Imaging M51 with a CCD camera

Compare the 2 following images (captured April 10th):

 M51, single 5minute exposure, binned 2x2. This is an unguided image, and shows how well the mount was tracking. 

Second M51 image is being re-processed.

Overall, you can see that the 5minute single exposure has about the same amount of detail as the stacked 25min exposure. This is primarily due to the fact that the CCD was binned to 2x2, and CCD pixel noise averages out nicely with a cooled CCD. Also the SNR for a single 5minute exposure is much higher than a single 150 second exposure.

Chris Summitt, a friend, fellow optical engineer and photographer, joined in the fun and took some landscape astro-photos. You can find more of Chris's work at his website:

http://chrissummitt.com

Testing the equatorial mount on the new pier in Sierra Vista

The Equatorial mount bolted to the new pier. Kevin, Lanna and Grandma Thompson. Circe and Lucky in the foreground. Grandma Thompson looks like she's from the "old country", it was really windy out, hence the scarf.

305mm F/4 newtonian with the 80mm Orion short tube refractor on top. The concrete pier consists of 1600 pounds of concrete and rebar. The steel part of the pier is a 8" steel box beam.

Great spot for an observatory!

Lanna and Grandma Thompson

New R.A motor and mechanical modifications. This is a zero-backlash drive. All of the reductions are accomplished with precision timing pulleys and a 11:1 friction roller drive.

Orion Nebula. Using the 80mm short tube refractor, ATIK 428EX ccd imager and H-alpha filter. Total integration time was around 10minutes. I was surprised at the decent imaging quality that came out of a small inexpensive refractor. Imaging in narrowband with the H-alpha filter eliminated chromatic aberration effects.

M51 with the 305mm Newtonian + Paracorr 2. Canon 1000D DSLR, approximately 10 minute integration time. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a cheap consumer grade DSLR, you can pick this same camera up on amazon for $200.

M42 with the 305mm Newtonian + Paracorr 2. Canon 1000D DSLR, approximately 10 minute integration time.

Our Bisbee wedding

We are working on a narrative for our wedding that took place on November 15th 2014. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are some of the beautiful photos that our good friend and photographer, Chris Summitt, took during the event.

Astrophotography by the Desert Museum

Lanna and I decided to do an astronomy event with some friends and family(Brek Thompson, Sean Bottai, America, Trevor Clark, Sam Hameroff, Michael Clark)  on October 25th by the Desert museum.

The weather, sunset and company were beautiful. Unfortunately the multitude of cars driving on Kinney road, on their way to and from Nightfall, presented some challenges for deep space astrophotography. Our setup was within 500feet of the road which lead to us receiving a great deal of unwanted light from passing cars and their high beams.

Despite the challenges of passing cars and some early scattered clouds we managed to get some pictures of a few objects. At first I was having technical difficulties with the Equatorial mount. Mostly balancing issues. Eventually we got the mount aligned properly and were taking pictures with Trevor Clark's camera piggybacked on the mount and my camera looking through the main scope.

 Sunset and setup

 Our dog Madison was helping with the telescope setup

 M31, 5 x 90second exposures(cropped). Still need better collimation

NGC253, 10 x 90second exposures(cropped). We were ultimately limited by light pollution

Bubble nebula, single exposure 120seconds (cropped)

Photo by: Trevor Clark 

Photo by: Trevor Clark

Photo by: Trevor Clark

Astrophotography on Kitt Peak

Saturday afternoon I went up to Kitt Peak National Observatory(the picnic area) to do some astrophotography. Dean Ketelsen was nice enough to invite me to join the Tucson astronomy club for their bi-annual "starbaque". For those of you who have never been up there, this was my first time, the observatory is a must see.

The new "unfinished" telescope/equatorial mount

M16, Stack of 3 images, 180seconds each, no darks. Canon 1000D and 12" F/4 Newt  

M33, Stack of 3 images, 180seconds each, no darks. Canon 1000D and 12" F/4 Newt  

M57, Single image, 300seconds, no darks. Canon 1000D and 12" F/4 Newt