Last modified: February 15, 2005

My Astronomy Page

This page will discuss my ongoing fascination with the science of Astronomy, and with our telescope in particular. It's very much a work-in-progress, so don't expect much …

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Still not a wealth of clear nights, or at least not convenient ones, but I finally got all the parts I needed to do digital astrophotography, and on one hurried night, I did a quick experiment which made me feel better about the money I've invested so far.

Introduction

I've always had a love of Astronomy. When I graduated from Buffalo State College, I had a minor in Astronomy in addition to my degree in ISM. I will always have fond memories of my days with the Astronomy Club, and am grateful to the knowledge imparted to me by Doctors James Orgren (Intro, Planetarium Seminar), Jack Mack (Observational, Stellar & Galactic, Cosmology), and Carl Seifert (Planetary Geology), and by the stalwart Art Gielow, current director of the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium. Some of my fondest memories of Buff State involve giving planetarium shows for students and the general public, and spending very cold nights in the observatory (which, sadly, was dismantled to make room for the Field House). I particularly loved taking Observational Astronomy in the summer of 1983; it was a particularly balmy summer, and spending warm, pleasant evenings in the observatory after spending hours in the sweltering terminal room in the basement of Rockwell Hall was enjoyable (I was taking a couple of summer courses to get myself back on track to graduation; six weeks of intense IBM 360 assembler programming was both humbling and rewarding).

Almost twenty years later, I finally own a telescope. We had a family meeting in November, and decided that a telescope would make a great Christmas present to all of us. While my ideal telescope would be in the 8-10" range, we decided to start smaller to see if this was a hobby we would continue to enjoy. After investigating a variety of telescopes, we decided to go with a Meade telescope, as they have a good reputation and make good instruments. A variety of reviews had good things to say about the medium-size, and medium-priced, ETX-90 telescope, which we purchased via this web page from Astronomics. It came with UHTC (coatings that improve light transmission), an Autostar 497 controller a durable tripod (with carrying bag), and a 26mm eyepiece. They had a great deal on a Super Plössl eyepiece kit, so we ordered that as well, as it gives us a variety of eyepiece sizes for viewing different kinds of objects.

How We'll Probably Use It

I expect that each of us will enjoy it differently. Tom likes computers and technology, and will probably be most interested with the Autostar and with computer control of the telescope. Jill, on the other hand, really loves the beauty of the night sky, and will probably want to see as many planets, nebulae, galaxies, and other objects as possible. I'm interested in digital photography, and will be experimenting with different ways to take pictures using our Kodak digital camera, a four-megapixel EasyShare DX-4900. Laura, I suspect, will probably enjoy some of all of these aspects.

First Light

The kids unwrapped the telescope on Christmas morning, and were thrilled. Once the commotion of the holiday was over, we set it up and read through the instructions. On the evening of Friday, December 27, 2003, our first viewing was of Capella, one of the calibration stars that the Autostar 497 controller wanted us to home in on. After calibrating against that star and Rigel, we chose our first target, the Pleiades. We found that the Autostar's "Go To" function was way off, probably because I had not calibrated the motors properly, so I had to manually slew to the target. Our next target was Saturn, which had just appeared above the roof of the house behind us. With the 26mm eyepiece included with the instrument, we saw a small but clear image of the planet and its rings. I wished we had the Super Plössl eyepiece set, but that would have to wait for another night.

Major Tuneup

(Stuff will go here about the easily-stripped declination clutch knob, the lack of lubrication on some parts and over-lubrication on others, and how I corrected these issues using articles found on Weasner's Mighty ETX Site.)

Peripherals and Accessories

I recently build my own cable to connect the telescope to the computer, as I found the Meade brand cable and the third-party alternatives to be not a good value.

I purchased online the accessories I need to to astrophotography, one piece at a time. I had decided that the Digi-T adapters manufactured by Scopetronix were the best way to go, but I was leery of purchasing a model that would only work with our Kodak EasyShare DX-4900 camera, which uses an odd thread size of 27mm. So, after a bit of searching, I found a good price on this Kodak 27mm-to-37mm lens adapter. Having this adapter (which will also allow us to connect standard 37mm lenses and filters to it for normal photography) allowed me to purchase the 37mm Digi-T adapter, which will give me an upgrade path should I choose to use a different camera in the future. (I should put a couple of pictures here of the parts and how they connect together.)

While I was online shopping, I also purchased a Multi-Mate (shown on this page), which is a float level and compass that drops in to the eyepiece holder to make alignments easier; it also acts as a dust cover when the telescope is not in use. Oh, and the Rigel Systems Skylite is a wonderful little flashlight, and worth every penny.

First Pixels

On the evening of October 2nd, I set up the telescope, mainly to test my recent tune-up of the instrument. I was quite pleased with the results, and it tracks much more smoothly than before. After slewing to the Andromeda Galaxy, I made a quick decision to test the camera parts I had been purchasing (as described in the previous section).

I connected everything up, using a Meade 20mm Super Plössl lens, and took several photos. The one shown here is the best of the bunch. If you click on it, you can view a larger, uncropped and unreduced version, which also shows the vignetting inherent in the use of eyepieces for astrophotography. OK, it's not very good, but I'm proud of it anyways. :-)

I'll qualify the quality by the stating that neither the telescope nor the camera had been acclimated to the outside temperature, that it was taken from my light-polluted back yard in suburban Amherst, New York, and that I just guessed at the camera settings, as I had no frame of reference for what should work best. I set the camera to ISO 400 with a 16-second exposure, and used the timer so that hopefully any jitter introduced by pressing the shutter button would stop by the time it triggered.

The streaks are stars, which indicates to me that one of three things might have happened:

I may not have had the declination clutch tight enough, and the extra weight of the camera might have caused the optical tube to sag during the exposure;
The weight of the camera may be too much for the declination clutch, even with it fully tightened, and I might have to counterbalance the tube by strapping a weight near the aperture, opposite the camera; or
There may have been jitter introduced for which I'll have to compensate, although it was on a concrete pad and the timer should have allowed sufficient time for any vibrations to have stopped.

But, it's a start, and an encouraging one at that.

Computer Software

This section will describe computer hardware and software such as the AstroPlanner software, and how it works both with the Autostar controller and with the Pharos GPS-360 that comes with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005. I'll also talk about Distant Suns, which I purchased long ago but still really like, and about free software solutions for both planning an observing session and actually driving the instrument.

Buffalo-Area Telescope and Astronomy Resources

There do not seem to be very many local resources for telescope supplies. In fact, the only store listed in the Verizon Yellow Pages is Continental Camera, located at 5795 Transit Road (between George Urban Blvd. and Walden Ave.), Depew, New York, 14043-2819, phone 716-681-8038.

Clayton's Gifts & Toys, Inc., located at 5225 Main Street (between Union and North Forest), Williamsville, New York, 14221, is listed as a Meade dealer on the Meade web site, but I have not yet stopped in to see what they have available.

The Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium at Buffalo State College offers several shows for schools, and can book groups on occasion. They also, in conjunction with the Buffalo State College Astronomy Club, hold public viewing sessions during special events such as the recent lunar eclipse.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Buffalo Astronomical Association, even though I haven't been to any of their meetings (I hope to start going to them in the fall).

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If you have comments or suggestions regarding this web page, please contact me, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

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