Dare's Astronomy Page

This is Dare's astronomy page. Over the years, I have progressed in my ability to take presentable astronomy-related photos -- from simple images directly 'out of the camera', to more recent experiments using 'stacking' and 'image enhancement' to bring out fine details that the optics cannot do on their own. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did in creating them!

CONTENTS

EVENTS

Year	Event
2012	Sun
	Venus & M45
	Saturn
2011	Jupiter
	Moon
	Sky
	Sun
	NCP Chart
2010	Sky
	Uranus
	Jupiter
2009	Sky
2003	Jupiter
	Saturn
	Mars
	Sun
	Moon
1979	Eclipse

EQUIPMENT

Year	Equipment
2011	Scope #3
2009	Mount
2004	Scope #2
1990	Scope #1
1975	Scope #0

APPLETS

SidClock

Local Sidereal Time

Polaris Finder

Orbit Viewer

Planet Finder

Sun Clock

Yes Clock

Moon Calendar

Clear Dark Sky

MAPS

Dark Sky Map

Current SOHO Image

Solar System Scale Model Google Map

OTHER

Hipparcos Catalogue HR Diagram

LINKS

CalSKY

ClearDarkSky

Your Sky

Your Horizon

Your Telescope

SUN 2012

Here is a sunspot grop image taken on April 20/2012 again using Baader solar filter (ND=5.0 for 100000x reduction in light intensity) from Kendrick Astro Instruments . This time I used my larger 8" Celestron Ultima scope attached to my Canon T1i DSLR.


Sunspot group 1460 using Celestron C8 Ultima captured on video from Canon T1i with EOS movrec and stacked with Registax freeware. Video was ISO800 @ 1/320s @ 1350 frames.	Same sunspot from NASA SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) for comparison.

Here is a sunspot group image taken on May 10/2012 again using Baader solar filter (ND=5.0 for 100000x reduction in light intensity) from Kendrick Astro Instruments, again using my larger 8" Celestron Ultima scope attached to my Canon T1i DSLR.


Sunspot group 1476 using Celestron C8 Ultima captured on video from Canon T1i with EOS movrec and stacked with Avistack freeware. Video was ISO400 @ 1/160s @ 1332 (5% used) frames.	Same sunspot from NASA SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) for comparison.

SATURN 2012

Here are my attempt, on 2012/04/16, at using a astronomical 'video' with Registax freeware to see what stacking and wavelet image enhancement can do a fuzzy Saturn video -- one day after 'opposition' with Earth occurred. I captured the videos using EOS movrec, which I could then zoom by 5x.


Saturn 2032mm-1600iso-1/8s-f/14 before using Registax	Saturn 2032mm-1600iso-1/8s-f/14 before using Registax (1056 frames)	Saturn video crop 300x200 (1320 frames)

VENUS & M45 2012

Here are some quick one-shot images of the 2012 Venus/Pleiades encounter on April 3rd:


Venus and M45 (Pleiades/Seven Sisters) 85mm-800iso-1/2s-f1.4	Venus and M45 (Pleiades/Seven Sisters) 85mm-800iso-1/2s-f1.4 with captions

Venus and M45 (Pleiades/Seven Sisters) 85mm-1600iso-1s-f1.4	Venus and M45 (Pleiades/Seven Sisters) at same time in Stellarium software

JUPITER 2011

Here are my first attempt, on 2011/09/27, at using a astronomical 'video' with Registax freeware to see what stacking and wavelet image enhancement can do a fuzzy Jupiter video:


Jupiter 1250mm-1600iso-1/30s-f/14 before using Registax	Jupiter 1250mm-1600iso-1/30s-f/14 after using Registax (668 frames)	Jupiter video crop 200x200 (668 frames)

On the evening of 2011/11/24, temperatures were extremely mild (4.5C) and so I tried again for Jupiter on the C90 scope, comparing the same view to that of Stellarium.


Jupiter 1250mm-800iso-1/10s-f/14 after Registax	Jupiter at same time in Stellarium software

MOON 2011

Here are my first attempt, on 2011/08/14, at using a astronomical 'video' with Avistack freeware to see what stacking and wavelet image enhancement can do a simple Moon video (which can be found on YouTube):


Moon 1250mm before using Avistack (18 frames)	Moon 1250mm after using Avistack (18 frames)

SKY STACKS 2011

Here are my first serious astrophotography experiments with 'stacking' multiple exposures of the same sky images to increase contrast and reduce exposure noise.


Cassiopeia 50mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.7	Cygnus/Sagitta 50mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.7	Milky Way at Sagittarius 8mm-3200iso-30s-f/5.6

Sagittarius 55mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.8	Sagittarius 55mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.8	Ursa Major 55mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.8

Andromeda 55mm-3200iso-8s-f/1.8	Andromeda 100mm-3200iso-8s-f/5.0	Andromeda 55mm-3200iso-4s-f/1.8

Here are my first serious astrophotography experiments with 'stacking' multiple exposures of the same sky images to increase contrast and reduce exposure noise and 'tracking' to reduce star trailing using a motorized telescope mount (in this case, the iOptron SmartStar-A).


