Telescope Connections

How I connect my Canon EOS 350D to my Meade LX200:


The variable-t adapter gives me about 118mm spacing--maybe a tad much, but it's close. I may try removing the long t-adapter and moving the focal reducer to the front of the focuser. The spacing changing with the focus kinda weirds me out, though.

How I connect the MacBook to the telescope, camera and guide camera:


Man, that's a lot of stuff hanging off the back of the scope. I don't know how I'd want to shorten it up, though. Maybe invent a low-profile focuser where the drawtube actually extends up into the LX200 baffle?

[Edit: 3 February 2007]
Looks like someone stole my idea, sort of. Check out this focuser from Moonlight where the focal reducer attaches to the end of the drawtube. Very slick!

[Edit: 22 March 2008]
Here's another slick solution to the long overhang. He's moved the focal reducer to inside the focuser drawtube. Good stuff.

Conspiracy Theory

(Sorry folks, no astronomy today--it's gloomy out.)

Has anyone considered testing Senator Tim Johnson for polonium 210?

What's Wrong With This Picture?

First Light: Meade DSI+Nebulosity

I'm borrowing Barry's DSI to try it out with Nebulosity and OS X, and boy, do I like it. I had tried this camera before using the Meade software, but it's Windows only, and, to me at least, it was everything that's wrong with Windows--ugly, counter-intuitive, and uncontrollable. Nebulosity, on the other hand, is a breeze to work with.

Anyway, here's the heart of M42, the Orion Nebula. This is a short, quickie job--just 10 frames X 15 sec at full gain, through the LX200 with the f/3.3 reducer.



Update: I reprocessed the capture using Drizzle, and found some more detail:

Makes a Great Gift

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The Ability to Write in English Might Be Useful, Too

JOB REQUIREMENTS:
The best candidates will be have be working toward or have a degree in graphic design and know these software programs:
Illustrator , Photoshop , Quark Express

What?

The Woodlands Christmas Parade

Linda driving Squeak & Bella, while Ian, Keith & I entertain the crowd. December 2, 2006.

Christmas In Austin

How to tell you're in Austin for Christmas:
1. Santa is wearing cowboy boots, and
2. Your child is wearing shorts because it's still 80 degrees the week after Thanksgiving.

Happy Holidays

Season's Greetings from the Quarter-Meter Telescope at the Heritage Park Observatory!

Raising The Roof

I ran into problem in the Heritage Park Observatory: the building was sinking. It had dropped enough that I had to park the telescope "just so" get it to clear the roof. I finally broke down and bought 40 concrete pavers and 280 pounds of sand. With Trudy's help, we got the building disassembled, re-levelled, paved and rebuilt in just a couple of hours. The hardest part was getting the materials home--one paver's not too heavy, but 40 of 'em is another story.

I've got plenty of clearance now. I'm just worried that I won't be able to see Polaris any more--that's going to make aligning interesting!

M33, The Triangulum Galaxy Returns

When last we saw M33, I was calling it a learning image. Well, I've done some learning, but still have some more to go.

This one's 45 x 60 sec. I'm getting the periodic error trained out of the LX200 mount, so the stars aren't long streaks like they had been. I probably could have shot 90 or 120 seconds subs--the image would look better if I did. I'm still working on autoguiding, too, which will make even longer subs possible. My polar alignment is getting closer; I've iterative aligned the wedge as best as possible, but there's still some N-S drift, which means there's probably some field rotation, too. Neublosity's align and rotate is helping out here by taking out the rotation between subs. I'll eventually learn how to drift align--I think I'm getting close.

Still my regular setup of 10" LX200 Classic @ f/6.3 and the stock Digital Rebel XT.

NGC 7293, The Helix Nebula

Ugh. Just awful. 60 x 60 sec (+ 5 darks & 5 flats) in the 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I had to stretch the heck out of it to get anything to show. You can barely make out the nebula on any of the single frames. I'm sticking with bright things for a while.

M31, The Andromeda Galaxy Returns

M31 was the first deep space object I shot one year ago. This is a tight shot of the core, showing dark lanes spiraling away. Every star you see here is between us and the galaxy.

30 x 30 sec. The short exposures gave me the nice round stars.

M42, The Orion Nebula Returns

Another rerun, this time a new version of M42, The Orion Nebula. Also here is M43, de Mairan's Nebula, a.k.a. the Running Man.

