Rob's Astronomy Habit

The Dead Tree Chronicles: History of Rob's Tree, the Oregon Star Party, and more amazing images. (April 8, 02)

Kid Activity: Making Constellations Apr 8, 02

Spectrographic Images taken using the Project STAR Spectrometer
How I put my Christmas present to good use over my extended holiday break from real work.
PLUS: Spectral Plots of Five Light Pollution Filters!!!

Painting Stars on your Ceiling  (Jan 31, 02)

Click here for Equatorial Platforms
Click Here for Journey Thru Inner Space

IMAGES

Mars, showing prominent Syrtis Major.
June 13, 2001, 1am PDT. Poor seeing.
8" F/9 Dob, Kodak DC280 at eyepiece - 18mm plossl w/2.5X Barlow
Last Updated June 19, 2001
Solar 22o Halo. Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001
Video image of Jupiter taken Fall '99

Stacked using AIP4WIN, Nov 29, 01  8" F/9 Dob, Hi-8 cam in eyepiece. 10 Frames grabbed with Snappy. Even with AIP4WIN, this is an inferior technique compared to digital imaging. See below.

KODAK DIGITAL CAMERA IMAGES

Saturn: 12.5" Dob, 400X eyepiece, Digital point'n'shoot camera. 6 images added in image processing.
About 5am local (PDT) Sept 9, 2000		 Jupiter: Same equipment. Sept 12, 2000. 7 images stacked, using AIP4WIN, on Nov 26, 01, over 1 year later.

WEBCAM IMAGES
Modified Connectix QuickCam Black&White
Both images taken using 12.5" dob at 3750mm effective focal length (2.5X barlow), March 5, 2002. Images taken from .avi files of about 60 frames each, averaged together and processed using AIP4WIN. Color would be nice. So would a night of really great steadiness.

12" Dob converted to 60mm solar scope - eyepiece projection into mirror box.

Digital Image of Sun taken with above setup - Sept 2, 2000 at Oregon Star Party

Visually, it's an amazing sight! The Sun image is 11" in diameter. Loads of detail are visible. Scratches on eyepiece cast shadows, the large dark blobs.

nearly FULL MOON, August 15th, 2000
12.5" F/5 Dob with 30mm eyepiece, Digital point'n'shoot camera.
Moon was barely clearing the house across the street, the low altitude is evident in the blurred/wavy edges.
First Quarter Moon, September 4, 2000
8" F/9 Dob with 30mm eyepiece, Digital point'n'shoot camera.
1st Quarter Moon, a few days later, see above.
Arcturus
Altair
Vega
Deneb
 12.5" F/5 Dob with 30mm eyepiece and 2.5x Barlow, Digital point'n'shoot camera.
Defocusing enhances the colors of the stars.
Astronomy Picture of the Day

Rose City Astronomers