Cygnus 55mm-3200iso-30s-f/1.8	Cygnus 55mm-3200iso-30s-f/1.8 zoom (M39!)	Cygnus 55mm-3200iso-30s-f/1.8 zoom unsharp mask (M39!)

Andromeda 55mm-800iso-60s-f/1.8	Andromeda 55mm-800iso-60s-f/1.8 zoom (M31 & M32 & M110!)	Andromeda 55mm-800iso-60s-f/1.8 zoom unsharp mask (M31 & M32 & M110!)

Andromeda 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7	Andromeda 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7 zoom (M31 & M32 & M110!)	Andromeda 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7 zoom unsharp mask (M31 & M32 & M110!)

Ursa Major 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7	Ursa Major 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7 zoom (M101 & Supernova 2011fe!)	Ursa Major 55mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.7 zoom unsharp mask (M101 & Supernova 2011fe!)

Here are some images showing the progression of image edits on a 2011/09/22 astrophoto of M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M20 (Trifid Nebula), and M21 (NGC 6351) using my new Samyang 85mm F/1.4 prime lens:


Sagittarius 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after stacking and basic RGB/saturation adjustments but before any other processing	Sagittarius 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after levels/curves adjusting in GIMP	Sagittarius 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after levels/curves adjusting in GIMP crop for just M8 (Lagoon Nebula) and M20 (Trifid Nebula)

Here are some images showing the progression of image edits on a 2011/09/22 astrophoto of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) using my new Samyang 85mm F/1.4 prime lens:


Single image of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 (note intentional overexposure).	Stacked image (90 light/30 dark) of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after RGB color alignment (note shift to grey hue).	Stacked image (90 light/30 dark) of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after color level shift on dark side (note increased contrast).

Stacked image (90 light/30 dark) of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after color curves adjustment (note nebulosity increase).	Stacked image (90 light/30 dark) of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after(again) a color level shift on dark side (note increased contrast).	Stacked image (90 light/30 dark) of M31 85mm-1600iso-60s-f/1.4 after unsharp filter tweaking (note artificial sharpness increase).

The progression (so far) with my ability to image M31 (Andromeda Galaxy):


M31 3200iso 55mm 8s single shot	M31 800iso 55mm 60s stacked shot	M31 1600iso 55mm 60s stacked shot	M31 1600iso 85mm 60s stacked shot

SUN 2011

Here is an image of the Sun taken on August 2/2011 again using Baader solar filter (ND=5.0 for 100000x reduction in light intensity) from Kendrick Astro Instruments . However, this time I used my smaller 90mm Celestron C90 scope attached to my Canon T1i DSLR.


Sun 40x 1250mm-400iso-1/800s-f/13.89	Closeup of sunspot group 1261	Closeup of sunspot group 1263

Here is a newer image of the Sun taken on September 26/2011 again using Baader solar filter (ND=5.0 for 100000x reduction in light intensity) from Kendrick Astro Instruments . This time I used captured a video using EOS movrec, and did some image processing enhancement using Registax:


Sun 40x 1250mm-1600iso-1/500s-f/13.89 before using Registax	Sun 40x 1250mm-1600iso-1/500s-f/13.89 after using Registax (1757 frames)	Sun video (1757 frames)

Closeup of sunspot group 1302 1250mm-400iso-1/125s-f/13.89 before using Registax	Closeup of sunspot group 1302 1250mm-400iso-1/125s-f/13.89 after Registax (1843 frames)	Sunspot 1302 video (1843 frames)

MORDEN NCP ANGLE CHART

SKY TIME LAPSE 2010 & 2011

Here are some fisheye 'time lapse' videos that I created during the summer of 2010 using both my older Nikon Coolpix 4300 and newer Canon T1i camera:

Astronomy Time-Lapse Videos

URANUS 2010

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Uranus (for the 1st time in my life!) on the evening of September 27th.

Uranus was 19.096 AU (2856723408 km) from the Earth.


Uranus 1/8 s f2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)	Uranus 1/4 s f2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)	Uranus 1/4 s f4.4 ISO 400 25mm (350x magnification)

JUPITER 2010

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Jupiter on the evening of September 27th.

Jupiter was 3.962 AU (592707276 km) from the Earth. A few days before, on September 20th, Jupiter was the closest it has been to Earth since 1963: it was 3.953 AU (591360894 km)


Jupiter and Galileon moons 1/8s f2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification) with labels	Jupiter and Galileon moons 1/8s f2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)


Jupiter 1/125s F4.3 ISO 400 25mm (350x magnification)	Jupiter 1/60s F4.3 ISO 400 25mm (350x magnification)	Jupiter 1/30s F4.3 ISO 400 25mm (350x magnification)

Jupiter 1/125s F5.1 ISO 400 8mm (451x magnification)	Jupiter 1/60s F5.1 ISO 400 32mm (451x magnification)	Jupiter 1/30s F5.1 ISO 400 32mm (451x magnification)

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Jupiter on the evening of September 25th.

