Issue 5 oct07

ASTRONOMY

TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment

AGENA SWA EYEPIECES • DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • AUTOGUIDING: AS SIMPLE AS PUSH HERE DUMMY?

JMI’s Jim Burr Builds Largest Binoculars Yet

Volume 1 • Issue 5 October 2007 $4.00 US

Cover Story

Contents ASTRONOMY

Editor’s Note 8

Astronomy Technology on a Budget

TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment

AGENA SWA EYEPIECES • DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • AUTOGUIDING: AS SIMPLE AS PUSH HERE DUMMY?

JMI’s Jim Burr Builds Largest Binoculars Yet

PAGE

JMI owner Jim Burr stands in front of his new RB-22 prototype, a trailer mounted, reverse binoculars design. The prototype, which will be JMI’s largest reverse binoculars to date, features a 22-inch, f/3.8 primary mirror and is scheduled to be completed in the fall.

The background image of M51 was taken by Joe Gafford using a JMI NGT-18 18-inch f/4.5 Newtonian telescope with SBIG ST-2000XM CCD camera.

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Reader Profile

Volume 1 • Issue 5 October 2007 $4.00 US

68 Ted Saker, Jr.

47 Autoguiding: As Simple as “Push Here Dummy”?

To Get More People Autoguiding, the User Experience Has to Be Simple, Yet Accurate

By Craig Stark, Ph.D.

12 OPTIC WAVE LABORATORIES New Optics Company 14 SKYSHED OBSERVATORIES Reports on POD Rollout 15 AGENA ASTROPRODUCTS Now Carrying William Optics

26 Stray Light Revealed A Simple Trick to See Stray Light Paths

By Mike Jones

39 Meade Imagers Test Drive With a Little Time and Dedication, Amazing Images can be Produced with These Cameras

By David Snay

11 STARK LABS Releases Nebulosity 1.6, PHD Guiding 1.6 12 TELE VUE Announces Ethos Pricing

Features

36 Agena SWA Eyepieces Great Performance at Budget Prices

By Erik Wilcox

Industry News

15 ASTRONOMY 161 ANYONE? Ohio State Professor Offers Podcasts

57 The Denkmeier SCT Powerswitch Diagonal with Filter Switch You Don’t Have to be a Trekkie to Enjoy the Experience of Taking Control of Your Own Personal Starship with the Help of the SCT Powerswitch

by Uncle Rod Mollise 60 A Child of the Stars How a Young Girl’s Encouraged Imagination Discovered a Deep Longing to Know the Universe.

By Lorelei Parker Power 64 Starfest 2007 Canada’s Largest Annual Star Party A First Look at the Meade mySKY

By Ray Khan

16 CELESTRON Makes $40,000 Donation to Girl Scouts, Announces Grand Prize Winner

17 THE JOURNEY TO PALOMAR New PBS Documentary Features Palomar Observatory 17 MEADE 4M COMMUNITY Presents Interview With Timothy Ferris Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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Contributing Writers Mike Jones has been an optical designer and EO/IR engineer for nearly 30 years.

He is also an active amateur astronomer and ATM, having made over 55 mirrors and several telescopes. He did the optical designs for numerous systems at McDonald Observatory, Texas A&M University, George Observatory and others.

He is a sustaining member of AAVSO.

Ray Khan is an amateur astronomer and owner/operator of Khan Scope Centre, a specialty telescope store located in Toronto, Canada. Ray has been in the telescope business for over 25 years and has enjoyed watching the progress and evolution of amateur astronomy. Ray is also a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“Uncle” Rod Mollise, despite a demanding day job as an engineer with an aerospace firm, still finds time to teach astronomy to undergraduates at the University of South Alabama, write books and magazine articles about astronomy, and observe. Rod’s latest book is The Urban Astronomer’s Guide (Springer 2006).

Lorelei Parker Power is the co-owner of SkyShed Observatories with her husband and astronomy partner, Wayne Parker, the creator of SkyShed Roll Off and SkyShed POD. She also writes children's stories and is a sculptor, specializing in art dolls and miniature arts, which can be viewed at www.loreleipower.com

David Snay is a retired software engineer living in central Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and has been an astronomer and astrophotographer for more than 10 years. David currently pursues fine art photography, specializing in traditional black/white images.

Craig Stark, Ph.D. is, by day, a professor whose research involves trying to pull faint signals out of noisy, moving images of people’s brains. By night, he is an amateur astrophotographer and operates Stark Labs which provides software to help users pull faint signals out of noisy, moving images of the heavens.

Erik Wilcox works for a natural foods distributor in South San Francisco, California, and is a long-time moderator on the popular astronomy forum, “Cloudy Nights”. He enjoys star parties and public outreach, and, in addition to amateur astronomy, he spends his time playing in a rock band.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Contents

New Products

18 WEBSTER TELESCOPES C22 22-inch No Ladder Dob 21 BAADER PLANETARIUM AND SBIG Narrowband CCD Filters 21 WILLIAM OPTICS Field Flattener III 22 ASTRO HUTECH Now Offers Canon 40DH

22 FARPOINT ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH Announces Accessories for Meade LightBridge 23 RON WODASKI The NewAstro Zone System for Astro Imaging 24 SCOPESTUFF Compression Ring Visual Back For Orion Crayford Focuser 25 CHRONOSMOUNT Develops New Harmonic Drive Mounting System

ASTRONOMY

TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Volume 1 • Issue 5 October 2007 Publisher Stuart Parkerson

Managing Editor Gary Parkerson

Associate Editors Russ Besancon Karol Birchfield

Art Director Lance Palmer

Staff Photographer Jim Osborne

Web Master James Bobbit

3825 Gilbert Drive Shreveport, Louisiana 71104 info@astronomytechnologytoday.com www.astronomytechnologytoday.com Astronomy Technology Today is published monthly by Parkerson Publishing, LLC. Bulk rate postage paid at Dallas, Texas, and additional mailing offices. ©2007 Parkerson Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved. No part of this publication or its Web site may be reproduced without written permission of Parkerson Publishing, LLC. Astronomy Technology Today assumes no responsibility for the content of the articles, advertisements, or messages reproduced therein, and makes no representation or warranty whatsoever as to the completeness, accuracy, currency, or adequacy of any facts, views, opinions, statements, and recommendations it reproduces. Reference to any product, process, publication, or service of any third party by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply the endorsement or recommendation of Astronomy Technology Today.

The publication welcomes and encourages contributions; however is not responsible for the return of manuscripts and photographs. The publication, at the sole discretion of the publisher, reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising or contributions. For more information contact the publisher at Astronomy Technology Today, 3825 Gilbert Drive, Shreveport, Louisiana 71104, or e-mail at info@astronomytechnologytoday.com.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Editor’s

Note

Gary Parkerson, Managing Editor

Apathetic Dreams When I was young, foolishly insecure, and still worried about things like how I looked to the opposite sex, I had a recurring dream in which I was flying (effortlessly, skillfully, conspicuously and – fully clothed), but no one who witnessed this marvel was the least impressed. Fortunately, age, a little maturity, and expensive counseling have eliminated the audience factor from the dream, but I can still identify with accomplishing something noteworthy and being denied due credit for it. I therefore empathize with the author of the photo featured atop page 50 of the September issue of ATT that we incorrectly credited. The caption of that composition should have read: “This 30-second exposure at ISO 800 was taken on July 10 by Jon Betancourt at EPOCH 2007 using a Canon 20D and Sigma 15-mm fisheye lens at f/2.8, mounted to an Orion HD-F2 Paragon Tripod. The view is similar to that seen with the unaided eye.” Congratulations Jon, however belated!

Astronomy Technology on a Budget A couple of weeks ago we received a note from Allen in Mississippi. Allen reported that, although he is an avid amateur, he also has a young family, a mortgage and works overtime in his effort to recover from his family’s losses to Katrina. While most of our readers

don’t suffer directly the tremendous burdens imposed by Katrina, most do share the need to get the most out of every dollar. Given his healthy priorities, Allen was forced to observe, “…most of the equipment you display is, basically, unobtainable. I think that I represent a fair number of amateurs who are doing the most we can with the equipment we can afford, and would really appreciate some articles that highlight the low tech and/or low budget gear…” At Allen’s prompting, I went back through our first four issues and…found that out of 36 feature articles, only five dealt exclusively with products in the $100.00, or lower, category. Erik Wilcox, whether by conscious choice or simply predisposition, gets as much out of his astronomy equipment investments as anyone I know. It’s, therefore, not surprising that Erik’s articles accounted for four of the five.

My $100.00 measure is admittedly arbitrary and has little meaning without context. That $100.00 will buy a superlative planetary eyepiece, but won’t make more than a small dent in most Apos. Regardless of context, for the enthusiast who, with admirable discipline, establishes a monthly astronomy budget of $100.00, it is still 100 percent of that budget. Sure, we can save for larger purchases, and do, but this magazine shows up each and every month! Last month, I admitted here that I share Allen’s frustration. I’ve never been more focused on astronomy gear, never

confronted with more been tempting alternatives, and never bemoaned more the inadequacy of my astronomy budget.

My answer to Allen was this. We strive to present a mix of coverage that most of you will find interesting. I don’t know if 14 percent is a reasonable portion for coverage of products and projects costing less than $100.00, and admit that I hadn’t been keeping count until we received Allen’s message, but we had made a conscious decision to include such coverage. On the other hand, some of us simply enjoy learning all we can about products, whether or not we’ll ever actually make the decision to purchase them. I read all I could get my hands on about sports cars while growing up, but have purchased very few. When I did finally buy my dream car, it wasn’t the latest year model, but the ’63 convertible I’d carefully memorized every aspect of when still too young to have a driver’s license. Some of what we cover in ATT may be out of reach today, but those same products will still be capable of the same remarkable performance next year, in ten years, or a lifetime from now, when available to us on the used market.

Finally, although the print page is a relatively expensive way to get information to you, we purposefully designed a format and selected a printing process that produces this magazine at the lowest possible cost to you. That may only save you a few bucks a month, but every little bit helps.

This issue of ATT is a little different from its predecessors in a couple of respects. Primarily though, instead of only one feature article that focuses on budget priced equipment or projects, fully four of the eight describe products or projects that will cost you less than $100.00 each. Erik Wilcox reports his experiences with Agena AstroProducts’ 2-inch SWA eyepieces, each of which is available for less than $100.00, with shipping. David Snay explores imaging with a trio of Meade cameras, two of

which have recently been on sale for less than $100.00. Mike Jones shares a handy procedure for detecting stray light in your telescope and it relies only on equipment that you already have on hand. Finally, Craig Stark presents a tutorial on autoguiding and offers a “donation-ware” product to do the job; you name the price. So Allen, at least in this issue of ATT, a full half of the feature articles will tempt only minor budget stress. Despite this focus on low cost subjects, I hope you'll agree that each article is still well worth the modest price of admission.

It’s About the People Stupid!

If you could see the prototypes of this magazine we were working on in early 2006, you would not recognize them as predecessors to the product you now hold in your hands. I am very pleased with the end result, but, it’s such a drastic improvement over our early efforts, it’s hard to remember exactly how we got from there to here. I do recall one significant influence on my limited function with the magazine though.

In early 2006 I wrote several sample articles to provide our graphics team content to play with in designing the layout of the magazine. One of the articles described installation of a domed observatory on the roof of the multistory, interactive science center located between the downtown and casino districts of our hometown. Talk about light pollution, convection currents and other challenges! Indeed, that’s what I did. I sent a draft of it to my oldest daughter, among others, for constructive feedback.

When I didn’t hear from her for a couple of days, I called and could tell from her tone that something was wrong. She finally admitted, “Daddy-O, it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever read.” OK, I wouldn’t have expected anyone who doesn’t share our passion for this stuff to find the article interesting, but it turns out that wasn’t the problem. She explained that I had, in agonizing detail,

described the dome, the equipment in the dome, and the computers and software that ran it all…but hadn’t mentioned a single person! It turns out that most of us relate to other people and their experiences, regardless of the subject. So, that’s why someone is standing in front of the weather map, blocking Louisiana. Who knew? I rewrote the article with more focus on the people who selected the equipment and designed the systems, as well as on how the children who would make up the majority of the audience would interact with that equipment, and had to admit that the article still contained as much detail about astro-equipment and was more enjoyable to read.

We started asking potential readers about their preferences and learned that many of you were as interested in learning more about the people who bring you astronomy products as you were about those products alone. So, while ATT purports to (and does) cover the latest the astro-industry has to offer, it's really about the people who bring us those products and how we use them. So, we dedicate each cover story of this magazine to industry leaders and innovators, and close each issue with one of you, our readers. In this issue, we go a step further and present a feature article that is solely about people and the joy astronomy can bring to their lives.

Lorelei Parker Power’s contribution is one of the most purely satisfying things I’ve read in far too long. We hope you enjoy “Child of the Stars” as much as we have. It reminds us that astronomy can indeed inspire anyone and everyone, and provides the perfect context for more fully appreciating Celestron’s efforts noted in this month’s Industry News section.

Don’t worry; if we get any more “touchy-feely” on you, it’ll be about equipment you can actually touch and the tactile feel of the fine fit and finish of dream products.

Enjoy!

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

Jack’s Astro Accessories www.waningmoonii.com page 66

Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com page 44

Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

Durango Skies www.durangoskies.com page 42

Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT advertise@astronomytechnologytoday.com

The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

Jack’s Astro Accessories www.waningmoonii.com page 66

Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com page 44

Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

Durango Skies www.durangoskies.com page 42

Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT advertise@astronomytechnologytoday.com

INDUSTRYNEWS

STARK LABS Releases Nebulosity 1.6, PHD Guiding 1.6 Craig Stark established Stark Labs to provide “Affordable, Powerful, and Easy to Use Astrophotography Software” and has recently announced a new version of his flagship product, Nebulosity, and a new version of his most popular freeware product, PHD Guiding.

Nebulosity is a powerful software program that provides both image capture and image processing tools for both Windowsbased PCs and Macs running OS X. “The goal of Nebulosity is to be userfriendly and provide beginning imagers with a program they can quickly learn, that will support whatever hardware they have, and that will provide powerful processing tools so that new users won’t quickly outgrow it and experienced imagers will still use it for these and its (literally) field-tested interface,” said Craig.

Camera support in version 1.6 includes cross-platform support for Canon DIGIC II and III DSLRs, the Fishcamp Starfish, the Meade DSIs, SBIGs, and Starlight Xpress SXV and SXVF cameras and Windows-only support for Artemis, Atik-16 series, CCD-Labs, Orion StarShoot Deep Space, Opticstar DS-335, SAC 10, and long-exposure modified webcams.

The new version brings in improved fine-focus routines, fixes for Canon DSLRs in Windows Vista, an Image Normalization tool for improved Drizzle and Standard-Deviation based stacking, new noise reduction tools, and various other enhancements. Pricing is set at $45 and upgrades for existing users are free.

Stark Labs newest version of its freeware PHD Guiding software is designed to take the hassle out of autoguiding telescopes and also runs on both Windowsbased PCs and Macs running OS X. PHD Guiding software is free for download and use.

“Accurate autoguiding doesn’t have to be difficult,” says Craig. “When standing

out in a cold, dark field, the last thing I want to do is worry about dozens of arcane parameters, how using a barlow or a diagonal affects things, and whether the last time I used it I had the right parameters, choice of barlow, diagonal, etc. The software should be able to adapt to these issues and guide well with minimum fuss from the user.

PHD is designed to be as close to ‘Push Here Dummy’ as possible, while still providing highly accurate guiding.”

The latest version is fully compatible with Windows Vista, adds support for the Atik 16 series of cameras and the MagZero MZ-5 to its growing list of supported hardware. It also adds subframe downloads to speed up performance on slower cameras and new noise reduction tools to smooth out images on

uncooled cameras.

For more information on these and other StarkLab software products, go to www.stark-labs.com.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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INDUSTRYNEWS

TELE VUE Announces Ethos Pricing On September 4, 2007, Tele Vue Optics, Inc., announced pricing of the Ethos 13-mm eyepiece at a list price of $775.00, resulting in its availability from Tele Vue dealers at $620.00. Initial reports are that limited deliveries will begin in mid-September, with additional shipments of inventory by the end of October. Demand for the inaugural 13mm Ethos has been high and dealers strongly recommend that interested buyers order now to reserve their places in line.

The remarkable 13-mm Ethos boasts an amazingly wide 100-degree

apparent field of view, covering an area more than 50 percent greater than that of the 82degree apparent field of view Nagler eyepieces.

For more information on Tele Vue’s Ethos, as well as a list of its authorized dealers, visit its Web site at www.televue.com.

OPTIC WAVE LABORATORIES New Optics Company A new optics company, Optic Wave Laboratories (OWL), has announced its entry into the precision telescope optics industry, providing optics for institutional or private use. Utilizing an amalgam of established manual figuring techniques and state of the art calibration technology, OWL labs is now offering mirrors for astronomical use.

OWL manufactures Newtonian and Cassegrain optics, including DallKirkham and Ritchey-ChrĂŠtien designs.

OWL primarily uses borosilicate, which can either be in the form of solid blanks or lightweight cast cellular optics. They

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

also work with zero expansion materials, such as Zerodur, Astrositall, Corning ULE or Clearceram-Z. Within its 4,000 square foot facility, OWL utilizes crucible kilns and CNC mills and turning centers in the fabrication of optical blanks. In addition, OWL operates multiple Strassbaugh polishing machines to figure its mirrors, the accuracy of which is verified with Zygo interferometry, as well as other proprietary methods, within its testing and calibration lab.

For more information go to www.opticwavelabs.com.

