Prep for the night sky

Posted on December 23, 2017January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

Astronomy in a box, err shed. Propane heater at the ready!

Clear Skies!

Time to get ready

These photos were taken recently to show something of the current astrophotography setup in our backyard. The mount stays put to preserve polar alignment and is covered with several layers of protection when not in use.

The shed holds the dismounted scope and desktop computer for mount and camera control. I have two house power circuits to the shed ready for future expansion into a more functional observatory building.

The Desktop computer in on our wireless network so I have internet at the scope, and can use Microsoft “remote desktop connection” to run everything from in the house if I want to.

I run Deep Sky Stacker to combine the individual images with the computer outside, and then copy the resulting file to a computer in the house for the post processing. Currently I just use Photoshop CS2 with some action sets and plugins like Astro Flat to get something to share. It would be nice to use PixInsight, but I am not there yet.

Capturing Photons

Posted on October 7, 2017January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

Triangulum Galaxy Click to see full scale

Right from our backyard in Corvallis Montana

The Triangulum Galaxy is just gorgeous and a fairly bright target. Not enough time on this stack to make an awesome picture, but I like it for sure!

Eclipse 2017

Posted on August 21, 2017January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

Cooke City has no cell coverage and spotty internet, so just now getting a chance to update. We had a fantastic day yesterday and we were very fortunate to have minimal traffic jams. The park where we set up in Rexburg was prepared for ten times the crowd easily. Porta potties, garbage cans, free eclipse glasses, local neighbor passing out free eclipse cupcakes. Just a fantastic local community effort. I wish more people could have been there!

Sunspots

Posted on June 2, 2017January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

Sunspots! First attempt imaging the sun with the 130ST telescope after getting the slewing and tracking rates sorted. Control, capture and processing remotely from the couch. Hard to explain but a solid milestone in the software setup.

Astronomy Shed

Posted on April 10, 2017January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

The Astronomy Shed has arrived! Plus wire for power to the Astro Plaza. This will be storage for telescopes, computers and 12v power supply. Some assembly required. Clear sky’s everyone.

Building the Edmund Scientific 6″ reflector

Posted on January 1, 2016January 21, 2018 by 58glassArt

Building the Edmund Scientific 6″ reflector

I still have this scope!

It’s hard for even me to believe that as a child I built a 6″ Newtonian Telescope somewhere around 1971. Not just assembling the parts, but grinding and polishing the mirror. And not just polishing the mirror, but testing the curvature to create a good parabolic curve meant also building the foucault tester and learning how to use it.

As a young teenager I purchased an Olympus OM-1 35mm camera with the express intent to use it with my telescope. I had even joined the Seattle Astronomical Society and attended a few meetings, but the astrophotography bug would not take hold for many years.

I need to get a good picture of my telescope but I found this image of the complete setup for sale from back in the day. This is basicaly the same as what I own.