Jupiter was 3.958 AU (592108884 km) from the Earth. A few days before, on September 20th, Jupiter was the closest it has been to Earth since 1963: it was 3.953 AU (591360894 km)


Jupiter 1/4s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)	Jupiter 1/4s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)

Jupiter 1/250s F3.0 ISO 400 8mm (112x magnification)	Jupiter 1/15s F4.8 ISO 400 32mm (451x magnification)

SKY 2009

Here are some fisheye (180°) pics I took early on the morning of 2009/08/12, during the Perseid meteor shower, with my Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the 0.21x Nikon FC-E8 fisheye lens. No meteorites were captured, but it gave me a chance to do long-exposure fisheye shots. The moon was just past full, so it washed out the sky a bit. The 'noise reduction' feature was active during this time, but even then 'hot pixels' are extreme at 60 second exposures. Click on an image for the full-size version.


Sky Fisheye 10s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 30s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Sky Fisheye 40s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 50s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 60s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Here are some fisheye (180°) pics I took early on the morning of 2009/08/26, with my Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the 0.21x Nikon FC-E8 fisheye lens. The moon was just past new, so it did not interfere with the sky this time. The 'noise reduction' feature was active during this time, but even then 'hot pixels' are extreme at 60 second exposures. The maximum exposure for minimal noise is about 20s (which shows mag 5 stars), but the Milky Way is brightest at 60s. Click on an image for the full-size version.


Sky Fisheye 5s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 10s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 15s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Sky Fisheye 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 25s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 30s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Sky Fisheye 40s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 50s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Sky Fisheye 60s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Here are normal pics I took early on the morning of 2009/08/26, with my Nikon Coolpix 4500. The maximum exposure for minimal noise is about 20s, due to blur that occurs with the Earth's rotation. Click on an image for the full-size version.


M45 Pleiades 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	M45 Pleiades 30s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

M45 Pleiades 40s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	M45 Pleiades 50s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Here are normal pics I took early on the morning of 2009/08/26, with my Nikon Coolpix 4500. These are just the 20s exposures. At this exposure, the magnitude limit appears to be about 5. Click on an image for the full-size version.


Jupiter in Capricornus 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Ursa Major 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

Unknown Sky View #1 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm	Unknown Sky View #2 20s F2.6 ISO 400 8mm

JUPITER 2003

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Jupiter on the morning of October 19/2003. I wanted to grab some shots of these 'old favorites' before the temperatures became too uncomfotable. I found that taking these pictures of Jupiter and Saturn were much more difficult that those I took earlier in the fall of Mars.

Jupiter was 6.0419 AU (903855374 km) from the Earth.


Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/8 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/15 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/15 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm

Here are some Jupiter pics that I took the next morning (October 20/2003). Now that I had realized that sky conditions and eyepiece focus were even more important than exposure, I tried again and got better results. This is more by accident than skill, though, since it is almost impossible to focus properly using the preview screen on the digital camera (the image is too tiny).


Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/30 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/30 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Jupiter Manual Zoom 1/30 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm

SATURN 2003

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Saturn on the morning of October 19/2003. I got these at the same time as the Jupiter pics above.

Saturn was 8.7543 AU (1309624639 km) from the Earth.


Saturn Manual Zoom 1/4 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Saturn Manual Zoom 1/8 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Saturn Manual Zoom 1/8 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm

Here are some Saturn pics that I took the next morning (October 20/2003). The same story applies here to the Jupiter pics mentioned above -- but the results are even better for Saturn!


Saturn Manual Zoom 1/4 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Saturn Manual Zoom 1/4 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Saturn Manual Zoom 1/8 second F4.2 ISO100 20mm

MARS 2003

At 04:51 CDT on the morning of August 27/2003, Mars was within 55758006 km (34646418 miles) of Earth. This is the closest that it has been in over 73000 years!

Here are some pictures that I took of the planet Mars early on the morning of August 26/2003. Although the closest approach of Mars to Earth only occured on August 27, I didn't want to take a chance of bad weather messing up my plans. Plus, this was the first time that I had attempted to take digital pictures of astronomical objects through my telescope. In that hour between 01:00 and 02:00, I learned a lot about what to do, and what NOT to do...

My first lesson was not to put the digital camera into 'auto-exposure' mode -- the camera over-compensates for the dark image, and you end up with mars images that look like little suns. The 2.5x zoom on the camera was impressive, though. The effective magnification is 68 (telescope) x 2.5 (camera) = 170x.


