A Clear Starry Night.
The two things I like most are a clear starry night and my celestron classic 8 telescope. This is a how to guide for telescope set up and digital astrophotography. If you own a modestly priced digital camera you can get some great 30 second photos.
A Warning From The Author.
Never, ever look at the sun, its light will blind you, without proper equipment. A mylar solar filter that mounts on the front of the telescope optics, is the safest way to view the sun. That is because the light is cut by 99.9 %. Also the light from the sun can damage the telescopes optics without it, remember a telescope is a complicated magnifying lens. The closer you get to the focal point the hotter it gets. This damages your optics, including your eyes. So please never ever look at the sun
Whoooa Folks.
Polar Alignment A Must, And The Reasons We Do It. And Being Safe.
A example, television satellites are placed 22,000 miles above the earth's equator. At this orbital altitude they travel around the earth at the same rate as the ground or sea below them. This is how your satellite dish knows the exact location of each satellite because its stationary in relation to the earth's rotation. Your dish can now travel from and to each satellites coordinates over and over again.
Your telescope works the same way with objects in space, but in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation, and must be polar aligned even for short 30 second exposures.
The first thing you need to do is to find level ground on your property away from trees and any light source preferably in a open field, you want to see plenty of sky above you and in all directions. Pick your site during the day. This way you can find hazards like holes and or rocks sticking out of the ground. You want to look at stars, not trip and fall into your equipment, or take a unexpected trip to a emergency room. So please look for these hazards for you and your friends. I also want you to be aware that the tissue around your eyes is very tender and you can easily get a black eye. HA HA you think its funny huh, its always funny when its happens to someone else, but when it happens to you its hilarious.
Remember you in the dark, so lean down to the eyepiece slowly. I seen several amature astronomers do just that. And if your camping or at a star party for a few days you want to eat your steak dinner not wear it over you eye. I ask them not to look so long at the black eye galaxy. So be careful.
Right Ascension Explained.
Right Ascension and Precession.
Right ascension is expressed in hours, minutes, and seconds. Lets make a example of one of the brightest naked eye objects in the sky. The Great Orion's nebula. Its right ascension coordinates are 05h 35m 17.3s. Now imagine a line at these coordinates that runs from the north celestrial pole to the south celestrial pole, you now know its position in the sky on a north south line. But somethings wrong you still can't find it. The reason for that is, a piece of the puzzle is missing.
Which I will reveal in the following chapter. Now lets talk about a little flaw in are 24 hour sky clock called precession. Our earth actually does not have a rotational period of 24 hours. The day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds long this gives leaves the stars with 3 minutes 56 seconds to play with. What do they do with this time? Is the door closed, and they beat each other up? No! What its means is the stars line jump like a kid waiting to buy that new video game. They advance westward in the sky a pinch less than a degree a night. They rise 3 minutes 56 seconds earlier.
This is reset once every four years on February 29th. The leap year. But before we go to the next chapter look at the photo below. This is the ra setting circle on the base of the clock drive on my telescope. What does ra stand for? You guessed it right ascension.
Right Ascension Setting Circle.

