2 for 1 Weekend...     After last weeks two different episodes of all night space viewing an self educating...It's Friday, May 1st,09'..It's 6pm roughly,i'd just had dinner.My Cat was glued to the back door in her prowler stance,Dead Frozen an in hunter,killer mode...i peeked around the kitchen counter an there was Purplish Crane in my backyard just strolling around..i went for the CanonG10 an headed out back.The Crane had done hopped up onto the wall an headed down it..turned the cam on, setting auto,ISO auto,Zoom it,,snap...One Wall walking Purple Crane,...

Hubble Space Telescope has been making 9pm est passes all week..I've been trying out my Sat-Tracker program i got from satellitetracker group at Yahoo.com..It get's Soooooo close but i've still to get it fine tuned wheres i can capture things...i track it, an try to fine tune it, an winde-up going back to manual tracking with the red dot starfinder my scope came with to least get something to film for the pass...Soon enough i'll have it figured out, Supposedly if i get a joystick,i'd have better luck,So  more to buy...8^/...Anyway,5-1-09,2106est,71*...the Hubble Space Telescope!!..

After that a Saturn check-up..

 I have a 6.3 reducer,an for the life me tried to get it back onto my scope with the new 2" diagonal i bought..2 different times i tried,just seemed the threads where wrong...A third attempt,i pulled all my accessories out.....after being real careful an having the diagonal fully aligned with the reducers threads,  ..lol...it just screwed right on, ..Wow, that's some tight clearances!!.Below's my whole kit an cabootle...;^)...

So..i now have the power of the Reducer.....the Moon..5-1-09...30x1/60".ISO100,F3.5 Photo's Registax4'd..

    Same Moon time an all,But an AVI video try,Converted for Registax4,350 frames stacked...

         The "X" moon!!...

          Another AVI conversion...  

          Back to 30 or so frames that are  stacked processed, of the same area...

          4 other area's of the Moon...

 After the Moon finally setting, i could go Deeper in space..The M13 star cluster,an M57 Ring nebula with the 6.3 reducer still on at 25mm on the eyepiece,Nexstar8SE..

Tried looking an capturing couple other idems, but for some reason in this outing ,just wasn't to be...Last capture on this Friday night viewing was Pluto...i think its the third blueish dot in the line of three dots in the lower left corner that goto the middle,an the second in the three stars in a line from the left to the middle..

Packed it all in an went to processing...,May 2nd,09...Saturday. i checked the weather, theres massive storms all over the middle the country,,nothing in my area...After the two nights of all night viewing till dawn.It's done a number on my Main mirror. I took my scope apart an cleaned all the mirrors..Round 8pm Sat. I head out an set-up...This butterfly Looked how i felt..Pretty but ragged...heh...

   10 minutes after set-up, at 8pm..huge dark cloud rolls in ,under the radar,, i'm put on hold till it clears...After the clouds have cleared the Moon's out in 1/2 it's force but still bright enough to kill any deep space viewing....Sooooo...Moon creator captering time...been while since sat down an explored all over the moon...

 After Cleaning my scope out, i was surprised by not having to re-culminate it after...my objects re more shaper now..

                 8^)  

                        Bozo

Pre-Shuttle Launch Weekend Space-Foolery...  

Friday,the 8th,i set to hunt Apollo moon landing sites..First up Saturn till the Moon clears the trees...

Full Moon Night...This full Moons name is Flower...

    With a Full Moon out, i figure Great time to hunt Apollo mission moon landing sites (LZ's)....First up ,Apollo 11..Look for the crop circle looking Creators ,4 in a semi-circle ,Big to smallest...to the upper left the brightest creator in this shot

    Second i hunted was Apollo 12's LZ...Good thing about Apollo 12 an 14 LZ's, there real close to each other..I got the LZ's centered frame as much as i could in all these shots..so the LZ's are mid-frame, one can use the creators around to help locate..Here's Apollo 12's LZ..  