INDUSTRYNEWS

SKYSHED Reports on POD Rollout We caught up with SkyShed's Wayne Parker the second week in September. Wayne reported, “The ‘great POD summer roll-out’ has been a smashing success! Hundreds of PODs are now in place in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and we are preparing for shipment of hundreds

more. This has been the greatest single roll out of a commercial observatory, at one time, ever recorded. Thank you to all our happy POD owners!”

“We receive constant feedback from POD owners and, as expected, they report that they are experiencing more observation and astrophotography time than ever before. Some owners are imaging just hours after receiving their PODs.” “Another aspect of this massive observatory roll-out is that POD owners are rushing out to fill their PODs with new telescopes and accessories. Retailers began reporting increased sales over the summer as PODs were delivered to more and more owners,” said Wayne.

“Now that hundreds of PODs are in place we will soon begin the next phase, which is linking them together under a network called S.O.N. (Sky Observers Network). Soon thousands of PODs and SkySheds, linked up around the world, will help usher in a new era and a new level of ‘connective’ amateur astronomy. Join Us!” For more information on POD and SkyShed's S.O.N. project, please visit the SkyShed POD website at www.skyshedpod.com.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

INDUSTRYNEWS

AGENA ASTROPRODUCTS

ASTRONOMY 161 ANYONE?

Now Carrying William Optics

Ohio State Professor Offers Podcasts

Agena AstroProducts has announced it is now carrying the William Optics line of astronomy products. This move adds over 100 new products to Agena’s continually expanding product line.

Among those products will be William Optics’ telescopes and accessories, including the highly popular SWAN and UWAN series of eyepieces.

Situated only 10 miles from William Optics in Southern California, Agena AstroProducts strives to offer excellent customer service and quick shipping, providing customers with the option to purchase William Optics products backed by the Agena promise. Manish Panjwani,

Ohio State University’s Richard W. Pogge, Professor of Astronomy, began experimenting last year with making a portion of his Astronomy 162 lectures available to students via “podcast.” Response to this trial effort encouraged the professor to podcast all of his Autumn Quarter 2006 Astronomy 161, Introduction to the Solar System, lectures. Although Dr. Pogge will repeat the podcasts with his Autumn Quarter 2007 Astronomy 161 series starting in late September, the entirety of his 2006 Astronomy 161 series is available now at www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Audio/.

The follow-on course, Astronomy 162, is now also available as a podcast, and while not exactly sequential in time (it was recorded before 161), it is sequential in topic. The link to that series is www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Audio/.

As explained on that Web page, you do not need an iPod to listen to the podcasts. A Windows XP computer equipped with iTunes freeware, is all you need to enjoy Dr. Pogge’s lectures. Steps for subscribing to the 2007 lectures are straightforward and very easy to follow, or you can simply download individual lectures after they are posted.

Although the podcasts were originally intended merely to provide Dr. Pogge’s students the opportunity to review attended lectures, they have proven increasingly popular with other astronomy enthusiasts hungry for his insight to current solar system research and theory. Dr. Pogge’s presentations are relaxed, comfortably paced and appropriately substantive. So, take this opportunity to enjoy the classroom - this time via modern technology.

In the photo, Dr. Pogge is standing in the doorway of Galileo’s villa in Arcetri, just outside Florence, where Galileo was kept under house arrest from 1634 until his death in 1642. The photo was taken in early September while Dr. Pogge and his wife were on vacation in Italy. Arcetri Observatory and the University of Florence have been restoring the villa for the last 27-odd years and the project is almost completed. The Pogges were treated to a private tour of the villa by a colleague at Arcetri Observatory.

owner of Agena AstroProducts, said “We will couple William Optics’ superb line of products with Agena’s top-notch customer service.”

Agena AstroProducts started in 2003 and has rapidly grown carrying astronomy-related products under their own brand name as well as products from Antares, GSO, Eclipse Optical, Oberwerk and Garrett Optical.

“Our clients had been asking for William Optics’ products,” Panjwani said.

“Offering their products is a natural extension and will significantly increase the product variety we offer.”

Panjwani said he believes the partnership to be a good match. “We are delighted to offer products from a leading company that espouses our philosophy of bringing high-quality yet affordable products to the amateur astronomy market.”

For information visit www.agenaastro.com or www.williamoptics.com.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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INDUSTRYNEWS

CELESTRON Makes $40,000 SkyScout Donation to Girl Scouts, Announces Grand Prize Winner of Its Ultimate Backyard Adventure Sweepstakes Robert Papuga of Morganton, NC, Wins a SkyScout, Computerized Telescope, Digital Spotting Scope, Binoculars and Family Camping Gear

The Girl Scouts Launch Joint Program With Celestron to Engage Hands-On Discovery of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Thanks to the generosity of Celestron, Girl Scouts across the country will be encouraged to become tomorrow’s astronomers.

The Girl Scouts of the USA announced at its summer Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) meeting in Houston, TX, that Celestron was donating 100 SkyScouts, valued at $40,000, to support the Girl Scouts’ STEM program, which works to increase science and technology literacy among today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders.

“Teaming-up with the Girl Scouts’ STEM program is a perfect partnership for us. As today’s Girl Scouts are preparing to take on the 21st century’s many technological opportunities and challenges, SkyScout makes science and technology, approachable and fun for all,” said Joseph A. Lupica Jr., president and CEO of Celestron.

“SkyScout is the ideal tool for people of all ages that have ever looked up at the night sky and had a desire to know more about the objects that make-up our surrounding universe.”

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

The Girl Scouts’ STEM program is a joint effort with Celestron to encourage interest in space exploration and astronomy among America’s youth. Today, 41% of all Girl Scout awards (Try-Its, Badges and Interest Project Patches) are related to STEM topics. As part of its STEM programming, the Girl Scouts has partnered with NASA to provide access to educational materials and experts that enrich girl program experiences.

“We are really excited to collaborate with Celestron as part of our STEM programming,” said Kate Pickle, STEM Project Manager. “SkyScout is a fantastic learning aid that will be a great tool to kindle the curiosity of our girls and provide them with a fun, interactive way to push boundaries, test limits, and look at the world around them with inquisitive eyes.”

This donation continues Celestron’s commitment to introducing the nation’s youth to astronomy. Last year it donated 200 SkyScouts valued at $80,000 to the Boy Scouts of America, where each year nearly 50,000 boys earn merit badges in space exploration and astronomy.

For more information on how to join, volunteer, or donate to the Girl Scouts visit www.girlscouts.org and for the Boy Scouts visit www.scouting.org.

Celestron recently announced that Robert Papuga from Morganton, North Carolina, was the grand prize winner of its Ultimate Backyard Adventure Sweepstakes.

As the Grand Prize winner, Papuga was randomly selected from more than 80,000 entries to win a complete outdoor adventure pack that includes a Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium, NexStar 6 SE computerized telescope, VistaPix IS70 digital spotting scope, Traveler 8 24x25 binoculars and all the camping gear needed to enjoy a family camping trip under the stars.

“I’ve always been interested in astronomy, but never had the tools to take my curiosity to the next level,” said Papuga, a retired vice president of a textile company.

“I entered the contest every day for three weeks and now I’m really looking forward to sharing the prize with my family and learning together about the wonders of the Universe.”

In addition to receiving Celestron products, Papuga will also receive a familysize tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, lantern, portable stove, fire pit, chairs, firstaid kit, flashlights, tarps, can opener, portable shower, pots and pans, batteries, coffee maker, duct tape, compass, knife, insect repellent, cooler, extension forks, cooking utensils, pie iron, cutlery, marshmallows and trail mix.

In addition to Papuga’s grand prize, Celestron also announced Ned Chestnut of Hood River, Ore., Melanie Bruno of Newhall, Calif., and Rodney J. Koodray Jr. of Waretown, N. J., as the three first prize winners who will each receive a SkyScout Personal Planetarium. Six runner-up winners will be receiving Traveler 10x25 binoculars.

INDUSTRYNEWS

THE JOURNEY TO PALOMAR

MEADE 4M COMMUNITY

New PBS Documentary Features Palomar Observatory

Presents Interview With Timothy Ferris

At this year’s Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival, the California Institute of Technology sponsored the premiere screenings of a soon-to-be-released PBS television documentary on the epic 20th century story of the birth of American astronomy and the building of the famed Palomar 200-inch telescope. Caltech owns and operates Palomar Observatory and had representatives present for questions and answers, along with the filmmakers.

The film, entitled The Journey to Palomar, is the result of more than five

FAR

years work by Los Angeles filmmakers, Todd and Robin Mason. The film traces the story of Chicago-born astronomer George Ellery Hale, considered the father of astrophysics, as he struggles personally and professionally to build the greatest telescopes of the 20th century at the Yerkes and Mount Wilson Observatories, and finally the 20-year effort to build the million-pound telescope on Palomar Mountain (overlooking Temecula) - considered the “moon shot” of the 1930s and ‘40s.

Hale’s observatories revolutionized our understanding of the universe, making headlines throughout the 20th century with revelations such as Edwin Hubble’s 1929 discovery of the expansion of the universe.

The documentary includes rare archival footage and interviews with America’s top scientists and historians.

The filmmakers anticipate a PBS release some time in 2008. More information and the film’s trailer can be seen at www.journeytopalomar.org.

Most of us will have a l r e a d y enjoyed the Wednesday, September 19, PBS broadcast premier of the film, Seeing in the Dark, by the time this issue of ATT is delivered to our hands. Scott Roberts, Executive Director of Meade’s 4M Community, interviewed the film’s producer, Timothy Ferris (pictured above), for 4M. The entire interview is available in MP3 format by download from the 4M Web site. Simply go to www.meade4m.com and follow the links offered on the Web site to the interview.

You’ll be glad you did.

The film, Seeing in the Dark, is based largely on Ferris’s award winning book by the same name and will serve as the first introduction many viewers will have to the rewards of amateur astronomy.

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The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

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Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com page 44

Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

Durango Skies www.durangoskies.com page 42

Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

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ASTRONOMY

TECHNOLOGY TODAY

WEBSTER TELESCOPES C22 22-inch No Ladder Dob Webster Telescopes has announced the latest addition to its line of large aperture instruments, a 22-inch “No Ladder” Dob. Utilizing a 22-inch f/3.6 primary mirror from master optician Steve Kennedy, the C22 has a lower eyepiece height at zenith than many 16-inch telescopes.

“Steve Kennedy and I spent quite a few weeks discussing this new scope,” said Eric Webster. “Steve was hesitant about returning to the manufacture of smaller aperture mirrors again. I kept coming back to the fact that the C22 really was the largest telescope that one could spend 95% of the night with both feet on the ground. Steve finally agreed that it would be a unique product and began the tooling process.”

“It has always been said that once you exceed 20 inches in aperture, you start to feel that there is no object beyond your reach.” Eric continued, “Combine all of that resolution with the wide fields of view provided by the short focal length and, of course, the appeal of not needing a ladder and I think this may be many people’s idea of the perfect telescope.”

For more information, please visit www.webstertelescopes.com.

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Universal digital camera adapter for Astrophotography. for both eyepiece projection & prime focus. Works with digicams and DSLRs. One handed easy-on & easy-off, easy camera alignment, rigid durable aluminum.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Priced at $9,299.00 the C22 f/3.6 features: • Kennedy Optics 22-inch primary mirror • Spherical bearing steel mirror cell • Dovetail construction • Black anodized aluminum trusses and hardware • Feather Touch dual-speed focuser with draw tube brass compression rings and deluxe leveling base • Roadex scratch proof rockerbox covering • Telrad finder • RipStop light shroud • Wheelbarrow handles and 10-inch pneumatic tires • CatsEye reflective collimation triangle Skylite & Starlite mini

Our original astro flashlight, much imitated but never duplicated, is back! More compact at only 3.5 inches long. Skylite switchable between white and red, Starlite is red only. Skylite mini $24.95 Starlite mini $20.95

NEW! RS-Spectroscope

Attaches to a eyepiece to spreadlight from stars and nebulae into a rainbow of colors, nFOCUS controller fits in the palm colors that provide a whole new way to of your hand and provides two enjoy astronomy. Works with most directions at low & high speeds with digital cameras. $299.95 only two buttons using advanced logic & high torque 12V pulse.

QuikFinder $39.95 For GSO, Stellarvue, WO &Televue. Compact reflex sight. One tenth the size and nFOCUS alone. $49.95 nFOCUS + DC Motor $129.95 weight of the other "reflex" sight, makes aiming your telescope easy with its wide-open right-side-up view. Projects 1/2 and 2 degree red circles, Pulsed or continuous illumination of reticle. www.rigelsys.com

Rigel Systems

NEWPRODUCTS

BAADER PLANETARIUM AND SBIG

WILLIAM OPTICS

Introduces Narrowband CCD Filters

Offers Field Flattener III

Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG) and Baader Planetarium have announced a new line of Narrowband Filters designed specifically for CCD imaging. The filters are formulated to deliver the optimum transmission of important narrow wavelengths from emission nebula and sharp cutoff of unwanted frequencies necessary to getting the most from CCD applications. Options include a 7-nm passband Halpha, an 8.5-nm passband H-beta, an 8.5-nm passband OIII, and an 8-nm passband SII. Special versions include an IR pass filter and an Ultraviolet “Venus” filter.

The filters are available in 1.25-inch threaded cells to fit SBIG’s CFW8A, CFW9 and CFW10 filter wheels for the ST series cameras, and a 50.8 mm diameter unmounted version for use in SBIG’s STL camera line. This unmounted version accommodates easy drop-in installation in SBIG’s 5 and 8 position filter wheels, permitting the maximum clear aperture required for SBIG’s large 11000

CCDs. The filters are of the same thickness as SBIG’s standard LRGBC set, insuring that they are parfocal with those existing options in the STL applications.

Each Baader filter utilizes finely polished, flat, highest optical quality substrates and ion beam hardened coatings designed to withstand a lifetime of use and cleaning.

The substrates selected by Baader are striae free and flat to within 1/4 wave across the entire surface, with planes parallel to within 30 seconds of arc. These features add significantly to production costs, but are necessary to ensure that optimum wavefront quality is delivered to the sensor.

SBIG is making the most commonly used versions available in sets at a significant discount from prices if purchased individually. The 1.25-inch set of the Halpha, OIII and SII versions is less than $400, while the same filters in the 50.8 mm unmounted version are less than $900.

For more information, visit www.sbig.com.

William Optics’ new 0.8x Field Flattener III is now available. The large, 50-mm clear aperture lens system is recommended specifically for the William Optics 80-, 90- and 110-mm Apos. Full antireflection multi-coatings on every optical surface ensure optimum transmission of the flat wavefront to the eyepiece or imaging sensor.

The unique design of the Field Flattener III permits 360-degree instrument rotation with simple set-screw locking, while the large 50-mm aperture virtually eliminates vignetting. The Field Flattener III is currently priced at only $199.00.

For more information, please visit www.williamoptics.com.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

21

NEWPRODUCTS

ASTRO HUTECH

FARPOINT ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH

Now Offers Canon 40DH Our September issue featured an announcement of coming additions to Astro Hutech's Spectrum Enhanced DSLR options.

Astro Hutech has since announced the addition of Canon's new 40D to its Spectrum Enhanced line.

The new camera, carrying the designation “40DH,” which retains full self-cleaning sensor functionality, is available now with a Type1b astronomical filter (Model EOS044) and in early November with a clear, wideband multicoated filter (EOS045). Both options are priced at $1,795.00 with standard Canon accessories.

The 40DH is available with Astro Hutech’s new front filter holder, permitting temporary and exchangeable front filter installation of UV/IR Blocking, Light Pollution Suppression, Nebula, Daylight, and Infrared filters, as well as a clear, multicoated dust protector.

The Canon EOS 40D features its 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and a 3-inch LCD with Live View mode.

When in Live View mode, the 3-inch LCD displays a real-time image, including a selectable grid overlay and

22

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Announces Accessories for Meade LightBridge Farpoint Astronomical Research has announced several new products designed to optimize the performance of Meade's popular LightBridge Series Truss Dobsonians. The first to be brought to market is a counterweight set that replaces the “push” or locking collimation screws of the primary mirror cell. The “core” counterweight set consists of three one-pound

live histogram that simulates image exposure. The Live View function also permits 5x to 10x magnification of the image to assist achieving optimum focus and reduces vibration by lifting the reflex mirror in advance of the exposure.

The 40D incorporates the sensor self-cleaning function introduced in the Canon Rebel XTi, using ultrasonic vibration to remove dust from the filter that covers the sensor front surface, trapping it in adhesive at the base of the sensor housing. The cleaning cycle is activated when the camera powers up or shuts down, or when activated by the operator.

Please visit www.hutech.com for the latest information on the 40DH.

weights designed to effectively counter the additional weight of large 2-inch eyepieces or optical finders. This counterweight set is now available and priced at $59.00.

Farpoint will also soon release clamp ring weights designed to work in conjunction with the core counterweight described above. Details of the clamp ring weight sets will soon be available at www.farpointastro.com.

NEWPRODUCTS

RON WODASKI The NewAstro Zone System for Astro Imaging

Great Red Spot ASTRONOMY PRODUCTS

Our own recent attempts at untutored mastery of Photoshop’s phenomenal capabilities found us largely unsuccessful and in search of easy to follow instruction for applying Photoshop to astro image processing. Among the best sources our search uncovered is Ron Wodaski’s newest work, The NewAstro Zone System for Astro Imaging. The perfect companion to Wodaski's The New CCD Astronomy, The Zone System, which includes contributions by Russell Croman, is as comprehensive as it is comprehensible.

Ron reports, “The Zone System grew out of the CCD Imaging Camps I held for the last several years in New Mexico.