Polar Alignment Fig 1.
Declination Explained.
Declination The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle.
Ok now you can come up to your home and have several glasses of the beverage of your choice. The celestrial equator is a imaginary plane that divides the earth in half at the equator and begins at a point at the center of the earth and extends out into space, even to infinity in all directions along all points on the equatorial plane.If the earth had rings like the planet saturn it would be the perfect illustration. Just extend the rings to infinity.
Now go back to the center of the earth again. Now look for your house. How far it is above or below the equator is called your latitude. Let say your house is +41 degrees latitude or also called a north latitude roughly the latitude of Akron Ohio.
You have to adjust your telescope according to your latitude. You can do this during the polar alignment process. Now imagine declination is like a protractor with its straight edge lined up from the north to the south celestrial poles and its round edge with all its degrees are on the surface of the earth. 0 degrees is the equator.
Ok remember the missing piece of the puzzle from the last chapter. You know that the great orion nebula is at coordinate 05h 35m 17.3s along a north south line that connects at the poles, but is it below the horizon or above? Well here is your answer. Its declination is -05 degrees 23 minutes 28 seconds. Hey wait, it has a -05 degrees declination I don't think i can find it or even see it. Its below the horizon. Did I read all of this for nothing? The answer is No!
Some people new to the hobby see the - sign in front of a coordinate and they assume its below the horizon. Remember figure one above. The north star is 41 degrees above the northern horizon, the northern horizon is at 180 degrees.
Now subtract 41 degrees from 180 degrees and you have 139 degrees left. Now subtract 90 degrees from 139 degrees and you have 49 degrees left. This 49 degree number is where the celestrial equator resides in the sky for Akron Ohio. So in fact you can see to a -49 declination. Now subtract -05 degrees 23 minutes 28 seconds from 49 degrees and you have the orion's nebula at, 44° degrees 37 minutes 32 seconds above the southern horizon at transit.
What does transit mean, it simply means a object has reached its highest point above the horizon.
If you go outside at night and look straight up and see a star its at the same latitude you are.
Looking straight above you at this position is called the zenith, this star is at its transit position also. Below is a picture of my telescopes declination setting circle.
Declination Setting Circle.
The Nuts And Bolts Of Polar Alignment.
Be sure the telescope is level at the base of the tripod and the fork mount, Alt/azimuth mounts only. Use a bubble level for this. Equatorial mounts are different and you should read your owners manual if you have this type of mount.
It is important that you know your exact latitude, it is your location north or south of the equator in degrees minutes and seconds. Adjust your telescope for latitude now.
If your telescope is level and pointing true north and you have adjusted it to your latitude, then polaris sure be in the eye piece center of view. Once you have the polaris centered in your eye piece you have succeeded.
Now would be a good time to align your spotter scope with the telescope optics, just use polaris, adjust the thumbscrews on the spotter scope until polaris is centered in the spotter scope. Your finished.
Connect the power and start stargazing.
This is a quick method for alignment and your are within .25 degrees of true polar alignment. This will give you 20 minutes before any appreciable
shift of stars on film. Which is good enough for a 30 second exposure on a digital camera behind a 25mm eyepiece.
Latitude Adjustment Location On The Telescope
Level At Tripod.
Level At The Forks.
The Three Methods Of Astrophotography.
Pick Your Method.
The Piggy Back Method.
In effect you just turned you camera into a low power telescope. If you have a duel axis drive correcter, and a illuminated retical eyepiece you can use the telescopes optics as a high powered manual or auto guider. Cool huh.
Prime Focus Method.
The Prime Focus Method Of Astrophotography.
But for this application we only need the bayonet ring and the star diagonal adaptor. First connect the components,then connect your bayonet end to your DSLR twist it to you hear a click sound its now connected. Insert the star diagonal adaptor into the star diagonal. No eyepiece needed with this method because the telescopes optics is the camera lens. The photo above shows my DSLR ready for prime focus photography.
A special note you can use your t-adaptor as a barlow, this gives you a pinch more focal length, just leave out the eyepiece. This method is for dslr owners only, because they can change lens. The telescope optics is the camera lens.
The Projection Method.
The Projection Method Of Astrophotography.
You can use any point and shoot camera with this method, as long as it has a 1/4 - 20 threaded hole in the bottom. This is where you attach the universal camera mount. The photo above shows my dslr ready for projection photography.
The Camera.
Adjusting The Cameras Settings.
Most point and shoot cameras have a manual setting. This is the setting you will use. So set your camera to this mode now. adjust your iso to its highest setting.If you have a dslr you want to experiment with the settings, because the settings can go as high as 3600 iso, I usually use 800 iso to 1600 iso for star clusters, and nebulas. Higher settings greater than 1600 iso reveal to much camera noise. Set the cameras aperture to its lowest setting which is usually 2.8, the higher this setting the less light the camera will capture.
Set the cameras white balance to day light for stars and star clusters. Set to cloudy if you have stars inside a nebula.
No guarantee you will catch the nebulas light but you have a chance.
Now set the cameras flash to off. Because if you are using the projection method the light will reflect back from the eye piece and your picture will be washed out. The objects your photographing are light years away, and you don't need it.
Set your cameras shutter speed to 30 seconds or higher if you have the ability.
Now set the cameras self timer to 10 seconds, this gives the camera and scope time to settle after pressing the shutter button.
I hope these tips I have shared with you, gives you some insight. Dont be afraid to experiment with the cameras settings. Good luck and good shooting.
If you want to take photos of the planets the shutter speeds settings should be from 1/2 second to 7 or 8 seconds. The full Moon is best at 1/250, if it fills the frame of the view finder. There are some advantages in using a point and shoot camera for projection photography. The first and biggest plus is you can use the zoom function like a barlow to gain extreme magnifacation. Just be careful not to go beyond your useable light limit.
Look at the photo below to see a universal camera mount.
Universal Camera Mount. For Any Point And Shoot Camera.