Mars Auto-Exposure Zoom 1 second F4.2 ISO400 20mm	Mars Auto-Exposure Zoom 1 second F4.2 ISO400 20mm	Mars Auto-Exposure Zoom 1 second F4.2 ISO400 20mm

Having learned that auto-exposure was not appropriate, I tried manual exposure mode without any zooming. The default setting of 1/125 seconds, F2.9, and ISO 100 seems just about perfect for this situation. The image of Mars on the viewfinder was extremely small, but actually the images turned out to be not too bad! The effective magnification is 68x (telescope) x 1 (camera) = 68x.


Mars Manual Normal 1/125 second F2.9 ISO100 8mm	Mars Manual Normal 1/125 second F2.9 ISO100 8mm	Mars Manual Normal 1/125 second F2.9 ISO100 8mm	Mars Manual Normal 1/125 second F2.9 ISO100 8mm

My next shots were with the full 2.5x zoom. For safety, I decided to use the exposure 'bracketing' feature so that I would get a range of exposures around the default value. As it turns out, the images on the '+' side turned out to be the best of all, in my opinion. The effective magnification is 68 (telescope) x 2.5 (camera) = 170x.


Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/125 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/125 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/125 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm

Mars Manual Dark Zoom 5/788 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Dark Zoom 5/594 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm

Mars Manual Bright Zoom 5/394 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Bright Zoom 5/394 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars ManuaMars Manual 1/99 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm

The next day, during 01:30 to 03:30 August 27/2003, I took my final round of pictures -- this time clicking until my battery ran out. With a great deal of patience, I managed to get some pics out my the extremely narrow field of my 7mm (290x) eyepiece. Since I (inadvertently) has a moderate amount of zoom activated, the effective magnification is 290 (telescope) x 1.73 (camera) = 504x. This is just over the 480x limit of the optics involved.


Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/60 seconds F3.5 ISO100 13.9mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/60 seconds F3.5 ISO100 13.9mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/60 seconds F3.5 ISO100 13.9mm

In my final round of pictures, I managed to push the limits of both the camera, telescope, and my skill. The effective magnification is 290 (telescope) x 2.5 (camera) = 725x. This is well beyond the practical 480x limit of the telescope, but shows what can be done.


Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/60 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/30 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm	Mars Manual Normal Zoom 1/30 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm

SUN 2003

Here is a small experimental photograph of the Sun taken on October 20/2003. The picture was taken though my digital camera with the 8x CrystalVue SharpShooter monocular, combined with the camera's 2.5x zoom (combined total of 20x zoom). On the front of the monocular, I taped the filter that I used to visually observe the 1979 solar eclipse (yes, over 24 years ago!). The image is very disappointing.

This next shot was taken on November 1/2003, except this time it was taken through my big scope with a Baader solar filter (ND=5.0 for 100000x reduction in light intensity) from Kendrick Astro Instruments . The improvement in resolution is substantial. The closeups of the sunspots are not enlargements -- they are direct digital crops from the original.

Click on the first image for a link to the full-sized version.


Sun (6x reduction in size) 1/1000 second F2.8 ISO100 8mm	Solar Sunspot #0488 1/1000 second F2.8 ISO100 8mm	Solar Sunspot #0486 1/1000 second F2.8 ISO100 8mm

MOON 2003

A quick snap of the Moon (in waxing phase) taken the evening of September 4/2003 with the 8x CrystalVue SharpShooter monocular, combined with the camera's 2.5x zoom (combined total of 20x zoom). I reduced the exposure to bring out more detail. The final exposure was 1/60 seconds F4.2 ISO100 20mm.

This picture of the Moon (in waning phase) was taken the evening of November 30/2003 with my large telescope and the 30mm eyepiece. There was no camera zoom involved, and the image was reduced in size by 2/3. The exposure was 1/60 seconds F2.8 ISO100 8mm.

This picture of the Moon (in waning phase) was taken the same evening of November 30/2003 with my large telescope and my new 18mm eyepiece. There was no camera zoom involved, and the image was reduced in size by 2/3. The exposure was 1/125 seconds F2.8 ISO100 8mm.

This closeup picture of some Moon craters was taken the same evening of November 30/2003 with my large telescope and my new 18mm eyepiece. There was no camera zoom involved and no image size reduction. The exposure was 1/125 seconds F2.8 ISO100 8mm.

This full moon was taken on September 29/2004 with my medium 'Orbitor' telescope with my 18mm eyepiece. The image was reduced about 3x. The exposure was 1/85.5 seconds F2.8 ISO100 8mm.

SOLAR ECLIPSE 1979

These are pics of my the solar eclipse that took place in Manitoba in February 26/1979. This was one of the few times in my entire life that I 'skipped school'. Taking pictures of this event was far more important than being in school (grade 11) that day. I was 16, with a cheap SLR camera and an army surplus telescopic lens, but a lot of enthusiasm!