It is based on painstaking research into how Photoshop works – and why it works the way it does. You won't just learn some useful ways to use Curves; you’ll learn the type of curve to use, the correct way to integrate Curves and Levels, and more. The most important thing you’ll learn, however, is how to take the guesswork out of processing astronomical images.”

The resulting tutorials are indeed remarkably effective, but one of the aspects of the book we most enjoyed was its extensive use of color throughout.

The “every page in color” format is very

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expensive to implement, so at $99.95 the book is surprisingly inexpensive. Not only are the full color photographs stunning, multi-color text and screen samples more effectively highlight and communicate concepts.

The Zone System fulfills Wodaski’s goal quite well. It breaks Photoshop steps into their fundamentals and organizes those steps in the way that is most appropriate for astro image processing. Stepby-step, start to finish, the book clearly demonstrates the basics, while also conveying new approaches to color, signal-tonoise ratio, and other critical topics.

Get the most out of your images with The Zone System. For more information, please visit www.newastro.com. The NewAstro Zone System for Astro Imaging is available in print and on DVD from many astronomy retailers.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

You’ve upgraded your existing Orion Newtonian to, or purchased a new Orion telescope that features, Orion’s value priced Crayford focuser, but would prefer a compression ring visual back rather than the standard set-screws with which the focuser comes equipped.

Once again, Scope Stuff comes to the rescue. Scope Stuff ’s $39.00 (including shipping) black anodized aluminum, brass compression ring equipped, visualback is a simple screw-on replacement for the Orion stock unit.

In addition to this and other focuser visual-back upgrades and adaptors, ScopeStuff carries a complete line of Dobs, refractors, diagonals, eyepieces, filters, finders, focusers, chairs, flashlights, and much more.

For more on ScopeStuff ’s products go to www.scopestuff.com.

NEWPRODUCTS

CHRONOSMOUNT AND OPT Develops New Harmonic Drive Mounting System ChronosMount, Inc. and Oceanside Photo & Telescope have announced a new telescope mount system based on harmonic drive gearing. Using harmonic drive gearing instead of worm-and-wheel gearing, the new mounts, named Chronos, offer many exciting breakthroughs.

Harmonic drives are used extensively in high-precision applications such as robotics, integrated circuit wafer manufacturing, integrated circuit component loading and satellite antenna pointing.

Harmonic drives are on the rovers on Mars and keep the adaptive optics aligned on Mauna Kea. Chronos eliminates the need for counterweights. Astronomy, and particularly CCD imaging, requires a stash of counterweights necessary to keep the mount balanced. If a change is made to attached instrumentation, (cameras or additional telescopes), then a change to the counterweights is also required. This often involves disengaging the gears. With Chronos, it is possible to switch between visual and CCD imaging, with all of its component parts changes, while the mount is still being autoguided.

Counterweights also reduce the total load capacity of a mount because the mount’s components must carry both the instruments and the counterweights. The Chronos design offers the opportunity for more metal in the mount structure because of the lack of counterweights.

The mount offers zero backlash.

Conventional worm-and-wheel and spur gearing, integral to all astronomical telescope mounts up until now, have experienced backlash. Elaborate systems have been invented to counteract this.

The use of spring-loading and the practice of purposely unbalancing the mount to keep one side of the teeth in contact are the most common methods of work-around.

One-third of the 320 teeth of a harmonic drive are engaged at all times, while on worm-and-wheel and spur gearing,

there is a maximum of three teeth engaged.

This results in extremely smooth operation over the full 360 degree of rotation compared to conventional gearing.

The Chronos also eliminates the need for clutches, which on a telescope mount can introduce a number of opportunities for drive inaccuracies. Clutches can slip, causing a loss of position. As the clutches are opened and closed, the relationship between the optical path and the gears changes. The specific teeth you used last night are not the same teeth you use tonight to look at the same object. When permanently mounted, the same harmonic drive teeth are always in the same position as the optical path.

Pricing for Chronos mounts starts at $11,995.00. For more information go to www.chronosmounts.com and www.optcorp.com.

Chronos Model HD20 with Celestron

Features • • • •

• • • • •

• • •

No counterweights.

No clutches.

Zero backlash.

Ability to move from horizon to horizon without doing a “meridian flip.”

Ability to support all locations on Earth.

No limitations in latitude.

Higher accuracy in pointing and movement.

No need for a polar alignment scope.

Ability to act as both a German Equatorial and an Alt-Azimuth mount.

Home and park; soft limits; optional hardware limits.

Reduced mount weight for a given payload capacity.

Higher rigidity; lower vibration.

Payload Model HD20 HD32 HD45 HD65

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Chronos Model HD20 in equatorial configuration.

Chronos Model HD32 in equatorial configuration.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

25

Stray Light Figure 1 - Stacking Eyepieces

By Mike Jones

When you look into a telescope eyepiece, the only light reaching your retina should come from the mirror or lens forming the image. Light from any source other than the objective is called stray light.

Stray light is unfocused extraneous light that enters the eyepiece and eye, which fogs

the image and reduces visual and photographic contrast. Every effort should be made to block stray light paths to the eyepiece and eye, using flat-black paint, light shields and baffles, baffle tubing in Cassegrains, etc. Open-tube Newtonian Dobsonians are particularly susceptible to

Figure 2 - Stray Light in a Newtonian

Blackened Cork Liner Removed 26

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Blackened Cork Liner Installed

stray light from many different angles and sources. All ray paths into the objective and focuser must be accounted for, and baffles placed accordingly. But how can you be sure you’ve blocked all stray light?

There's a simple trick to see where any stray light paths are getting into your image, using two stacked eyepieces, one above the other (see Figure 1). In daylight, aim the scope at a uniform patch of clouds, or blue sky well away from the sun, and put your longest eyepiece in the focuser to give the largest exit pupil image. The exit pupil is a real image of the primary objective, and is located in a plane above the top of the eyepiece at a comfortable viewing distance termed “eye relief ”.

If you look AT the exit pupil rather than THROUGH it, by looking directly at it from a distance of a foot or so away, you can see the little circle pupil of light floating in the center of the eyepiece, with spider vanes and diagonal or secondary

mirror at the center. But you can also see any stray light as well. The view is fairly small, and a magnifier is needed.

A second eyepiece in the 18-25mm EFL range makes a perfect and handy magnifier. The second eyepiece must have a real, external focal plane, such as provided by an orthoscopic, Plossl, or Kellner eyepiece. Some eyepieces, such as Tele Vue Panoptics, Naglers and Radians, have internal focal planes and can’t be used for this. If you can hold your finger or the tip of a pencil in the eyepiece barrel and see a magnified image, then it will work for this.

Carefully hold the second eyepiece over the first eyepiece’s exit pupil, taking care not to clack it into the lower eyepiece optics.

Move the second eyepiece up and down until you see a sharp image of the lower eyepiece exit pupil.

What you should ideally see is a sharp, uniformly illuminated image of the primary mirror or lens, as well as the spider vanes and diagonal or secondary mirror in reflectors, with black or nearly so completely surrounding the aperture. Any stray light sources around the objective aperture are now shown very clearly, and this magnified exit pupil image can be used as a guide to help you install blackened light shields and baffles that will maximize your image contrast. If the exit pupil looks well-shielded and surrounded by black in broad daylight, then there will be no nighttime stray light problems at all.

Figure 2 shows comparison photographs I took through the second eyepiece, holding a Canon XTi DLSR and 25-mm Plossl over a 28-mm University Optics Orthoscopic inserted into my 6-inch f/4 RFT. The left photo shows all the stray light coming in around the primary mirror and reflecting off the inside of the aluminum tube when I took out the blackened cork tube liner. I then re-installed the blackened cork liner, and the right photo shows how well it absorbs and traps all stray light entering the rear of the tube, leaving the exit pupil floating in pure blackness.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

27

The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

Jack’s Astro Accessories www.waningmoonii.com page 66

Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com page 44

Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

Durango Skies www.durangoskies.com page 42

Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

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JMI Telescopes 24 Years of Innovation

By Jim Burr

JMI Telescopes would not exist today if it were not for a man named Phillip Knox who, over 50 years ago, traveled to Minnesota to show pictures from the Palomar 200-inch telescope. As a little child I sat there and was transfixed. Knox was a flamboyant and exuberant presenter, so enthusiastic, I’m told, that he used to pack them into a Pasadena auditorium every Sunday night. I met someone years later who claimed to know him well and said they weren’t sure that he had ever actually looked through a telescope. But, he could sure put on a show. I have been trying to do the same, lecturing 100 times a year all around the country and am now preparing for my third tour to Russia.

Because of the 30 television programs I’ve done on astronomy, I get invitations to speak from Alaska to Rostov. Recently a

businessman asked me, “Why do you go lifetime membership at the McDonald out and do this?” My response was that I Observatory and many other honors.” His have to. Somebody did it for me and you name is Max Mo, and after the show he never know what influence you might came up to me and said, “Six years ago I sat eventually have on another young person. in your class at camp and you planted a I have been lecturing at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley for about seven years now, during their summer Frontiers in Science Program. When I was there a few years ago, the facilitator said, “We have a young winner here (first place winner in North America Young Astronomers) who flies out tomorrow to Tennessee to pick up a Meade LX200 tel- Jim, his wife, DeEtta, with their two children, Cherie and escope. He has received a Jerry, in 1980 with his first scope, a 10-inch Cassegrain.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION

seed that got me interested in astronomy.”

And that is why I do this; someone did it for me.

What’s JMI all about? I’m sure many of you have heard some of the story, so I’ll try not to bore you with too much repetition. My interest in astronomy was planted at an early age, but it didn’t go anywhere until I was middle-aged. I took an adult education class in astronomy and immediately began building a telescope.

I was not a very good telescope builder, but managed to construct a very powerful (f/15) 10-inch Classical Cassegrain. Trying to focus on Saturn with the scope was a real frustration, waiting for the wiggling to stop after touching the thing, but it wasn’t long before I had that problem solved with an electric focusing device that even-

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

tually became known as MOTOFOCUS. We sold the first one in 1983 and the rest, as they say, is history.

I was running a mobile television repair company at the time and I saw MOTOFOCUS as an opportunity to have some extra money for my hobby. But it really took off and three years later, in 1986, we sold the television repair business. At the Texas Star Party, someone came up to me and said, “You’ve got this wonderful focusing motor, but what about a declination motor?” Well, in those days a number of manufacturers were making motors for SCT declination drives, but most of them were belt driven and some of them required drilling holes in the fork. The gentlemen at the star party said, “We really need a better declination motor.

Last night I was working with my C8 in the dark and five times the belt came off landing in the dust on the ground.” The gentlemen standing next to him said, “I have solved that problem. I just bought a bag of 100 belts so I always have an extra one.”

Well, that got my attention and I went home and designed a snap-on declination motor with heat treated spring steel which could be snapped over the declination knob. Powering it up with an o-ring meant that the gears did not break when you reached the end of travel, because the o-

ring slipped instead. That became an immediate success and some of our larger dealers were buying 50 and 100 at a time.

The price was right, the product was very good, and that is really what got us going in the telescope business.

About that time I also went to work on an 18-inch equatorial Newtonian telescope with a split-ring drive that we later named the NGT-18. I thought it was a product whose time had come since many observatories around the world had gone to split rings, or something similar. Back then, you’d often see big homemade plywood drive ring versions at various star parties. I was a little paranoid about being the first into production with a split ring. For eight years I kept it under wraps, so nobody on the planet saw this telescope until the final version was completed. Then, in the spring of 1990, I took out two full-page ads to announce it to the world. I got a call from Broadhurst, Clarkson and Fuller in London and they said, “We’ve been working on one just like yours, but you got yours done first.” So they began buying them from us. Nothing was spared to make it a great, beautiful and compact scope.

Perhaps the best illustration of its compactness, is the reaction of Dave Lawrence and Dudley Fuller when they traveled from London to see the NGT-18. As they walked into our building, the 18 was sitting on the floor right in front of them and one said, “Where is the NGT-18?” When I pointed to the 18 and said, “This is it,” the reaction was, “But, that’s the size of our 12inch scope.” Compliment of all compliments – imagine an 18-inch scope mistaken for a 12-inch scope, and by folks who knew scopes! Part of the compactness was accomplished by a patented 18-point mirror cell that had no edge clips and added little more than an inch to the overall height of the telescope. Some 18-point mirror cells I’ve seen would add as much as five inches. As I recall, Texereau, in his book, How to Make a Telescope, said, “…a 20-inch telescope, properly mounted, requires a sturdy equatorial support weigh-

JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION ing a total of 2 tons!” This 18-inch weighed just over 200 pounds.

The advantages of the split ring are apparent when compared to the opportunity for vibrations seen in fork-mounted telescopes on large tripods. Here, we have the mirror sitting only inches off the ground, supported in a 36-inch drive ring.

I used to use the following illustration.

Imagine driving an 18-wheel truck down the road with a 7-inch steering wheel (like the big SCTs are driven with) or with a 36inch steering wheel. There’s a lot of mechanical advantage with the larger steering wheel. To make handling easier, we put ten handles on this instrument – on the mirror cell, the nose assembly, etc. Believe it or not, two people can break one down and load it into a compact car in two minutes. And set-up is the same. Life is short. I want to spend my time observing, not setting up and tearing down.

These 18s had tremendous features, including a rotating nose assembly for comfortable viewing, snap apart truss rods

and, of course, the 36-inch equatorial split ring. One customer assembled his NGT-18 in his living room while he was waiting for clear skies. He called me and said, “If this thing is as beautiful to look through as it is to look at, I’m going to be in heaven.” We sold well over 200 of these instruments, but sales eventually dwindled because we could not find an acceptable GOTO computer and we discontinued it. But, we have now brought it back with GOTO, using the StellarCAT, along with the Argo Navis.

We built over 80 of the NGT-18s out of a four-car garage before we moved to the big city on the West side of Denver in 1992, and two and a half years ago we purchased our own building rather than continuing to rent.

Today we have between 2,000 and 3,000 part numbers for the after-market products that we make. Of course, it’s easy to run up a lot of part numbers when you make focus motors and three different computers that fit more than 250 telescopes. It used to be that I knew every

product and how it went together, but today I have to rely on my employees for many details.

We have a great crew of people here who are dedicated to JMI. They are excited about the things that we do, excited about the quality of our products, and excited about the way we treat our customers. A new employee, after a few weeks on the phone, said, “Boy, you guys have a good name.” And they enjoy some of the interesting calls we get. The other day a newcomer to the hobby said, “I’ve got the right ascension figured out, is the other the left ascension?” and then there was the fellow who said, “I have found the instructions for the German equatorial mount but I can’t find the instructions for my Japanese mount.”

Around 1986-1987, Tangent Instruments came to us and said, “We have these wonderful digital setting circles, but you guys are the mechanics in the industry. Can you retrofit these to other telescopes?” So Continued on page 34

1200GTO-German Equatorial Mount With the advent of the CCD camera, amateurs are exploring the skies to an ever increasing level of precision, easily exceeding the image quality of large observatories using film techniques decades ago. This new level puts a higher demand on the precision of the equatorial mounting. Many of the finest imagers today have been using our GTO mounts as a solid platform for a wide variety of instruments. The largest of these is our 1200GTO. Since its introduction in 1998, the 1200GTO has gained a reputation for both tracking and pointing accuracy, essential to casual visual observation as well as advanced imaging. Quite a few 1200GTO and 900GTO (smaller cousin) mounts can be found at Mount Pinos in California, favorite observing site of many advanced photographers and imagers. Visit the Cool Sites and Gallery sections of our web site at www.astro-physics.com to see photos of the mount in action and images taken while using the 1200GTO. These mounts are truly a marvel of engineering - maximum strength and rigidity with minimum weight. Our CNC lathes and mills carve out the excess material in both axes of the 1200 and 900 German Equatorials while retaining a heavily ribbed structure for internal strength and rigidity. A unique dovetail was machined into the mating surfaces of the R.A. and Dec axes. This feature allows quick and easy assembly in the field without any tools.

The 1200 equatorial is equally at home in a permanent observatory or as a portable mounting for remote star parties thanks to the ease with which the two axes come apart. You CAN have it all. This is the perfect mount for a large refractor, Newtonian, Cassegrain or astrograph.

Telescopes commonly used include Astro-Physics 155-206mm refractors, 12-14" SchmidtCassegrains and 10-16" Ritchey-Chretiens and other instruments of similar size.

Our customers have been our greatest promoters through the years. Look for them at your next star party, or go to our website to read customer comments we have gathered and check out photos of various scopes on the 1200GTO.

Available for Fall 2007 Delivery

www.astro-physics.com • 815-282-1513 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION

We used 11 gage steel to reinforce the bearing support and punched holes for lightness. The 11 gage bearing support is the strip with the large & smaller holes which go the full length of the tube.

Left to right bearing

Up and down bearing

The tubes are .06" aluminum

I struggled with the idea of finding compact wheels and springs.

Then I found these really cool compact torsion bar springs on the Internet.

They were exactly what I needed. I am still trying to figure out how to remove them or crank them out of sight for observing.

This tube will serve as a dual bearing surface for rotating an arm that will hold the secondary, the draw tube, focusers, etc. The arm will move to accomplish intraocular spacing.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

The black framework is actually the ground board and the beam coming off the right is actually the tongue of the trailer. This framework also holds roller bearings for the 5-foot diameter base ring.

JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION

RB-22 Binoculars

Up-down motor

On the lower part of the nose assembly are two motor ball screw drives. This one moves the tube left or right.

