Hi everyone,

Clouds finally cleared somewhat, but still lots of contrails and high cirrus.

Just wanted to show you what the Pleiades & Comet looked like in between clouds last night 1/09/05 from Dayton, Ohio.

It was visible naked eye from the observatory last night, even through all the muck.

Here is a quick 3 minute exposure on the Orion EQ1 mini tracking mount! Canon 10D DSLR, ISO 400, 70mm lens.

I only got a few shots off before High solid clouds came in on me.

Attached Images

pleiadesmalcholtz1_Chumack2.jpg (93.5 KB, 13 views)

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Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Thanks for posting the very nice image.

Will the 70 mm lense you mention work with a CCD camera?

I am not all that knowledgable about photography, and wanted to know if the lense you mention is 70 mm in aperature or 70 mm focal length.

What was the focal ratio?

I ask this because I want to get some idea of what size camera lense I may be able to purchase to get this wide of a field of view.

I bought an inexpensive MiniBorg-60 which is 60 mm aperature and 325 mm focal length, focal ratio f/5.4 and I am not getting that large a field of view.

I don't have a clue what ISO ratings mean. ??

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Heaven's Gate Observatory H47
32° 15' 59"N, 90° 51' 22"W
http://www.quantumhyperspace.com/

Hi charles,

The 70mm lens I mentioned is a 70mm Focal length, from a 75-300mm telephoto lens. I set the lens to 70 mm setting set to F4 apeture.

Also keep in mind that the Canon 10D Digital SLR has a CCD in it which actually has a 1.4x magnification factor. So the FL in reality is longer.

ISO stands for International Organization for Standards

This tells you the film speed.......Which was standardized long ago.

hopefully this helps,

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Hello,

I tried to take a picture of the comet too, but I cannot do tracking. What is Orion EQ1 mini tracking mount and where can I get one?
Your picture is very nice.

It is a battery operated table top tracking mount for film and digital cameras, it has both slow motion controls and RA tracking with push button guide controls.

It can also be adapted to a tripod or telescope tripod.

Great portable setup for shooting while on the road.

It's called the Mini EQ1 mount

The mount cost $50.00 + an additional $50.00 for the tracking motor and controller. it requires 4 D cell batteries.

So for a $100 bucks you've got a great little tracking mount.

You Can get these at Orion Telescope Center in Calif. at there website,
www.telescope.com

I had mine in 3 days after I ordered.

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Thank you very much for the respond. So if I had it I could put my camera on this thing and track an object in the sky at least for 5-10 minutes ? I am very new in astronomy. What should I know to use it, to guide it properly?

You would need to follow the assemble instructions in the included manual and set the lattitude scale for your latitude, make sure the mount is on a fairly flat level surface. Table, etc.

set your camera up on the mount, loosen the RA axis, and counterweight lock and slide the counter wieght back and forth to get a good balance between the camera weight and counter weight. Lock the weight down good.

Now align the polar axis to the north pole or Polaris, this give you proper tracking, at least it will be good enough for a 5-10 minute shot. The better polar aligned you are the less drift you will have.

Turn the tracking motor on.. make sure its set for Northern Hemisphere, the switch on the hand paddle.

Loosen the RA & DEC locks before you aim the camera at anything,

Then piont your camera at the object you want, lock the RA and dec axis and

Make sure your camera settings are where you want them, ISO 400, F4, Focus at Infinity, bulb setting, etc.....just a starting point.

Now you can open the shutter, assuming you have a bulb setting and cable release or long exposure setting on your camera!

You can also guide the mount for longer exposures, by setting your camera up side by side with a small guidescope with guiding eyepiece.

The hand controller lets you make small RA corrections over long time exposures.

Accurate Polar alignment is more important for longer exposures too!

Hopefully this helps!

Good Luck!

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Today is January 17th, does anyone have an idea if the comet is still visible to the Northern Hemisphere..it has been cloudy in my area as of late and i havent had a good oppurtunity to bring out the binocs and the telescope.

Johnny G

Comet Machholz Q2 is currently just north of Algol (Beta Persei) in Perseus.

http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/2004_Q2.gif

http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro/comets/04Q2CH07.htm

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Yes I have one of these nifty little mounts too.... one of the best buys I've made! In fact it is the only mount I will be taking with me to Spain for this years annular eclipse.

Available in the UK from SCS Astro

Nice picture BTW

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