Shot this through the ST80 riding piggyback on the LX200. I learned a few new tricks since the last time I tried imaging with this scope.

This one's a composite of two images: the core of M42 is 30 x 10 seconds, the rest of the image is 30 x 30 seconds, Rebel XT.

M1, The Crab Nebula Returns

We've had the best week of weather for imaging, so I've been out five nights in a row. I need to start backing up a bunch of older stuff, because I've got gigs and gigs of new data to process.

Up first, M1, the Crab Nebula. I shot this the first time back in January, and I'm pleased with the progress I'm making. This one's 42 x 60 sec.

NGC 457, The Owl Cluster

Click for full-size.

I really like the way this one turned out. NGC 457 is an asterism in Cassiopeia that's fun to show to kids. "Hey! Do you want to see E.T.?"

The diffraction spikes are synthetic, created in Photoshop using Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools Photoshop Actions Set. I like it.

Image is 45 x 60 sec, Canon Digital Rebel XT, 10" LX200@ f/6.3. Processed with Nebulosity. I'm really digging this app and finding out what all it will do.

The Double Cluster

Click for larger image.

This came out better than it should have. 30 x 60 sec. for NGC 869; 10 x 60 sec for NGC 884; all unguided on the LX200 @ f/6.3, Canon Digital Rebel XT.

Wedding Pictures I'd Like To See

Saturday evening the whole family came to Austin for my cousin James' wedding. Lovely ceremony, the bridesmaid's dresses showed lots of skin, and an open bar at the reception.

So today when I went to see the pictures, I got this warning on the computer at work:

URL: http://www.brendaladdphoto.com/
Detail: Access denied by SmartFilter content category. 
The requested URL belongs to the following category: 
Nudity.

I knew we left the reception too early!

On hoisting, and petards

From Laid-Off Dad. I wish I had written this:

On hoisting, and petards

One of the great modern conveniences of this or any century is the Daddyvator™, which allows the more diminutive among us to demand a greater vantage point of the world around them. It's a simple device; the child pushes a button on Daddy's knee, and that child is slowly hoisted up to Daddy's eye level. Once aloft, the child has several options, including:

• reaching and/or whining for things that have been stashed out of his sightline!
  
• gumming up and/or crushing Daddy's glasses!
  
• voiding his nose and/or mouth on Daddy's collarbone!
  
• offering up his soft, warm neck for kisses and/or abundant zerbiting!
  
• and/or so much more!

When the child wants to return to Earth, he pushes the button on Daddy's nose and is slowly lowered.

This is all very charming until the child ages into a forceful Toddlesaurus, unaware of his burgeoning strength. At this point, he greets you at the door by slamming an implement -- usually one of his brother's phony power tools -- into Daddy's gimpy kneecaps. And once in the crook of Daddy's arm, he demands release by punching Daddy, full force, in the schnoz.

Then Daddy gets to wipe the tears from his eyes, knowing he has taught his child well.

Apparently Not

I was driving in to work this morning when I passed a truck pulling a stock trailer with a longhorn cow and a buffalo inside. I thought to myself "only in Texas," until I noticed the truck and trailer had Arkansas plates.

Correction

The fog comes in on little fog feet.

We regret the error.

Creating Custom Hybrid, Auto-Open CDs in Mac OS X With Toast 7

I'm posting this because I can never remember the steps to making this work.

1. Launch Toast 7. From Utilities, select "Create Temporary Partition…"



2. This will be the Mac half of the disc. Copy into the temporary partition (which is actually a disc image) the content you want. If you're using a custom background, this is where you arrange the icons. Note that the background image must be at the root level of this partition. Once you have everything in place, leave the window open and select "Log Out…" from the Apple menu. This "locks" the window and icon placement in the partition.



3. Log back in. Launch Toast 7 again. Mount the temporary partition. (I opened it and made sure it was all arranged the way I wanted it.) With Toast set for Data, Mac Only, check Compressed and Auto-open disc window. Drag the partition to Toast and Save As Disc Image…



4. Mount the image in the Finder. It should auto-open and look like the temporary partition.

5. In Toast, select Custom Hybrid. You may have to go to Preferences, General and check "Show legacy formats and settings."

