night was my first attempt observing without a flashlight! Good thing for the bright moon. Always hide your observing flashlight from the rest of your family...

In my continuous effort to solve my local heat wave turbulence problem, I modified my existing 16" dew shield with a Walmart sleeping bag pad. By attaching it with with velcro, trying to keep the open side slightly larger, it is now 24" and extends outside my dome opening by approx 10". According to the internet sites, it is recommended to have a dew shield 1.5 to 2.5x the scope aperture. For my C11, this super dew shield boosted the ratio from 1.5 to 2.2x. With average seeing last night, I was absolutely amazed at the sharpness of Uranus 1hr after its peak altitude with the reduced turbulence. Please see my star test on next posting

Regards,
Steve

After buying my baader filter early to avoid the last minute solar filter rush, an inch of rain all day predicted Weds will keep me from viewing this rare event live at the scope. Even after saving my Toucam settings from a previous solar "practice" run and getting the day off of work, it won't matter. A hardcore amateur would take their grab and go scope and hop a plane and go somewhere clear - with my C90 on a flimsy camera tripod it doesn't seem worth it. I am looking forward to seeing excellent transit shots from this forum. Hope you get superb seeing!

Regards,
Steve

PS: Anyone know the next solar transit, so I can mark my calendar

Just got my nice used pair delivered from ebay today. Considering my frame of reference was a lousy 10x50mm Sears model which I lost one of the eyepieces from. The 9x60's were incredible! Sharp bright views of the coathanger, M31, M45, M42 and the double cluster were the best I have seen from a hand held. At some point, I would love to get the 15x50 IS, but for now these sweet binocs will do me fine.

Regards,
Steve

PS: I should have saved the strap before I chucked the old ones out last month...

Woke up at 3:30AM to below average seeing and crisp temps (even though the clear sky clock predicted better just 6 hrs earlier!). Best 150frames taken with C11 Compustar and Toucam at f25. Right before I packed up, I viewed Mercury through the bare trees just over the horizon for the first time. Not much to see at just under 7" in size. I tried taking a few avis but the seeing was terrible.

Regards,
Steve