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.

Up Close

The Moon and Jupiter through the Kitt Peak 2.3 Meter Telescope.

The Big Gun

Every once in a while I get to "play" with a telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Typically this happens when something is wrong with one of my charges or there is maintenance to be performed on the beast. Now - this isn't your daddy's typical backyard telescope. I spend most of my time in my "day job" around telescopes that are housed in buildings many times the size of my house and worth more than a thousand times my annual salary. These "Big Guns" of astronomy are used by professional astronomers from around the world to explore the vast depths of the Universe. For me - they are just really, really, really long focal lenght telephoto lenses.

Last night I had to do some software work on the 2.3 meter Bok Telescope atop Kitt Peak here in Arizona. When the work was done I took the opportunity to put my puny little Canon 5D on the back of this monster and do some cursory astrophotography. The planet Saturn, The Ring Nebula, and the center of the the Whirlpool galaxy were a few of my test subjects. The moon was full (and the sky was bright - blocking the faint light of some of the more interesting features and more difficult subjects). The seeing was not great either - but I managed to collect a few fuzzy photons as seen below.


The telescope farm atop Kitt Peak.


The Bok 2.3 Meter Telescope.


Saturn.


The Ring Nebula.


The Whirlpool Galaxy.

Kuiper Observatory

Well - up on the mountain again. Can't seem to get enough of these things! Its approaching the New Year. 10 years ago I was up here for the change of the millenium - still the same after a decade.

So here is a couple of portraits of the beast - a 1.5 meter F/13 telescope built initially to survey the moon for Apollo landing sites. Still being used by astronomers today researching the remote environs of the universe . . .






All images were taken with a Canon 5D mark II | Sigma 12-24mm rectilinear zoom | ISO 200 | ~1.6 seconds @ F/8

Submillimeter

Spent the last couple days on Mt. Graham again preping the VATT for the next observer with my colleage CJ. Had a few minutes in the late eveing to do some "portraiture" of the Submillimeter telescope (our next door neighbors on the mountain). Here are a few shots I got. The first is a two image combination of the center of the Milky Way taken last summer at Kitt Peak and a twilight shot of the SMT. Thanks for lookin.

Full Impluse Power restored.

Thursday night, the 23rd of October, under pristine clear skies and no moon, the VATT telescope came back on-line for the first time since the major network and computer upgrade that took place this summer. Astronomers gave the ship a full shakedown, and after a few minor leaks were plugged - science is being done once again on the good ship VATT.

Much thanks goes to the VATT engineering crew - Ned Franz, Chris Johnson, Gary Gray and Ken Duffek. Warp engines should be back on-line next week!

Bath Time

Today, Gary Rosenbaum of Steward Observatory operations came up to the VATT to show us how to give the telescope mirror a bath. Fascinating stuff if you like tediously meticulous optical janitorial duties . . .

Here's some snapshots of the Pro at work.

NOVA Night

Tonight a crew from PBS showed up at the VATT to film the LBT from our roof (my favorite photographic perch). "Brian" - the NOVA series cinematographer - sported a HUGE (and expensive) High Definition video camera with which to record the opening of the LBT building just past sunset. Although he was a godless "nikon" shooter (we all know - Canon Rules!)- I let him practice his trade anyway ;->

Here are a few shots of the picturesque scence.



"Brian" - the godless nikon shooter.



Looking West from the top of the VATT.



Looking East toward the LBT and SMT telescopes.

Servo Daze

For the last couple of days I've been privilaged to be involved in a review of the new MMT Telescope elevation servo system - a new and improved algorithm designed by Dusty Clark, Keith Powell and Tom Trebiski of the MMT staff. The review team consisted of a couple of top-notch servo engineers (Dusty Clark and Pete Cheimets of SAO), and ace real-time programmers Tom Trebiski, Skip Schaler, Jeff Hagen and myself. Well - OK - so I'm a hack RT Programmer.

Anyway - today we took a trip up to the 9,000 ft. summit of Mt. Hopkins to where this 6.5 meter MMT monster lives. An impressive machine. Here are a few snapshots from the top-o-the-hill.

LBT Rising

While working at the VATT on Mount Graham I was lucky enough to witness a spectacular sight - a photo-op with the largest Telescope in the continental US - the LBT. A couple of the engineers from the LBT showed up at the VATT wanting to use our roof as a vantage point to photograph the LBT opening for a night of observing. I asked if I might participate if I loaned them a tripod - they agreed. :-) Below are a few images from a tour of the observatory earlier in the afternoon followed by a couple of shots taken of the opening from the roof of the VATT. Thanks to Ray, Aaron, Tim and Tom!

Blood Moon

Early this morning there was a total lunar eclipse. I observed the event from my backyard using a couple of digital cameras attached to a Canon EF 400mm lens and a Questar 3.5" telescope. The two cameras were mounted on my Takahashi EM200 in anticipation of the long exposures necessary to capture the event. Below are a sample of some of the images I was able to get. From a visual standpoint the eclipse seemed darker than most I've observed in the past. (L= 3.8?).




The larger scale images were obtained through the Questar. Exposures with this instrument ranged from 10 seconds to 23 seconds working at ISO 800 and F/16. Wider field images were shot through the EF 400 F/2.8L IS lens at F/4.0 ISO 800 with expsoures from 4 to 15 seconds.





A 23 second exposure at mid eclipse.






A 15 second exposure showing the sparse star field of the event.



A 4 second exposure showing the turquiose blue tinge of the shadow - possibly due to ozone in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Remember this old trick? A Looong exposure of a total lunar eclipse through a wide angle lens? Well - this is what you get when you try it with a digital SLR, no noise reduction and high ambient temperatures. An ill-fated attempt at capturing the full eclipse from beginning to end in a single 3 hour long exposure. Even with the camera set to ISO 100 - the noise was just shocking. The ambient temperature was 86 degrees Fahrenheit. A task best left to film for sure! ;-> Canon EOS 5D | 16-35mm F/2.8 L lens @ 24mm and F/18 | ISO 100 | exposure @ 10600 seconds!