6. Click "Select Mac...", choose the still-mounted image, uncheck "Optimize on-the-fly," and click OK.



7. Click "Select ISO…" and add your PC content.

8. Burn or save as a disc image.

M27, The Dumbbell Nebula, Reprocessed

I downloaded a new image processing app called Nebulosity, which offers more control for stacking, aligning and processing than Keith's Image Stacker. Mostly I was looking for a way to de-rotate an image stack. It's not a perfect program--the sequence of steps required is a little vague--but I'm happy with the early results.

Here's September's shot of M27 processed in KIS and Nebulosity.

Before:


After:

Looks Like His Momma

Mercury Transit

Well, that was underwhelming. It's a dot. Yup, still there. It's cool when you think about it, though.

Shot this with the NexImage through the ST80 and the Orion white-light filter. That's a big-a sunspot coming around on the right.

Sunset

Caught the sun going behind the house at the end of the block as I was setting up for tomorrow's Mercury transit.

Oklahoma (State) University

I'm glad I'm not an OSU fan. Never mind the sound drubbing they took from the Texas Longhorns, but you know the 30-second spots that run during college games where the school gets to say how great they are? During the game Saturday night, TBS ran one for UT, then one for OU. Right state, wrong school.

Birds

Dear Looser

(I shot this with the phone on my camera, which I haven't quite yet mastered, so excuse the crappy picture. The writing on the sign says, "If you want our troops to loose.")

Dear Looser,

First, thanks for making my job so much easier. It's folks like you who made me see that voting Democratic really isn't such a bad option.

Second, you might have noticed that things aren't going so great for our troops right now. October's been pretty tough, you know? So might it make a certain amount of sense to try something different? I mean, after your quarterback throws his fourth interception, you think about benching him. Or put it this way: If George Steinbrenner were President, do you suppose Rumsfeld would still have a job?

Your Democrat Pal,
Jeff

M33 Revised

Thhanks to Rammysherriff on Cloudy Nights for touching this up and turning me on to PixInsight.

M33, The Triangulum Galaxy

I still have many issues to resolve--guiding, alignment (there's field rotation going on here), gradient removal and so on. Let's just call this one a learning image.

I moved the focal reducer in front of the focuser, so my imaging train is scope, FR, WO crayford, adapter, camera. I like the wider field, but it's vignetting. Stretching the histogram to get the galaxy to show just makes it worse.

30 x 60 sec., LX200 10" @ f/6.3, Rebel 350D

Halloween

Halloween pictures are here.

Comet SWAN

30 x 30 sec, Digital Rebel XT, 10" LX200@ f/6.3. You can just see the tail going up & to the right. I could have used longer exposures, but I don't have a way to guide on the comet.

Dobsonion Rhapsody

I came across this little ditty on Cloudy Nights.
(Sorry about the cheesy midi file--it was the best I could find.)



Dobsonian Rhapsody

Is it a real scope?
Will it allow me to see
Celestial wonders
Like M33?

I'll look in the sky,
and give it a try to seeee.

I'm just a poor boy,
Can't afford quality,
It's easy come,
easy go,
Now I have
no cash flow

Any fit my wife throws
doesn't really matter to me....
To me.

Momma, Just bought a scope
Fed Ex just dropped it at my door,
I maxed my credit card for sure
Mama, the obsession's just begun
Soon I'll be havin' lots of fun
Mama, woo-ooo
I wasn't sure what to buy,
so I gave a dob a try
I'll give it first light this time tomorrow,
If it's clear, if it's clear, that's all that really matters....

It's twilight, the time has come,
to set the scope to cool
and use a collimation tool,
Goodbye everybody, I've got to see,
If skyclock indicates good transparency...

Mama, woo-ooo
No matter how I try,
I can't seem to see anything at all-

I see a little silhouette af a man
John Dobson! John Dobson!
Will you check my collimation!

Neighbour's back porch lighting
Very very fright'ning to me
Drives me crazy!!
Drives me crazy!
Light pollution bugs me so!

But I'm just a poor guy,
Playing a rich man's hobby
Staring a lot into a real cheap eyepiece!
Finding stuff sure is tough, can I use goto?

Starhop there! No! You cannot use goto!
Starhop there!! No! You cannot use goto!
We will not let you goto! Let me goto!
We will not let you goto! Let me gotto!
No,no,no,no,no,no,no

Mama Mia, mama mia! mama mia, let me use goto!
Cloudy Nights has a thread set aside for me, for me, for meeeee!

So you think with a starchart I can find anything
Like the Hercules Cluster and the nebulous ring!
Well, maybe, but I don't see a thing baby,
Guess I gotta get a Telrad, just gotta get a Telrad for me!

