Amateur astronomer catches supernova being born

[LogicalFallacy]

Inspirational.

 

I'm looking at setting up an 8 inch telescope... this guy has a 16! Blimy.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/techandscience/an-amateur-astronomer-testing-a-new-camera-happens-to-catch-a-supernova-as-its-being-born/ar-BBJstJk?li=BBqdk7Q&ocid=mailsignout

[disillusioned]

Wow. That's seriously cool!

[Fweethawt]

On 2/22/2018 at 6:20 PM, disillusioned said:

Wow. That's seriously cool!

And very hot at the same time.

[older]

That's a great one. But don't despair on the 8-inch. Folks have done some good work with those too.

 

Whatcha putting in: dob or SCT?

 

BTW, I was at the Griffith Observatory in LA a couple of weeks ago looking at M42 through the 12-inch Zeiss refractor. The view through the 11-inch SCT that was set up nearby was better. I was told that the refractor doesn't cool down fast enough, which is perfectly logical. But the refractor is one hell of a piece of hardware.

[LogicalFallacy]

2 hours ago, older said:

That's a great one. But don't despair on the 8-inch. Folks have done some good work with those too.

 

Whatcha putting in: dob or SCT?

 

BTW, I was at the Griffith Observatory in LA a couple of weeks ago looking at M42 through the 12-inch Zeiss refractor. The view through the 11-inch SCT that was set up nearby was better. I was told that the refractor doesn't cool down fast enough, which is perfectly logical. But the refractor is one hell of a piece of hardware.

 

Hey Older

 

I haven't sorted out what I'm getting yet. I want to take astrophotos with it so certain scopes are better than others for certain purposes. Still in the research phase. Any help is appreciated. I think a reflector is better for taking photos from memory.

 

I'm going to do it properly so its a big expense, so I want to make sure I get the one that will fit what I'm wanting to do. Also you can get motorized ones these days with objects preset so you could say select M42 and the scope will just adjust itself to that position and move whenever it needs to.

[sdelsolray]

8 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

 

Hey Older

 

I haven't sorted out what I'm getting yet. I want to take astrophotos with it so certain scopes are better than others for certain purposes. Still in the research phase. Any help is appreciated. I think a reflector is better for taking photos from memory.

 

I'm going to do it properly so its a big expense, so I want to make sure I get the one that will fit what I'm wanting to do. Also you can get motorized ones these days with objects preset so you could say select M42 and the scope will just adjust itself to that position and move whenever it needs to.

 

I've been an amateur astronomer for decades.  I choose to not get involved with astrophotography and focus solely on visual astronomy.   With either, APO refractors rule for solar system objects and larger aperture mirror based scopes rule for deep sky objects.  The 7" to 12" catadioptric scopes, (Schmidt/Cassegrain,  Maksutov, etc.) are good all-rounders.  

 

The tasks, procedures and accessory equipment are somewhat different.  For example, with astrophotography, you decide what you want to shoot and spend quite a bit of time with shooting that one object in a session (moreso for objects with longer exposure time).  The technology used with astrophotography has changed drastically over the past two decades or so with the use of CCD cameras and post shoot computer processing.  Still, you'll want to have an excellent beefy mount and excellent off-axis tracking to get good results.  It's also somewhat more important to be at a dark sky site with excellent atmospheric seeing and transparency.  

 

With visual astronomy, a good full set of eyepieces is important and optional accessories such as a binoviewer (use two identical eyepieces) can create awesome views.  Precise tracking is not needed, and a simple RA tracking motor will suffice and keep the use of slo-mo mechanical controls to a minimum.

 

I have a Celestron C8, an Astro Physics 5" APO refractor and a pair of Fujinon 10x70 FMT-SX binoculars I sue sometimes with a bino mount.  I have a healthy set of Televue Nagler, Panoptic and Plossl eyepieces (all 1.25") and some other accessories, such as filters, upgraded diagonals and optical and red beam pointer finder scopes as well as Pelican storage cases.

 

One cool thing about this hobby is that the gear, once purchased, lasts for a long time and other than re-aluminizing a mirror every 25 years or so or making sure the moving parts stay in shape, there is very little maintenance.  All you need is time, a dark sky site, chocolate and coffee and an observing plan for a night of enjoyment.

 

 

[LogicalFallacy]

4 hours ago, sdelsolray said:

 

I've been an amateur astronomer for decades.  I choose to not get involved with astrophotography and focus solely on visual astronomy.   With either, APO refractors rule for solar system objects and larger aperture mirror based scopes rule for deep sky objects.  The 7" to 12" catadioptric scopes, (Schmidt/Cassegrain,  Maksutov, etc.) are good all-rounders.  

 

The tasks, procedures and accessory equipment are somewhat different.  For example, with astrophotography, you decide what you want to shoot and spend quite a bit of time with shooting that one object in a session (moreso for objects with longer exposure time).  The technology used with astrophotography has changed drastically over the past two decades or so with the use of CCD cameras and post shoot computer processing.  Still, you'll want to have an excellent beefy mount and excellent off-axis tracking to get good results.  It's also somewhat more important to be at a dark sky site with excellent atmospheric seeing and transparency.  

 

With visual astronomy, a good full set of eyepieces is important and optional accessories such as a binoviewer (use two identical eyepieces) can create awesome views.  Precise tracking is not needed, and a simple RA tracking motor will suffice and keep the use of slo-mo mechanical controls to a minimum.

