Posts Made By: Charles Stevenson

Corrected image (attached)

It looks like it's positioned where I could try to image it too. The moon might be a factor. I haven't figured out my filter wheel yet. Any tips on imaging this baby?

Floyd Blue said:

NGC 2170 in Monoceros, commonly called the Angel.
Had tow nights of fours hours on the object, but just not the best conditions. February is a tough month around here.
But it was my last chance at it for the year so I did what I could. Such a cool object, wish it was located in another part of the sky. Maybe next year I can get more data.
http://www.astrophotogallery.org/floyd-s-pics/p13129-ngc2170.html

#2

Celestron replied and said they don't have the part anymore for my mount. Ah whatever.. I'm using a wrench now and took off the RA knob too. Actually works much better, doesn't rub on the mount motor housings, feels more solid, and is adjustable with gloves on in the cold. Who knew cracking a knob would be such a good thing? ;-)

Re your seemingly flippant "so what" remark: To me, and I'm speaking just for me, Sony's exit from the CCD market feels significant. Maybe not for you, you obviously have a LOT more money (I've seen your posts), but take stock of the quantity of Sony CCDs in use world-wide for amateur astrophotography and tell each of those people that their pursuits don't matter.

Are there other CCD vendors? Yes. And yet, both of the camera's I own contain a Sony CCD. The specs of the Sony ICX285AL are fantastic considering I paid $150 for the Basler camera (vs $1.3k for an Atik with the same chip). It's very compact and has no pretenses of trying to serve another purpose vs a DSLR with buttons, display, menus, and ergonomic hand grips.

This is the second post of mine you've responded to in a harsh way. The first time you suggested my post was fit for the comedy forum. Perhaps the sardonic tone is my own perception and not true to your intent. However, it feels in sharp contrast to the overwhelming sense of welcome and support I've received from forum members in the last 3 months since picking up a telescope. I've even remarked to people how friendly the astronomy community is and that everyone is excited for the newcomer. Old timers seem re-energized and gladdened to pass along some hard earned wisdom.

There's a post of yours where you say:

Richard Keppler said:
Avail yourself of clubs, societies, friends, whomever you can approach and look through other people's equipment. Hang around and ask questions. Watch and learn. Ask if you can help with the set-up and/or take-down of some telescopes. Maybe if you hang around long enough and get to be friends, you will eventually be able to "use" their scope and mount. Take advantage of any club sponsored or supported club rentals. Once you have a good idea of what might work for you, research it. Read user reports and reviews. Dig around on the internet. At some point you will be able to make a fairly well informed decision on what to buy for yourself. Then follow the rest of the excellent advice already given above and below.

Are you giving me an attitude?

I love it. I wonder what that would look like on my Atik 16IC. Probably a red smudge. ;-)

Cool photo! I always found it somewhat confusing converting grid to magnetic in the Army for land navigation. I thought you were in Chile??

Roland Christen said:

Just took this picture of the sun setting due west, about 15 minutes after the Vernal Equinox (7:08pm Central time). Roads here in the Midwest run very close to E-W for the most part. This part of north-west Illinois is composed of low rolling hills that the glaciers did not mow down. In the flatter parts of southern Illinois, the roads run for miles in a very straight line.

The settlers who first laid out these roads most probably used a magnetic compass to determine north. Fortunately here the magnetic north and true north are almost exactly the same.

Rolando

The guys in my imaging group gave me the run down on a few things and set me up with some tutorials. I decided to capitulate and am using PhotoShop CS6 for stretching and blending. I'm working through the Tony Hallas videos right now. This iteration of processing some M51 I took early last week is the best color DSO I've managed yet. Still with the Atik 16IC mono which doesn't give me enough resolution to be forgiving.

Some of the coords (flipped image in Y-axis to solve)

Welcome, Dmitry. :-)