On October 15, 2020, we left for a three-night stay in Cathedral Gorge State Park near Panaca, Nevada. We chose this location primarily for the warm daytime temperatures and the clear skies forecasted for astrophotography.…
On November 2, 2019, we packed quickly and made a mad dash to a nearby BLM campground called Wedge Overlook. We wanted to get away for one night to do some astrophotography under relatively dark…
On August 30th, 2019, we gathered for a large family reunion at the Indian Creek Campground in Utah. This campground consists of seven large group sites. There is water, pit toilets, a tiny stream, quite…
Introduction Since acquiring my first telescope nearly 40 years ago, I have dreamed of capturing images of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and Orion’s Nebula (M42). Well, finally the day, or rather nights, came for collecting…
In this post two separate visits to the Wedge Overlook Campground in central Utah are described. Our first visit began on Friday November 2, 2018 and ended on Sunday November 4, 2018. A week later…
Introduction This post documents my first attempts at astrophotography with the Celestron CPC 1100 GPS telescope and the Hyperstar imaging system. My first targets were Markarian’s Chain and the Pinwheel galaxy (M101). Unfortunately, the targets…
Introduction Telescopes that slew to, and track celestial objects do so through the use of electric motors that drive their axes of rotation. Portable telescopes, like the Celestron CPC 1100 GPS, depend on either alternating…
Introduction In a previous post we discussed depth of focus and the difficulties obtaining good focus with fast optical systems. In this post we’ll discuss a solution to the problem, the Feather Touch 10:1 focuser…
Introduction Without diffraction and atmospheric turbulence, ideal telescopes would focus stars to points. However, there would also be a single focal point, plane or surface and everywhere else would be out of focus. Back in…
Introduction Telescopes can be mounted in a variety of ways. Two common telescope mounts are the altitude-azimuth, or alt-azimuth, and the equatorial mount. The alt-azimuth mount is easier to construct than an equatorial mount, but requires motion…