Nothing else matters,
But astronomy,
Nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me...

I shoulda wore warmer clothes......

Having a Blast in Phoenix

So here we are in Phoenix shooting a couple of videos for Corrosion Protection Products when they ask, "Who else want to give the sandblaster a try?"



File this one under "harder than it looks." The good news: there's a device on the air inlet for the helmet that cools the air about 20°, so it's pretty comfortable in there, except for the part where you can't turn your head to see, or hear anything with the earplugs in. The bad news: it's tedious. The blaster cleans a spot just a couple of inches wide. Imagine trying to paint the side of your house evenly with a can of spray paint and you get the idea. At least we were in the yard instead of a work site, where the pipe would have been in an excavated ditch.

M57 Reprocessed

Sharper and less noise.

M57, The Ring Nebula

The Ring will always be special to me--the very first DSO I ever found myself. This is only 12 x 30 seconds (low battery), guided. 10" LX200 Classic @ f/6.3, Rebel XT

Great Late Afternoon Light

Aristarchus Redux

A better view of Aristarchus and Vallis Schröteri. Better seeing, but I'm still not satisfied. I've got a couple of more processing tricks to try.

Aristarchus & Gassendi

I wasn't going to make any pictures last night, but I went out on the driveway about 10:30 and saw a clear, steady sky. I pulled out the little dob, looked at the moon and said, "I ought to shoot this."

Turns out the sky wasn't as steady as the small scope led me to believe--I'm guessing 3/5--so I'm a little disappointed in these.


Gassendi.



Aristarchus.

Freebirds World Burrito Rocks

I had a little freelance gig in Austin Friday, which was nice, but the best part about going into town is getting to go to Freebirds World Burrito for lunch. I got to the end of the line only to discover my wallet pocket was empty. The fellow working the register set my burrito to the side while I went out to the car to check there, but I already knew I had left my wallet at home. I came back in to ask if Trudy could call in a card number, or maybe I could pay online. Instead, he hands me the burrito, a cup for my drink, and tells me to come back when I can to take care of it.

Those guys rock!

Purple Haze

Or, Why Imaging M31, The Andomeda Galaxy, Through An 80mm Achromat With Pinched Optics Might Not Be Such A Great Idea




ST80, Canon Digital Rebel XT, 30 x 30 seconds.

I was able to successfully auto-guide the LX200 using the NexImage and Keith's AstroImager. I must not be quite accurately polar aligned though, as I still had some field rotation between images.

M27, The Dumbbell Nebula

Meade 10" LX200 Classic @ f/6.3, Canon Digital Rebel XT, 30 x 30 seconds unguided.

Stars are a little blobby--it's time to think about guiding. I'm pretty happy with this shot, though.

Thinking

I was talking with Andy yesterday when he suggested I buy not a telescope, but a telescope store. Apparently the woman who owns the store wants to spend more time with her family.

So I've been thinking about it. I have ideas on what I'd change and what I wouldn't. I've been wondering what it would be like to actually run the place, to be my own boss. I have doubts that I actually know enough about the products to do a good job selling. I worry that making a hobby a job would be the end of enjoying the hobby. And never mind the fear of going broke. It's the only astro store in own, but the internet is a powerful force.

I don't even know what I don't know: taxes, insurance, employees, liability. Could the store support my family?

I'll likely not get past this point, but I'll wonder "what if?" for a long time.

News Release

Heritage Park Observatory Receives New Telescope

Cedar Park, TX (Special)—The Heritage Park Observatory announced Monday the acquisition of their newest telescope, an achromatic 80-millimeter refractor. Commonly referred to as a "short tube 80" or ST80, this telescope increases the observatory's capabilities, according to Chief Astronomer Jeffrey Phillips.

"I'm excited about the new possibilities the ST80 brings to our facility," said Phillips. "We'll be able to observe sixteen times as much of the sky with this low-power, wide-field instrument. It's a great complement to the observatory's existing ten-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Plus, the blue color is nearly an identical match to the LX200."

The ST80 has a focal ratio of f/5, with a focal length of 400 millimeters. It is attached to the LX200 with a "piggyback" rail and adjustable rings. The telescope was purchased from JAT Observatory in Fairless Hills, PA.

Along with the telescope, the observatory received its first significant rainfall in nearly seven weeks.