The new RB-22 prototype is a trailer mounted, reverse binoculars design and, when completed, will be JMI’s largest reverse binoculars to date. The basic design is termed “reverse” because the user views from the comfortable position of looking down into oculars, while the binoculars’ twin Newtonian tubes are pointed at the sky behind the viewer. The design incorporates many unique features, including the trailer framework that actually becomes the ground board of the alt-az mount when the trailer wheels are retracted, positioning the assembly as close to the ground as possible. The azimuth base is fabricated from 3-inch rolled steel channel and supports three roller bearings for stable, smooth motion.

Each of the twin Newtonians features a 22-inch, f/3.8 primary mirror produced by Intermountain Optics that is mounted in a low-profile, 18-point cell. The design also relies upon twin sets of 6-inch secondary and 2-inch tertiary mirrors.

Alignment of the twin optical tubes is accomplished by two motors that are controlled from the handle bars found on all JMI reverse binoculars, with one motor controlling the xaxis and the other the y-axis. Each tube is mounted on bearings, permitting one to move in an up-down direction, and the other left-right. These bearings are positioned at the center of gravity of each optical tube, a design that minimizes stress on the assemblies. JMI recommends using power line poles, or similar structures with strong horizontal and vertical elements, to converge images produced by the two optical tubes. Simply focus on the pole: the up-down motor aligns the horizontal bars and the left-right aligns the vertical pole.

Interocular spacing is accomplished by rotation of the secondary/ocular assemblies down and away from each other.

Focus will be accomplished with modified JMI EV focusers.

Initial plans were to include tracking motors on JMI's larger reverse binoculars, but handle bar guiding has proven so smooth and intuitive that no one has expressed continued interest in motorized tracking.

The scope sections will be protected during travel with vinyl-coated fabric “socks” that are easily removed upon arrival at the viewing site. Setup is simple: remove the socks, raise the two retractable trailer wheels, and you’re ready to observe. The RB-22 is expected to retail for $30,000.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

33

JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION Continued from page 31

Here's the 40-inch, f/4 folded Newtonian. Imagine if you can a 16-inch central obstruction (including shroud). But, wow, the benefits of an eyepiece height on only 8 feet above ground at zenith! Don't forget, Palomar has a 72-inch central obstruction. The scope is mounted on large rubber motor mounts from a V8 engine. They are mounted between the trailer and the scope for an unbelievably smooth ride, even on rough roads. At the Colorado Star Stare this year someone came up and said, “I’m sure glad you didn’t bring the 40, because now I have the biggest scope here.”

This is one of the early scopes that I cut my teeth on. It is a 17.5-inch f/4.5 Newtonian.

It’s carried by a fork mount in equatorial mode. The main scope also carries a smaller Newtonian as its guide-scope.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

we took on the line of computers from Tangent, which became the NGCmicroMAX, NGC-miniMAX and NGCMAX, and have adapted them to nearly 300 models today. It is the most userfriendly computer around and was the first one that could be aligned with a simple two-star procedure, with no requirements for longitude, latitude, universal time, etc.

It has been a great product for us over the years.

Another good product has been the Crayford focuser. The first Crayford focuser was built in England by J. Wall and the name was derived from the astronomical society that he belonged to, the Crayford Astronomical Society. The first version was a very cool focuser, but it was also massive, using huge bearings. So, we redesigned it and we were the first to bring the design to the market place. J. Wall had no intention of manufacturing any and sent us a letter declaring how delighted he was with the beautiful version which we started selling in 1991.

Tom Johnston, JMI’s Production Manager, Steve Sherry, its Case Department Manager, and Dave Meldrum, our Shop Supervisor, do much of the design work here, but I still do my share, and a lot of work goes into our efforts. For instance, in designing the RB66, our 6-inch Reverse Binocular, I put twelve prototypes in the dumpster before I was happy with the functionality of the basic design. Then I turned it over to my employees who put the finishing touches on it.

The Reverse Binoculars have been a fun project. We are now learning that twenty percent of your brain does not fire unless both eyes are working. There is also a lot of fatigue associated with viewing with one eye that you don’t get when you use both. I have found from using them side-by-side for hours that the 16-inch binoculars will often far surpass the 30inch telescope that I have in my garage.

Running it at the same power on deep

JMI TELESCOPES 24 YEARS OF INNOVATION space objects, the 16-inch binoculars will definitely outperform the 30 inch, hands down, no question, although the 30 inch will undoubtedly show fainter stars. The big thing is that contrast is so greatly improved when you use both eyes that galaxies just jump out. As you can see from the cover photo of this issue of ATT, I’m now building 22-inch, trailer mounted binoculars that I plan to park in my garage real soon. The folks who bought the 40inch NTT telescope couldn't believe I was selling my personal 40-inch telescope. My response was, “The ultimate telescope is not a 40-inch telescope, the ultimate scope is probably something like a 22- or 24-inch binocular.”

One day I was looking at cases that people were buying for their telescopes. As I pulled the cubes out of one of the most popular options, I noted that the case was well made, but pretty ugly with massive corners. Plus, the cubes kept falling out.

The manufacturer suggested gluing the cubes back in, but the cases weren’t a great fit for most telescopes anyway. We had some mahogany boards lying around, so we glued them together and machined the block out to make a vacuum form for a plastic case. Then the job was to find aluminum trim, hinges, etc. I spent a full day trying to figure out how to put a rail trim on.

At the time I was thinking, “Will we ever make any money on this.” By the end of the day I finished the first case, but it didn’t look very good. Eventually, we had a refined enough product to bring to market and in May of 1997 sold the first. Today we are able to assemble a case in 30 to 45 minutes.

One of the highlights of my life was selling a 25-inch folded Newtonian telescope to NASA in 2002 for the 2009 Mars Science Lab. They later bought an additional 25 inch in 2004. Their plan was that the Mars Science Lab would use a laser to get data back from Mars. Currently they are using radio frequency (RF). Since RF cannot be aimed like a laser, the footprint

of the signal from Mars would be hundreds of millions of miles wide by the time it reached Earth, but with a laser the footprint would be in the neighborhood of only 50 miles. The concept was that a laser on the orbiter would send data to the earth and could be controlled and aimed from the earth. The project called for a bank of eighteen 30-inch telescopes. Right now the data they’re getting with their 35-meter dishes is one megabyte per second; using a laser they projected they could get a hundred megabytes per second. However, the project ran out of money because of competition from the shuttle project. The Mars Science Lab is still going to launch in 2009, but the laser portion of that project has been cancelled.

NASA did use our scopes for testing the Messenger spacecraft headed to Mercury. The spacecraft’s equipment includes a laser primarily used for imaging Mercury, but the same small instrument can also be aimed toward earth and used to send data back to NASA. I was quite amazed when they told me that it would be sending data back at 11:00 am in the morning from a position in the sky located five degrees from Sirius. On about the first of June, 2005, as I recall, it was sending something like five second pulses every 200 seconds. I haven’t seen the data, but Vic Vilnrotter, from JPL, confirmed that they were getting data from this very weak laser.

It “blew me away” that they could get data, in broad day light, from this very weak laser, using our telescope. As Vic told me on the phone, “We now have a free laser in space.”

In the meantime, we continue to develop new products as we see a need.

Some of the newer products include updated versions of MOTOFOCUS, Piggy Back Camera Mounts, Carrying Cases and a Computer Holder for the Celestron 4, 5 and 6 SE, and All-terrain Wheeley Bars for the Meade Light Bridge and Orion and Obsession telescopes. And, just as important, I”m having as much fun today as I was in 1983 when JMI first hit the astro-products scene.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

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Agena SWA Eyepieces GREAT PERFORMANCE AT BUDGET PRICES

by Erik Wilcox

There’s a saying about eyepieces that I learned from Don Pensack: “Inexpensive; wide-field; well-corrected. Pick any two.”

Recently, however, this rule has been bent a bit, and a few eyepiece lines have come out in the last few years that offer near-premium performance in faster scopes at surprisingly reasonable prices.

The Agena AstroProducts, Inc., Super Wide Angle (SWA) 2-inch eyepieces, however, move the price barrier even further. These eyepieces advertise a 70-degree apparent field of view and currently sell for $80-$90 each (including shipping), or a set of all three for $235. They are manufactured by Kunming United Optics Corporation of China and the design of this line is reportedly very similar to other 2-inch eyepieces that share the “SWA” designation. Unlike many of the others though, the Agena’s have a “slicker,” more updated look, with a black barrel, instead of the more traditional chrome barrel. All of the 2-inch models utilize designs that incorporate five elements of fully multi-coated, high index glass, in either three or four groups, depending on the focal length.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

I had prior experience with an earlier version of the 32-mm Agena SWA, and I’ve used a couple of other Agena products in the past as well. Manish Panjwani, its owner, is always helpful, offering personal customer service that is, frankly, unparalleled. He actually posts his cell phone number directly on the Agena site, and can be contacted personally with any questions.

So, upon opening the box, I wasn’t surprised to see that these eyepieces look much more expensive than their price would suggest. Each eyepiece has a rubber grip on the barrel, a fold down eye-guard, a black drawtube barrel with a safety undercut groove, and two caps. They also come with a cleaning cloth, a bolt case, and are packaged in a nice black box similar to those we normally associate with more expensive eyepieces. The 38-mm version in particular, is impressive to look at. It’s big, but not so large that it’s bulky, and also not very heavy, given its size.

It sports a nice, large field lens, and some impressive, large diameter lenses inside. The 32-mm and 26-mm versions are very nicely made as well.

Peering into the glass at an angle, I could see what looked like very nice, evenly applied coatings. The coatings have a reddish-purple tint, and the lens edges all appeared to be nicely blackened. There didn’t appear to be anything shiny, uncoated, or unpainted inside the eyepieces that could cause glare or internal reflections.

I couldn’t wait to put them to the test at night, and miraculously, it was clear outside!

In my 16-inch, f/4.5 Dob with a Tele Vue Paracorr coma corrector installed, I first inserted the 38-mm SWA. I was as dark adapted as I could be under my suburban Mag-4 sky, but the exit pupil was still a bit large, and over the 7-mm limit that’s usually recommended. However, the views were still nice. On-axis, stars were pinpoints, and the contrast was good, despite the large exit pupil. Off-axis, performance was surprisingly good, given the price, but astigmatism did start creeping in about 80 percent of the way out. This astigmatism was just “noticeable” at 80 percent, and began hurting the view at about 90 percent. Right near the edge, it got a bit nasty, with brighter stars being

ance was “bad,” just not on par with the 32mm or 38-mm SWA. In fact, the 26-mm SWA is still a great value in my opinion, and does offer better edge correction than many other “budget” wide-fields I’ve used.

I also tried viewing through the eyepieces with bright objects just outside the field of view. I didn’t notice any glare or reflections in any of the three eyepieces.

Even with a bright, waxing gibbous moon just outside the field, there were no stray reflections. Jupiter showed similar results.

Since many users who purchase these eyepieces might not own a Paracorr, I decided to test the eyepieces without the coma correcting device installed. Not only does the Paracorr eliminate or significantly reduce coma in faster scopes, I’ve found that it can often help the level of correction in less expensive eyepieces to some extent. It does this by acting like a weak Barlow lens, increasing the magnification by 15 percent, and thus making the effective focal ratio of an f/4.5 scope closer to f/5.1.

The 38-mm SWA seemed most affected by removal of the Paracorr. Suddenly, field curvature was noticeable towards the edges, and now the exit pupil was obviously much too large for my eye. The astigmatism was still there near the edges, and not really any worse than it had been with the Paracorr. But field curvature began creeping in at about 80 percent as well, and at about 90 percent, the combination of coma, astigmatism, and field curvature made it difficult to see which aberration was causing the biggest problem. Of course, coma is not the fault of the eyepiece, but the fast telescope optics. The 32-mm SWA performed a bit

better than the 38-mm SWA without the Paracorr, with very mild field curvature present near the edges, along with the astigmatism that had been present, and, of course, some added coma. It was a small enough amount of field curvature that I had to look for it - some people’s eyes might adapt for it better than mine, and may not see it at all. I didn’t test the 26-mm version without the Paracorr.

I also got a chance to test the Agena SWA 2-inch eyepieces in my f/8 Dob. At f/8, edge correction was much better in all three eyepieces, though the 26-mm SWA still trailed behind the 32-mm and 38-mm SWAs in that area. Astigmatism was barely noticeable until the very edge in the 38-mm and 32-mm SWAs, with perhaps a vague hint of field curvature at the edges in the 38mm SWA as well. In the 26-mm SWA, astigmatism started about 80 percent out, though it wasn’t “bad” at that point. Right at the edge, it was fairly noticeable, although nothing to really complain about. The 38mm SWA was an exceptional performer at f/8, and I couldn’t help thinking what a great low power eyepiece it would make in longer scopes.

In my opinion, the 38-mm SWA is an excellent eyepiece for the price at any f/ratio.

It will, of course, work better in slower scopes, and produce a more usable exit pupil in scopes over f/6 as well. It offers a very wide true field of view, close to the maximum possible in a 2-inch barrel, and a nice, wide apparent field of view as well. It offers on-axis contrast and pinpoint stars in the central area of the field of view that compares well with a good number of more

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stretched out into long lines. Attempting to focus stars near the edge only resulted in the stretched out lines changing direction (like a cross), the telltale sign of astigmatism.

However, this somewhat minor astigmatism seemed to be the only edge aberration that was really noticeable with the Paracorr installed. There was no pincushion or barrel distortion, and maybe just a hint of field curvature in the 38-mm SWA. Compared to my 30-mm, 80-degree Widescan clone (similar to the Agena UWA), the 38-mm Agena SWA had a very slightly wider true field of view (although the magnification was less, and the apparent field of view was a bit narrower). The 32mm SWA offered edge correction similar to that of the 38-mm SWA, but perhaps slightly better, and it had a slightly larger usable field of view than my 30-mm Widescan clone. The minor astigmatism near the edges was the only aberration visible in the 32-mm SWA. Regarding apparent field of view, the advertised 70-degree claim seems about right, although the 32-mm SWA appeared to be very slightly wider than the 26-mm or 38-mm versions, perhaps by a couple of degrees.

In testing the 26-mm SWA, I found this eyepiece to be a bit less well corrected than the 32-mm and 38-mm SWAs; still I was impressed. The 26-mm Agena SWA had a nice, flat field of view of the moon, which remained in focus near the edges. However, on stars, the 26-mm SWA started showing astigmatism about 2/3 of the way out, and it got progressively worse towards the edge.

Given its price, I wouldn’t say the perform-

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AGENA SWA EYEPIECES

expensive eyepieces. It also doesn’t exhibit pincushion distortion like many wide-fields do, so if pincushion bothers you more than astigmatism does, the 38-mm SWA (as well as the 32-mm and 26-mm versions) may be a good choice. The build quality of the 38mm Agena SWA is among the highest level I’ve seen in this price range. I highly recommend it for scopes over f/6.

The 32-mm SWA is in some ways even better than the 38-mm version. It offers a very wide apparent field of view, and has a level of correction not generally found in eyepieces of this price range. The contrast is truly exceptional, and on-axis, it’s every bit as good as some eyepieces costing many times more. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and the build quality is great. I highly recommend it for any scope, but it will show some minor edge aberrations in faster scopes.

The 26-mm SWA was my least favorite of the three, but it still offers good correction for the price, and is a nice low cost alternative that works well at f/8, and like the others, has great build quality and nice coatings.

All in all, these three eyepieces offer a great value, with a lot of “bang for the buck.” The level of correction in faster scopes isn’t quite on par with some more expensive eyepieces, but it’s much better than many other eyepieces in this price range. The Agena SWAs aren’t likely to cause balance problems in Dobsonian telescopes, as they’re relatively light in weight.

Agena AstroProducts has really raised the bar with this line, and in the “under $100” category, I feel that it would be difficult to find another line of 2-inch eyepieces that offer better performance for the price.

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MEADE IMAGERS

TEST DRIVE

By David Snay

About ten years ago, I started out observing with a Meade 70mm refractor that was a gift from my brother. I moved up to an 8-inch SCT soon after that (the dreaded aperture fever). I tried my hand at sketching, which I still enjoy, but rarely practice. When webcams became popular I tried Meade’s Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI). I was able to take acceptable images of the moon, planets and some of the more accessible double stars and was hooked on astrophotography!

As I grew more familiar with the emerging realm of digital imaging, I also met many incredibly talented and helpful astrophotographers online. That’s when a different kind of aperture fever hit. I wanted something with a bigger, more sensitive imaging chip, but could not justify the cost of some of the larger, well known imaging platforms out there.

There had to be a solution that fit my budget and the hunt was on.

The Internet was a source of both great information and confusion when researching imagers. There were many directions from which to choose and at least as many opinions on which way was best. As an established film photogra-

pher, I was drawn toward digital single lens reflex cameras, but the cost of entry was prohibitively high. Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cameras designed specifically for astrophotography seemed like a more appropriate tool for the job. Again, the cost of entry was quite high. There was so much information out there and so little concrete guidance, I felt lost and overwhelmed.

Then along came Meade’s Deep Sky Imager (DSI) line of dedicated, astrophotography CCD cameras. There are three items in Meade’s DSI line: 1. DSI, one-shot color CCD camera with Sony’s Super HAD Color CCD Sensor.

2. DSI II, one-shot color CCD camera with Sony’s higher resolution Type-1/2 HAD Sensor.

3. DSI Pro II, monochrome CCD camera with Sony’s Type-1/2 Sensor and filter slide for optional LRGB filters.

I tested the LPI, DSI and DSI Pro II versions of Meade’s CCD imaging options. Each of these three cameras offers advantages over the others and each represents an affordable entry to

astrophotography. Meade even includes the LPI in many of their new telescope packages. All can be used for autoguiding, although the LPI is of limited use in that application due to its reduced sensitivity when compared with the others.

Each of these items also comes complete with everything you need to start imaging, with the exception of the computer required for data collection and image processing.