Eclipse Photo #1	Eclipse Photo #2	Eclipse Photo #3

These are some pics of the solar eclipse from the print media at the time (Winnipeg Free Press and Manitoba Cooperator).

Here is the cover of an envelope containing an 'Eclipse Visor' produced by "The Manitoba Planetarium" and distributed "Champs Food Systems Ltd." (KFC!):

Other Eclipse 1979 links:

Williams College Website

Glenn Connell Website

Ted Espenak Website

Ted Pedas Website

DARE'S BUSHNELL SKYCHIEF JR SCOPE

Way back, when I was 13 or so, I noticed an ad for a used telescope in our local newspaper -- surprising since a lived in a small town. After some appropriate begging and pleading, I was soon the proud owner of my own telescope: a Bushnell Sky Chief Jr!

It was an achromatic refractor-style 60mm aperature scope with two eyepieces, a 2x barlow, a right-angle viewer, and a (dangerous!) eyepiece-attached sun filter, all on a wooden alt/az tripod. I spent many hours with that scope, even trying to take some long-exposure film-based SLR photos -- even though the mount was inappropriate.

$JPG achromatic refractor$

Here are the specs that I could read from the scope or determine on my own:

Bushnell Model	Sky Chief Jr
Aperture	60mm (2.4")
Focal Length	700mm (27.6")
Focal Ratio	f/11.7
Resolution	1.93 arc seconds
Light Gathering Power	64x
Visual Limiting Magnitude	11.6
Highest Useful Power	120x
Standard Eyepieces Type	25mm
Standard Eyepieces Power	35x
Standard Eyepieces Angular Field of View	0.7°/0.1°
Finderscope Field Type	5x15mm

DARE'S CELESTRON ULTIMA 8 PEC SCOPE

My main telescope was purchased in October/1990 from a now-defunct Manitoba company named "Cosmic Connection". I love it, but hardly use it, since city lights are a major nuisance. It lacks a computer control and/or interface, which is what I would want if I were to purchase a new one some day.

The telescope is great, with a heavy duty mount and tripod -- which you take for granted until you compare it to the typical telescope mounts that you see on 'department store' telescopes!

It is rather heavy and bulky to move around, which is why I was interested in a smaller (but high-quality) scope for 'quick peeks' (see below).

This is Schmidt-Cassegrain design, which is a 'catadioptric':

Here are the specs from the catalog:

Celestron Model	Ultima 8 PEC
Aperture	203mm (8")
Focal Length	2032mm (80")
Focal Ratio	f/10.0
Resolution	0.57 arc seconds
Light Gathering Power	843x (733x)
Visual Limiting Magnitude	14.0
Highest Useful Power	480x
Nearest Focus	9m (30')
Secondary Obstruction	70mm (2.75")
Percent of Primary Surface Area	11.8%
Star Diagonal/Focuser Size	31.75mm (1.25")
Standard Eyepieces Type	30mm Plossl/7mm Ortho
Standard Eyepieces Power	68x/290x
Standard Eyepieces Angular Field of View	0.7°/0.1°
Finderscope Field Type	8x50mm
Finderscope Field of View	5.2°
Setting Circle Diameter Right Ascension	8.75"
Setting Circle Diameter Declination	5.13"
Optical Tube Length	214mm (18.5")
Optical Tube Weight	4.9kg (10.7 lbs)
Total Weight with Fork Mount and Clock Drive	15kg (33.1 lbs)
Total Instrument Weight with Tripod	30kg (66 lbs)
Total Shipping Weight	31kg (69 lbs)

Here is a commentary on the history this this particular model of Celestron telescope from:

http://www.company7.com/celestron/index.html

1989 saw the introduction of the Ultima line. The Ultima 8 telescope is arguably one of the most stable commercially built SCTs for the amateur. Apporpriately it is also one of the heaviest. This line maintained the same basic "Starbright" multi-coated optics of previous models in redesigned castings for the optical tube. This is coupled to a redesigned, heavier fork mount with carrying handles and a large 2 5/8" diameter polar shaft. The initial drive system was unique, but with some deficiencies. The telescope was driven by an AC motor, run by a high efficiency quartz locked inverter. This, in turn, was powered by internal, rechargeable, lead acid batteries. Although this resulted in a fairly long lasting power supply and did not involve replacing batteries, some of the advantages of the DC drive used on the Powerstars were lost. Standard accessories included a heavy duty wedge and tripod, 1 1/4" star diagonal and eyepiece and an 8x50 polar finder. A heavy duty, high impact molded plastic carrying case provided good protection for the telescope. The very next year, the rechargable battery was replaced with a 9 volt alkaline battery and the drive was replaced by true DC motors and a microprocessor. The processor allowed four digitally controlled drive rates, including solar, lunar, siderial and King. It also allowed use in both hemispheres just by flipping a switch as well as the addition of Periodic Error Correction (PEC). This electronic wizardry was a great benefit to astrophotographers, allowing them to track almost any object and to "train" the drive to automatically counteract the errors that are inherent in any gear system. While even the basic system without PEC was extremely accurate, enough to allow unguided piggyback photography with as much as a 500mm lens, using the new feature further reduced guiding effort for photography. A minor irritation to some was that the PEC training was lost each time you turned off the telescope. There was, of course, a tradeoff between losing precious dark time and assuring that each PEC training session addressed the situations peculiar to that setup. The hand control box, optional on the initial units, was now made standard.

