Comments for Very Amateur Astronomy

Comment on NGC-2403 by admin

admin — Sun, 29 May 2011 17:02:21 +0000

You may want to look at Astrotrac systems, that would be my first choice for a basic widefield system to get started.

Comment on NGC-2403 by Dan

Dan — Sun, 29 May 2011 01:35:01 +0000

Tim thanks a lot for the info! I was close to picking up a CGEM or Losmandy and then started reading about all these worm gear issues…definitely plan on starting wide but gotta get a mount first!

Dan

Comment on NGC-2403 by admin

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 08:23:37 +0000

Hi Dan, sorry for the late reply. Your unguided exposure time is going to be far more dependant on your polar alignment rather than periodic error. It is quite likely using the equipment you have mentioned that periodic error will not have much of an effect on your images. So I can’t really say how long your exposure will be, as really it’s going to be down to you to get accurate alignment which will be the deciding factor. Certainly unguided exposures of several minutes are possible at longer focal lengths, but it is difficult and not to reliable.

Take a look at CCDCalc for working your your potential field of view, you can setup your camera and lens which should give you an idea of what objects will match your field of view. It is going to be best to shoot wide field images to get started, they will be less critical on alignment and allow you to get results, which will encourage you to keep going!

Comment on NGC-2403 by Dan

Dan — Sun, 22 May 2011 13:57:49 +0000

Hi Tim – I’m thinking of picking up a CGEM for it’s overall flexibility. I find your periodic error reports very informative. Initially I wasn’t planning on doing any guiding…limited funds! I’d also be just imaging with a Nikon D3 and lens…I had hoped to go up to the 300f4 with a TC20-III giving me a 600f8 “refractor”…if I don’t guide how long of an exposure would I be able to get if I have similar initial results to yours…+/- 15′ish? Likewise, what would be my “max” focal length for a 5 minute exposure?

Thanks a lot…Dan

Comment on NGC2903 Redux and NGC4565 by Robert

Robert — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:17:08 +0000

I really like your website Tim. Style, lay out and of course the images you post here. Keep up the good work!

Robert

Comment on NGC2903 Redux and NGC4565 by Tim Powell

Tim Powell — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:12:03 +0000

Thanks Dave, it was a really good week for getting out under the skies, if only I didn’t have to get up in the mornings for work!

Comment on NGC2903 Redux and NGC4565 by Mil. Dave

Mil. Dave — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:33:28 +0000

Very nice images Tim.
You are clearly turning into a true night Owl! Keep up this great work.
As you said it will be interesting to see how long it is before John, Bob and or Dave start going public with some summer Galaxies?

Comment on NGC-2403 by Tim Powell

Tim Powell — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:23:28 +0000

Hi John,

Poor form of me not to put my exposure information down with the image! This one was 36 x 8 minutes I think, using my Astronomik CLS-CCD filter.

We must work out a way to combine your luminance with my RGB, it would make for an interesting experiment.

Comment on NGC-2403 by John Murphy

John Murphy — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:09:19 +0000

Great Image (better than mine).

Also interesting because you can see the star cluster (Sandage 96 – unresolved, looks like a star) that the 2004 supernovae used to be part of.

I took mine without a light pollution filter (a mistake I think). I assume you used your light pollution filter? What was the total exposure?

John Murphy

Comment on NGC4244 The Silver Needle Galaxy by Tim Powell

Tim Powell — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:25:17 +0000

Cheers Dave, it’s certainly an improvement, pity all the good nebula are out for a few months!