First Light with the Orion (Celestron) 9.25" SCT

First Light with the Orion 9.25" Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (made by Celestron) actually occured a week ago at the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club - Star Gaze 2008.

That night, I did not take any astro pictures, but instead enjoyed looking at deep space and solar system objects with my new telescope tube.

The views were beyond my expectations, and better than anything I have owned before.

First Light was on Jupiter as twilight gave way to night. The atmospheric bands were clearly visible, but alaas the Great Red Spot was on the other side of the planet. Other objects that I viewed were M8&M20, M16, M17, M31, M32, NGC869&NGC884 (Double Cluster), M11 and of course, the Moon.

The most spectacular sight was M11 (The Wild Duck Cluster). I had a Baader Hyperion 17mm eyepiece attached at the time, and many attendees could not believe the clarity of the stars, and even saw deep into the clusters center. They felt like they were walking in space.

On Saturday, Octover 11th I finally had a chance to test the Orion 9.25" SCT's astrophotography abilities. I was dealing with a near-full Moon and haze in the sky, along with some dew on the corrector lens, so the pictures aren't the greatest. Also, I only took 30-second shots, which do not bring out faint deep-space objects.

Below, are a few shots that I took. (Click on the pictures for a larger image)

This has to be the most crisp Moon picture I have ever taken.

NGC869 is one of two star clusters visible in what is called the Double Cluster. This was a 30-second shot. An exposure of 1 - 2 minutes would reveal several more faint stars.



NGC884 is the other star cluster visible in the Double Cluster.




The last picture is of one of my favorite space objects: The Andromeda Galaxy. This galaxy is our closest neighbor and is made up of three galaxies. The bright main galaxy, M31 is at-left, M110, a small galaxy is a faint object 1inch to the left of M31. M32 is a small galaxy on the right-side of the picture. A longer exposure on a moonless night will reveal much more detail on all three galaxies. The hazy granular texture on M31 is caused by dew forming on the corrector lens.




As time permits, I will take additional pictures with my old and new telescope and add them to this Blog.

Clear Skies!

StarPilot

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The Newest Member of the Family

Say hello to the newest member of my family. No, not my Son-in-law or Granddaughter. I'm referring to the tall, black tube beside them.

Give a heartfelt "Hoooooowdy!" to the Celestron StarHopper 8" Dobsonian Telescope. It has an 8" reflector mirror that allows excellent viewing of dimmer deep space objects.

I bought it for $50 on CraigsList. I had no idea it was so large until I picked it up from the buyer. When I saw it, I said: “Cool!” When my wife saw it, she exclaimed: "Holy Crap!" (It’s all a matter of perspective.) :)

My wife wanted to know if I planned to spy on the angels. Hmmm!

It's not the best thing for taking pictures, but it sure is great for observing Solar System and Deep Sky objects.

This is going to be fun!

StarPilot