Emerald Coast Astronomy

Putting Telescopes in Schools

Just a short note to update all on my continuing efforts to enhance
astronomy education in Okaloosa County, Florida.   When schools in Florida, and most
other places, want to expose their students to viewing the planets, moon and
even deep space objects like the Orion Nebula with a telescope, they
generally have no other option than to call in the local astronomy club – if
there is one.

In an effort to change that, I see to empower the schools themselves by (1)
giving their teachers a constant level of training and information in basic
astronomy (2) guide the District in equipment purchases for a small number
of schools.  In Okaloosa’s case, that’s 8 schools and (3) train the teachers
how to use the equipment and merge it with their new-found knowledge of
astronomy.  We got the District’s equipment in December, and for the last
four months I have been training teachers.  It paid off on the night of
April 14th behind Plew Elementary.  No other school district in the
state of Florida has this capability I would guess, not even Brevard
County, home of NASA.  But Okaloosa does.

The equipment I recommended to the schools was the iOptron Mini Tower mount and the iOptron 152mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope.  Later we replaced the stock 1.25″ diagonals and eyepieces with OPT  2″ star diagonals and Orion 25mm eyepieces.  This resulted in much improved viewing by all.

To see the latest story on the “teacher astronomers” of Okaloosa County at their first star gaze click HERE

In December, 2009 all teachers assembled at the Okaloosa School District offices where I had them unpack and slowly assemble their mounts and then attach the Maksutovs, or “Maks” as we call them.   To see the writeup and pictures of that day click  HERE.

Bob Gaskin

Emerald Coast Astronomy

New Imaging Freedom for the Short Timers

Some astrophotographers have it made.  They get to set up their imaging rigs in observatories or remote locations and image all night, literally for hours.   The result of such long exposure sessions generally results in spectacular images from deep space.  Others, such as me, are tied to temporary imaging locations, thus limiting their abilities to image for hours on end.  Until recently, most processing software did not make it especially easy to stack numerous imaging frames taken on different nights of the week or even in the same month.   Thus for some imagers, deep space imaging sessions of 4 to 6 hours are nothing, while others struggle to do what the can with 1 to 3 hours at the most.  Getting to bed at 1AM is not advisable for those who have to get up at 6AM and go to work the next day.  But recently something has changed all that, opening the door to the bird cage for those heretofore limited to short imaging sessions.   CCDStack processing software had added new gimmick: a plug-in for CCDStack from one of its other successful pieces of software, CCD Inspector.  Now short time imagers can take a series of photos from different nights of the week, month or even year and easily stack them into a single LRGB color photo.   This new freedom finally allows the short timers to compile stunning images, comparable to the Big Boys with their remote observatories on a remote New Mexico mountainside.   As an example, I was only able to image a limited amount of luminance, or clear frames, of the globular cluster, M2, hanging high in the Eastern August skies.  Weather closed in after about an hour and shut me down from completing the color frames needed to process a balanced LRGB image.  So I tried CCDStack’s new CCD Inspector plug for CCDStack and pulled up color frames from September, 2007, some two years previous to my clear image shot the night of August 14^th, 2009.   The software did not miss a beat and easily stacked them with a simple command “Align All.” That’s it.  Nothing very complicated about it.  While the final image below is not exactly “eye watering,” it does show that an LRGB image from deep space is now easily possible by combining frames taken years apart.   The door to the imaging birdcage is now open for the short timers.

Jerry Klingaman Starts Down the CCD Road

A friend, Jerry Klingaman, is gathering his equipment and software to make the journey into CCD astrophotography.  He is in the final stages of putting his guide scope and additional counterweight on his TMB 130 APO.  He will use Maxim DL for imaging, CCDStack and Photoshop CS3 for processing.   He is also in the process of getting his guide camera, a Fishcamp Starfish via UPS within the week.   

The photo shows his WO 80mm Megrez triplet on top of the TMB.  The Megrez is a big scope, but  there should be plenty of stars in the field of view for guiding.  Jerry can also use this second scope for imaging where a shorter focal length (480mm) is appropriate.  OPT had exactly the right kind of dovetail and blocks. The focuser extension tube, originally provided by William Optics, is attached to the scope.

The scope is heavy enough to require additional counter-weight.  Jerry had originally ordered the AP Mach 1 with the optional 2.85 inch diameter, 10.7″ short shaft, not realizing at the time that he would eventually put together a considerably larger system for imaging.  Astro-Physics is sending a longer counterweight shaft and an additional 10# weight.  His Fishcamp Starfish should ship Monday, June 29^th and all equipment should be here for a his initial experiments the weekend of July the 4^th.

Imaging M13 Globular Cluster

June 2, 2009

The night of June 1 was decision time.  Image or not.   The night was clear, humidity was low and the winds were calm- perfect for imaging deep space.  The only problem was the Moon.  It was Waxing First Quarter and getting bigger every night.   But I was imaging to the East and the Moon was still over my right shoulder.  What he heck!  I got the rig up, polar aligned, slipped the ST-10XME into the TMB 152 APO  and went for M13, mainly to see if I could do better than last year, which was the last time I had imaged this beautiful globular.   At Mag 5.8 and 20 by 20 arcminutes it was a very attractive target.  I also wanted to experiment with a new piece of equipment, a Starizona Microfocuser.   Two other recent images, M3 and M5 in the Star Clusters album were much better than anything I have done before, mainly due to very sharp focus.  So I was curious about M13.  I slewed the AP900 to Dubhe in Ursa Major and got a good star sync, then slewed to Izar, a good 2.3 Mag star in Bootes to use the Microfocuser on my focus for the main event.   I got great focus, then slewed to M13, got it centered and began imaging using an LRGB sequence.   Exposure as follows  L: 13 x 120 sec  RGB at 5 x 120 sec apiece.  I had taken the darks the night before at the same temp.   I processed in CCDStack today and the sharpness of the stars blew me out of my seat.   I have never done work that this.   After finishing up in Photoshop, I sent the JPG to my daughters who are interested in my photos and then posted it in the Star Clusters album.  — Bob Gaskin

iOptron Mount Makes Great Traveler