First Light

Some of us here are actually /trying/ to do amateur astronomy -- of all
things!

There is a first-light image from my Tak Epsilon Astrograph at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight.shtml and an /unofficial/
first light image at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight-un.shtml.

Regards,

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

Davoud wrote:
Some of us here are actually /trying/ to do amateur astronomy -- of all
things!

There is a first-light image from my Tak Epsilon Astrograph at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight.shtml and an /unofficial/
first light image at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight-un.shtml.

Regards,

Davoud


Congratulations, Davoud! Thanks for sharing these and other images
at your site. I especiallly like the Alnitak image. It seems that
the technique of combining grayscale images to arrive at a color
image is a bit like what are called color separations in digital
imaging and publishing.

By the way, the medieval Islamic contributions to astronomy and
the other sciences which you mention are indeed impressive.
Abd-Al-Rahman al-Sufi's description of the Great Nebula in
Andromeda (M31) around 964 from Isfahan in Persia is one of
my favorite examples: he calls it a "little cloud," which is,
of course, also the root concept for the Latin _nebula_.
His catalogue illustrates how Arabic was an international
language used in Persia also, for example, for scientific
communications, just as Latin was in Western Europe by speakers
of Germanic as well as Romance languages.

Again, thanks for your beautiful images, and also the happy
choice of the Double Cluster, a DSO indeed recorded in the
Greek literature.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter

Lat. 38.566 Long. -121.430

collimation required -


Davoud wrote:

Some of us here are actually /trying/ to do amateur astronomy -- of all
things!

There is a first-light image from my Tak Epsilon Astrograph at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight.shtml and an /unofficial/
first light image at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight-un.shtml.

Regards,

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

"Davoud" wrote in message
...
Some of us here are actually /trying/ to do amateur astronomy -- of all
things!

There is a first-light image from my Tak Epsilon Astrograph at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight.shtml and an /unofficial/
first light image at
http://www.davidillig.com/ast-takfirstlight-un.shtml.

Regards,

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com
Davoid
How do you find the questar as a guide scope. I assume it has quite a slow f
ratio. Do you have any problems finding guide stars?

Terry B

Terry B:
How do you find the questar as a guide scope. I assume it has quite a slow f
ratio. Do you have any problems finding guide stars?

No. It works fine down to at least mag 12. That's a /lot/ of stars.
It's usually preferable not to use a star brighter than mag 8 or 9.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com