More Proof That Katherine Harris is a Whackaloon

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is "a lie" and God and the nation's founding fathers did not intend the country be "a nation of secular laws."

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected, politicians will "legislate sin," including abortion and gay marriage.

I guess that a basic course in U.S. history isn't required to run for Congress.

<Edit> Apparently, I'm not alone.

Tom DeLay's Lawyers

Lawyers: Scrap the DeLay-related indictments
GOP operatives say state law is too confusing.
By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The law that helped drive U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay from office and put two of his allies under criminal indictment can't be understood by the "man in the street," defense lawyers argued this morning.

Lawyers for Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, two DeLay lieutenants who operated Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 campaign, argued that the 3rd Court of Appeals should throw out indictments brought against their clients because the state's ban on corporate campaign money is confusing.

These are the guys I'm going to call when the IRS comes after me for not filing, because there's no way in hell the tax code can be understood by the "man in the street."

Widefield

That's the Trifid Nebula, M20, at the top, the Lagoon Nebula, M8, in the center, and a portion of the Milky Way, lower left.

12 x 30 seconds @ f/6.3 through the 100mm Canon macro lens, riding piggyback on top of the LX200.

The Trifid Nebula, M20

Same setup as M8, except 12 x 30 sec. exposures, and binned 4:1 in processing.

The Lagoon Nebula, M8

The Lagoon is one of my favorite summer objects. It's a nice combination of open cluster and diffuse nebula. Click for a larger image.



Shot from the Heritage Park Observatory. Meade 10" LX200, f/6.3 focal reducer, Canon Digital Rebel XT @ ISO 800. 24 x 30 seconds unguided. Levels stretched in Photoshop.

A little blobby, but I'm pretty happy with this unguided shot.

Pearls

I kind of miss working on the jewelry store account sometimes.

Cool Clouds

Click for a larger image.

First Day of School

Wow, was that a lot different than last year! We had to hold Ian back until the bus stopped and opened the doors for him to get on.


We went to the school open house last night, and when we went around the corner to Ian's classroom, he saw his teacher and went running up to her and gave her a big hug. I have high hopes for the year.

A Joke I Found on the Internet

A stupid question deserves an appropriate answer....

I was in Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina for my Golden Retriever and was in line to check out.

A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry & that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I'd been poisoned and was that why I was in the hospital.

I said no..... I'd been sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me.

I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door.

Trouble Comes in Threes

I took the first week of July off from work with the hope of spending several nights in the observatory only to be thwarted by clouds. Fast-forward to the Sunday night before going back to work--I'm walking Buddy the Golden Retriever around the block when a pit bull comes out of his yard, crosses the street and bites Buddy twice, once on the back and once on the leg. The owner comes running and is trying to pull his dog off, I'm using unkind language about my intentions toward his dog, and finally get the pit off Buddy with a full-force kick to the side of his jaw, hard enough to lift him off the ground.

Buddy's recovered fine after a trip to the vet for stitches and antibiotics. CPPD and Animal Control paid the other guy a visit. I'm out $125 but am willing to walk away as long as I never see that animal again.

I'm jumping ahead, though. On the way home from work on Monday--it's already bad enough having to go back to work after a week off--I'm making a right turn at a traffic light. I'm stopped and looking over my left shoulder, and as soon as I look forward and start to go the car behind me rear-ends me. There's not much damage apparent, but we swap info anyway. I wait it out for APD, all the while angry that I'm now dealing with two police departments on two days. I HATE the culture of victimhood, and here I am, a victim twice over.

The other driver's insurance comes through, and I should have my own car back from the body shop any day now. That "little tap" is setting Farmer's Insurance back $800 plus a week of rental car.

At this point I was afraid to ask what else could go wrong. I really didn't want to find out, but alas. We started getting some outstanding nighttime weather, and I was in the observatory with the telescope, camera, new MacBook and a can of orange soda. Picture the scene: camera attached to the back of the scope, cable from camera to laptop curling around the soda can. Slew the telescope, cable pulls can over, soda spills, laptop dies. Jeff beats himself up for not acting on his original thought that maybe the soda might be better not sitting by the computer. Craptastic.

But, the extra $9 a month I pay on my homeowner's insurance for computer coverage came through. The hard drive in the Macbook was undamaged, so I was able to swap it right into a new machine. All is well.

So, that's my July. I've had worse, but it could have been better. In the end everything is pretty much as it started, so I can't really complain. But where would be the fun in that?