 

I have a Celestron C8, an Astro Physics 5" APO refractor and a pair of Fujinon 10x70 FMT-SX binoculars I sue sometimes with a bino mount.  I have a healthy set of Televue Nagler, Panoptic and Plossl eyepieces (all 1.25") and some other accessories, such as filters, upgraded diagonals and optical and red beam pointer finder scopes as well as Pelican storage cases.

 

One cool thing about this hobby is that the gear, once purchased, lasts for a long time and other than re-aluminizing a mirror every 25 years or so or making sure the moving parts stay in shape, there is very little maintenance.  All you need is time, a dark sky site, chocolate and coffee and an observing plan for a night of enjoyment.

 

 

 

Thanks sdelsolray

 

Do you take your scopes to a particular site, or just view from your back yard? Just wondering because obviously finding a dark site is good, but that limits the size of the scope for travel portability?

 

I was thinking of getting a Ute as well and using the deck as a mounting platform... but may not be stable enough. (The ute wouldn't just be for astronomy  )

[older]

11 hours ago, sdelsolray said:

 

 

...

 

 

One cool thing about this hobby is that the gear, once purchased....

 

 

 

Yeah, but what about the gear you haven't yet purchased? Somehow the closet keeps filling up. And no matter what you buy, you will lust for more. Someone just gave me 8 Tele Vues from an estate which ups my inventory to 18 eyepieces. Unfortunately, I can only look through one eyepiece at a time and I have to decide how to thin out the collection.

 

Lo-Fall: You might want to check out the astronomy forum at http://www.astronomyforum.net/forum.php .   This is a decent site with lots of good info and no flame wars.

 

The most common scope in our club is the 8-inch SCT, but the photogs all use relatively small APOs. One of those guys gets some amazing stuff from his city-lit backyard, but he knows what he's doing. Lots of post-processing. He just completed his big project of getting excellent shots of all 100 of the Messier objects.

 

If you deck is wood, I'd think that would be problematic for photography. You need a very stable platform.

 

Ramble, ramble.

[sdelsolray]

20 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

Do you take your scopes to a particular site, or just view from your back yard?

...

Both.  Observing the moon and planets and splitting double stars are reasonably possible in light polluted areas.  Deep sky objects suffer greatly.  I think the same is true for astrophotography because shooting the moon and planets and splitting double stars all have short exposure times and deep sky objects require long exposure times.

 

I live on the top of one of the West Hills in Portland, OR at an elevation of 520 feet.  The light pollution here is pretty bad.  It takes about an hour to get to one of the many local dark sky sites local amateur astronomers use.  Some of them are at elevations of 4,000 to 5,000 feet.  Higher elevations place the telescope above much of the atmosphere and usually improves seeing and transparency conditions, which helps observational viewing and long time exposure astrophotography.

 

One accessory which is helpful in light polluted areas is a light shield, which is a tube extension placed on the end of the scope to avoid stray light from entering the OTA.  However, even if the tube is not seeing stray light from the sides directly, our eyes are certainly influenced by it.  The eyes must become dark adapted for good observing (this doesn't apply to astrophotography).

 

20 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

...

I was thinking of getting a Ute as well and using the deck as a mounting platform... but may not be stable enough. (The ute wouldn't just be for astronomy  )

My equipment packs down into five cases (two for the OTAs, one for eyepieces/filters/misc, 1 for misc and 1 for the binos), three duffel bags (1 for each mount) and one backpack.  If I take it all with me on an observing session (which I usually do if there are other folks coming along) it all fits in the back of my Range Rover (medium sized SUV) with room to spare for a cooler, collapsable table, lawn chairs and other stuff and I can carry five people (including me).

 

As to using a deck, I assume you mean you would put your scope tripod or pier on the deck.  That would be fine for observational viewing, as any walking on the deck would likely be transferred as vibrations through the tripod/pier then mount and then to the OTA.  That's not the end of the world because those vibrations would only be temporary.  However, such vibrations could be fatal to a photo if they occurred during a CCD exposure. 

 

As to dark adaptation for your eyes (see above), are there any direct-line-of sight lights visible from your deck?  Street light, neighbor's outside door light, or a lamp inside your house?  Such direct lights can spoil your eyes' dark adaption (which normally takes up to 30 minutes to obtain) in just a few seconds.  At a dark sky site, I turn off all lights possible on my SUV so that when a door is opened they do not turn on.  For any lights that cannot be turned off I put a red cellophane cover over them.  Red light does not spoil your eyes' dark adaptation.  Such "hygiene" is often a requirement at astronomy club star parties.

[sdelsolray]

13 hours ago, older said:

 

Yeah, but what about the gear you haven't yet purchased? Somehow the closet keeps filling up. And no matter what you buy, you will lust for more. Someone just gave me 8 Tele Vues from an estate which ups my inventory to 18 eyepieces. Unfortunately, I can only look through one eyepiece at a time and I have to decide how to thin out the collection.

...

 

 

I've had RGAS (Recording Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) in the past, although it has tapered off in recent years.  As to visual astronomy, not so much, other than initial purchases quite some time ago.  I think the last thing I bought was a set of Celestron vibration pads about 10 years ago, and, of course, periodic purchases of batteries for the RA drives, object location computer and red beam finders.  I did send by Celestron 8" SCT OTA to Celestron two years ago.  They resurfaced the mirror and changed and upgraded the corrector plate.  Made a small difference.

 

8 TeleVues.  That's cool.  I only have 7 in my entire collection (including a barlow), and the only reason it's that many is because I have two pairs of identical eypieces to use with the binoviewer.  Any more would seem redundant.