Good Bye Ole' Friend

Ready to explore the heavens!!!

This is a picture of my ETX-125 all packed and ready to go to its new home :(

Well, I did it! I sold my ETX-125 telescope to another person interested in Backyard Astronomy. I will miss my ETX, because celestial objects were sooooo easy to find and track with it.

But ... my interest in the hobby has changed to where I want to do more astrophotography than casual viewing.

My first goal is to photograph as many of the Messier Objects as one can see in the Northern Hemisphere. It will take time, persistence and patience, but that is half the fun.


I installed the motors and computer on the new telescope this weekend (Orion 80mm ED with SkyView Pro GOTO Mount), now I am waiting for the clouds to part so I can actually use the scope. I will let you all know how that goes.

Clear Skies!


StarPilot


P.S. - To the ETX-125's new owners: "It doesn't need a night light. My experience has been that it prefers the dark". (May you get the enjoyment out of the scope that I did, and did I ever enjoy it)

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night ...

... so I had nothing better to do than raid my astrophotography archive to find pictures to post.

[Image 1] is a picture of Comet 17P/Holmes taken 11/23/2007. The comet is washed out because there was a Full Moon and my neighbor's flood lamp was shining directly at my telescope.

The image was produced using:

Camera: Nikon D80 (Piggyback onto ETX-125)
Lens: Quantaray 70-300mm (@300mm Focal Length)

ISO Speed: 200

F-Number: F/5.6

Exposure time: 48 Seconds

If you want to find out more about Comet 17P/Holmes, here are some excellent links:

http://cometography.com/pcomets/017p_images.html

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes

Now lets have some rainy night fun ...

[Image 2] is a wide field picture I took of the constellation Sagittarius in August 2007.
[Image 3] is a 'film negative' view of Image 2.

[Image 4] is star chart of the constellation Sagittarius I found on http://www.wikipedia.com/

Using Images 4 as a guide, see how many Messier objects you can identify in Images 2 &3, and if you can link the visible stars in the constellation. Actually, connecting the dots (stars) will help you find the Messier objects.

The dense starfield in Sagittarius is the Heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. (This constellation and its many celestial treasures are what hooked me on Astronomy and Astrophotography).

Helpful Star Gazing Hint: In the light pollutes skies of Northern Virginia, I often take wide field pictures of portions of the sky and study them on the computer to learn my constellations and other celestial objects.

Enjoy!

Star Pilot

P.S. - Please excuse the formatting problems. Blogger's editor has a mind of its own.