Posts Made By: Tyler Allred

Greetings! I got up at 5:30 this morning and the sky was pretty clear for the first time in a long while, so I decided to try a little Saturn imaging. Conditions were not great, but they were the best I have had since I got the Ultima and Toucam. Here is a quick shot at processing one of this mornings AVI files. I think it is my best Saturn image to date.
Cheers,
Tyler

Celestron Ultima 2000 with 2.5X Powermate and Toucam Pro II
400 of 3023 frames - Captured and processed in K3CCDTools - Tweaked Photoshop and ThumbsPlus

Seeing was pretty bad tonight, with short breaks between dense clouds, but I managed a wide shot of Hansteen, Billy, and surrounding area. Other craters in this group include the Flamsteeds, Sirsalis E, Fontana, and many others. Its past my bedtime.
Cheers,
Tyler

This is a single frame from an AVI that I took a few nights ago (when the clouds broke for a few minutes). Many craterlets are visible including Gassendi J, Y, R, and L, Dopplemayer J, K, L, and T, and Puiseux A, B, C, D, and F, and many others. The seeing was pretty poor, but I managed a few good frames. No eclipse for me..... just pouring rain.
Cheers,
Tyler

I got about 30 minutes of viewing between clouds last night, and chose Gauss as my target.... here is the result. Suggestions and comments appreciated, as always.
Cheers,
Tyler

Celestron Ultima 2000, 2.5X Powermate, Toucam Pro II
Best 250 frames of 1009 total frames, captured and stacked in K3CCDTools

It has been pretty tough to find targets lately here in Utah, but I managed a few in the last couple of weeks. Here is one that I quite like.
Cheers,
Tyler

The title pretty much says it all.
Cheers,
Tyler

This bird had a strange crossed bill.

Taken at Utah Lake, a few miles from my home in Orem, Utah.
Cheers,
Tyler

Hello all, I need some help with eyepieces.

I am an eyeglass wearer (astigmatism), and prefer to view with my glasses on. As a result, I really enjoy eyepieces with long eye relief. I am wondering about using my 35 Panoptic with 2X and 4X Powermates (2"), to give a range of magnifications. The 35 Pan is wonderful to look through with glasses..... a true joy. Would this combination be good at the higher powers, or are there problems that would appear with such a setup? I am really not well informed on such matters.

I also wondered about getting a 22mm Nagler Type 4 to use with the two Powermates. These two eyepieces (35 Pan and 22 Nag), used in combination with the Powermates, would give me a wide range of magnifications in my Ultima 2000. Would this approach work, or is it wishful thinking?

The 35 Pan would give focal lengths of 35mm, 17.5mm, and 8.75mm, and the 22 Nag would give 22mm, 11mm, and 5.5mm. This would seemingly be a great range of focal lengths for the Ultima, but I don't want to spend the money and then find out it doesn't work. Any advice and/or comments would be appreciated.

PS - I have used several Radians, which offer great eye relief, but I understand that they essentially have a built-in barlow/powermate, so what would be the difference between these and the setup that I am proposing?
Thanks again and Cheers,
Tyler

I made another attempt at Saturn a few nights ago. Overall, the seeing was pretty bad... transparancy was great, but the air was very turbulent. At any rate, I managed to get enough good frames for a decent image. I sure would like to get a steady night sometime, just to see what this scope is really capable of!
Cheers,
Tyler

Celestron Ultima 2000 (8") with 2.5X Powermate and Toucam Pro II