What’s in the box?

Meade LPI • The imager (smaller than I thought it would be) • A USB cable • Autostar Suite CDROM Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE bly in this photo, it sure looks to me like I should be using some big, heavy equatorial mount. Maybe some day.

Installation Install the Autostar Suite package by inserting the CDROM, select the “Install Autostar Suite” option and follow the instructions. It goes smoothly and easily, if not quickly. It is best to install Autostar Suite and the manuals for whichever imager(s) you plan to use.

That way you can reference the manuals while in the field without the need to have the CDROM on site. It is also much faster that way.

Evaluations

Image 1 Meade DSI • The camera body • USB cable, • Eyepiece parfocalizing ring • 4 wire RJ cable • 6 wire RJ cable • RJ to DB9 adaptor • Autostar Suite CDROM Meade DSI-Pro II This monochrome (black and white) version of the DSI-Pro line includes everything in the DSI box, plus a filterslide bar to hold color filters and a nose piece that connects to an adaptor on the front of the camera and that holds the filter-slide bar. Filters are sold as part of an upgraded package and separately. At first I thought it made little sense to sell the DSI Pro II without the color filters, but now that I have two DSI Pro II’s I see the advantage. I use one for guiding and one for imaging, so only one of them needs filters.

Equipment I use a Meade 8-inch LX90 on a standard Meade wedge as the guide scope and carrier for the imaging equipment.

The wedge really should be more rigid,

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

but I haven’t decided which way to go on that yet and am sticking with it until I decide whether to upgrade the wedge or move to a completely different mount.

My imaging equipment is comprised of a Meade Series 5000 ED 80-mm Apo refractor (the subject of my report in the August 2007 issue of ATT) and various camera lenses with the DSI cameras attached via one of two adaptors. The refractor requires just a 2-inch to 1.25inch adaptor with a T-Mount. I use Orion Telescope and Binoculars’ “Prime Focus Camera Adaptor for 2-inch Focusers.” I chose this one because it separates and allows me to mount a focal reducer to widen the field of view.

My camera lenses all use the same adaptor from Mogg Adaptors.

Image 1 is an image of my setup when using the refractor.

Looking at the Image 2 complete assem-

Meade LPI The LPI couldn’t be easier to use. It’s a one-shot color imager that requires relatively few steps to capture a pleasing image. It fits into your telescope just like an eyepiece. You connect it directly to your computer using the supplied USB cable and launch the Envisage software.

At this point an image will show up on the monitor.

The best way to start is to select the auto exposure option and let Envisage choose the best values for exposure and the gain and offset sliders. Then you

MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE focus the image and select from among the few available options for saving the file and then select “start.” You can have it save each file individually or let it combine them for you as it goes. Image 2 is a sample image produced using an LPI and my 8-inch LX90.

Once you’ve gotten used to the operation of the LPI, you can experiment with changing available settings to see what works best for your conditions and the object you are imaging. I’ve found that letting the LPI combine the exposures, setting the Minimum Quality level to around 30%, and letting it run for at least 50 exposures is the best way to start.

These specifics, as well as all the other options, are very nicely described in the manual that accompanies the LPI. The LPI is not only best suited for Lunar and Planetary subjects, it typically outperforms the Deep Sky Imagers on them.

Pros: • Simple to operate • Very good on planets Cons: • Insufficient for guiding • Unacceptably high noise for exposures longer than 1 second Meade DSI Color These single shot color cameras are very much like the LPI from an operational point of view. The only difference between using these and the LPI shows up when you click the “Color” button in Envisage. The resulting popup yields a very different and more sophisticated set of controls when controlling the DSI. The easiest way to start out is to select the automatic white balance button under the Color Control menu. Once you do this, the DSI Color interface is the same as that for the LPI and the DSI Pro. You now have all the options later described in the DSI Pro II section of this article. Image 3 is the result of only 24 minutes of exposure in 1-minute increments. For this example I chose to

Image 3

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MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE let Envisage do most of the work for me.

The result was image files for red, green, blue and luminance. I combined the red, green and blue in Photoshop using the RGB channel merge function, applied minor levels and curves adjustments and then added the luminance image on top with its blend mode set to luminosity.

The ability of this imager to generate a color image without the use of filters is very attractive. However, it does this by dedicating specific pixels to specific color channels, which significantly reduces the resolution of images and yields larger stars than the monochrome versions as can be seen in Image 3.

Pros: • One shot color imaging • Can be used in monochrome mode to allow use with narrow band filters Cons: • Sensitivity of the chip is sacrificed to enable one shot color imaging

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

• Star shapes can be very hard to control Meade DSI-Pro II The monochrome design requires the user to collect data for each channel set. These sets are typically Red, Green and Blue at first. Then users usually start adding a clear, unfiltered set for luminance when they've become more familiar with the camera. If you live in a heavily light polluted area you might also want to experiment with narrow band filters.

Whichever method you choose, you’ll have to collect multiple sets of data for each object, align and combine each set, and then combine those sets to generate a color image. It is far beyond the scope of this review to describe that process. However, the Autostar Suite Image Processing (ASIP) portion of the software suite provides an easy way to align and combine each data set. It is

possible to generate a color image using ASIP, but, in my experience, it is not as intuitive as some of the more versatile tools out there.

The concept of collecting all this data and then combining it later sounds overwhelming at first. With a little time and practice though, this part actually becomes quite simple. It’s after these steps that the really hard work starts, enhancing the resulting images to bring out subtle detail while preserving highlights.

Processing that data requires patience, practice and more patience.

The advice of experts in the fields is most helpful and, fortunately, there are a great many of them accessible online through various groups who are just waiting to share their knowledge.

A typical night for me goes something like this (remember I’m using one scope on top of another): 1. Align the mount or fine tune it if the assembly is still up from last night.

2. Locate the object for the night’s session using the larger telescope and highest magnification possible to get it as centered in the field of view as possible.

3. Attach the guide camera to the guide scope and imaging camera to the imaging scope.

4. Attach all cables to the camera, including the RJ cable to the hand box for guide control.

5. Launch Envisage software (There should be two tabs in the Envisage window, one for guide camera and one for the imaging camera.)

6. Focus the image in the guide scope’s window, connect Envisage to the telescope to enable Envisage to control the telescope and enable guiding.

7. Focus the image in the imaging scope’s window.

8. Set exposure length.

9. Fine tune focus.

10. Set all other parameters.

MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • There are quite a few parameters and each has several options.

• The simplest method, and the way I recommend starting, is to select “Auto Exposure” and “Normal Operation” with “TIF” as the file type in the “Save Process” section.

• After you’ve done this a few times you can start extending the exposures, save each image separately in “FITS” format. This will yield the most useable data at the expense of more effort on your part.

11. Select start.

12. Verify that everything is working well.

13. Find something to do to keep occupied until it’s time to switch to the next filter. Often this is when I pull out a ground cloth and enjoy simply watching the night sky or communing with the skunks that live in my neighborhood.

14. When enough time has lapsed you can stop the imaging, stop guiding, switch to the next filter, go back to Step 6 and repeat this loop until you’ve gone through all the filters you’re going to use during the session.

Once you have all this data, you’ll have to process it to generate a color image. There are many ways to accomplish this and many sources for information on how to do that. My preference is to use the Autostar Suite Image Processing program to align and combine each set of data. That yields three new files, one for each filter I used. I use the same program to align those three files and then I import them to Photoshop to merge them to form an RGB image which I then work on until I’m satisfied with the result.

Image 4 is one I made of M42 using the DSI Pro II and a Sigma 400-mm Apo camera lens.

Image 5 is one of the famous Double Cluster in Perseus using the DSI-Pro II and the Meade Series 5000 ED 80-mm

Image 4

Image 5 Apo refractor.

Hopefully you’ll agree that these images prove that Meade’s imagers are capable devices.

Pros: • More sensitive than the color version.

• Can be used with a variety of filters.

• Many aftermarket options available.

Cons: • More complicated to use than the color version.

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MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • Steeper learning curve for RGB image processing.

The DSI and the DSI Pro II share the same operating procedures from the user’s point of view. There are two significant differences in these cameras that you will notice though. First, the DSI Pro II has a larger, more sensitive chip.

This enables it to capture more data in the same amount of time as the chip of the original DSI. The second, more important, difference is the enhanced use of thermal cooling and a temperature sensor within the camera to make better use of dark frames specific to a given temperature and exposure length. The original version required you to take dark frames every time out in order to obtain frames taken at the correct temperature.

The new version has a temperature sensor in it to enable software to match each image frame with an existing dark frame taken at the same temperature within a degree or two (settable by you).

The most important piece of advice I could give to anyone using these or any other imagers is that more is better. By more I mean more time. If you think you’ve captured enough data for the object in question, at least double it.

Image 6

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

You’ll be amazed at the difference. For example, Image 6 is a comparison of two images I made of the North American Nebula (NGC7000) using the DSI-Pro II, an Astronomik Ha filter and the Meade 80-mm Apo. The one on the right is comprised of almost exactly twice as many sub-frames as the one on the left.

When I first took the one on the left, I thought it a great image. Then some friends suggested I double the time. I did and the one on the right is the result.

Time is your friend in this hobby.

Autostar Suite Planetarium The Autostar Suite includes a planetarium program which allows you to plan your sessions based on what is currently visible in the night sky. It also allows control of Meade telescopes remotely. This can be very nice on cold winter nights if you’ve set up a network out to the telescope.

The planetarium software is extensively customizable. For example, you can add your own favorite objects to the list of searchable objects. You need only know the Right Ascension and Declination coordinates of any object you wish to add. The documentation for

MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE this process couldn’t be easier to follow.

You can also update information for comets and asteroids. All functions are well documented in a way that couldn't be easier to follow.

To make planning your next several sessions more productive, there is even a moon calendar which displays the phases of the moon for any given month. One feature I discovered while reading the manual more closely for this report is the ability to have the planetarium software record the current RA and Dec values from the Autostar hand box. These values can be reused at a later time to return to an exact location for more extensive imaging.

Pros: • Manual easy to understand.

• Incredibly vast set of utilities included in this suite.

• The ability to try things while reading the manual makes things much easier to understand.

Cons: • TIFF format files generated by Photoshop are not recognized by Autostar Suite software.

• You must read the entire manual to get the most out of the planetarium program. Some of the features are not intuitive.

Envisage This is the key to the whole game.

Envisage is the interface to the abilities of the imagers. This software is very easy to use. You connect the camera(s) to the computer and launch Envisage either directly or from within the planetarium software. It recognizes the camera(s) and brings up a tab for each camera present.

From there you can control all the features of each camera, using one for autoguiding the mount. It is not recommended to use one camera for both imaging and autoguiding.

Pros: • The manual is well written and easy to understand. There is a

short, easy to follow description of how to get started that is applicable to all versions of the DSI camera. It is a basic operational model that you’ll out grow pretty quickly. However, it provides you with an easy way to get a feel for the camera and its capability. Following that short tutorial is a longer section describing every available text box, check box and spin box in appropriate detail and straightforward terms.

• The directions suggest saving image files in JPG or TIF format.

This is a very good suggestion.

While it has been proven that the FITS format yields higher quality results, it is also much more difficult to work with. You can always move to that later when and if you are ready.

• The ability to automate the use of dark frames is incredibly helpful.

Taking dark frames and subtracting them from the images as they are captured significantly increases the quality of the data and makes things easier to manipulate later.

Cons: • That easy to understand manual is very long.

• The software will sometimes freeze or appear to freeze if you change multiple settings without

waiting for the software to complete one change before making the next. Rumor has it this is caused by insufficient power to the cameras’ USB ports and can be avoided by using a powered USB hub.

• If the Envisage process is not the topmost application when it’s time to transfer data from the imager to the PC, it is likely to produce an exposure with horizontal lines in the image.

There are ways to deal with this, but they require that a separate tool be used before any other processing can take place.

Autostar Suite Image Processing (ASIP) In my opinion, this is the weakest link in Meade’s imaging solution, but bear in mind that I am already familiar and comfortable with Photoshop and other more established and powerful image processing applications. To be fair, those applications represent primary products of their respective vendors, where Meade has only recently entered the image processing market.

Fortunately the features that matter most (exposure alignment and combining for individual data sets) are the most effective in the software Meade packages with its CCD cameras. This makes it very easy to align and combine all those exposures you just made for each color (red, green

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE and blue) and then import them to something like Photoshop, ImagesPlus, PixInsight, or whichever more capable image processing software you eventually graduate to. Until then, ASIP, although not as powerful as other options, will do the job.

Pros: • The manual is well written and easy to understand.

• Alignment and combining of data sets is very well implemented.

Cons: • That easily read manual is very long.

• You have to read much of that manual to understand how to accomplish most tasks.

• Generating color images from ASIP is more difficult than in more established image processing programs and you’ll eventually graduate to those other programs anyway.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Conclusions These imagers are very good at what they were designed to accomplish. With a little time and dedication, amazing images can be produced with them.

Make no mistake, they are not going to supplant the big guys, primarily because the chips in Meade’s imagers are much smaller than are available in the more expensive options and some of the software doesn’t feel as robust as it should (see my comments about Envisage freezing if stressed).

I haven’t mentioned the thermal provisions Meade added to the latest editions of the DSI cameras. That’s because it barely makes itself known, except for the fact that the digital noise in these cameras is significantly lower than their predecessors. Once you take dark frames of appropriate duration for the correct temperature (indicated by Envisage), you don’t really have to think about them.

The cooling provisions designed into the

cameras keeps them quite steady in all but the hottest environments.

All three imagers are well built (I’ve dropped my DSIPro II with no negative effect) and are supported by the latest version of software seamlessly. Using the DSI Color or the LPI, amateurs can quickly and easily produce pleasing images of Deep Sky or Solar System Objects. Using the DSI Pro II, one can produce images with much more depth.

However, they come with the added complexity of collecting data for each channel (Red, Green, and Blue) and the rather steep learning curve that comes with manipulating those channels. Even with that added complexity, I would recommend the DSI Pro II over the DSI Color for Deep Sky Objects.

Meade has once again brought high quality products to market with a price that is accessible to the majority of amateurs. I can’t wait to see what they bring us next!

Autoguiding:

As Simple as “Push Here Dummy”?

By Craig Stark, Ph.D.

In his article on Starizona’s Hyperstar system (ATT April 2007, p. 28), Scott Tucker described astrophotography as something that, at least historically, requires a “certain borderline lunacy.”

Astrophotography is typically not for the impatient, casual amateur, nor is it typically for those without fat wallets. Take, for example, the relatively simple, unavoidable fact that the earth rotates.

The result of this inescapable fact is that the stars move slowly across the sky.

“Slow” is a relative term, of course, and if you use a large amount of magnification (e.g., by using a high-power eyepiece), you can see the stars race across the field of view.

The solution to this is, of course, quite simple and well-known. With a single motor turning the telescope about an axis that is parallel to the earth’s axis of rotation (i.e., that points at the celestial pole), we can counteract that motion and keep the target from drifting away. For visual observation, this is all we need. It matters little if, over the course of 10 minutes, the target rocks back and forth in the eyepiece by a half an arcminute. At 200x in a Plossl eyepiece, a half an arcminute corresponds to under 4% of the field of view. You’re losing sleep over observing, not over this slow, small,

wobble of the image.

To an astrophotographer, this slow, small, wobble of the image is a serious problem to lose sleep over in and of itself.

If we have a camera exposing this entire time, the wobble will make the stars become lines rather than points. For example, if we image at a fairly typical image scale of 1.5 arcseconds/pixel, instead of the star being perhaps 4 pixels in diameter, it might be 4 pixels high and over 20 pixels wide.

The solution to this problem is also quite well-known. If, in addition to exposing our main image we carefully watch a star, we can use this “guide star” to see the error the mount is making and correct for it as it happens. As the star starts to drift to one side, we send a signal to the mount to either reduce or increase the speed of the motor briefly so that the star will be pulled back to the proper position. We can do this either manually, by physically watching a star and pressing buttons (manual guiding) or automatically, by having a separate camera watch the star and send commands to the mount (autoguiding).

This sounds simple. Where’s the problem? Why doesn’t everyone guide their mounts and take pictures with nice

round stars? Historically, there have been a lot of problems, hurdles, and myths that have kept guiding out of reach of many astrophotographers. For example, many are told that astrophotography cannot be done on basic, mass-produced mounts.

Bigger and more precise mounts have not only less error overall, but error that is “smoother” and more easily fixed with guiding. These are also priced out of reach of many amateurs. If you must spend $3,000 to get a mount that is considered entry-level for astrophotography purposes (and still need to guide), many will shy away. Even if you have a suitable mount, you may be presented with a bewildering array of parameters. For example, you may be asked to enter in the number of arcseconds/pixel, the RA and Dec aggressiveness, their hysteresis, the amount of backlash in milliseconds, which way north is in the guide image, whether it is mirrored NS and/or E-W, how much error to tolerate, etc. While some of these are easily determined, others are not and with so many to set, the chance of user error is high and finding the source of the error can be challenging.

I remember not-so-fondly trying to use several systems and becoming so frustrated that I abandoned guiding.

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Sometimes I’d hit “guide” and the star would race off 10x faster than the slow drift it had shown. Other times, the program would lock onto a hot pixel and insist my mount was perfect (funny how they don’t move) or would work for a short while and then degrade. My “favorite” night was when it was working well in RA but after about 5 minutes of joy, drift in declination began to build up and the program and I had a disagreement as to which way “north” was. Its corrections only made the error bigger and the star promptly shot off the chip. I can still remember the literal pain in my neck manually guiding was and despite a number of valiant efforts, I never managed to produce round stars (it didn’t help that I too would forget which axes I should keep in the same layout as the buttons and which should be mirrored).

