Pleiades
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- Parent Category: Nieuws
- Published on 30 January 2011
- Written by John (admin)
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It is not easily possible to make pictures in my backyard through a telescope because of the ever-present strong wind. So as an alternative I tried to make pictures just with the camera and lens. Some time ago I have built a small wedge with motordrive that, after it is polar aligned, compensates the rotation of the earth. On Friday January 29, 2011, I have pointed that guiding platform roughly North with a compass. The wedge was still at an angle of 12 degrees from a previous experiment. The alignment is not very critical because of the relatively short exposures.
With the Nikon D90 and the standard 18-105mm zoomlens I have made several pictures of the Pleiades.
Sunspot grown
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- Parent Category: Nieuws
- Published on 22 January 2011
- Written by John (admin)
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The sunspot that I have sketched two days ago has grown in the meantime. The main spot has not changed much but the surroundings have changed considerably.
To the left the sunspot as I have sketched it this afternoon around 4 PM. The telescope was again the Meade ETX-125. Eyepiece Meade Super Plösll 26mm with 2x Barlow. To the right the same section from the SOHO satellite image.
This time I also have mentioned the scale and the orientation of the image. I have determined the orientation by switching off the guide motor (not practical if you want to go on observing). The part of the sun that moves out of the field of view is the West. Because in a Meade ETX the light is reflected three times North is 90 degrees clockwise from West. The image from the Soho satellite is rotated and mirrored to get the same orientation as the drawing.
This result shows that sketching can result is a quite actual represenation of the image. Especially after some more practice. The distances between the indivual sunspots are quite good but I made the main spot too large.
My first sketch behind the telescope
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- Parent Category: Nieuws
- Published on 19 January 2011
- Written by John (admin)
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Because it is so difficult to take pictures through the telescope in Curaçao because of the ever present strong wind I want to try to manage sketching behind the telescope. Starting during a day session is preferable so I decided to take a look at the sun. There was a sunspot visible today so that was a good opportunity.
Stabilizing your binoculars at reasonable cost
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- Parent Category: Nieuws
- Published on 22 February 2010
- Written by John (admin)
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In the past I hardly ever visited the website of Sky and Telescope. But with the newsfeed of the most interesting articles on this website I more often click on a link. And, when at the website of S&T, the attention is drawn to other articles. In this way I came accross the article to stabilize your binoculars without investing in an expensive Image Stabilized version.
Read the whole article: Image Stabilize your binoculars.
Image Stabilized Binoculars
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- Parent Category: Nieuws
- Published on 08 March 2010
- Written by John (admin)
- Hits: 970
For a long time I am thinking about acquiring an image stabilized binocular. There is in fact only one brand that comes to mind and that is Canon. And with a short vacation coming up where an image stabilized binocular could be used for eartly purposes, I once again went searching for reviews on the Internet. That is how I found the following article. The article is already dated but still worth reading. The first part of the article follows and below it a link to the original article for the remaining part.
