Do we have an astronomy club here in Cebu?

[fritzd]

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Who can forget Chris Go's exploits in astronomy, Red Junior? I checked out the price tag for the Celestron C8 in Amazon, and guess what? It costs US$1,529.00! The C14 would set you back a hefty US$ 5,299.95 for the optical tube alone. Anyone serious in astro-photography must have relatively large disposable savings. You can tell these people are serious astro-photographers from the equatorial mounts. For the novice, this would take time to set up and align (which involves finding the star Polaris). This is because, in astro-photography, your telescope must follow the rotation of the earth along its polar axis when setting the camera for extended exposure. But nowadays, scopes come with computerized go-to features, which takes away all the hassles of finding stars...but again for $$$. They don't call astro-photography a "rich man's hobby" for nothing.

Having lots of money = lots of top astrophotography equipment = best astrophotos < This is really wrong. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Processing those photos, deciding how many exposures composites to stack, choosing the right right stacking method, noise removal, etc... These require A LOT of experience and patience. It's not as easy as it may seem.

Aligning with the Earth's axis is just one of the initial steps. But not the most difficult one. The reason why I never really went into serious Astrophotography was because of all the image processing I would have to learn to obtain top notch photos even though I have a good background in scientific image processing. Eitherway, astrophotography in some way requires money but it requires more knowledge, skill and patience.

[observer]

rodsky and fritzd, thanks for correcting my mis-statements and misapprehensions. I really know close to nothing about astronomy, but I'll try to sound knowledgeable para dili ta ma out of place...hehe.

Anyway, I took the plunge some weeks ago and ordered myself an 8-inch dob from an online retailer in the US and had the items forwarded to me by a logistics company. I got the stuff last week. Yehey! I felt like a kid who got a gift from Santa. Anyway, I had assembled the whole thing in just 30 minutes. Collimating with the laser was even easier. It's just centering the dot on the primary mirror (so that takes care of the secondary mirror) and then centering the dot on the bullseye mark in the collimator. I didn't bother to adjust the finderscope coz I was too excited to test my new toy.

I hauled this huge thing outside immediately at the first sight of clear skies. I was hoping to find an easy target like the moon, but it had already set. With the 2" 30mm eyepiece (40x magnification), I went star hopping. I trained my sights on Orion and started "groping in the dark"...i.e. I didn't know what the h-e-c-k I was looking at. The skies literally do open up with this thing and there's just so many points of light to know which part of the Orion constellation you're currently looking at. Anyway, I spent about an hour or so just moving the scope side to side and top to bottom to see if I can chance upon the Orion nebula. My patience paid off on that first night. The image of the Orion nebula from my 8-inch dob looked so much more crisp and sharper than from my 15x70 binos. But nothing beats the binos for field of view and quick aim. But I'm hooked now. I can't wait for the next clear night. It's been raining every night since that night.

Here's what I learned or learned that I didn't know. First, it's important to start with low power eyepieces when scanning the sky and then move slowly to the higher powered ones after settling on an object of interest. I tried centering the Orion nebula on the 2" 30mm and then removed the eyepiece and quickly inserted the 1.25" 9mm with the adapter, and the object just moved out of focus. I think something intermediate, like a 24mm, would be a nice transition from the 30mm. Second, it's so hard to aim. The finderscope is almost useless to me...or I really do not know how to use it. I've e-mailed customer support yesterday to ask them how to focus this thing. I hope to get their reply next week. For now, I'll try to find ways of aiming the telescope quickly.

Rain, rain go away....

[rodsky]

rodsky and fritzd, thanks for correcting my mis-statements and misapprehensions. I really know close to nothing about astronomy, but I'll try to sound knowledgeable para dili ta ma out of place...hehe.

Anyway, I took the plunge some weeks ago and ordered myself an 8-inch dob from an online retailer in the US and had the items forwarded to me by a logistics company. I got the stuff last week. Yehey! I felt like a kid who got a gift from Santa. Anyway, I had assembled the whole thing in just 30 minutes. Collimating with the laser was even easier. It's just centering the dot on the primary mirror (so that takes care of the secondary mirror) and then centering the dot on the bullseye mark in the collimator. I didn't bother to adjust the finderscope coz I was too excited to test my new toy.

I hauled this huge thing outside immediately at the first sight of clear skies. I was hoping to find an easy target like the moon, but it had already set. With the 2" 30mm eyepiece (40x magnification), I went star hopping. I trained my sights on Orion and started "groping in the dark"...i.e. I didn't know what the h-e-c-k I was looking at. The skies literally do open up with this thing and there's just so many points of light to know which part of the Orion constellation you're currently looking at. Anyway, I spent about an hour or so just moving the scope side to side and top to bottom to see if I can chance upon the Orion nebula. My patience paid off on that first night. The image of the Orion nebula from my 8-inch dob looked so much more crisp and sharper than from my 15x70 binos. But nothing beats the binos for field of view and quick aim. But I'm hooked now. I can't wait for the next clear night. It's been raining every night since that night.

Here's what I learned or learned that I didn't know. First, it's important to start with low power eyepieces when scanning the sky and then move slowly to the higher powered ones after settling on an object of interest. I tried centering the Orion nebula on the 2" 30mm and then removed the eyepiece and quickly inserted the 1.25" 9mm with the adapter, and the object just moved out of focus. I think something intermediate, like a 24mm, would be a nice transition from the 30mm. Second, it's so hard to aim. The finderscope is almost useless to me...or I really do not know how to use it. I've e-mailed customer support yesterday to ask them how to focus this thing. I hope to get their reply next week. For now, I'll try to find ways of aiming the telescope quickly.

Rain, rain go away....

