> On Jan 8, 2024, at 12:20 PM, Marco Alpert <ma...@alpert.com> wrote: > > Although this has absolutely nothing to do with Pentax, since Larry brought > up astro-imaging, I can’t resist showing the initial results of something > that has really reenergized my passion for astronomy. Although I’ve owned a > couple of really nice telescopes since the early 90s (which were great for > visual observation when I lived on top of a not-too-light-polluted hill and > could just roll the scopes out to the driveway to observe), since we moved to > the Sacramento area, the combination of light pollution (around Bortle 7 for > anyone who knows what that means), and the increasing difficulty of lugging > them out to set up had pretty much ended observation for me (and I was never > particularly interested in the intricacies of astrophotography). > > Then, a few months ago, I acquired a small, inexpensive, “robotic” scope for > what is called EAA (electronically assisted astronomy) that promises the > ability to visually observe in light-polluted areas (albeit on the screen of > a phone or tablet) as well as offer much simplified photography. Here are a > few of my first results: > > M33 Galaxy in Triangulum: https://flic.kr/p/2pgYEEb > > NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula in Cassiopeia: https://flic.kr/p/2prm5Qg > > NGC 1499 California Nebula in Perseus: https://flic.kr/p/2prkrFu
Very nice job! > > This little gizmo has only a 50mm (~2 in) objective (which is tiny for deep > sky objects) and has the ability, controlled by a phone or tablet, to > automatically find and slew to whatever object you tell it to and begin > taking a series of 10 second exposures. Let it keep doing this as long as you > want and watch the object appear on the phone or tablet with more and more > detail as the successive exposures are stacked and processed. I did do some > post-processing on these, but as I have exactly zero experience with > astrophotography, it’s pretty primitive compared to what’s possible. > > So, a telescope with a built-in computer-controlled alt/az mount, a digital > astro-camera, auto-focuser, dew heater, multiple filters, small carbon-fiber > tripod and a fairly nice case, for about $500. That's less than I spent on just the motor, never mind all the associated gizmos. You're cheating! > > We truly live in the future. > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from ret13est -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
