Friday, June 22, 2018

A Bit of Eyepiece Projection....

I'm wanting to project from my telescope onto a monitor, as I saw recetly done at a Public Viewing session at the Witte Observatory by a visiting member of the Popular Astronomy Club (PAC) =)

A bit "quick and dirty" - I set up our "adopted" 8" Star Hopper (Newtonian refelctor on Dobsonian mount).  I played a bit with it during the day both prime focus and projection using my Cannon ti5.  I was not able to get the camera close enough to the secondary mirror to get it to focus using the prime focus method. 

I was, however, able to get the Moon in focus using the projection technique with a 17 mm eyepiece.  =)  I had to back the camera WAY OUT.  The image was hard to image because I had to hold the camera steady as the mount could not support its weight.

Here are a couple of images I snagged and a video I made.





The monitor we ordered came in and I hooked it up to take a look at the Sun through my 6" Celestron Advanced VX Refractor.  The image on the monitor worked pretty darn slick.  I used the projection method through a 20 mm eyepiece.  In order to get the travel I needed, I had to add  2" extension to get the image to focus.

Here are a couple of images and video I made.  I was glad there are (finally?) a few sunspots to look at.





Saturday, June 16, 2018

A Few Odds and Ends ~ Occultation, Transit, and Pretty Conjunction =)

The Moon occulted two stars on the evening of May 28, 2019.  I took these shots and then "stitched" them back together with Movie Maker.  The first occutation is a bit of a disappointment as star that was occulted drifted out of view....  But the second occutation worked ;-)




I keep my eyes out for ISS transits of either the Moon or Sun that I can see locally.  Here's a brief glimpse of the ISS transiting the Sun June 1, 2018.  Don't blink!



Out at the observatory June 15, 2018 for Public Viewing ~ I caught the Moon and Venus... BEAUTIFUL!