Congratulations on your recent acquisition May it constantly bring the wonder and splendor of the universe into your doorstep An 8" light bucket is always a treat esp. for DSO's.

Yep the 30mm to 9mm was too big of a jump BTW, did you align the finder before using it? Maybe that's why it's giving you trouble.

If you're based in Cebu, we'd like to invite you to the Cebu Amateur Astronomers Association or CA3. We're a very small group for now, and eager to meet other amateur astronomers.

-RODION

[observer]

If you're based in Cebu, we'd like to invite you to the Cebu Amateur Astronomers Association or CA3. We're a very small group for now, and eager to meet other amateur astronomers.

-RODION

I'd love to sign up for that, one of these days. How and where does one join such organization? Is there a requirement (maximum age allowed)?

Tonight (between 7:45-8:30) beckoned me somewhat to take my 8-inch dob outside for a spin. The clouds all but spared southwestern half of the sky, leaving me a clear shot at the moon and Jupiter. I just had to grab the opportunity. My finderscope's now in sync with my eyepiece (i.e. they're both looking at the same thing), after following some instructions from the retailer. As regards to aiming, well, I pretty much do it my own way...mata-mata lang...hehe. I first aligned my scope to the same "right ascension" (ahem...pa-expert effect...hehe) as the moon's...well whatever felt right to me. Then I tilted the scope to match its "declination" and then checked if the moon appears in the finderscope. At first view, I could see the glow. I knew I was near the target. And after making slight movements upward and a little to the right...bingo! I had the moon smack dab in my finder's crosshairs. I then proceeded to view it through the 9mm eyepiece. It was a bit blurred initially, and after a few turns with the focusing knob, the moon came into clear view.

The moon's really some piece of work. I'm very impressed at how sharp and crisp the image is when the scope's dead-center collimated. It really does feel like looking through a spaceship's window...esp. one that's about to land on the moon. I tried to take a snapshot at it by placing my camera lens directly above the eyepiece. You know how that goes. It's all bright light...useless. Even in video mode, I can't even get the craters to appear in the video. Do I need to buy a special type of camera for this?

After spending some time ogling at the moon, I shifted my attention to Jupiter. Again, not difficult to locate. The finderscope really makes this step easy. Through the 9mm eyepiece, Jupiter's about the size of a pearl. I can see clearly the reddish brown stripe at the middle, as well as some light-colored stripe above and below this band. Jupiter also has these four little points of light lined up almost vertically. Those have to be Jupiter's moons. But there's one point of light at some distance below Jupiter. Could that be Uranus? Anyway, I thought the moon was more fun to look at. I wonder what Jupiter would look like through the 4mm. That's something to look forward to.

Thanks for the invitation, rodsky! I'll take you up on it when time permits.

Clear skies!

[rodsky]

I'd love to sign up for that, one of these days. How and where does one join such organization? Is there a requirement (maximum age allowed)?

Well if you have Facebook, just look up "Cebu Amateur Astronomy Association" and leave a message on the wall

Tonight (between 7:45-8:30) beckoned me somewhat to take my 8-inch dob outside for a spin. The clouds all but spared southwestern half of the sky, leaving me a clear shot at the moon and Jupiter. I just had to grab the opportunity. My finderscope's now in sync with my eyepiece (i.e. they're both looking at the same thing), after following some instructions from the retailer. As regards to aiming, well, I pretty much do it my own way...mata-mata lang...hehe. I first aligned my scope to the same "right ascension" (ahem...pa-expert effect...hehe) as the moon's...well whatever felt right to me. Then I tilted the scope to match its "declination" and then checked if the moon appears in the finderscope. At first view, I could see the glow. I knew I was near the target. And after making slight movements upward and a little to the right...bingo! I had the moon smack dab in my finder's crosshairs. I then proceeded to view it through the 9mm eyepiece. It was a bit blurred initially, and after a few turns with the focusing knob, the moon came into clear view.

The moon's really some piece of work. I'm very impressed at how sharp and crisp the image is when the scope's dead-center collimated. It really does feel like looking through a spaceship's window...esp. one that's about to land on the moon. I tried to take a snapshot at it by placing my camera lens directly above the eyepiece. You know how that goes. It's all bright light...useless. Even in video mode, I can't even get the craters to appear in the video. Do I need to buy a special type of camera for this?

After spending some time ogling at the moon, I shifted my attention to Jupiter. Again, not difficult to locate. The finderscope really makes this step easy. Through the 9mm eyepiece, Jupiter's about the size of a pearl. I can see clearly the reddish brown stripe at the middle, as well as some light-colored stripe above and below this band. Jupiter also has these four little points of light lined up almost vertically. Those have to be Jupiter's moons. But there's one point of light at some distance below Jupiter. Could that be Uranus? Anyway, I thought the moon was more fun to look at. I wonder what Jupiter would look like through the 4mm. That's something to look forward to.

What you're doing is called an afocal shot, and depending on how you do it, you'd get pretty much mixed results. What we did before was to fabricate a bracket that allowed us to use a small P&S digital camera that has a threaded hole for tripod mounting on its bottom, and we found a screw that fit, and them mounted that screw on the bracket, and voila, we can do simple planetary/lunar astrophotography na

If you have a DSLR or a prosumer/bridge cam, it's better to do a prime focus shot i.e. you have to remove the focuser assembly from the scope, so that you can actually poke the camera lens into the scope's body...this way, all the focusing will be done by the camera's lens, instead of the eyepiece. This is quite tricky and you really have to have some kind of proper bracket/mount to have your DSLR steady and secure against the body of the scope.

Seems like you're having loads of fun with your Dob. But amateur astronomy is even more fun when practiced as a group. Hope to meet up with you together with the rest of the CA3 peeps soon

-RODION