Efforts by Celestron to take in the comments of the meeting in 1987 produced what are fundamentally two of the best engineered 8 inch SCT made in the 20th centruy: the Ultima 8 and the Utima 8 PEC. These reliable telescopes featured comparatively massive Fork Mounts incorporating large bearings and a precision Byers worm gear drive set. The Ultima 8 base housed two cylindrical rechargeable lead acid batteries; this was a product first offered by Roger Tuthill as a retrofit for older telescopes. These telescopes had the capability to operate off external 12 volts DC sources, a wonderfully rigid and easy to adjust Equatorial Wedge. And yes, it had carrying handles on the Fork Tines and hand control knobs that could be operated even when wearing gloves. The provided 50mm Finder and the hard shell but light weight carrying case are still missed by us who recall these telescopes. The Ultima 8 PEC followed with some improvements, including the capability to operate off an internal 9 volt battery that is easy to find in stores, but not changed as easily as we'd like in a cold dark night. Celestron introduced "PEC" (Periodic Error Correction) circuitry with the Ultima 8 PEC telescope. These telescopes could be programmed by the user before starting to take astrophotos with an easy 4 minute recording cycle, this dramatically reduced the amplitude of periodic errors that occur when a telescope relies on a worm gear set for tracking. This meant the telescopes could take better images without spending the costs associated with larger and heaver precision worm gear and wheel sets. In a Sky & Telescope review of 8" Schmidt-Cassegrains, it was noted, "the Ultima 8's drive error was the least I have ever seen in a mass-market telescope." Astronomy Magazine said of the drive, "a textbook straight line" and "the PEC is impressive. It worked better than advertised." PEC would soon be offered in some third party Drive Correctors, while Meade and others would follow this path opened by Celestron.

DARE'S ORBITOR OR3900 SCOPE

My most recent mini-telescope purchased in April 2004 from a liquidation store named XS-Cargo. Since this particular model uses an alt-azimuth mount, it really is more of a 'spotting' scope than an astronomy telescope, but it is still great for 'quick looks' at anything, and the 1.25" eyepieces are interchangable with the Ultima ones above.

This is Maksutov-Cassegrain design, which is still 'catadioptric' but not a 'Schmidt-Cassegrain' like the Celestron Ultima:

Here are the specs from the catalog (with my own additions in italics):

Orbitor Model	OR3900
Optical Design	Maksutov-Cassegrain Catadioptric
Primary Mirror Diameter	96mm (3.78")
Clear Aperture	90mm (3.5")
Focal Length	1200mm (47.2")
Focal Ratio (photographic speed)	f/12.5
Resolution	1.29 arc seconds
Light Gathering Power	144x (5.4 magnitudes)
Visual Limiting Magnitude	12.3
Near Focus	3.5m (11.5')
Maximum Magnification	400x
Maximum Quality View Magnification	275x (actually 213x)
Secondary Mirror Obstruction	27.9mm (1.1") 9.6%
Standard Eyepieces Type	25mm/9mm (Plossl?) + 3x Barlow
Standard Eyepieces Power	48x/133x + 144x/400x
Finderscope Field Type	8x20mm
Finderscope Field of View	???
Telescope Dimensions	38cm x 18.5cm x 21.6cm (15" x 7.3" x 8.5")
Telescope Net Weight	4.2kg (9.2lbs)

The manual for this Chinese-made telescope does not mention the manufacturer, but I have determined that this Orbitor OR3900 is marketed by Citiwell International Inc.. They also market telescopes for National Geographic, which explains why this same telescope is sometimes seen with the National Geographic logo on it.

DARE'S IOPTRON SMARTSTAR-A MOUNT

Having lacked any sort of computer/GOTO/digital telescope control for my entire astronomical life (due to the high expense that historically occurred), I was very pleased to find a used iOptron SmartStar-A GOTO telescope mount on the useful Canadian AstroBuySell site in September 2009 -- and even better it was a fellow from my own province!

