March 8, 2009

Saturn

I just saw it. One of the most exciting things ever. Windy as hell but cloud broke several times.

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December 1, 2008

Focal Point

as far as Im aware there are three types of astrophotography,  Ive so far been attempting afocal and its not giving me much joy. its where you point the camera with your lens at the eye piece. its shaky, its wobbly. I’ve tried it and you’ve seen the results.

focal is where the telescope becomes the camera’s lens, now, I hadnt actually really given this much thought.. but other than sticking the camera in front of the the scope without any other accoutrement what more is there to it?

so i unscrewed the right angle viewer on the scope, and unscrewed my camera lens, a quick focus later and I had the street lamp in sight.

I’m ordering some adaptors. and maybe Ill get to play with the third kind which is par focal where an eyepiece is placed between the scope and the camera.

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November 24, 2008

Pleiades my first nebula

“Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.” -Tennyson

right above our house at around 00:00 suprisingly clear sky. so gorgeous with a pair of binoculars. If I didnt have to finish preparing my lectures, Id be staring at it for hours and googling some more.

Also nice to look at tonight are those two shiny orange coloured stars,

Betelgeuse and Aldebaran.

Aldebaran, الدبران means follower in Arabic, and its named such as it follows the Pleiades in the sky.

Apparently, a Betelgeuse supernova could easily outshine the Moon in the night sky.

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November 17, 2008
this was taken on the 27th of October Venus, one of my first shots of venus.

this was taken on the 27th of October Venus, one of my first shots of venus.

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November 10, 2008
there are times when I question this hobby, (Im not even sure if Im that comitted to call it a hobby yet), and there are times when I get so much satisfaction out of doing the crappiest imaging and stitching session. at one point i started seeing little comical skulls over the surface. theres plenty of crater formations that look like heads. the weather is still pants.

there are times when I question this hobby, (Im not even sure if Im that comitted to call it a hobby yet), and there are times when I get so much satisfaction out of doing the crappiest imaging and stitching session. at one point i started seeing little comical skulls over the surface. theres plenty of crater formations that look like heads.

the weather is still pants.

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October 27, 2008
This is the first time Ive actually seen any other planets, how sad. Venus 18.28 21/10/2008 around sunset. poor quality image as it was so low on the horizon there was much shimmering going on, but the colours were pretty special and I decided to enjoy it rather than pfaff about with the camera. I only had 3 minutes. the next morning at around 7am I saw Saturn for the first time.

This is the first time Ive actually seen any other planets, how sad.

Venus 18.28 21/10/2008 around sunset. poor quality image as it was so low on the horizon there was much shimmering going on, but the colours were pretty special and I decided to enjoy it rather than pfaff about with the camera. I only had 3 minutes.

the next morning at around 7am I saw Saturn for the first time.

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September 25, 2008
one of many impromptu video sessions stitched together.

one of many impromptu video sessions stitched together.

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August 11, 2008
craters - making the most of a very cloudy night and doing some wikipedia seraching. Aristillus (fl. ca. 280 BC) was a Greek astronomer who created the first star catalogue. The prog rock band Camel had a Song called Aristillus on their moonmadness album. itunes an amazing video covering some of the same features im looking at

craters - making the most of a very cloudy night and doing some wikipedia seraching.

Aristillus (fl. ca. 280 BC) was a Greek astronomer who created the first star catalogue. The prog rock band Camel had a Song called Aristillus on their moonmadness album. itunes

an amazing video covering some of the same features im looking at

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July 31, 2008
thankfully Ive been sleeping early and getting up early every morning for the past week, I cant wait to see it. image eclipse.org.uk

thankfully Ive been sleeping early and getting up early every morning for the past week, I cant wait to see it.

image eclipse.org.uk

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Common Stargazing Terms

Ive collected quite a few astronomy /stargazing in your backyard books now, most are aimed at beginners but genuinely neglect informing you about some of the pretty basic terms you would across reading any astronomy magazines.

When you do come across a term youre unsure of and then start googling it, it does point you to some very dense information about it. Today I found an astronomy blog called my dark sky and trawling through the old posts

I came across these two gems:

http://mydarksky.org/2008/04/15/common-stargazing-terms-1/

http://mydarksky.org/2008/04/16/common-stargazing-terms-2/

although not exhaustive, it does a pretty good job of describing the most common terms.

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