Bill's Amateur Astronomy

Welcome

Welcome to my little corner of the universe. This site reflects my interest and pursuit of amateur astronomy. At this site you will find images I have captured of those distant objects we all look up at the night sky and wonder. You will find pictures documenting my equipment and the modifications I have made. I hope you enjoy browsing this site and feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or just to say hello.

07.15.2008

After a very long absence I've been able to get back out under the night sky. Inspired by a project I'm working on I decided to attempt an image of Pluto. Following in the footsteps of Clyde Tombaugh I setup my telescope and CCD over a two night period; taking images of the sky that my Sky Charting software had pointed my telescope to, in hopes of catching the small Pluto moving in the night sky. After processing my images I sat out to blink them, using software to line up the two images and quickly switch between them allowing one to see any moving objects against the non-moving stars. Just like Tombaugh had done with his plates using a blink comparator. To my amazement I very quickly identified the moving Pluto against the sea of stars. The emotion that overcame me was unbelievable. To know that someone like me with a 10 inch telescope and a homemade CCD camera in their back yard could do such a thing was amazing. Yes, I’ve taken quite a few images of objects much farther off in space, galaxies and the like, but for some reason I felt such a connection to imaging Pluto. Maybe because at this time of year one can look up at the night sky with their naked eye and see such wondrous planets like Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. But to find Pluto was an undertaking of two nights worth of work. Or maybe it was the feeling as if Tombaugh was sitting next to me as the chill of the late night air settled in, the images of the region of sky popping up on the monitor as they were taken. Doing astronomy as it had been done before automation and warm rooms full of computers were the norm. You can see the resulting image under the Planetary Section.

02.22.2008

Well after quite a long dry spell of no astro work for me, darn Indiana winter weather, I hit a gold mine with the Lunar Eclipse. I've done several variations on Lunar Eclipses in the past but this time I sat out to capture a time lapse type image showing the eclipse from beginning to end. I have say I am very proud of the final result, it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. You can see the resulting image under Eclipse 02.2008.

10.31.2007

As promised I was able to get out last night, Tuesday, and image the comet again only this time with my 6.3 focal reducer on so the field-of-view was better. After getting a great shot with the cookbook camera I took the focal reducer off and did some shots with my Nikon D200. Unfortunately a front was moving in and some thin high level clouds began to form so it cut my imaging short. You can see the resulting images under the Comet section.

10.29.2007

Last night the skies were finally very clear and I was able to capture an image of the very exciting comet 17P/Holmes. On October 24th, in a span of about 24 hours, this comet went from magnitude 17, only visible in very large telescopes like Hubble, to magnitude 2.8 which is viewable naked-eye. With the naked-eye the comet looks like a very bright star as there is no tail that many think of when you mention comet. In a telescope the comet has a bright core surrounded by large fuzzy area. The comet is in Perseus which is in the NE just after sunset. Here is a finder chart for those interested in looking for it. You can see the resulting image I took under the Comet section.

09.27.2007

I've processed another panoramic of the Milky Way from the Star Party in Michigan. This image was taken on Thursday evening where the one mentioned below was done on Saturday. The transparency and seeing on Thursday were better than Saturday resulting in a more detailed image. I also captured a little more of the galactic center with this one vs the other. You can see the resulting image I took under the Galaxy section.

09.17.2007

This past weekend I attend the Great Lakes Star Gaze Star Party in central Michigan. My goal for the weekend was to image the Milky Way if the skies were dark enough. Well I have to say the sky there was the darkest I've seen for some time. The star party was a great event, the people were wonderful and the viewing was the best I've seen since going to Table Mounting back in 2004. I was able to get my images of the Milky Way and have put them together for a horizon to horizon panoramic which I believe came out wonderfully. You can see the resulting image I took under the Galaxy section.

08.31.2007

I submitted my lunar eclipse image to our local TV station and they used it during the weather broadcast. It was nice to see it displayed with my name. You can find the clip of it here.

08.28.2007

This morning was the full lunar eclipse and surprisingly the weather was cooperating for a great show. I got up early, with the telescope already up and running before I went to bed the night before, and took some images of the fully eclipsed moon. Placing my Nikon D200 in prime focus I took 6 separate images, all small pieces of the whole, and then combined them together for the larger image of the eclipsed moon. The resulting image looks good but since the eclipse took place so close to the horizon it's not as sharp as it would be if it would have been higher in the sky. You can see the resulting image I took under the Planetary section.