I abandoned guiding in favor of the ease of unguided imaging and lived with the noisier images my shorter exposures produced, always wanting a better way. In early 2006, I had already written and released Nebulosity, a program designed to both capture and process astrophotography images. Its mantra was to be powerful, but easy to use. I know first-hand that much of the time when doing this, I’m standing in a dark field that is either freezing cold or infested with mosquitoes. On top of that, I’m generally tired and it doesn’t take a cognitive psychologist or cognitive neuroscientist to tell you that under these conditions, you don’t work or think

your best. (If you do feel you need a cognitive psychologist or cognitive neuroscientist to tell you this, consider yourself sotold.) It’s at times like these that one really appreciates a clean, simple, user interface that offloads as much as possible from the user’s brain to the computer. After one night of not being able to image as long as I’d wanted, I decided to write PHD Guiding, taking the same approach I’d taken in Nebulosity. The name comes from both its attempt to be intelligent (or at least well-informed and an expert in a particularly small domain) and to be “Push Here Dummy” simple.

Hardware Before we cover how to autoguide with something like PHD, we need to cover the bits and pieces of hardware you need for guiding. There are three basic things you need: 1) a second camera chip, 2) a means of projecting an image onto that chip (e.g., a guide scope), and 3) some way to have your computer tell your mount which way to move. We’ll take these each in turn.

Guide Cameras The same pixels you’re using to take a long-exposure image of a DSO cannot be used for guiding. Sorry, it’s true. Once you dump the charge from the CCD wells to read off an image, that charge is gone and cannot be replaced to let the image build up more. Some SBIGs have two CCDs in the same camera head to get around this

AUTOGUIDING

Tandem guide setup. Here, a small guide scope (a modified 8x50 finderscope) with a guide camera (Fishcamp Starfish) sits next to the main imaging scope (TMB 80SS). Both are mounted on the same dovetail bar that is attached to the mount.

problem. With their Star-2000 system, Starlight Xpress used half of the lines (e.g., the odd lines) to build up an image while the other half (e.g., the even lines) were read off for guiding purposes. But, in neither setup are the same pixels being used for guiding and imaging at the same time.

If not using one of these systems, we need a separate guide camera. Numerous choices exist for a guide camera since the quality of the image is not paramount.

That said, some cameras work better than others. In general, the best guide cameras will be a) monochrome and b) capable of true exposures of at least a second or so. It is true that you can guide using a simple webcam, but the color filter array over the sensor and the short exposures typically available on webcams conspire to place real limitations on how faint a star you can guide on. A one second exposure captures 30 times as many photons as a 1/30 second exposure and a filter designed to pass only red, green, or blue light passes less than a third as many photons as no filter.

Put these together and a monochrome camera with a one second exposure captures about 100 times as many photons as a webcam running at 1/30 second. While you can stack short exposures on the fly to

Piggyback guide setup. Here, a small refractor (William Optics ZS 66 SD) with a guide camera (CCD Labs QGuide) rides atop the main imaging scope (Vixen R200SS). The guide scope is held in place by adjustable rings that are affixed to the main imaging scope.

get closer to a long exposure (and PHD Guiding does this), your’re facing a difference of five star magnitudes. What this means is simply that the right choice of guide camera will make finding a suitable guide star far easier.

Guide Scopes and Off-Axis Guiders We need some way to form the image on our guide camera. One method is to use an off-axis guider (OAG) – a device that uses a small prism to pick off a portion of the light from your scope that is headed for an area just outside the main camera’s sensor. By directing this light to your guide camera, you can use any star that’s available here as your guide star.

Off-axis guiders have several advantages. First, you don’t need any other telescope since your main imaging scope feeds both cameras. Second, you don’t need to worry about things like mirror-flop or flex in the mounting of your guide scope, so you’re always sure the main camera and the guide camera stay pointed in the same direction. That said, off-axis guiders do have their own issues. First, they take up a bit of focus distance (you need to make sure you have enough inward travel in your focuser to make up for the thickness of the OAG). Second, you have to find a guide star at the focal length you’re imaging at and in the small part of the sky covered by the pick-off prism.

Difficulty with this aspect is what

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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AUTOGUIDING drives most to use a separate guide scope.

Guide scopes are typically small refractors attached to the main telescope (or mounted side-by-side with the main scope) and held in place with adjustable rings. There is no need for the guide scope to be of particularly high quality (or even that it be a refractor), but you do want to make sure it is mounted rigidly and that its focuser can handle the weight of your guide camera without flexing. If modest pressure on your guide camera lets you move it relative to the main scope, you will be limited in how long you can expose without your stars trailing.

As the mount rotates, gravity acts on the two setups and flex will result in it acting on them differently. The guide star may therefore remain stationary on the guide camera while the image in the main camera slowly drifts. Addressing this flex in my own setup let me move from 2-minute exposures to 20-minute exposures.

Back in the days of film imaging and manual guiding, there used to be a rule of thumb that the guide scope should be at

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least half the focal length if not the same focal length as your imaging scope. This was so that with typical reticle eyepieces, you could see the motion soon enough and react accurately enough to manually guide out the mount’s error. With CCD-based autoguiding this rule can be thrown away.

Computers are far better at spotting very small movements and far faster and more accurate in their reactions.

With modern guide software, motions that are small fractions of a pixel can be accurately estimated. Subpixel guiding only requires that a star’s light covers several pixels (which, even with short focal length guide scopes and large CCD pixels, can be created with a slight defocus). Suppose, for example, that a star’s light strikes four pixels in a 2x2 grid and that the star is placed exactly at the center of this grid. Each pixel in this 2x2 grid would therefore be equally bright. Now, suppose the star moves ever so slightly to the right – a tiny fraction of a pixel to the right. As its Airy disk’s energy is now centered up/down but is slightly off

center left/right on this 2x2 grid, the two pixels on the right will get more energy and be a bit brighter than the two on the left.

Move it down a bit and the lower-right would get the most energy and the upperleft the least.

It is this basic notion that allows us to use short focal length guide scopes.

Personally, I use a 66-mm telescope with a 388-mm focal length (William Optics Zenithstar 66 SD doublet). I know many who use scopes of similar focal lengths and have even seen excellent results from an 8x50 finderscope that had been converted into a guide scope (200-mm focal length).

The SBIG eFinder accessory for their STV guider is even shorter at only 100 mm! The days of very long focal length guidescopes are over.

Getting Guide Signals to the Mount At this point, you’ve got an image of the stars from your guide scope on your guide camera. You still need some software

AUTOGUIDING that will capture these images and figure out what commands to send to the mount and you need some way to get those commands to the mount. We’ll take on this latter bit first.

There are two basic ways of nudging your mount during guiding. First, if you have a computerized mount, you can use the same cable used for controlling the mount from your computer (e.g., via some planetarium package) and for updating it. Generally, this is a serial (RS-232) cable or a combination of a USB serial adapter and a serial cable.

When sending commands over this connection, your guide software either needs to know the particular dialect spoken by your mount (i.e., the specific commands needed to nudge a Meade Autostar vs. a Celestron Nexstar vs. a Losmandy Gemini, etc.) or it needs to know how to talk to something else that knows this dialect. In Windows, the ASCOM platform (www.ascom-standards.org) provides this intermediary and many software pack-

ages rely on ASCOM as a result. Individual drivers are written that translate “ASCOMspeak” into each individual telescope’s dialect and other programs just need to know how to “speak ASCOM” to then end up successfully working with a wide range of telescopes. The vast majority of ASCOM drivers are free and most mounts will be able to be controlled with the drivers included in the download. Don’t expect tech support via a toll-free call, however, as ASCOM is a collection of programmers helping the community out in their spare time.

For many mounts, guiding via the serial port can be very effective and accurate.

For some mounts, guiding via the serial port (either directly or via ASCOM) is not as accurate as one would like. The reason for this can usually be traced to the small computer present in the mount and to the nature of the commands that can be sent.

These small CPUs may listen for a new command once every quarter second or so, allowing them to spend most of their time

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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AUTOGUIDING executing commands, keeping up with the data coming from the position encoders on the axes, etc. When listening for GOTO commands and the like, four times per second is plenty fast. If guide commands take the format of “Guide East ON” and “Guide East Off”, we run into a problem.

The shortest guide pulse we could execute in such a system would be a quarter second as it would take at least this long (and sometimes twice this long) to process the commands. Modern GOTO setups usually have a more complex command that allows you to specify how long the pulse should be (e.g., “Guide East for 79 ms”) to get around this problem. The generic term for this is now “Pulse Guiding” – an adaptation of a more complex scheme originally designed for Astro-Physics’ mounts.

The second way of getting commands to your mount is required for mounts that do not support this command syntax, for non-computerized mounts, and is even used by many for their computerized GOTO mounts (e.g., when using planetar-

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ium software to control the GOTO aspects of the mount). This method uses the “autoguide” or “ST-4” input port found on most mounts (developed by SBIG for their STIV autoguiding system and adopted now as the de facto standard). Each direction of movement corresponds to one pin on the connector and a fifth is the “common” pin.

In the simplest systems, these pins are directly connected to the motors or to your handbox’s arrows. Moving the mount amounts to electrically connecting the common pin to the desired direction’s pin.

No computer ships with an ST-4 output port (and no, you can’t use the modem or network ports). Thus, we need some hardware to get an ST-4 output from your computer. Shoestring Astronomy (www.shoestringastronomy.com) sells versions that attach to your parallel (GPINT) or USB (GPUSB) ports and plans for the parallel-port version are readily available on the Web for those inclined to build themselves (and those who still have a parallel port on their

computer). In addition, a number of cameras come with ST-4 output ports built into the camera. This negates the need for something like a Shoestring adaptor as the guiding software can send commands to this onboard ST-4 port that are then sent to the mount itself.

Preparing Your Mount Before guiding, you need to make sure your mount is working well. You do not necessarily need a very expensive or highend mount, but you do need to make sure it is working well. What this means is: a) It must not be overloaded. For mass-market mounts, find the most weight the manufacturer ships with the mount and don’t get very close to this. Some suggest a 50% de-rating of the capacity, but I have found that very good results can be had with less conservative de-rating. Unless this is a very high end mount, don’t run it at full-capacity. b) It must operate smoothly. If your

AUTOGUIDING mount has large shards of detritus embedded in grease that resembles epoxy and if it takes 30 seconds for your mount to begin to respond when you reverse directions due to excessive backlash, it’s time to clean and tune up the mount. c) It must be well-balanced. For guiding purposes, this usually means a slight eastward bias to the weight balance (so that the motors are working slightly against gravity). d) It must be reasonably well polar aligned. Perfect alignment is not needed but guiding accuracy will be significantly improved if you have a reasonable polar alignment. A rough drift alignment, a few minutes with an iterative GOTO alignment, or alignment with a good polar scope will suffice. But, you should not see the star drifting away with a quick look through a high-power eyepiece.

Software Choices With the hardware in place, we now need something that will get the image of the star, figure out how much it’s moved, figure out what guide direction(s) should be engaged and for how long, and then send those guide commands. Many options exist here and many are either very affordable or free. A large number of options exist for Windows and there are solutions for the Mac and Linux as well. When choosing what software to use, make sure it will work with your hardware (computer, mount/mount interface, and camera) and that it provides an interface that you are comfortable with. Since you have many choices that are free or that have free demos (or that may even exist in other software you have), give a look at several to find one that you like.

I have tried several, but know one exceptionally well having written it. Given this, the fact that it is available for both Windows and OS X, that it supports a wide range of hardware, and that it is free, PHD Guiding (www.stark-labs.com) will

be used as the sample program in the How-To shown on pages 54 and 55.

As you can see in the How-To, there are only a handful of simple steps to get guiding up and going. When I head out to image, this is all I do and start-to-finish it takes about five minutes. You don’t need to orient the camera in any particular way or tell PHD anything more than what kind of camera and mount you use. If you need to move the mount (e.g., change to a new target or reframe the current one), just press Stop, start looping exposures, find a new guide star when you’re done moving the scope, click on it, hit Stop, and then hit the PHD button and it’ll start guiding again.

Can it really be that simple?

Yes. For many, it is this simple and help is available from other users and myself via the Stark Labs Yahoo Group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/star k-labs-astronomy-software/) should you hit snags. If you want to make it a bit

more complex and you want to tune things up a bit more, you can make a number of adjustments by entering the Advanced setup (brain icon). Over a dozen settings exist in this dialog and odds are you’ll not need to use any of them to get things up and going. Here are some you may want to explore, however, as you try to fine tune your guiding accuracy: a) Calibration step: During calibration, PHD sends short pulses to the mount.

If you’re using a very short focal length setup, you may want to increase this so that more movement takes place on each step. (If PHD doesn’t detect much motion after 60 tries, it gives up).

Conversely, if you’re on a very long focal length setup, this step may make the star move so much it is lost, so try reducing it. The default works well for the majority, however. b) Dec guide mode: By default, PHD guides in declination. When you are Continued on page 56

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PHD Guiding: How-To PHD Guiding is designed to be as close to “Push Here Dummy” as possible. When you start it up, you are presented with a single screen. Getting guiding up and going is a matter of a few simple steps.

1) Tell PHD what kind of mount interface you will be using. From the Mount menu, select the appropriate item. PHD will remember this choice, so odds are you only need to do this once. The default is ASCOM on Windows and if you’re on a Mac, you’ll notice the only available choices are for the Shoestring GPUSB and for your camera’s onboard ST-4.

2) Connect to the camera. Press the icon that looks like a camera (far left) and a dialog will appear asking you what kind of camera you have. Select the appropriate camera (many more are available in Windows than in the OS X dialog shown here) and hit OK. If all goes well, the Status Bar on the bottom should tell you the camera was connected. In addition, on the right side of the Status Bar, the “No cam” indicator will change to “Camera.”

3) Connect to the mount. Press the icon that looks like a telescope (second from the left).

If you’re using ASCOM, a dialog will appear and ask you to choose which mount you’re using. At times, the correct choice isn’t entirely obvious. For example, if you’re using a Meade LXD-75, you’d select “Meade LX200 and Autostar” since the LXD-75 uses the Autostar system (which uses the LX200 protocol). If you’re using an ST-4 adaptor, no dialog will appear and it will connect directly to the adaptor you’d indicated in Step 1.

The “No scope” in the right-hand portion of the Status Bar will become “Scope” and on the left, it will tell you that the mount has been connected.

4) Press the “Loop” button (third from the left, looking like a green looping arrow). This will start capturing images from your camera and displaying them on screen. The default exposure duration is 200 ms (0.2 s) and if you’re near a bright star and close to focus, this should let you see something. PHD will automatically stretch the image for display purposes (the slider next to the buttons controls the gamma - a mix of brightness and contrast) so that you can see your stars. If you can’t see any (and you’re pretty sure some should be there), odds are you’re out of focus. I find it useful to increase the exposure duration (pull-down next to the buttons) until I can see the large, faint, out of focus star and to adjust focus from there. I may drop the exposure duration back down to make fine focusing easier, but don’t fret too much about focus. If you still can’t see something, put an eyepiece in place of your guide camera and make sure you’re on something and then rack the focuser around with the camera on until you can see stars.

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5) Set the exposure duration to somewhere between one and three seconds. This is a nice range for exposure durations while actually guiding as it is long enough to let atmospheric turbulence (seeing) blur the star to a nice average position and yet short enough to fix the mount’s errors and not let it get too far astray. Don’t be tempted to use very short exposures here as you’re more likely to end up “chasing the seeing” and trying to fix errors due to turbulence rather than errors due to your mount. Seeing changes faster than you can move the mount, so that’s a race you’ll never win.

6) Click on a star. This will be your guide star. If the star is too bright, PHD will tell you so in the Status Bar. Too bright is as bad as too dim. A box will appear on the star that should turn green. If it is orange, PHD can’t locate the star. If it is green, PHD has locked onto the star.

7) Press the Stop button (fifth button). If you forgot to select a star, you can do so now.

But once you have pressed Stop, the image will no longer loop and update in real time.

8) Press the PHD button (fourth button, target with an arrow in the bulls-eye and labeled “PHD”). Orange crosshairs will now appear on the original lock position and PHD will enter its calibration phase. During calibration, PHD tries to move the star first in RA and then in Dec as it watches where the star moves. It needs to get it to move a bit in each direction to get a good estimate of how it moves when guide commands are sent.

So, you should see the box remain on the star and move during calibration (the crosshairs will stay fixed). Once calibration is done, the crosshairs will turn green (they may move a bit from the original location), the status bar will say “Cal” and it will begin guiding automatically. Start taking images in your main camera.

Step 8 Start

Step 8 End

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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AUTOGUIDING Continued from page 53

not aligned directly on the pole, the stars will drift slowly in declination.

PHD will attempt to guide this out and to do so intelligently. Its “resist switching” algorithm tries to determine

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which way the drift is and to stay on one side of the worm gear, switching to the other only when a lot of evidence has built up saying it’s guess of the drift direction is wrong. If you know your drift is only to the north or south, however, you can skip all this guessing and tell PHD to only guide in one direction in declination. c) Noise reduction: Some guide cameras have a lot of noise (e.g., hot pixels).

Passing a filter over this can eliminate the hot pixels without dark frames and without significant loss of accuracy in estimating the guide star’s location. Try 3x3 median if there are a lot of hot pixels in your image. d) Aggressiveness and Hysteresis: These are values found in a number of guide packages and control what proportion of the measured error is to be used (aggressiveness) when determining the length of the pulse to send and how much of a “history” (hysteresis) is to be used. Odds are that the current error is, in truth, the same as the last error as our mounts’ periodic errors are roughly sine waves that change very slowly. If it’s going too fast now, it’s likely going too fast the next second as well. Together, these two can be adjusted to balance out how rapidly the mount attempts to respond to errors. e) Force calibration: If you’ve moved to a

very different portion of the sky, the calibration PHD will no longer be valid.