Here are the specs from the site (with my own additions in italics):

Mount Configuration	Alt-Azimuth or Equatorial
Mount Color	Astro Blue
OTA Connection	Dovetail
Motor	Dual-Axis DC Servomotor, DC 12V
Motor Speed	Dual-Axis,9-gear,Electric (1x,2x,8x,16x,64x,128x,256x,512x,Max)
GO TO Controller	GOTONova™ Model 8402-A
Database	80,000 Objects
GPS	Yes, 32-Channel
USB Port	Yes
Protocol	ASCOM (responds to "LX200 Astro-Physics" in INDI i.e. 'indi_lx200ap' or 'indi_lx200generic' in Linux)
Firmware Upgrade	Yes
PC Computer Control	Yes
Payload	7-11 lbs, depending on tubes and attachments (3.2-5kg)
Tripod	1" Stainless Steel legs
Battery	AA x 8 (not included)
Weight	10.56 lbs (4.8kg)
Weight of mount	4lbs (1.8kg)
Width of mount at base	circular base with a diameter of 5.5" (140mm)
Width of mount at top	3.5" x 3.5" (89mm x 89mm)
Height of mount	from bottom of circular base 8" (203mm)
Weight of Tripod with mount	3lbs (1.4kg)
Total Weight	10lbs (4.6kg)

DARE'S CELESTRON C90 SPOTTING SCOPE

I was curious about the quality of the Celestron version of my 2004 'Orbitor' Maksutov-Cassegrain, especially considering that it was noted as having 'built-in' T-threads -- matching my Canon T1i and its T-ring adapter. I purchased it as a used item on the useful Canadian AstroBuySell site in July 2011. It works!

This is Maksutov-Cassegrain design, which is still 'catadioptric' but not a 'Schmidt-Cassegrain' like the Celestron Ultima:

Here are the specs (with my own additions in italics):

Optical Design:	Maksutov
Aperture:	90 mm (3.54 in)
Focal Length:	1250 mm (49.21 in)
Focal Ratio:	13.89
Resolution	1.29 arc seconds
Light Gathering Power	144x (5.4 magnitudes)
Visual Limiting Magnitude	12.5
Finderscope:	8x21
Angle:	0 or 45 °
Eyepiece 1:	32 mm (1.26 in)
Magnification 1:	39 x
Carrying Case:	Backpack made of nylon
Angular Field of View:	1.3 °
Linear Field of View (@1000 yds):	68 ft (20.73 m)
Linear Field of View (@1000 m):	23 m (75.46 ft)
Eye Relief:	20 mm (0.79 in)
Near Focus (Binoculars):	15 ft (4.57 m)
Optical Coatings:	Multi-Coated
Tripod Adaptable:	Yes
Camera Adaptable:	Optional T-Adapter
Optical Tube Length:	16 in (406.4 mm)
Weight:	5 lb (2.27 kg)

APPLETS

HTML5 SIDEREAL CLOCK

My own contribution to a cross-platform web browser-based astronomy is an HTML5-based app named SidClock.

LOCAL SIDEREAL TIME

Nice simple java applet to display the local sidereal time (LST) for Morden from the Java LST Clock website.

POLARIS FINDER

This nifty Adobe Flash applet is useful for setting the polar alignment of a telescope, and is from the Takahashi-Europe website. 1) Optionally click on the 'SYSTEM UT' to set the current time from your computer, 2) set the latitude/longitude to your own location ('Morden, Manitoba, Canada' is the default), set date/time (if you want different from your computer time), and 3) finally click 'CALCULATE' for the final plot.

JAVA PLANET ORBIT VIEWER

This cool java applet is named OrbitViewer and was written by Osamu Ajiki (AstroArts Inc.) and modified by Ron Baalke (NASA/JPL). It can show you the orientation of the planets of our solar system for any date and scale that you want! Click here for a larger view.

JAVA APPLET PLANET FINDER

This java applet is named PlanetFinder and was written by Benjamin Crowell. It is useful for identifying planets in the sky.

JAVA APPLET SUN CLOCK

This java applet is named SunClock and was written by James Elliot. It is useful for tracking the day/night terminator on the Earth.

If you can see this text, your browser does not support Java, and you will not be able to see the SunClock applet.

JAVA APPLET YES CLOCK

This java applet is named yesClock and was written by Germaine Software. It is useful for showing where in the day you are rather than just the time.

JAVA APPLET MOON CALENDAR

This java applet is named MoonCalendar. It is useful for knowing the phases of the Moon for the future month.

CLEAR DARK SKY APPLET

Thanks to Attilla Danko for adding Morden to his Clear Sky Chart database!

DARK SKY MAP

CURRENT SOHO SUNSPOT IMAGE

MORDEN SOLAR SYSTEM SCALE GOOGLE MAP

Using the same size scale as a typical 12" (30 cm) diameter desk-top world globe (1:41849600), with extra enhancements provided by GPS Visualizer to Google Maps, provide a scaled view of our Solar System with concentric rings showing the orbits of the planets -- centered on downtown Morden, Manitoba, Canada.

NOTE: The orbits of the planets are not perfectly circular (especially Pluto!) but the distance rings show the average distance from the planets to the Sun.

You can manually zoom in/out, or click on one of the map legend orbit arrows. Clicking on the actual orbit name will toggle that orbit on/off. You can also chose between many different background map types.

