ASTRO: Lunar Crater Clavius

Another image from a not-to-good night of poor seeing. This is made from 150
frames from a video file. I used a Celestron NextImage "webcam" at prime
focus of an OGS 20-inch F/8.1 RC Cassegrain.

George N

Hey George, here's one of mine taken with a Takahashi TOA 130 and a ToUcam +
2x barlow. Best 80% of 1500 frames.

Scott
"George Normandin" wrote in message
...
Another image from a not-to-good night of poor seeing. This is made from
150
frames from a video file. I used a Celestron NextImage "webcam" at prime
focus of an OGS 20-inch F/8.1 RC Cassegrain.

George N

Just like beeing there George.

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
--
"George Normandin" wrote in message
...
Another image from a not-to-good night of poor seeing. This is made from
150 frames from a video file. I used a Celestron NextImage "webcam" at
prime focus of an OGS 20-inch F/8.1 RC Cassegrain.

George N

"reconair" wrote
....
Hey George, here's one of mine taken with a Takahashi TOA 130 and a ToUcam
+ 2x barlow. Best 80% of 1500 frames.


Great image Scott!! It looks like you had a little higher sun angle than I
did. This area of the moon is really spectacular for a few days each month
and then it's pretty difficult to make out anything.

The NextImage has the same guts as the ToUcam, but no lens. I got mine for
imaging with my PST, not for imaging at a 161 inch focal length. As soon as
we get the mount for the A-P 6" polar aligned I'll try it on that scope.
But, with our seeing, planetary imaging is mostly a "beer and pretzels"
exercise: something you do for 'fun' without much hope of success!

George N

I here ya George. Really good seeing is hard to come by here in Virginia.
As summer approaches it'll start getting hazy and I'll have to wait until
fall to resume imaging.

Scott
"George Normandin" wrote in message
...
"reconair" wrote
...
Hey George, here's one of mine taken with a Takahashi TOA 130 and a
ToUcam + 2x barlow. Best 80% of 1500 frames.


Great image Scott!! It looks like you had a little higher sun angle than
I did. This area of the moon is really spectacular for a few days each
month and then it's pretty difficult to make out anything.

The NextImage has the same guts as the ToUcam, but no lens. I got mine for
imaging with my PST, not for imaging at a 161 inch focal length. As soon
as we get the mount for the A-P 6" polar aligned I'll try it on that
scope. But, with our seeing, planetary imaging is mostly a "beer and
pretzels" exercise: something you do for 'fun' without much hope of
success!

George N

Up here a good haze goes with good seeing. I don't know if the haze
creates good seeing or good seeing, steady air, makes the haze. I
suspect the latter. In any case its a very good sign for me. My best
seeing last summer was when Canadian grass fires fed me their smoke.
Sun almost vanished before it hit the horizon but seeing was great.

Rick

reconair wrote:
I here ya George. Really good seeing is hard to come by here in Virginia.
As summer approaches it'll start getting hazy and I'll have to wait until
fall to resume imaging.

Scott
"George Normandin" wrote in message
...

"reconair" wrote
...

Hey George, here's one of mine taken with a Takahashi TOA 130 and a
ToUcam + 2x barlow. Best 80% of 1500 frames.


Great image Scott!! It looks like you had a little higher sun angle than
I did. This area of the moon is really spectacular for a few days each
month and then it's pretty difficult to make out anything.

The NextImage has the same guts as the ToUcam, but no lens. I got mine for
imaging with my PST, not for imaging at a 161 inch focal length. As soon
as we get the mount for the A-P 6" polar aligned I'll try it on that
scope. But, with our seeing, planetary imaging is mostly a "beer and
pretzels" exercise: something you do for 'fun' without much hope of
success!

George N

"Rick Johnson" wrote
...
Up here a good haze goes with good seeing. I don't know if the haze
creates good seeing or good seeing, steady air, makes the haze. I suspect
the latter. In any case its a very good sign for me. My best seeing last
summer was when Canadian grass fires fed me their smoke. Sun almost
vanished before it hit the horizon but seeing was great.


Rick, et al:

I think you hit it Rick!

I've seen a presentation (think it was NEAF?) from Todd Gross the
weather guy on seeing (actually it was on the best place to retire to for
good astro-weather), and also there are several WebPages and a chapter in
"High Resolution Astrophotography" on seeing. From all of these sources I've
concluded that for good seeing you need to be at least a hundred miles from
the nearest weather front and the jet stream, an the night-time temp must be
very stable. All of this points to the tropics. Here in NY the night time
temp often keeps dropping until around 3am and then starts right back up
again (yuck!!). Our best seeing is usually the last few hours before dawn
and, for solar, the first few hours of the day. Big Dob owners like me spend
the whole night trying to cool the primary and then in the morning we have
to get it warm so it doesn't get covered with acid dew or frost!

Of course for local seeing you need to be away from heat sources. At
Kopernik our seeing is always better when looking over the woods than when
looking over the parking lot! Another factor that lots of people seem to not
know about: the seeing is much improved if you can get just 10 feet or so
off the ground. There was an article in the NY Times a few years ago about a
family who built an observatory in NY's Catskill Mountains. Mom is a
professional architect who designed a square building with an open first
story with a spiral staircase and a clam-shell observatory on the second.
She went 'high' to get better sky coverage above the forest. However, when
they moved their Meade 16" SCT from the ground up to the new tower
observatory they found that it had a major improvement in performance. It
took a while for them to realize it was the seeing that was better.

George N

George Normandin wrote:
"Rick Johnson" wrote
...

Up here a good haze goes with good seeing. I don't know if the haze
creates good seeing or good seeing, steady air, makes the haze. I suspect
the latter. In any case its a very good sign for me. My best seeing last
summer was when Canadian grass fires fed me their smoke. Sun almost
vanished before it hit the horizon but seeing was great.



Rick, et al:

I think you hit it Rick!

I've seen a presentation (think it was NEAF?) from Todd Gross the
weather guy on seeing (actually it was on the best place to retire to for
good astro-weather), and also there are several WebPages and a chapter in
"High Resolution Astrophotography" on seeing. From all of these sources I've
concluded that for good seeing you need to be at least a hundred miles from
the nearest weather front and the jet stream, an the night-time temp must be
very stable. All of this points to the tropics. Here in NY the night time
temp often keeps dropping until around 3am and then starts right back up
again (yuck!!). Our best seeing is usually the last few hours before dawn
and, for solar, the first few hours of the day. Big Dob owners like me spend
the whole night trying to cool the primary and then in the morning we have
to get it warm so it doesn't get covered with acid dew or frost!

Of course for local seeing you need to be away from heat sources. At
Kopernik our seeing is always better when looking over the woods than when
looking over the parking lot! Another factor that lots of people seem to not
know about: the seeing is much improved if you can get just 10 feet or so
off the ground. There was an article in the NY Times a few years ago about a
family who built an observatory in NY's Catskill Mountains. Mom is a
professional architect who designed a square building with an open first
story with a spiral staircase and a clam-shell observatory on the second.
She went 'high' to get better sky coverage above the forest. However, when
they moved their Meade 16" SCT from the ground up to the new tower
observatory they found that it had a major improvement in performance. It
took a while for them to realize it was the seeing that was better.

George N


My scope is about 16' above local ground level and about 50 above
average terrain. I have lake and forest only. My seeing this year has
been lousy. It was great before I built the observatory. No that
didn't do it. Just a complete change in weather patterns. By great I
mean when the jet stream wasn't around. That does happen all too much
here too.

Rick