08.07.2007

Well it's been a pretty non-astronomy summer for me so far. I spent a month in South Korea and the weather, as usual in Indiana, has kept me from doing any observing. Oh yeah, we now observe daylight savings time here so it doesn't get really dark here until 10:30 or later. So that has really limited me to a possible two nights a week when I could do anything. I'm somewhat hopeful though as this week, August 9th thru the 12th I'll be attending the local star party. The Indiana Family Star Party will be taking place and hopefully the weather will work out so we can do some observing.

03.08.2007

Winter's grip is beginning to slowly let go and it's getting warmer. Last night was a very clear night and I was able to get a few hours of imaging. The telescope and the old CB245 were working nicely and I was able to image M81 and M82. You can see images I took under the Galaxy section. Back on February 20th we had another clear night and I was able to get M1 imaged. M1 is an object I've wanted to do for a very long time and I finaly got it. You can see the M1 image I took under the Nebula section.

12.16.2006

Thursday night, December 14th, we had a very unusual sight here in Indiana, the Northern Lights. It's not often we can see them this far south. Due to a large Coronal Mass Ejection a few days ago that cast a huge magnetic storm our way causing the aurora to be seen farther south than normal. It was quite awesome to see them so powerfully just outside my home. You can see images I took that night under the Aurora section.

10.11.2006

Well it's been a long time, due to the Indiana summer being so humid and hazy I didn't get out much to do any imaging. In June I did so some imaging of Jupiter but wasn't very satisfied with the results. I decided to revisit the images and was able to work on a couple and get them to a point that I was happy. One image is rather nice as it has two of Jupiter's moons visiable, Io and Europa. You can see the results of my Jupiter images under the Planetary section. Also last weekend I built a Barn Door tracker or also known as a Scotch mount. This weekend we are suppose to have some good weather so I am hoping that I can get out with this new device and try to get some images. If all goes well I will hopefully have some images posted from that experiment. Also I am hoping to get some images soon of Comet C/2006 M4 SWAN. I made an attempt last weekend but with the full Moon I couldn't really get good results.

02.26.2006

I recently purchased Meade's piggyback bracket for my telescope. I was able to get out this weekend and get some time in using my Nikon D70 piggybacked on my telescope. We had a very clear night, although rather cold at around 25F. I was able to get a nice image of M42, the Orion Nebula. You can see the results of my M42 image under the Nebula section.

01.26.2006

My first new image of this year, Saturn is shining in all its glory. Earlier this morning I was able to get a very nice image of Saturn as it was directly overhead. We had a very crisp, cold, but clear night last night. There was a tad bit of a breeze, just enough to make planetary imaging a challenge. You can see the results of my Saturn image under the Planetary section. I've recently worked on doing PEC training on my LX200GPS. After some struggles I was able to get guiding working with my Meade LPI. Once guiding had been worked out I spent an evening PEC training in AltAz. I recorded a log of the training and hope to crunch the numbers into a chart showing the errors. Once done I'll try to post on my site for those interested. There is definately a noticable difference in my scopes tracking after doing the training.

10.29.2005

Earlier this morning I was able to get great images of Mars and Saturn. Mars is at it's hieght for best viewing, the next time it will be this viewable is 2018. You can see the results of my Mars and Saturn images under the Planetary section.

10.19.2005

As promised last month I went out this month and reimaged the Moon. This time capturing a nearly full Moon. It took 99 seperate images to create my latest Moon mosaic. You can see the results of my Moon mosaic under the Planetary section. I'm also working on some more images of Mars, only 10 more days until the prime Mars viewing time.

09.22.2005

Got out for some adventure with my telescope and Nikon D70. My goal was to get some images of the Moon. Once I had the Nikon attached and the focus worked out I decided to try a little experiment. I thought why not take some images and see if I couldn't create a mosaic of the Moon. So I began the process of snapping images and incrementally moving the telescope. I didn't image the entire surface of the Moon as I just wanted enough to test. Well I have to say I'm extremely pleased with the results. You can see the results of my Moon surface mosaic under the Planetary section. Next I will try and do an entire Moon surface mosaic, since the Moon is now waning I might do what is visible now and try for a full Moon next month. Tune back in to see what happens.

