My son's observatory in Vancouver
- Thread starter #juan
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We are trying out a new camera on the weekend that should vastly improve the quality of the photos he turns out. Another improvement will be a drive for the dome so that it will follow the telescope. This will let him control everything from inside the house and see what the telescope sees on a computer monitor
I'll have some in a day or two. I saw a couple test shots of the moon and they were very sharp. What is really going to improve is the deep sky stuff. It must be great to be able to punch in the numbers for a particular object and have the telescope slew around and put it right in the eyepiece, or on the computer monitor. This all started thirty years ago when we bought him a $149.00 two inch refractor telescope for his birthday.
How is the sky for reflected light? This place is almost perfect - but like 3000k away....
Woof!
Woof!
Reflected light, or light pollution is really only a problem with long exposures. With the digital camera set-up my son has, he can very quickly take a couple dozen images, save the best ones and stack them up to make one good image. You have to be a pretty dedicated amateur astronomer to spend seven or eight grand on a camera and telescope, and another three on a building and a fibreglass dome. I don't have the right yard, or exposure for it.
Nice. So this is all hobby then?
Nice crisp images, sounds awesome. Is he searching for a comet to name after himself yet? :smile:
Yeah it's a hobby. One we've shared for quite a few years. We've both had quite a number of telescopes. Over the last few years his telescopes have been getting bigger while mine have been getting smaller. It's related to the amount of weight I'm willing to carry out into the yard while his stuff is now in a permanent bldg.
He certainly has the equipment to look for comets, but it is a hell of a job. You look at a lot of sky and wait for something to move that is not supposed to move. For all the people who find comets, only one person can be first reporting it. You could do everything right and be just a minute or two late reporting your find and you are an "also ran" in tenth place. I don't have the patience.