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Nearly Full Moon
This is the first time I’ve been able to point my SCT at the moon. It’s definitely a bit of an improvement over the smaller scopes I’ve been using.
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Mars!
It was only 4℉ out but it was clear so I took some time to try out my 8″ SCT now that I have it better collimated. Mars was high in the sky, so I got a good view of it despite looking straight through the jetstream. This is the first time I’ve resolved surface…
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Jupiter, Saturn and some DSOs
Looking back through my data I realized I missed getting this night posted. This includes my first (and so far only) Saturn image! Looks like I got M36 that might as well although my focus and collimation were bad.
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First light for my C8 SCT!
It’s been overcast for weeks, but I had a few hours of clear skies to finally try out my new scope and camera. A NexStar 8 (8″ SCT from 1999) and a ZWO ASI178MC. The long focal length and tiny sensor are best for planetary, but the seeing was rough. I tested it out on…
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Two surprise ISS sightings!
We were out waiting around a fire for a Christmas tree lighting and parade when I spotted the ISS passing overhead. It passed somewhere near Mars. Later that night it went by again! I didn’t note the time but it probably was about the 90 minutes difference you would expect given the orbit. I think…
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The moon again
Got a quick peek in as the clouds started rolling in. This is with my new phone which has way too many cameras and gets very confused by having a telescope in front of it. I’ll have to experiment with other camera apps. The animation above shows that conditions were not great… You can also…
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Hazy Sky
Decided to try for a better shot of the Pleiades again tonight, but transparency was awful. There was a slight haze over the whole sky and Orion’s belt was barely visible. I took a few afocal shots with my 9mm eyepiece since it pairs well with my cellphone camera, but the field of view was…
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Pleiades with a point-and-shoot camera
I decided to see what my camera with a 12x lens (60mm f/l) could do with the Pleaides. Here’s the result. I was hoping that the zoom was low enough for a 15 second exposure to work out, but as you can see there are trails. But not bad for a two-minute observing session.