My Telescope Setup For Projection Photography With A point And Shoot Camera.
Accessories That Make Viewing More Versatile.
Accessories They Expand Your Viewing Enjoyment.
Accessories Can Cost Mucho Grande.
Filters For Your Eyepieces.
The Summer Triangle.
Most Birds Roost At Sunset, These Three Take Flight.
There are several messier objects in this triangle. These are M71, M39, M29, M57 NGC 6811.
The diagram below shows the location of this asterism.
The Summer Triangle Diagram.
Sagittarius And Scorpius.
A Night Sky Full Of Treasure.
Object M08 RA. 18h: 03.8m DEC -24d : 23m Sagittarius
Object M17 RA. 18h: 20.8m DEC -16d : 11m Sagittarius
Object M18 RA. 18h: 19.9m DEC -17d : 08m Sagittarius
Object M20 RA. 18h: 02.6m DEC -23d : 02m Sagittarius
Object M21 RA. 18h: 04.6m DEC -22d : 30m Sagittarius
Object M22 RA. 18h: 36.4m DEC -23d : 54m Sagittatius
Object M23 RA. 17h: 56.8m DEC -19d : 01m Sagittarius
Object M24 RA. 18h: 16.9m DEC -18d : 29m Sagittarius
Object M25 RA. 18h: 31.6m DEC -19d : 15m Sagittarius
Object M28 RA. 18h: 24.5m DEC -24d : 52m Sagittarius
Object M54 RA. 18h: 55.1m DEC -30d : 29m Sagittarius
Object M55 RA. 19h: 40.0m DEC -30d : 58m Sagittarius
Object M69 RA. 18h: 31.4m DEC -32d : 21m Sagittarius
Object M70 RA. 18h: 43.2m DEC -32d : 18m Sagittarius
Object M75 RA. 20h: 06.1m DEC -21d : 55m Sagittarius
Object NGC 6530 RA. 18h: 04.8m DEC -24d: 20m Sag
Object NGC 6603 RA. 18h: 18.4m DEC -18d: 25m Sag
Object NGC 6723 RA. 18h: 59.0m DEC -36d: 38m Sag
Object NGC 6822 RA. 19h: 44.9m DEC -14d: 46m Sag
Object M04 RA. 16h: 23.6m DEC -26d 32m Scorpius
Object M06 RA. 17h: 40.1m DEC -32d 13m Scorpius
Object M07 RA. 17h: 53.9m DEC -34d 49m Scorpius
A Last Perfect Day On Earth.
Theoretical Astronomy.
It will swell in size and swallow the planet mercury. This means the earth and all who are on it will have a last perfect day.
Our atmosphere will be slowly stripped away as the sun slowly sheds its atmosphere in waves. our oceans and lakes will boil away to space. After the helium is gone it begins to burn Carbon as it swells past venus, earth and maybe half way to mars.
The earth will melt with fervent heat. Then the sun will throw one last tantrum, its atmosphere is pulled in as the suns core collapses to the size of the earth, then the pressure in its core grows to high for gravity to hold it in. Then the biggest explosion the earth will experience will happen. In one last violent gasp the sun will shed its atmosphere out in all directions.
Now the sun has become a white dwarf leaving the earth as a burned cinder. And the new earth sized sun will slowly dim only to leave the earth cloaked in the eternal darkness of space.
Meteors And Meteorites.
A Public Concern.
Public awareness has been raised by these movies and by comet shoemaker Levy 9 mashing into jupiter, but in my opinion the most realistic disaster scene portrayed was in the movie deep impact.
Back in May of 2005 I was at a nasa exhibit at Akron Fulton airport. I cornered two nasa scientists, we were talking about meteorites. They told me "When a meteor hits our atmosphere it like slamming into a 13 feet thick wall of hi grade concrete." If it survives that, you get a meteorite buried in the ground xomewhere hopefully. The best way to watch a meteor shower is with wide field binoculars.
Helpful Items.
1) A can of compressed air and some lens paper you can buy this at a camera shop.
2) A can of mosquito spray with deet, and when you use it, spray it on some distance away from the telescope so the mist does not land on your optics.
