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The personal blog of me, Tim Trott. What I get up to, photography, news and so on.
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Tuesday 2nd May 2006
I have been out of plaster about a week now and i’m feeling strong enough to have a go with my telescope, of course I need help with setting up and moving it around.
I have learned a lot from the last session when I went out in plaster, and this time I tried using a Barlow lens (as suggested on UKAI). This almost doubles the image size, and I was able to capture some good shots of Jupiter. I also got a few good pictures of the Moon and a new Messier Object, M13, a globular cluster in Hercules which I found by accident (again!).
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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 11:52pm
Back into Astronomy - Still in Plaster Cast
Wednesday 5th April 2006
Typically there have been several nights now with perfect clear skies and clear visibility. Unfortunately due to the accident in February I am unable to venture outside with my telescope which is very frustrating! Tonight I was feeling strong enough to try some constellation imaging with a lot of help. Still in plaster casts my dad had to help move the tripod and camera, but I was able to capture some good constellations.
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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Car Crash, Injury and Recovery by Lonewolf at 10:10pm
Friday 27th January 2006
It was a bit chilly tonight (-2°C) but that did not stop me because the sky was very clear for a change (interrupted by the odd cloud). Using a new eyepiece (40mm Super Plossl) went straight to my favorite nebula, M42, and started imaging. Results with the new EP were very good, but I still have a problem with focusing. Span the scope round randomly looking at stuff and I happened to find a star cluster. I later identified it as M37.
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This post is filed under Astrophotography by Lonewolf at 12:25am
Sunday 22nd January 2006
The skies started off clear tonight but rapidly became hazy as a fog drew in. Didn’t get many images today, spent a while doing my first calibration since reading the manual, throwing it away and looking on the Internet. First results were very impressive; in fact over 5, 15-second exposures there was no tracking error. Pleased with setting up the tracking, but ultimately disappointed with the weather.
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This post is filed under Astronomy by Lonewolf at 10:51pm
Sunday 22nd January 2006
Clear skies again, this time without the moon. Amazing what a difference a moonless sky makes to viewing conditions. I started off trying to polar align my mount, and after nearly an hour I gave up. North has quite heavy light pollution which makes finding the pole star (Polaris) difficult. I think I need to read the manual before trying this again. Had another go at Saturn, this time when it was much higher in the sky to reduce the effects of atmospheric disturbance (as suggested by Anthony from UKAI). Not sure if it made any difference though, focus was still poor. I also had another go at M42 in Orion as this is (supposed) to be the easiest and one of the most attractive nebula’s. I still need more practice, but its a million times better than the first attempt! Then I put the camera back on the tripod and captured some new constellations for the collection.
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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 7:54am
Saturday 14th January 2006
Clear skies again last night, but they didn’t clear until 21:30. After the disappointment of not being able to take any pictures of Saturn last time, I made it my first target for the night. I found it extremely difficult to focus on Saturn with the camera, I had the camera set to what I thought was Infinity (there is no setting for this) and I used the focus on the telescope until it looked the best and took the pictures, even then they were still out of focus. Until I can sort out focusing and tracking I will be looking at the Moon as it is fairly easy to photograph.
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This post is filed under Astrophotography by Lonewolf at 8:18pm