09.06.2005

We had awesome weather, to include clear skies, this Labor Day weekend so I took advantage of it to pull two long nights of imaging fun. I was able to get three images that I've posted including one of an Open cluster thus causing me to create an Open cluster option on the sidebar menu. I imaged M92 another great looking Globular in Hercules, you can find the image under the Globular Cluster section. The Open cluster I imaged was M52 in Cassiopeia. I really need a focal reducer to do this one justice as it's larger than I can fit into my f/10 field of view with the CB245. You can find the image under the Open Cluster section. Last but definitely not least, I was able to finally put my Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI) that I received with my LX200 to use. With it I was able to capture my first ever image of Mars. I am very excited that I was able to get the LPI working, especially as Mars approaches for another close pass by of Earth. I used Christian Buil's IRIS software to capture a 60 second avi video of Mars. Then using Registax I selected the best frames from the video stacking them then doing some processing. After saving the final image from Registax I performed some more tweaking using Photoshop. The final product can be found under the Planetary section. I hope to capture some more images of mars as it approaches closer in October, stay tuned!

06.22.2005

This summer is truly full of very nice astronomical events. Tonight I imaged, with my Nikon D70, the event of Mercury Venus and Saturn coming close together in the early evening sky just after sunset. The peak will be early next week as they begin to form a triangle with Saturn and Mercury passing Venus. You can find tonight image under the Planetary section. I plan on getting more images of this event as the nights go by, so come back to see what I capture.

06.21.2005

After not adding anything new in a while I finally put up two new images I imaged on May 10, 2005. They are both Globular Clusters, my first ever to image. I have grown to really like these very awesome looking objects. On my last outing to PGO, June 4th, I was able to see all of the Globular and Open clusters in Scorpius. My new images can be found under the Globular Cluster section.

04.09.2005

After many months of cold winter days and nights it is finally getting warm and prime time to awaken my telescope from it's winter slumber. Last night/early this morning I was finally able to get my CB245 on my new telescope for the first time. It is so nice to now have a telescope that will not only track very nicely an object but also provides excellent Go-To functionality. I was so much more productive last night now that I have a telescope I don't have to continually fuss with. Last night was primarily a night of learning since it was the first time to attach the CB245. One of the best things I was able to get working was remote control of my telescope. Using TightVNC I was able to remote control the computer that I was imaging and controlling my telescope with. Since currently I setup my telescope on my deck, I have to sit very still as not to cause vibrations in the telescope as its imaging. With the remote control I can control the computer outside with a computer in my house and thus be comfortable and do whatever while the long integration happens. Although I thoroughly enjoy being out under the stars this will provide a nice convenience I didn't have before, especially for those chilly evenings. Here you can see a screenshot of the remote control.

I was able to get in one image earlier this morning. I re-imaged M57 and am extremely pleased at how it came out. With the new telescope and good tracking the stars in my images now look like stars, nice and round. I learned a lot last night and have some things to improve/work on before my next outing.

12.31.2004

I received my new telescope on December 21st. I put it together and upgraded the firmware then I tested out the drives and all worked well. Thursday December 23rd I was able to take it outside for my first light. It was extremely cold here in Indiana, below zero. I was able to run the telescope through its auto-align feature successfully. Afterwards I was able to use Go-To with great results. Each object appeared in the eye piece almost dead center after each Go-To command. I have posted pictures of the new telescope under the telescope area.

12.18.2004

This past week I ordered my new telescope. After much debating about upgrading my mount or getting a new telescope I decided on a new telescope. I purchased Meade's LX200GPS-SMT with UHTC. It is due to arrive Dec. 21st, as you can imagine I'm filled with excitement. Once it arrives I'll get pictures posted. This means I'll be selling my 10" StarFinder, so if anyone is interested send me an e-mail.

Today I also verified the part numbers and prices for the filters listed under the filter wheel page.

10.28.2004

Added my images of the awesome Lunar Eclipse. They can be found under the Lunar Eclipse section.

10.23.2004

Added my latest image of the Ring Nebula, M57. It can be found under the Nebula section.