Some more images, but these were taken BEFORE I realised that the RA tracking rate for the moon needs to be different than the rate for the other planets… which kind of cured my “moon sliding out of camera view” issue I was having. Doh!
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Doh! Tracking rates :)
Hey, two days in a row with decent overnight weather 🙂
Moon
Venus
Saturn
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on NS8GPS – Second Light
OK, so the weather did not do its usual trick of tipping it down with rain, and so I actually got to go out and play with my new toy. Setp was a breeze… level the tripod, place OTA on tripod, point the OTA downwards slightly, turn it on, select GPS sync, align star #1, align star #2…. done…
Most of the evening was getting used to the new handset and options, but I did manage to squeeze in some imaging later in the evening.
NS8GPS + Meade LPI
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on NexStar 8 GPS – First Light
OK, so last weekend I popped into my local scope shop, and was faced with an offer that was to good to miss. Ex-demo, brand new, never left the shop, Celestron NexStar 8 GPS for WAAAY less than it should be. After thinking about it for a split second, I took it…. well, I would of if anyone was around to actually say that I could have it at the price they were telling me. I had to come back today to collect it…. and here it is, complete with dew strip + controller, telrad (plus dew pad), and a inside/outside thermometer stuck on the fork arm (with the “outside” part pushed under the correcter plate dew strip).
During most of March, I have been hassling the members of the UpstateAstro user group on Yahoo about a whole load of issues. Despite the vast number of Noob questions, I obtained great answers from everyone who replied. Many thanks to all of you!
After the weather playing up all day, the sky cleared to an inky black and transparent view, just perfect for the Lunar eclipse. I set up in my back garden and awaited the event
Despite the Lunar eclipse looking great by eye, I still hadnt quite got to grips with the scope, mostly because the ETX90is f/13 and I also did not have a focal reducer,so trying to find the moon when its dark against a dark sky meant that…err… I lost it :). So, I just sat there and watched the whole event. It was glorious, the moon turned more and more coppery red, with a whiteish area.
I did get some images before and after the event. All images taken with ETX90EC+, Meade LPI, post processed in Registax v4
