astronola.org

Cleardarksky.com is showing no clouds and excellent transparency for Friday night/Saturday morning with temperatures below freezing. Is anyone else going to do any cold weather stargazing? I think I'll take a ride to Academy Sports and get some heated socks.

Lowell

Centering and focusing the image with live view.

Well there are finally some sunspots. Small, but they are there. Taken with a Canon T2i mounted to a Vixen ED 80 with an Orion neutral density filter and a Hefty bag over my head and camera for focusing.

Image with dim Saturn taken with 16" & Canon T2i w/ 2x barlow (no cropping). Image showing Jupiter's moons taken with AT102 & same camera and is a cropped image. I found that my best viewing was with a Pentax XL 14mm in the 16" scope (130x). Both planet were in the field of view with a 5.2mm eyepiec...

Monday evening is looking good. I'm curious to see if both planets will fit in the field of view of a Canon 50D when attached to a 16"f4.5 scope. The camera has a cropped sensor and won't come to focus without using the 2X barlow. I think the magnification is over 400x with this combination. It's al...

I used an AT102 with a Canon T2i Rebel on an EQ mount in the driveway. 1/8 second with ISO at 400.

This was from my driveway this evening using a Vixen ED80 & a Canon 50D on a tripod. 1/8 second, 400 ISO. The highest magnification that would fit both planets in the eyepiece was 90x with a Pentax XL7mm and an XL21mm in the 16" f4.5. Not too much different in appearance from the photo.

Lowell

This was shot using a Vixen ED80/f7.5 and a Cannon Rebel T2i (cropped sensor) at 1600 ISO and 1/30sec. I had to turn the camera vertical to get them both in the frame. Saturn comes out better with a shorter exposure but that makes the moons of Jupiter invisible.

Last night from my driveway (12/7). Canon 50D (cropped sensor) & 100mm "L" lens (for full frame camera). I think this is equivalent to a 160mm focal length.

Lowell

Here is my experience so far. I've been going out every clear night to see them get closer to each other over time. About 5 weeks ago or so the moon was in the mix. so I headed out to take a photo. I was looking up while walking towards a spot with a clear view and tripped on the the garden hose and...