Check this and the next time you tell it to guide, it will re-calibrate.

Conclusions My goal in writing PHD Guiding and releasing it as freeware was to get more people to be able to extend their exposures, go deeper, and make better images. To get more people autoguiding, the user experience had to be simple, yet the underlying guiding had to be accurate.

I take real joy in seeing first-light shots from new users posted to groups or e-mailed to me. Some of my favorites come from users who say, “I wanted to start with something easy, so I tried 1 minute exposures. Since that worked, I set it for 10 minute exposures and collected images all night.” That a user is naive enough to the historical difficulty of autoguiding to even consider jumping to 10 minute exposures after a 1 minute “test shot” (I remember struggling to get 1 minute shots!), and that he can produce round stars on the first night or so out, puts a smile on my face.

As it can be easy enough for new users to quickly get going and powerful enough for experienced users to image as long as their light pollution permits, PHD shows autoguiding can be both simple and accurate.

The Denkmeier SCT Powerswitch Diagonal with Filter Switch

“Kirk to Engineering, I need more power Scotty!”

“Aye Captain, but I do not know if my poor bairns can stand more!”

“Scotty, all ahead warp factor eight!”

by Uncle Rod Mollise

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie like Uncle Rod, I know you’ve dreamed of sitting in the fabled Captain’s Chair on the bridge of the Enterprise and having the whole universe at your fingertips. Until recently, that was just a dream. Well, OK, it’s still a dream, but it’s been fulfilled in a small way by the Denkmeier SCT Powerswitch diagonal with Filter Switch.

The whatsit with the whosit?

Chances are you’ve heard of Denkmeier Optical. You know, the binoviewer guys. Beginning a few years ago, this small firm established itself as a producer of top-quality binocular-viewing attachments for telescopes. For the most part, Denkmeier has stayed with binoviewers and binoviewer-related accessories, but they’ve introduced some other interesting astro-products as well, including the Powerswitch star diagonal, which is available for both SCTs and refractors--I’ll bet you can guess which one caught my eye-and for single eyepiece or binoviewer use (with an optional binoviewer).

The Powerswitch (Denk calls it the “Power x Switch,” but most users just call it the “Powerswitch”) is an impressive-look-

ing piece of hardware that integrates a high can also add a Barlow or a focal reducer to quality William Optics 2-inch diagonal the eyepiece at the push of a, well, switch. with the Power x Switch assembly. Just forYep, you’re really cruisin’ the deep sky now. ward of the diagonal (aft of the diagonal on No getting up from the observing chair; no some models) is a rectangular enclosure fumblin’ around with eyepieces, diagonals sporting two levers, one on each side, as and visual backs.

Sounds good, but, yeah, I was a little seen in the image. These levers can be skeptical at first, too. The Powerswitch is pushed-in to place either a 2x Barlow or a beautifully machined and finished. The .66x reducer in the telescope’s light path. power switches are buttWhat’s so great about that? Picture ery smooth. The this… diagonal You’re sitting at your Meade or Celestron fork mount scope set up in altazimuth mode. You’re comfortable – nothing makes for falling-off-a-log-easy observing like a fork mount CAT in alt-az – you’ve got the hand controller in one hand and a cold one in the other. You can send the scope to the object of your desire at the push of a button – better set that brew down, first, though, Skeezix. Thanks to the Powerswitch1: 2-inch Denkmeier Power x Powerswitch diagonal you Switch/Filter Switch equipped Star Diagonal.

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL

Installing the Carrier is simple.

itself is obviously of the highest quality.

And yet, and yet... It is a little expensive: 399 bucks for the basic SCT “S1” Powerswitch with 97% reflectivity silver coatings. Want a dielectric? We’re talking 509 smackers. Frankly, over an amateur astronomy career stretching back more than 40 years I’ve seen my share of pricey gadgets like this. Things best forgotten like Unitron’s Unihex multiple eyepiece turret.

Well-built, looked good, expensive, didn’t work well enough to bother with or pay for.

Would the Powerswitch be different?

Yeah, it was different, alright, way different as I found out at the Chiefland Star Party.

What I thought I’d do was see how FEW eyepieces I could get by with without compromising my observing. Every ocular I owned except a UWAN (William Optics) 16mm and a Televue 27mm Panoptic went into the trunk of the car. I hadn’t disabled the trunk light, and knew I’d be skeered to open it to retrieve additional oculars in the midst of a field full of deep sky fanatics.

Telescope? I had my Nexstar 11 GPS ready to go. I plunked down the ol’ drummer’s throne, plopped myself on it, and promptly sent the NS 11 on a tour of everything from M42 to the scads of dim little galaxies lurking down Fornax way.

What did I find out? First of all, I found out the Powerswitch reducer is nothing to sneeze at. Over the years, after plenty of bad experiences with focal reducers

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back in the 70s and 80s, I’ve pretty much stuck to the Meade and Celestron reducer – correctors. What good is a wider field if the stars at the edge look like a flock of seagulls?

It was with some trepidation, then, that I slid the Powerswitch reducer into place. Wow. M35 sure was sharp in the 16. Not just in the center, but across most of the 82 degree AFOV. I de-centered the cluster, went to the 27-mm Pan, and took a look at little NGC 2158, the distant open cluster 14' to the southwest. Even with it near the field edge I was able to pick out stars.

Vignetting? A mite, but not objectionable.

The Barlow was not as much of a surprise, but it performed well nevertheless and got a good workout as I moved from showpieces to faint fuzzies.

I spent my three-day observing stint at Chiefland using only the 16mm and 27mm. Did I feel deprived? Hail no. This run lives on in my memory as one of the best observing experiences of my life.

Maybe because the Powerswitch made it so easy to play around with magnification: “Dim, DIM little Fornax galaxy. How would he look at higher power? Better not.

Bump the scope in my typical fashion while inserting a Barlow and he’ll be gone for all time.” That was not a worry with the Powerswitch. Neither was going to the reducer, which is normally an even bigger pain in the you-know-what than a Barlow.

Are you really gonna remove the diagonal and visual back and screw on a reducer just to look at M33? With the Powerswitch, it’s as easy to go to a focal reducer as it is to the Barlow.

There things stood for a year or two, until the summer of 2006 when I ran into head-honcho Russ and the rest of the Denkmeier gang at the 2006 Cherry Springs Star Party where I was speaking.

Russ let slip that he had an upgrade for the Powerswitch in the works that he thought I might be interested in. He called it The Filter Switch.

I’ve often wished for a filter slide of some kind for my SCTs, since it’s even more of a hassle to screw on a filter than it is to change an eyepiece or insert a Barlow.

I opined that it sounded like a good idea, and that if it were properly executed it might be a great idea. Not long thereafter Russ requested I send in my Powerswitch for the Filter Switch mod. I was a little skittish. The Powerswitch had become a big part of my observing life. Let baby go under the knife? I finally convinced myself to relinquish my uber-diagonal to the tender mercies of UPS. In due course the Powerswitch made its way back to Chaos Manor South. It was the same, yet different. Another assembly had been added, the Filter Switch seen in the pictures, which accommodates two plastic/composition filter carriers (holders), one on each side of the diagonal. If you’re loading 2-inch filters, all you have to do is place a filter in a carrier, tighten it down with a setscrew, and slide it into the Filter Switch. Easy. Unless you’re fumble-fingered me. The setscrews in question are tiny Allen-headed Nylon jobs, so what do you think was the first thing your old Uncle did? Why, strip ‘em, of course.

Luckily, that turned out not to be a tragedy.

I found a 2-inch filter was secure enough just sitting in a holder without the setscrew tightened. 1.25-inch filters are a different matter. If you don’t tighten the setscrew on the 1.25-inch to 2-inch step-down adapter that must be used with the smaller filters, that nice OIII will wind up rattling around inside the Powerswitch. I was more careful with the adapter setscrews and got ‘em tight without incident.

I did talk the setscrew problem over with Denkmeier, as I figgered plenty of fumblers like me would wind up stripping the tiny, soft screws. Russ said the reason for making them out of Nylon was to ensure they wouldn’t mar the edge of a filter. I told him most of us would probably be more worried about a filter being held securely than about putting a tiny nick on

DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL the horse-poop laden dust at Prude ranch before you can get it on an eyepiece (why do filters that are easy to screw-on in the daylight refuse to thread onto an eyepiece in the dark?).

How about changing-out the Filter Switch’s two installed filters on the observing field? If you don’t tighten the setscrews, it’s pretty easy, but if you feel the need to secure the filters in their holders, it won’t be a picnic.

There’s nothing I like less than playing with tiny Allen wrenches in the dark. Solution?

Denkmeier will sell you as many filter carriers as you want – at Carriers with filters installed. cost. They are a mere $20.00 a it. Result? Denk is now offering stainless pair, so you can likely afford a holder for steel setscrews as an option. each LPR filter you own (1.25-inch step With my filters in holders – Filter down adapters are $8.00 apiece).

Switch equipped Powerswitches ship with The Filter Switch adds $189.00 to the two 2-inch carriers and two 1.25-inch stepprice of a Powerswitch. You can have an down adapters – all was well. Each carrier older Powerswitch upgraded with the Filter has an integral handle that’s ribbed and easy Switch for the same price, $189.00, but you to find in the dark. Push the handle and the will, like Unk Rod, have to return your filter slides smoothly into place, stopping beloved diagonal to Denk to have that when it’s under the eyepiece. I felt like I’d done. Is it worth it? Are you willing to pay finally shooed Kirk out of his roost and as much as 698 Simoleons for a star taken the helm. Not only could I change diagonal? That’s for you to decide, but in magnification, I could insert either of two addition to hugely improving your filters with a flick of the wrist. I didn’t have observing experience, the Powerswitch/ to get up from the Captain's Chair to do it, Filter Switch may allow you to finally get either. And you know how it is with filters: some return from the money you’ve already when you finally find the dang thing in the spent. Heck, if you could slam an LPR accessory box, you manage to drop it into filter (or any other kind of filter) into the light path without all the messin’ around, you might actually use those little pieces of glass you paid so much for.

You don’t have to be a Trekkie to enjoy the experience of taking control of your own personal starship with the help of the SCT Powerswitch, but it helps.

Man alive, it's like having an eyepiece boxful of dilithium crystals!

“Good work Scotty. You’ve Installing the 2-inch to 1.25-inch Step-down saved the Enterprise!”

Adapter.

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

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The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

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Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

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Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

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Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

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A Child of the Stars

By Lorelei Parker Power

It was around the end of World War II, somewhere down a dirt road under clear country skies, when a very young passenger asked her mother, “Why is the moon following our car? Will it follow us all the way home?”

But her mother was driving and wanted her quiet, not her curiosity, “The moon only follows bad little girls,” she lied.

And a very quiet child lived under a fearsome moon, for many moons, before finally learning the truth about it. Along the way, against those odds, she developed a love for the night sky. Some thirty years later, she gave that story to her own daughter, along with a solid lesson on perspective, in both factual and philosophical terms. It’s been another thirty-something years since then, but I can still remember joking, “The moon was following grandma!” and seeing something further heal within my mother’s eyes.

She was always more of a “Socrates” than an astronomer, promoting creative “cognitive tools” rather than funding actual astronomy equipment. Still, I would always be

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impressed with my own love for the night sky and how it began with the physical truth of the moon.

I was raised with a love for science, encouraged in a home where it was given that, regardless of age, sex, race, and any other difference, whether real or perceived, every human being was born with an equal right to be curious and free to seek the truth.

Those types of discussions usually happened naturally, camped-out under starry skies, where I’d dream of one day becoming an astronaut and going to the moon. And I’ll never forget the time when all the women took the children “skinny dipping”; it was during my first lunar eclipse. Holding hands, we floated in the water and it felt like we were floating through the Universe (of course, we were!). Afterwards, lying on our backs in deep grass, we traced the constellations in the air with our little fingers. Shouting at the sight of shooting stars and satellites, we imagined aliens (both carnivore and vegetarian) visiting our world in highly advanced space ships....and hushed

giggles invariably dissolved into loud silences.

With such an encouraged imagination, I discovered a deep longing to know the Universe. I wanted to understand the existing connection between the energy of stars, planets, and Earth’s life forms – and me. I did a lot of sleeping under the stars and my family had acquired a lot of camping gear to do it comfortably enough, but we didn’t even own binoculars, let alone a telescope! Despite sorely lacking astronomy equipment, I was hooked. I planned on having my own telescope when I grew up and had my own money. I was still so young that the whole idea of kissing boys, marriage and making babies was “gross”, but already my “dream house” was nestled under a big dark sky, and it had an observatory in the backyard.

I couldn’t have endured the wait without astronomy magazines, my first independent step towards making those dreams happen. Science and astronomy magazines were my most immediately affordable

“scope,” providing me with a view to the heavens, current science and technology, and “futuristic” gadgets available to the amateur astronomer. Owning and operating my own observing station was entirely possible – people were doing it! It seemed there was always some new gadget to marvel at in every issue.

The celestial images easily surpassed anything I’d seen in the old astronomy textbooks – which, although revered, reeked of mold and were always given with the caution, “some facts contained within may now be obsolete.”

I was well on my way to becoming a “lone wolf” observer when I finally picked up my first telescope in my young adulthood. It was an affordable, light-weight, non-intimidating refractor, good enough for planetary and moon viewing. In other words, I wasn’t worried about breaking it. It was perfect for a beginner and I could easily carry it by myself.

I figured I didn’t have to ‘have it all’ at once; the planets would keep me busy for some time before I would need an upgrade.

However, on first light as I observed Jupiter, I instantly realized that I had been spoiled by years of viewing the best of photos produced

by the advanced equipment of amateur astronomers published in the astro magazines. There was no denying it would take better gear to keep me doing astronomy and not just reading about it.

It was in the aftermath of that disappointment when I met my future husband and astronomy partner, Wayne. He arrived on the scene as “first light” had evolved into a BBQ. Through the dark, I focused on the passion for astronomy in his voice, lending me solid encouragement with perfect timing.

And he never made fun of my beginner scope. As an adult I’d never met another amateur astronomer and, as if on some cosmic cue, here was this “neat” guy, an active amateur astronomer, with far better gear!

Providence? I had no idea! I couldn’t say it was a “dream come true”; however, because I just hadn’t “dreamed” of whom I might marry. I was more of a mind that it would be hard enough to find a good friend in a mate, let alone a mate who also loved science and astronomy. But one shared lunar eclipse later, and we knew we’d be sharing our astro gear for life.

Eventually we made astronomy our busi-

ness, SkyShed Observatories; making our vocation our avocation thanks to Wayne’s unique observatory (and pier) designs. Today there are several observatories in my backyard: a SkyShed Roll-off and a couple of Wayne’s latest creation, the SkyShed POD Now we each have our own personal observing dome. After years of sharing astral observing agendas out of necessity of compromise (as much as we enjoyed that), we’re well equipt to execute individual plans for individual observing sessions simultaneously. An intercom hook up between our observatories will allow us to communicate our targets, so we can still share our views, switching “space stations” throughout the night if we choose.

The best part for me is I am no longer restricted by the size and weight of our larger scopes; they’re ready for action!

Our observatory business brings us into contact with a large variety of observers.

More and more, we are meeting the women astronomers who are out there observing and searching for observatory options too. But lately we’ve been noticing a seemingly new trend of more families coming to astronomy as a unit wanting to observe together, and to

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A CHILD OF THE STARS do so more easily on a regular basis. Although we don’t have children, I can still appreciate the difficulty of maintaining astronomy pursuits whilst trying to rear the children you love, managing a household, and making a living. It becomes more feasible when the family shares the interest and the passion, co-operating to get out under the stars together; mapping observing missions together; planning astro gear purchases, openly, through the front door; planning family vacations around celestial events and astronomy “parties.”

I’ve spoken with amateur astronomers concerned with guiding and encouraging their families in astronomy. They want to give their children something logical and concrete to help them navigate their way through those teenage years, where fiction and folly might otherwise find a foothold.

They want to involve their kids, at appropriate age levels, in the process of choosing, operating, and eventually even maintaining and upgrading their astronomy equipment.

They want to provide a strong family foundation with a meaningful core family activity where science and philosophy invariably lead

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to more questions which, even when unanswered, point to who we are and what we are capable of – something far greater than a child might otherwise believe.

Recently, a very young but serious child made one of our favorite telephone inquiries (about a pier). The questions were well spoken and the father could be heard prompting the child, encouragingly. No time was wasted; no one was trying to be cute.

We don’t know if that pier ever sold; we just hope that little astronomer is somewhere observing, even more interested in outer space.

Many single-father amateur astronomers want to especially encourage their daughters to find inspiration in female astronomer role models. They appreciate “her” experience may be different from their own. Those role models are out there, better documented and more accessible than ever before, especially with the Internet. You can look all the way back to the late fourth century to find Hypatia of Alexandria; historically considered the first notable woman in mathematics, as well the first notable female astronomer. Her wise father, Theon, is well worth reading

about too. He had educated Hypatia himself and was the first and foremost promoter of her studies and her work. Perhaps Theon had been a widower, so little was clear about her mother (was it 1 or 12 kids she had? were the 11 other kids just not interested?). Be warned the ending to Hypatia’s story is brutal, and what was done to her would hardly be encouraging to any young observer.