    An lastly,Even more curious then the crop circle looking creators in the Apollo 11 shot..this Apollo 13 shot..There's three separate groups of creator hits, they all look the same, they go biggest to smallest in size too...you can easily  see the biggest,the other's are to the right, the smallest is off frame..

    A little after midnight...i heard an Crash, no tire squeal sound,then an Explosion!!.. i said to self, "Someone made a bad move somewhere",Looked at my handcontoler, an it re-set to pre-aliment mode,Yeap i lost power,The batteries in my batt. tray been dead for month..A/c's only way to stay contestant with a SE scope..1am , i paked it in an Processed..       Saturday, May 9th,09'..Tonight's mission that i cared to accept was an ISS pass...I set-up early, at 5:30pm est...My wake-up calls a Mocking Bird that's Guarding it's turf pre-dusk..no Early morning Roosters Allowed!!!...  

  I do a last check-up of weather,web-site favorites of observing idea's for the weekend,an last the Heavens-above.com print out of ISS info for later...an i'm Set-up.Algined on the Sun, an Catching a Tan..(if you look carefully, can see the girlfriend,her stance says it all...hehe)...  

     During daylight scoping,i Keep the CanonG10,un-mounted an with a zoom lens attached for terrestrial shots..

      About an hour later,time to get more serious,out comes the lap-top an the cord for the handcontroler for the sat-tracker program i have...  

    I prefer to use adjustable zoom lens,,the first i bought from Celestron was great, till a lot of use got trash on the lens,It's the twisting motion that's not quite smooth enough on the lens shell an make's debris flakes,only way to clear them is to take them apart, an what a Pain in the dareair that Is!!!...  

     After that feasko...all back together,an cleaned out,  I hope!!!..companies use an non-locking sealent in the threads,a nice greasey mess to deal with,look on the tissue you can see some of it...  

     Test Time..Need something bright...like ...mm...The Sun????  

     I traded one big glob dot, for 4 minor lint strings...heh...   Now ,the Sun's headed down, i Go to Sat-tracker for control of the Scope...

   Satellite viewing times in between 8pm till 10pm for the most visible...its good to align your star finder,an Camera if so equipped way before hand...I use stars for alignment an distant planes for focus...thought this was neat,sure showed up on the camera back good...A Procylon Spider...(forgot to add delay timmer)  

     Hers the Sat-Tracker program..I'm ready to track HST(hubble space telescope),an ISS tool bag that was dropped ,look in the middle list !!!...

   9:30 pm..Here She comes, International Space Station....

   Hour before hand i had the girlfriend go to radio-shack an get me a logiteck joy-stick for my lap-top,my last attempts at centering an fine tuning satellites has been with a laser mouse, That's Impossible!!,,i got this joystick option hooked-up an running an its perfect..it's like a x-box joystick, i turn it sideways,look in the star-finder while tracking, an just thumb the joystick till i'm on target...i got 3 slowed passes on AVI then overcorrected an that's was that, went back to Manual tracking, an photo capturing try's...i set the CanonG10 that's Afocal mounted on the 25x7 lens to 1/60",ISO100,F4.5 an snapped 3 shots at a time till the ISS was out of view...I caught it once...;^)...far from a clear shot,but all in time,with an 8" scope, i was impressed,only on 25mm lens, no barlow....  

    After the ISS..on to Saturn to try an get more color then Friday's Try with full moon out..Jack-Pot!!!  

   Regulus...

          After  Saturn,the moon was still under the trees.i went for a test shot of the Apollo 14's LZ spot again anyway...  

      Enough that ...Midnight Swimming an Spa break!!!!.... 

    After the Break..Back to Moon searching....    

    At 2am..i packed it all in..Processing time!!! made it through two processings an i Passed out!!...Now Sunday eve,I'm uploading,blogging,Nother night possiably of scoping intells..I'll have to let the gass dry out little more from the sprinklers.. Hope you had a chance to get out an get some sky time in...Enojy,,,an Clear Sky's!!          

