PilotDKH,

The cameras fit right intot he eyepiece holder, so you can think of the camera as another eyepiece I guess.

What type of telescope do you have? For imaging the brighter planets such as Jupiter or Saturn you may get ok results. Automatic computer tracking makes a big difference when imaging smaller, dimmer objects. I have seen some excellent images taken by amateur astronomers using just a 60mm refractor telescope. Having said that, in this game, bigger is usually better when it comes to telescope aperture size. I ran through the costs further up on this thread..

They are digital images, taken with digital webcams. Views of deep space objects such as galaxies are nowhere near as good visually as what can be seen in a photo or digital image. My images of galaxies have exposure times of between 15 and 30 seconds. You take a number of these images and combine or “Stack” them.

If you look through the telescope at Jupiter or Saturn you can see some very good detail, but it takes practice. The more you look at a planet the more detail you will be able to pick out. Personally I like the imaging side of the hobby best for two main reasons:

1. You can push the telescope further when imaging than you can for visual observing. It is a challenge that I enjoy.

2. If you get to image something cool (such as the ISS for example) you can share it with others. A picture speaks a thousand words with something like this. If I came here and said “I saw the ISS last night with it’s solar array and smaller panels” that would be ok, but nowhere near as interesting as being able to show you a picture.

It is very subjective though and different people are attracted to different aspects of the hobby.

Sauron, do you still frequent the Cloudy Nights forum?
I was planning to observe tonight as well, but transpancy is not that good here. I’ll hopefully have more luck tomorrow night.

Dave, with regard to the lunar landing sites… you can see the general locations, but not even Hubble can resolve the objects left behind by the Apollo Astronauts.

The smallest telescope shown in the picture is the Meade ETX70. With that you can see Saturn with no problems (which is smaller and further out than Jupiter). I can post some images I took through the small one if you would like to see them. Retail price for the ETX70 is I believe $299. It may be more in Europe though. I got mine factory refurbished for $129 which was too good to pass up.. To get started with basic astro-imaging I would certainly recommend this telescope. For purely visual observing, I think a Dobsonian Reflector would be better because you will get a much larger aperture for a similar investment. I was interested in taking some images, so I needed a telescope that tracked (The ETX70 has a computerized tracking system).

The images I already posted were taken using the larger LX200. I picked it up second hand with a number of accessories for $1800 which was a great buy. The new LX200 GPS 10 inch would cost about $2700. That is for the telescopes.. but that ends up being the cheap part because you soon start buying accessories (and there are a lot of very neat things you can buy). It soon adds up. It is a great hobby though.. truely fascinating.

As for ease of use, well, both scopes are computerized. I have to align the telescope with two known stars so that the computer can get it’s bearings, and then all you have to do is call up the object you want to look at and press the GoTo button. The telescope then automatically slews to the correct position. I usually find I have to fine tune the position, but it is never far out. You have cursor keys on the keypad for fine adjustment.

Steve, my cameras are marketed for astroimaging. I have a Meade Deep Sky Imager (DSI) which is used for the deep space objects that require longer exposures.

For planets and bright objects I use a Celestron NexImage camera .

Both of these cameras use the same basic technology as a webcam. A lot of people use the Phillips TouCam Pro webcam. It does need some basic modification (it needs an adapter to fit the camera to the 1.25 inch eyepiece holder and I think the focusing lense is usually removed too). The NexImage I have is basically a Toucam with the required modifications already done. If you are confident fiddling with electronics, you can further modify the Toucam to take long exposure shots. I was not that confident, so I bought the purpose built DSI. The DSI has a few extra bells and whistles including a very nice integrated software suite. I am still learning how to get the best out of it.

I am glad you like them 🙂 I had a lot of fun taking those shots.

Der, I would recommend you visit http://www.cloudynights.com and get on the forum there. It is a great forum with lots of friendly people to help out at all levels. I spend a lot of time there :).

Chris, there is evidently quite a bit of ‘space junk’ in orbit. That rocket body was visible with the naked eye (which is how I tracked it). Visit http://www.heavens-above.com and do the free registration. You can then browse there for full details of objects that will be visible to you at your location. It is an interesting website.

After Neil’s accident I found this forum helped me a great deal. The forum allowed me to communicate directly with people who were there. It was a hard time and the people on this forum were very supportive. Now I like to read up on the historic aviation scene in the UK from time to time. I also enjoy reading the pilot forum here. This is one of the best online communities I have come across.

When joining from the live side I join downwind at a 45 degree angle. When joining from the dead side I usually join crosswind over the recipricating threshold, at, or a little higher than circuit altitude. It really depends though on how much traffic is in the circuit and where that traffic is positioned (and most importantly, if I have visual contact with the traffic).