Astronomy Nightly

Leo Triplet – Three Galaxies at the Limit of Backyard Astrophotography

February 20, 2013

After getting a pretty good image of the Orion Nebula from my backyard, I wanted to try some tougher targets. With about half the moon in view and it sitting near Orion, I had to move away from the Milky Way to find a good deep space object to image. I tried the Christmas Tree Cluster first. The r…

Robotic Telescopes and the Rosette Nebula

February 17, 2013

Nebula

Nine years ago I bought my first "real" telescope. My experience the year prior with a department store telescope was horrible. Department store telescopes aren't telescopes. They're tubes with pretty pictures on their boxes. I knew from looking through observatories and other people's telescope…

Backyard astronomy and the Orion Nebula (Messier 42)

February 8, 2013

Nebula

I haven't done any official research, but my guess is amateur astronomy buffs spend most of their astronomy time in their backyards. Home-based astronomy is great because it's "right there." It's easy to set up your telescope and view the planets, moon, and maybe even some darker deep sp…

Wink At The Moon – Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012

August 25, 2012

Moon

Neil Armstrong passed away today. In honor of him, his family's request was: For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at…

Curiosity on Mars

August 5, 2012

Congrats to the team who got Curiosity this far. Here's the first image from Curiosity. Taken just minutes after touching down on Mars.…

Venus Transit – June 2012

June 5, 2012

Venus is currently transiting the sun. This will be the last time until 2117. Here are some shots of the transit sized to 2048x2048 pixels. Enjoy! More photos soon!…

Solar Eclipse Photographs – May 20, 2012

May 21, 2012

I shot the solar eclipse from the south part of Las Vegas, NV. I set up my old Celestron 80ED refractor (600mm f/7.5) on my CGEM mount. I shot through that telescope with my Canon 5D Mark II and a Thousand Oaks Optics solar filter. Most of the shots were taken at 1/125 second and ISO 100. A few …

May 20, 2012 Solar Eclipse – Teaser!

May 20, 2012

I'm still digging through the 1500 photos I took today of the eclipse. Here's a teaser image... This image was taken by Bryan Duke from Henderson, NV on May 20, 2012 at 6:35PM PDT. It was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II, Celestron 80ED telescope (600mm, f/7.5), Thousand Oaks Optics solar filter, &am…

Make Az Adjustments Smoother On An Equatorial Mount

April 2, 2012

Pete Mumbower has an outstanding idea for making a Celestron CGEM mount easier to polar align. He adds "Slick Strips" to the top of the tripod where the mount rests. This makes tweaking the alignment of the mount much easier. My Slick Strips are on order! Here's Pete's article about it: http://www…

Explore Scientific 127ED First Light

March 31, 2012

My old C8 is gone and I have a new Explore Scientific 127ED in its place. Here's the new scope on my CGEM. A simple moon shot was the first photo target. I plan on taking more photos through it soon.…