There are so many “female firsts” in science and astronomy; you don’t have to dig back through the centuries in order to find inspirational role models. Take the more recent as well historically critical example of Dorrit Hoffleit (1907-2007), who earned her Ph.D. in astronomy in 1938. You can read about her many accomplishments but as an astronomer, especially, you’ve already benefited from her work and the ‘tools’ she provided. I appreciate how hard it was for her to get her hands on the “cool tools” back in the day (and earning forty cents an hour for work which paid male counterparts a dollar), so I appreciate how easy it is today. Dorrit must have been some character! Having reached 100 years old, she was considered the oldest active female astronomer and possibly the oldest active astronomer – period. She never married and she had no children; the world inherits her time “at the scope.”

Researching women in science, astronomy and technology today, you’ll find diverse profiles in all age ranges of women having fun doing science and astronomy or in some way contributing to our “hobby.” ATT will introduce some of those astronomical women in this column. The FUN part really needs to be stressed – Science IS exciting, the tools are fun. Tools empower and facilitate contribution to the advancement of Humankind.

There are enough universal questions left unanswered to keep everyone busy for lifetimes, providing interesting diverse career options for all. That’s cool! – Or as a kid might say, “Hot!” So where did anyone get the idea that astronomers are “nerdy”? I would encourage, you don’t have to lose yourself, or your “sexuality,” to pursue science. You won’t have to be “nerdy” to be taken seriously. History speaks volumes: both male and female role models stand as leading examples for all, the Human experience being central, beyond sex and gender perceptions.

You may find yourself observing beside

A CHILD OF THE STARS such a role model at your next star party, or purchasing your next piece of astronomy equipment from her. And you’ll be meeting more “Theons” in the future than you’ll find in the past. You may even be someone’s Theon now: “One of the reasons I bought a POD was to introduce my daughter to astronomy perhaps she'll carry the interest into adulthood.... Women tend to have a different perspective on things than men, and (secure) men can always learn something from the diversity they offer. I bet this applies to perspectives on astronomy, too.” ~Mark, Amateur Astronomer There are no guarantees that you won’t be someone’s best or only hope for encouragement. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” I found a bit of “Theon” in several male role models in my life. I looked amongst teachers for male perspectives and found wonderful influences.

And I was well-supported there when I had to achieve a “female first” of my own just to be able to take Woodworking and Metal Shop in grade school. I had to “prove” with an essay and presentation that a girl should be allowed to use those tools (I simply asked them to consider the intellect, not the gender). That class was the only way I could have gained access to such machinery and access to that teacher. At 12 years old, I was not above begging, but it wasn’t necessary; the school board was open to making the change. My appeal and subsequent performance in using those hard won “shop” tools opened that door for those who might follow, allowing the girls and boys to choose the tools they would learn (hopefully that option remains, almost three decades later). I’m entirely grateful for both experiences.

It’s ironic to be here writing about that.

Even though I pursued astronomy tools over carpentry tools, that knowledge and experience will continue to balance any fear of using any tool, whether it threatens to “bite” or break. If “men are from Mars and women are from Venus,” it’s of no consequence to a telescope. You’ll never view the Earth through yours, but a good observer will perceive the Earthlings.

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The Supporting

CAST 20/20 Telescopes and Binoculars www.2020telescopes.com page 19 Adirondack Astronomy www.astrovid.com page 52 Agena AstroProducts www.agenaastro.com page 45 Amateur Astronomy Magazine www.amateurastronomy.com page 44 Astro Domes www.astrodomes.com page 41 Astro Gizmos www.astrogizmos.com page 50 Astro Hutech www.hutech.com page 10 AstroPhoto Insight Magazine www.skyinsight.net page 35 Astro Physics www.astro-physics.com page 31, 63 AstroShorts www.astroshorts.com page 38 AstroSky www.astrosky.homestead.com page 24 AstroTrac www.astrotrac.com page 38 ATS Piers www.AdvancedTelescope.com page 51 Backyard Observatories ww.backyardobservatories.com page 46

The Companies And Organizations That Have Made Our Magazine Possible!

We wish to thank our advertisers without whom this magazine would not be possible. When making a decision on your next purchase, we encourage you to consider these advertisers’ commitment to you by underwriting this issue of Astronomy Technology Today.

Blue Planet Optics www.blueplanetoptics.com page 72

Jack’s Astro Accessories www.waningmoonii.com page 66

Scope Stuff www.scopestuff.com page 48

Bobs Knobs www.bobsknobs.com page 30

JMI Telescopes www.jmitelescopes.com page 13

Scope Trader www.scopetrader.com page 12

Catseye Collimation www.catseyecollimation.com page 37

Khan Scope Centre www.khanscope.com page 48

SkyShed Observatories www.skyshed.com page 24

Celestron www.celestron.com page 2, 28, 71

Meade Instruments www.meade.com page 4, 69

Starizona www.starizona.com page 11

Clickodometer www.clickodometer.com page 12

Moonbeam Website Development www.moonbeam.scopetrader.com page 48

Stark Labs www.stark-labs.com page 35

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com page 44

Obsession Telescopes www.obsessiontelescopes.com page 61

CNC Supply www.cncsupplyinc.com page 59

Oceanside Photo and Telescope www.optcorp.com page 27, 70

Durango Skies www.durangoskies.com page 42

Optec www.optecinc.com page 22

Equatorial Platforms www.equatorialplatforms.com page 51

Optical Wave Laboratories www.opticwavelabs.com page 15

FAR Laboratories www.farlaboratories.com page 17

Ostahowski Optics www.ostahowskioptics.com page 24

Farpoint Astronomical Research www.farpointastro.com page 62

Peterson Engineering www.petersonengineering.com page 48

Fishcamp Engineeering www.fishcamp.com page 21 Glatter Collimation www.collimator.com page 56 Great Red Spot Astronomy www.greatredspot.com page 23

ProtoStar www.fpi-protostar.com page 59 Rigel Systems www.rigelsys.com page 18 Round Table Platforms www.roundtableplatforms.com page 37

Starlight Instruments www.starlightinstruments.com page 53 Stellarvue www.stellarvue.com page 56 Teton Telescope www.tetontelescope.com page 23 Thousand Oaks Optical www.thousandoaksoptical.com page 59 Van Slyke Instruments www.observatory.org page 20 Woodland Hills Telescopes www.whtelescopes.com page 14 William Optics www.williamoptics.com page 3 Zeke’s Seats foxworks@netscape.com page 49

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Starfest 2007

Canada’s Largest Annual Star Party Offers a first look at Meade mySKY

By Ray Khan Photo credits: Bruno Dipasqua

It’s hard to believe that the 26th annual Star Party Starfest Astronomy Convention, held in the town of Mount Forest located in Ontario, Canada, has come and gone.

I measure the years not by birthdays, but by the number of Starfests I have attended. I’ve missed just a couple over the years.

Founded by the N.Y.A.A. (North York Astronomical Association), essentially a group of amateur astronomers who like to get together, shoot the breeze and talk astronomy, it has grown into what Sky & Telescope rates as North America’s seventh largest star party. The event is run by a hardworking core group of volunteers who are members of the club and many others who pitch in as required.

Each year the event attracts over 900 amateur astronomers from all over Canada and neighboring U.S. states. It is held in a private campground, The River Place, which caters to trailers, campers and tents.

Best of all, it offers something for

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everyone. From programs for kids, the novice amateur astronomer and the more advanced, and of course the CCD imager as well. Many families make it an annual event!

Amateur astronomers are the friendliest bunch of people you will meet anywhere and always willing to share their expertise or knowledge, all you have to do is ask!

Seminars are held during the day and early evening, on Friday and Saturday in a large tent that is erected on site. I have to say, this year’s roundup of speakers was exceptional!

Well known author and columnist Bob Berman talked about “Dark Matter & other great mysteries of the Universe of the 21st Century.” Terrence Dickinson, Canadian author of over 15 books, and editor-in-chief of the Canadian Sky News Magazine, held a panel discussion on Comet McNaught.

Ray Jawardhana, associate professor, of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of

Toronto, and a well known contributing writer to Astronomy and Sky and Telescope talked about the origins of planets and brown dwarfs. Tom Trusock, head gear hound and administrator for the Cloudy Night forums, gave a very enlightening talk entitled “Good Times for Gearheads: The Current State of Equipment in Amateur Astronomy Today,” Ron Ravneberg, one of the “old time” amateur astronomers, was also on hand to present his experiences as an amateur astronomer from an observational point of view. And Scott Ireland conducted a Digital SLR imaging workshop for Photoshop users.

Plus there were many other speakers, including amateur astronomers and retailers, who gave talks on using telescope equipment, the latest in technology and demonstrations of some of the popular image processing programs such as Maxim DL. Some talks ran concurrently between two tents, so you really had to pick and choose!

AstroShort’s Casey Dee previews the SkyShed POD which begin shipping this summer.

To see the entire AstroShort’s coverage of Starfest 2007 go to www.astroshorts.com.

I guess one of the drawbacks of being a vendor such as myself at these events, is that since it is a working event, I actually don’t get to attend many of the talks. However, I do get to talk equipment with friends and customers so that’s pretty good in itself.

It makes for an interesting day, to set up displays in the morning, pack up in the early evening, get some observing in if it’s clear and perhaps 4 hours sleep, and do the same thing over again the next day. Coffee is high on the list of priorities!

Several local astronomy retailers were also in attendance, as well as representatives from Celestron, Vixen, and Skyshed POD with every conceivable gadget, the latest in equipment and eyepieces, accessories, etc - I mean you can’t go to a star party and not buy at least one new accessory can you?

And you want to talk about equipment?

Every telescope you can imagine was on display all over the campsite. From the latest in computerized Meade, Celestron, Vixen, and Skywatcher telescopes to some huge home built and commercial Dobs. Just about every conceivable design you could imagine.

If there is one thing at a star party, amateur astronomers love to show off their equipment!

I always look forward to noting where the larger aperture telescopes are, so I can

pop by later in the evening to have a look through them. I managed to get a look through a Meade 12.5-inch Lightbridge, and a Lightbridge 16-inch model. Plus a view through a 25-inch Dob which I believe was a Starmaster.

Some of the Messier and NGC objects visually look like the photographic images

shown in the trade magazines. Nothing quite like looking at the Veil Nebulae with an Oxygen III filter….Awesome!

One of the new technology devices Khan Scope Centre premiered at Starfest was the new Meade mySKY GPS Sky Identification hand held device, which we had just received as we were leaving for the star party. Having used the Celestron SkyScout, a similar device, I was curious to see how the mySKY performed.

My reaction to these devices when they first came out was that they were just another gimmick. However I have since changed my tune, realizing that they have actually gotten people interested in astronomy who might not ordinarily have been, and perhaps have gotten them away from the TV and instead looking at the night sky.

Ever sceptical that this device would live up to its claims (hey, we read the ads in the magazines too and we’re from Missouri!) we tested it out under some clear Friday night skies and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was very simple to use and had some interesting multimedia presentations built into it, plus offered many color photos of objects being observed.

Right out of the box, my initial impression of the mySKY is that it felt like I was holding a power drill of sorts or some sort of

Well known amateur astronomer and optician Peter Ceravolo introduced his latest invention, the Ceravolo Dual Configuration Astrograph, which is actually two telescopes in one: an f/4.9 wide-field and an f/9 high resolution model.

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STARFEST 2007 few minutes, and then I decided to choose an easy acquisition target from the database, Jupiter, to see how quickly and accurately mySKY could find it. It did not take long.

Initially, moving the mySKY against the sky background took a bit of getting used to, however, after about an hour of using the device, I found it somewhat easier.

Essentially, you point the mySKY at any object in the sky, press the button, and it identifies what you are looking at. It has an extensive database of 30,000 objects built in. It utilizes an LCD screen and a red arrow which points you to which direction you should move the device, while you are holding it. As you get closer to the target object, the arrow gets smaller. Once it is on the target object, the arrow changes to a circle with a “+” sign on the target itself.

I decided to try the constellation tracing feature, which worked out quite nicely, on the Big Dipper. The mySKY traced out each of the stars and identified them correctly. One feature I would have liked to have tried was identifying and locating satellites such as the International Space Station.

One feature of the mySKY that we look

ServoCAT equipped 17.5" AstroSystems TeleKit Single unprocessed 56 second frame

video game controller. Meade also supplies a CD-ROM so you can update the firmware, as updates become available, free from their website.

Later, I appreciated the light weight of the unit and got more comfortable handling it. After installing 4 ‘AA’ batteries into the unit, it was ready to go. According to Meade this will give you about 6 hours of operational time.

When you first turn it on, an introductory color video presented by Scott Roberts of Meade boots up to show you how to use the mySKY. Pretty impressive! And probably a good thing, since no actual manual was supplied (not that we read them anyway!)

I also attached the supplied ear buds to listen to the audio presentation along with the video. You can adjust the screen brightness, which I did, since it was pretty bright initially.

Then, I turned the unit off and turned it on again to do a GPS link up. The mySKY utilizes a 12 channel GPS receiver which requires no additional input from the user. I was using it in an open field to avoid any possible magnetic interference. This took a

An interested attendee test the grip on the mySKY.

forward to testing out in the near future (once Meade starts shipping the Optional Control Cable) is its ability to control an Autostar Compatible Telescope. Essentially, you can point the mySKY at any object in the night sky and with the click of a button, it will slew the go-to telescope to the same object. That’s a pretty cool feature! Another bonus is that it adds a GPS function to non GPS Meade Autostar controlled telescopes.

Getting back to the star party, everyone looks forward to the banquet held on Saturday evening before the huge door prize

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STARFEST 2007

One of our staff, Eric Briggs (co-discoverer of Supernova 2006 CQ) really got into the swing of things by dressing up in an astronaut suit! Some witty youngster asked him why astronauts wear diapers…!

giveaway and keynote speaker presentation. Thanks to the generosity of the vendors and suppliers, it took well over an hour to give all the door prizes away! The keynote speaker was John Dubinski, of the University of Toronto, presenting “Living in a Dynamic Universe,” which offered some spectacularly dynamic, computer generated, and very detailed animations of galaxy formations, as part of the GRAVITAS project.

Now, it’s generally true that when you attend a star party such as this, you hope for clear skies to prevail in the evening. Fortunately, both Friday and Saturday night were for the most part clear and all enjoyed the splendid night sky views, with the odd meteor lighting up the sky occasionally, since the Perseid meteor shower was coming up on the Monday that followed.

I learned some years ago, that attending a star party is a matter of attitude; if it clouds over, then you just socialize with old friends and perhaps make some new friends, or share some stories about observing adventures you may have had. It’s also a great time to catch up with fellow amateur astronomers who you might see only once a year at this event.

The organizers of Starfest fortunately run a Red Light Café at night, which serves coffee, soft drinks, hot dogs, etc. till 2 a.m. in the morning, which makes an “all nighter” all the more possible.

By Sunday morning, most folks are up early packing up their tents, trailers, and saying goodbye to friends both old and new. And another Starfest is over…..can hardly wait for the next one!

Starfest 2008 will be held from August 7 - 10. Please consider this an invitation to attend and drop by the Khan Scope Centre booth and say “Hi”.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE

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Reader

Profile TED SAKER, JR.

A native and lifelong resident of Columbus, Ohio, the astronomy bug bit me during the heady days of the Apollo program. My first telescope was a 6-inch f/7 Edmundscope Newtonian. I soon developed an interest in astrophotography.

The Total Lunar Eclipse of November 18, 1975, was my first imaging run.

I graduated from The Ohio State University in 1981. A career in astronomy was not in the cards for me, but I took every non-major astronomy course, studying under Drs. Eugene Capriotti and Gerald Newsome.

The first telescope I purchased was a Celestron SP-C8. First light was the Total Lunar Eclipse of June 27, 1992. This

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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

instrument enabled me to pursue prime focus astrophotography. I began with the moon, planets, and brighter deep sky objects.

Anticipating the future of imaging, but daunted by the prices of CCD cameras, I built a Cookbook 245 camera. Once I surmounted the steep learning curve, the camera’s capabilities seemed endless, particularly under urban skies. I purchased an Andy Saulitis color filter wheel and dichrotic color filters from good old Edmund Scientific. I was soon capturing tri-color images of galaxies, nebulae and clusters. Quickly outstripping the capabilities of the Cookbook 245, I built a Genesis (Audine) camera around the same chip used in the SBIG ST-8.

I began attending major star parties with the 2001 Texas Star Party due to the reputation of imaging conditions in the Davis Mountains. I have not missed a TSP since 2001, and added three Winter Star Parties (2005-2007), two Starfests (2005, 2007), and my first Green Bank Star Quest (2007). I discovered ATT at WSP 2007, signed up for the trial subscription on the spot, and bought a full subscription at TSP 2007.

Gearheadedness is the predictable result of imaging’s tech demands. My imaging rig evolved over the years,

becoming a Gemini-equipped Losmandy G-11 GEM, an Robo focus equipped Celestron C-11, an SBIG ST-8, CFW10 and AO-7. I normally save observing for star parties when the Mark I binoviewer enhanced with Celestron Ultima and TeleVue eyepieces perform best. I enjoy solar observing as the hours and conditions are much better. I used a PST to observe and photograph two total solar eclipses with a Meade ETX-90RA, racking up about 5½ minutes in the moon’s shadow.

When not imaging or observing, I practice law in Columbus. I observe and image from my home and historic Perkins Observatory. My three children have attended TSP, Starfest, and Green Bank. I hope to instill in them a love of the beauty of the heavens and a sense of community with all astronomers.

Looking back to the time I got my Edmundscope (which I still use, it’s a killer planetary scope), the growth and development of astronomy technology is nothing short of amazing. ATT is the perfect publication, at the right time, to keep up with new tech. Its razor sharp focus on that topic and astronomy events provides timely information in a single, well designed publication. I read it cover to cover, frequently more than once.

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