By the way, at this scale a single grain of table salt would be over 20 km (65 thousand feet) in height when placed on the globe -- about twice the height that commercial airlines fly :)

HIPPARCOS CATALOGUE HERTZSPRUNG-RUSSELL DIAGRAM

Back in 1981, in my 2nd year of a university Computer Science degree, my friend and I decided to wite a program (in the 'APL' language, the only one we had available at the time to do 'graphics' plotting, and on 'paper' yet) to plot the famous 'Hertzsprung-Russell' diagram, which illustrates the correlation between star luminosity and temperature. I don't recall ever completing the job (owing to the tedious effort to enter all the data manually). Now, 30 years later (2011), I finally took the time to extract the data from the Hipparcos catalog, clean and manipulate the data (down to 106509 objects), and use GNUPlot to plot the result -- and here it is! My thanks also go to this page for approximating the plotting color to use for the various color spectra. This page was also useful.

In this diagram, hot/bright/blue/giant stars live in the upper left, and cool/dim/red/dwarf stars live in the lower right. White dwarf (hot/dim) stars are in the lower left, and red giant (cool/bright) stars are in the upper right. Here is the Wikipedia article to help explain. Our own Sun is a 'G2V'-type main-sequence star, which will live for approximately 10 billion years (about half of its current age).

First cut: Get basic data from Hipparcos catalogue i.e. parallax, blue and visual magnitudes, and spectral type...

C.D.S.  -  SIMBAD4 rel 1.172  -  2011.03.01CET21:06:19

 IdentList
----------

  #   |  typed ident  |  coord1 (ICRS,J2000/2000)   |  plx  |Mag B |Mag V |    spec. type     
------|---------------|-----------------------------|-------|------|------|-------------------
1     |HIP 1          |00 00 00.2158 +01 05 20.432  |   3.54| 9.52 | 9.08 |F5                 
2     |HIP 2          |00 00 01.0235 -19 29 55.823  |  21.90|10.8  | 9.0  |K3V                
3     |HIP 3          |00 00 01.2059 +38 51 33.404  |   2.81| 6.587| 6.625|B9                 
4     |HIP 4          |00 00 02.0710 -51 53 36.765  |   7.75| 8.5  | 8.0  |F0V                
5     |HIP 5          |00 00 02.3936 -40 35 28.328  |   2.87| 9.44 | 8.56 |G8III              
6     |HIP 6          |00 00 04.4863 +03 56 47.248  |  18.80|13.64 |12.39 |M0V:               
7     |HIP 7          |00 00 05.2825 +20 02 10.011  |  17.74|10.32 | 9.471|G0                 
8     |HIP 8          |00 00 06.5623 +25 53 11.258  |   5.17|10.13 | 7.3  |M7e                
9     |HIP 9          |00 00 08.4775 +36 35 09.450  |   4.81| 9.66 | 8.60 |G5   
...

Next cut: Remove header/trailer lines, and generate absolute magnitude and B-V color index...

1     |HIP 1          |00 00 00.2158 +01 05 20.432  |   3.54| 9.52 | 9.08 |F5                  |  1.83 |  0.44
2     |HIP 2          |00 00 01.0235 -19 29 55.823  |  21.90|10.8  | 9.0  |K3V                 |  5.70 |  1.80
3     |HIP 3          |00 00 01.2059 +38 51 33.404  |   2.81| 6.587| 6.625|B9                  | -1.13 | -0.04
4     |HIP 4          |00 00 02.0710 -51 53 36.765  |   7.75| 8.5  | 8.0  |F0V                 |  2.45 |  0.50
5     |HIP 5          |00 00 02.3936 -40 35 28.328  |   2.87| 9.44 | 8.56 |G8III               |  0.85 |  0.88
6     |HIP 6          |00 00 04.4863 +03 56 47.248  |  18.80|13.64 |12.39 |M0V:                |  8.76 |  1.25
7     |HIP 7          |00 00 05.2825 +20 02 10.011  |  17.74|10.32 | 9.471|G0                  |  5.72 |  0.85
8     |HIP 8          |00 00 06.5623 +25 53 11.258  |   5.17|10.13 | 7.3  |M7e                 |  0.87 |  2.83
9     |HIP 9          |00 00 08.4775 +36 35 09.450  |   4.81| 9.66 | 8.60 |G5                  |  2.01 |  1.06
...

Final cut: Extract only the absolute magnitude and B-V color index, but also generate a numeric scale corresponding to the spectral type...

  1.83  35   0.44
  5.70  53   1.80
 -1.13  19  -0.04
  2.45  30   0.50
  0.85  48   0.88
  8.76  60   1.25
  5.72  40   0.85
  0.87  67   2.83
  2.01  45   1.06
  3.74  36   0.44
...

Here is another plot using the 'color index' (B-V) data instead of the 'spectral class':

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snapshot of Buster Baxter with his telescope JPG TV
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