                      Bozo    

15 seconds of Fame.. (thats all my camera allows)  Well,It's been cloud covered,monsoon type raining ever since the Shuttle went up...Good thing it went to, there was a Nasty hail storm the next day.We in Florida or in are rain season.It's were it get's so hot, above 94 degree's if it didn't rain, Florida would Melt!!!..There Are two sea breezes that combine an that's all she wrote. 4pm like clock work till past midnight,Clouds an rain....   Saturday ,1am..i did weather check not expecting clear sky...Well it was,Out comes the scope at 1am,my latest set-up ever..,Everyone else been passed-out for couple hours.I hook-up,adjust,a go for the M5..i had Great seeing this night, i could actually see detail by eye..below's a unfiltered,single frame,15 sec expo,ISO400,F3.5,2.2 dig zoom on 35mm lens

      Next the M-3...      

     Next i went for the M57 Ring Nebula..For the Life of Me i Couldn't Catch it At All....lol....i tried over 30 frames,No Ring,got all around it,but no ring.. Sometimes things just weren't to be....i moved on to the Moon that'd rose from behind the East Tree line...  

       This was a 2.2 dig zoom shot,This next one i went back to standered,But in both i've added the 6.3 reducer so's to fit full in the lens ring beings i'm still an Afocal Shooter......  

        On to Jupiter....Europa an Lo were real close to each other, an they actually crossed path's....  

     I then went to movie capture...these photos below are 15 second quicktime movies converted to AVI for use in Registax

    Below's the closest i can get to Jupiter with-out it going past the lens-rings being shot Afocally...  

     Now the Sun's coming up,I took the CanonG10 off the len's mount an went for a terrestrial shot on a tri-pod,I've set-up out back in my backyard.By doing this , i have no view of north or east sky's...so i left the scope out back an headed to the front..The Moon,Jupiter,Neptune,Uranus,Venus an Mars where all up!!!!..........  

    Just Venus an Mars,...i added the Lens extension zoom for my camera....  

  it's now past 6am,the sun's up, bird's are chirping,My scopes covered in Dew...lol..I'm off to Process,Edit,Name,Upload,Blog..all the boring stuff..Hope you get a chance to get out an get some sky time, i was well over due.When i'm clouded out, i educate myself more on things that'd improve my shots, an shortening the time of the over all processes...Enjoy, an Clearer Sky's then we've Had!!!!!          

         Bozo    

(ps...When i packed in, i'd realized, i'd totaly forgot to level the scope at the beginning at 1am..heheheh,,opps!!! It still was on target but explains the slight driffs i had....;^)...)      

Long Time,No Scope Time!!!...   Well..it has rained Everyday since my last blog!!!.Central Florida got 30 inches of rain Plus!!..One day before this pre-tropical storm formed. I had just laid out $40 in grass seed.... Another $40 in top soil which equaled 2 home depot trips an 40 bags of total....Tore out some bushes an added new ones.The day the first an strongest storm hit us,it hailed,It rained so hard my gutters over filled,water was every where.All i could do is sit inside an watch my security camera has All my Seed an Soil i laid down the day before went out the yard,down the driveway,down the sidewalk,into the road drain an down to the gutter......lol..i laugh now,what could be done..only thing good about the weathers been the sunset's, If wasn't raining at that time!!!...

      So...it's now 10pm..Monday,I go for weather check..I'm the Red Dot in the middle of Florida in this 10pm inferred weather photo below......

     I step outside to see if it could be true.....Yes !! a Break in the Clouds.. i go for the 8se..set-up,level,align,Target in this cloud break ...Saturn, with lens mounted digital camera...First up, multistacked photos processed an stacked in registax using the tone map option to refine...

   Next is out of the same stack,(100 frames)but more refined,color an focus limited before stacked...

  This last attempt was an AVI used in registax,turned out to be 600 frames, for 20 seconds filming with digital lens mounted camera...