3) A small tool kit with long skinny screwdriver and small six inch cresent wrench. A compass to give you a rough idea where north is. A bubble level, and a small 6 inch level. these levels really help save time in the alignment process, Good gazing, and good luck.
Interesting Facts.
Light year: The distance light travels in one year. 5,873,012,352,000 miles.
Did you know it takes 8 minutes 19 seconds before the light the Sun gives Off reaches the Earth.
The distance to orion's nebula is 7,047,614,822,400,000 miles away. If you wanted to drive to it in a car at 65 mph it would take you 12,377,265,231 years to get there. Our we there yet? And thats our closest nebula.
The closest star to earth is Proxima centari at 4.2 light years. Thats 24,666,651,878,400 miles.
A recent update about the andromeda gallaxy. Astronomers have under estimated the size of the andromeda gallaxy. This gallaxy is 200 million light years away in the constellation of pegasus, recent advances in astronomy have proven that this gallaxy with its faint stars may extend out as far as 500,000 lightyears making its diameter 1,000,000 light years across, that is 1/10 of the distance from the earth to its center. In comparison our gallaxy the milky way is at best 120,000 light years in diameter. And we are 60,000 light years from its center.
For the whole story see Sky And Telescope issue August 2005 pg 18.
Water found On Mars. The Phoenix's robotic arm found the first water ice, the crumbs were about 1/2 inch deep in the trench called "Dodo-Goldilocks" on June 15. By June 19, they had vanished. If the crumbs had been salt, they wouldn't have disappeared, scientists said, and if the ice had been made of carbon dioxide, they wouldn't have vaporized.
The order of the planets is as follows. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Pluto lost its planetery status in August 2006 when the International Astronomy Union defined the definition of planet. Pluto is now a dwarf planet named 134340.[13][14].
Planetary conjunctions happen when two planets like jupiter and venus pass within 2 degree of each other. On rare occasions there have been three planets envolved. Venus, Mars, and jupiter in 1978.
The Moon And Beyond
Click Photos To Enlarge.
Astronomy pictures.
New Scientific American.
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- Using Math to Explain How Life on Earth Began
- Back in March the press went crazy for Martin A. Nowak's study on the value of punishment. A H...
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- Climate change caused by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is now widely recognized....
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- Editor's note: This story was originally posted in the March 2004 issue, and has been reposted to hi...
- George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good
- His finalist year: 1976 [More]
N.A.S.A. The constellation Program.
We Return To The Moon.
Constellation: It's for the new generation
A comprehensive video explaining the Constellation program. Hear about the next steps NASA will take through Constellation, and sneak a peek at NASA's newest vehicles: the Orion crew vehicle, the Ares launch vehicles (Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle and Ares V heavy launch vehicle) and the Altair Lunar Lander. Learn what progress has been made in the development of this new generation of spacecraft.





