An all nighter

For several weeks now I've been Jonesing to take my portable astrophotography system out and send some "quality time" with one of my favorite astrophotography subjects - the Rho Ophiuchi region of the Milky Way. I had to wait for the moon to wan enough to get dark skies, the weather to be clear and the winds to be mild to get the images I wanted.

The weather forecast for this weekend looked promising except for the winds. A Red Flag warning was out for Friday and Saturday with gusts expected to be 40 mph - not a good prospect for my little Takahashi mount. Thursday night looked like the best option - so I packed up the van and headed to Kitt Peak.

My target wasn't available above the horizon until after midnight so I spent the early hours of the evening taking calibration data for the later targets. Flats, and Darks were finished by 20:30 and so I decided to spend the remaining three hours until "Rho rise" getting a deep image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies centered around M87. The mount held my two Canon 5D Mark II DSLRs one with a 300mm F/2.8 L and the other used a 400mm F/2.8 L lens. Working at ISO 800 and at F/4.0, I made 36 five minute subexposures of the field - below is the result - a 3 hour exposure of the region around M87.



At 00:30 I started a 4 hour sequence on Rho Oph with both cameras. By 4:30 the sequences were finshed and I packed up for home - arriving shortly after sunrise. My first "all nighter" with my little portable system. Click on the images for a larger view.

Arivaca Aviation

Went to Arivaca to photograph Hummers today with Frank. Met a nice couple with a nice restuarant for the little fellows - here is a peek at the colorful beasties. Click on the images for a larger view. Thanks Bill and Rosemary.

Spring Fling

M51 from the backyard

Well it finally cleared up tonight so I could test my 6" refractor and autoguider. It was a little brezzy but it didn't seem to affect the setup. I used ISO 800 and the telescope at F/9 for an effective focal length of about 1370mm. 8 ten minute exposures combined to produce the image below - taken through a LPR filter of course (my backyard is VERY light poluted). Click on the images for a larger view.



Below is a crop at 100% . . .

Long Glass

Well - finally got all the stuff I needed to test the 6" refractor's suitability to astrophotgraphy. I ran a couple of preliminary tests on M3 last night - five ten minute long exposures at 1370mm using a newly acquired Lodestar autoguider. Results were extremely promising. Stay tuned.