  I'm cashing in Afocal capturing for Solid mounted EOS type camera here real soon,A guide scope is also in the works,I have maxed out lens mounted digital camera shooting.The 15 second exposer limit times kill deep space shots.It's fine for Moon,Planets,or other solid mass objects,the zooming in real easy, just stinks at high detailed deep space nebula,galaxies which i prefer to shoot.I started out with just a scope,went to a sony cyber shot,upgraded to CanonG10,both where universal lens mounted,prefired lens was a 25x7mm adjusiable...now going to a Canon EOS T1i t-ring mounted..I still own a Neximager, but waiting on new lap-top to run the filter commands on it..Hope you've had time out in space,I've missed it but will find Time!!..heh  Enjoy, an Clear Skys!!!!!!!!             

                                       Bozo

Night of Nebulie...         6pm....Here come the Clouds an Rain...

   Midnight...All clear!!..i go for the Nexstar8SE,mounted the CanonG10 on the 25x7mm eyepiece indoors,adjusted..an then carried out..I skipped pulling the legs out...Leveled,skyaligned...First target..the one that alluded my last round, The M-57 Ring Nebula....

  Next Nebulie...M27 Dumbell Nebula...this is where a camera with more then just 15 seconds of exposure time will come in handy!!!

    The Nebulie next was...The M-17 Omega Nebula...another case of under exposure,..but least 15 seconds of exposure better then your eyeball looking at it, plus you have a photo of it always...;^)    

  After the Omega Neb..only been out couple hours..Hey!! the M-8 Hour Glass Nebula.........lol....

    Its now about 3am...I shoot for the NGC7009 Saturn Nebula...

     After that last one, I'm Nebulied Out!!..Lets try some star clusters!!!.....i now present the M-2 Star Cluster!!...

   Next...the M-15 Star Cluster!!....

   Now its 5am....Dew's starting to take effect....I go for quick change to maximum zoom,which in tells: twisting the zoom lens to 7mm,adding a x2 barlow,then switch camera digital zoom to 2.2...grabbed the handcontroler,an hit Jupiter!!!

    Now you have to remember,These All Are Lens Mounted Shot's!!..Theres a lens ring in each these photos unless in 2.2 digital zoom mode..i just edit them out with contrast/brightness/gamma settings in Registax software..some times you only have between the edge of  the lens ring in the photo area an the secondary mirror you see ever so slightly sometimes,meaning, you get 1/2 an area of your photo frame to shoot in.Afocal drawback number 2......this another Jupiter shot,but in movie mode...600 frames,640 size, converted from Quicktime to un-compressed Avi an processed/stacked in Registax4..

   Jupiter an Moons......(went back to photos,the dews got worse)

    These last photos where a nice way to end an session an Try to do some processing before passing-out.I'm out in the backyard,in shorts,an ball cap,kneeling on towel with just my Nexstar8se, CanonG10 attached an Power cord.I went back to full reduced,meaning,25mm,no barlow,adding a 6.3 reducer.....Jupiter an Neptune!!!....

     Before this Pic with the Max stuff still on i shot this Neptune capture..  

     That's it, I'm Done!!!... i start packing in,that involved unattaching the CanonG10 from mount an a/c power,wrapping scopes two cords,drop dew shield, which helps, but there not full proof, if you want that theres scope Heaters,that's a little to spoiled for my liking, kinda like heated leather seats......lol...got the Camera off, decided one last shot of Jupiter an Venus , hand-held,no scope.....

    Click!!!  ..I'm Blind!!!...i'd forgot to turn flash off being on auto shoot mode...Nice Orb's Though.....lol     Flash Off!!!......round 2

   An That's it,Fork is in me, I'm Done!!!..My new camera an guide scope stuff's will arrive in couple weeks, This was one the Last Outings for the G10 Afocal,But don't count it out, i already have a Piggy back mount for it!!!,,,heh...8^)         

      Enjoy!!  an ClearSky's!!         

                         Bozo