August | 2019 | rogerivester

Archive for August 2019

M11 – Open Cluster in Scutum – Observer’s Challenge Object – August 2019

August 22, 2019

Complete report: AUGUST 2019 OBSERVERS CHALLENGE – M-011-1

The following pencil sketch, with the colors inverted was made using a 6-inch f/6 Newtonian reflector telescope @ 83x.

Rogers M-011 Inverted

Image by Mario Motta: 32-inch telescope

2364919_1_M71

Image by Michael Brown using a Canon digital SLR camera, through an 8-inch Celestron SCT. This photo is from 12 30-second exposures (6 minutes total) at ISO 3200.

M11b

The following image was taken with a 10-inch f/6.9 Newtonian with the same camera. The exposure was 30 minutes. Most of the stars in the image belong to the cluster, perhaps 500-1000 visible here. The faintest stars in the image are magnitude 16! James Dire

M11

Stock Canon 80D, 400mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800, 35subs x 30sec = 17.5 min total
exposure, 1/2 scale (4 arcsec/pixel). No filters. By Doug Paul

Categories: Work File Only - Observer's Challenge Reports

Comments: Comments Off on M11 – Open Cluster in Scutum – Observer’s Challenge Object – August 2019

SkyShed POD Personal Observatory: By Guest Host, James Dire

August 19, 2019

Hi All,

Had a productive day at the observatory yesterday. Got the Sky Shed POD anchored to the concrete and installed all of the equipment. After dark, did the polar alignment and a mount model. All is ready to start imaging!

The anchor bolt in the photo goes 3 inches into the concrete. The telescope is an 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien. I’m using an 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattner with the CCD camera which yields an f/6.4 system with a 1300mm focal length.

The camera is an SBIG ST-2000XCM. Controlling everything with The SkyX Pro and imaging with MaximDL.

I’ll probably swap cameras occasional with an SBOIG STF-8300c and swap telescopes with my 5.2-inch f/7 refractor.

Jim