Runtime: 8:58 | 27004 views | 38 Comments
Formerly Star Hustler. Now Stargazer.
Jack Horkheimer
"Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler" Feb 8, 1988 WPBT PBS
When Venus and Jupiter Kiss, dirty old Jack gets all excited.





Runtime: 5:00 | 2874 views | 8 Comments
Watch Popular Netflix Movies.
Movies For Those Cloudy Nights.
Netflix Top 5 Movies Overall. And Now The Movies Folks.
- 001- Crash

A 36-hour period in the diverse metropolis of post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles is the theme of this unflinc...- 002- The Departed

To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the under...- 003- The Pursuit of Happyness

Will Smith (in an Oscar-nominated role) and his real-life son Jaden star in this tearjerker about a...- 004- Little Miss Sunshine

Convinced little Olive (Abigail Breslin) is beauty queen material, parents Richard (Greg Kinnear) an...- 005- Walk the Line

Among the pantheon of great country singers, Johnny Cash (played here by Joaquin Phoenix) may just b...- Try Netflix free for 14 days
Amazon.
Great Science Books.
Heres Whats Playing On The Big Screen.
More Movies For Those Cloudy Night.
- Body of Lies
- A CIA agent (Leonardo DiCaprio) plans to infiltrate a major terrorist's organization.
- The Express
- Ernie Davis overcomes poverty and prejudice to win college football's Heisman Trophy in 1961.
- Quarantine
- A reporter and a cameraman become quarantined in an apartment building.
- City of Ember
- Two teens must find the secret of their underground city's existence before its light dies forever.
- RocknRolla - Opens Limited Friday, Oct. 10
- London's crime lords scramble to cash in on a Russian gangster's crooked land deal.
Telescopes Manufacturers And Retailers.
Buy From Great Telescope Manufacturers.
- Astronomics
- Over 25 years, supplying amature astronomers with quality equipment from industy leaders celestron, meade etc...
- Celestron Telescopes.
- Great prices on fine quality telescopes and accessories.
- Lumicon
- The worlds best astronomical filters and accessories.
- Meade Telescopes.
- Another fine telescope manufacturer. Great optics, Great prices.
- New Mexico Skys
- A motel just for astronomers, rent telescopes with ccd imaging capabilities.
- Orion Telescopes
- Orion manufacturer of good telescopes but even better eyepieces.
- Santa Barbera Instrument Group
- Execellent CCD autoguiding and dual CCD self-guiding instruments. I dont own one but I have seen the photos they take, All I can say is WOW.
- Scopecity
- Scope City offers telescopes for astronomy & photography, spotting scopes for land and sea, binoculars for birding, outdoor, sporting events, and every purpose
- Scopetronix
- ScopeTronix is the largest telescope dealer in the southeast!
- Tasco.
- Tasco offers affordable
optics.
My Astronomy Links.
Astronomy Sites Guaranteed To Please.
- Accuweather Astronomy Page
- Type in your zipcode to get tonights astronomical outlook for your area.
- A Astronomical Dictionary.
- A place where you can find definitions for astronomical terms.
- Astronomylisting.com
- Have a astronomy related website or blog get listed here.
- Astronomy Magazine.
- You can find up to date astronomy news here.
- Astrordinary Photos
- My Other Photo Page.
- Google Earth.
- The latest version of google earth has google sky, its like having your own planetarium.
- Google Moon
- View Apollo Mission Landing Sites.
- Hubble space telescope pictures.
- The hubble space telescope has changed our knowledge of the universe.
- N.A.S.A. Television
- Now you can watch the astronauts on their missions from prelaunch to landing and beyond.
- Red Shift
- Red Shift is planetarium software for the backyard astronomer.
- Sky And Telescope Magazine
- You can find up to date astronomy news here.
- Soho Solar Observatory
- A safe way to look at the sun.
- Stargazer Online
- The home page of Richard S. Bell. Richard is striving to get a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. A noble persuit in this day and age.
- Starry Night Pro.
- A realistic planetarium For astronomers of all levels of experience. Outstanding Graphics.
Current Weather From The Weather Channel.
Current weather conditions in Akron, OH (44314)
Local Pollen Reports
43°F (Feels like 43°F)
Last update: 10/7/08 2:25 AM EDT
Humidity: 81%Visibility: 10.0 mi
Dew Point: 37°F
UV Index: 0 (Lawn and Garden Weather)
Barometer: 30.38in steady
Moon: Rush Hour Traffic
Wind: 3mph From: Airport Conditions

Tonight
Low
Low: 41°F
Sunrise: 7:29 AM
Sunset: 6:59 PM

Tuesday
Oct 7
Mostly Sunny
High: 67°F
Low: 52°F
Sunrise: 7:30 AM
Sunset: 6:58 PM

Wednesday
Oct 8
Partly Cloudy
High: 67°F
Low: 57°F
Sunrise: 7:31 AM
Sunset: 6:56 PM

Thursday
Oct 9
Rain
High: 68°F
Low: 54°F
Sunrise: 7:32 AM
Sunset: 6:54 PM
My Guestbook In The Eyepiece.
Great
Brady,Lily,Bella, and Harley liked it also!
Posted August 09, 2008
|
JaguarJulie
Jeff--quite an interesting lens! I'm adding it to my favorites so that my hubby can check it out as this is 'right up his alley' ... thanks for putting some an intriguing and informative spin on story-telling. Posted July 26, 2008 |
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