It's been quite a while since I used my telescope (8 inch dobsonian reflector for those who know what that means) and since it wasn't freezing tonight, there was no excuse not to pull it out. After everything was all set up, I couldn't understand why the image of the moon in the eyepiece was fuzzy. Apparently I'm smart enough to keep my scope covered but not smart enough to plug the ventilation holes at the bottom. While a year's worth of dust had been kept off the mirror, a years worth of spiderwebs crisscrossed the interior. Damn critters. Always making webs where the is absolutley no chance of catching other insects. I think the spiders in NJ have forgotten what they're supposed to be doing. In any case, faced with cleaning webs out of this long tube with delicate mirrors at either end meant that only one piece of machinery could do the job.

Wet/dry vac. In the middle of the yard. At night. My neighbors love me.

The cleaning was worth it. Below are the first astrophotos I've taken since summer of 2008. They're surprisingly easy to do, especially with modern digital equipiment. In the old days not only did you have to find high speed film, but keep it in the fridge or freezer to enhance its responsiveness to light. Some guys I knew would "push" their film to get ever higher ISOs but I never went to that level of dedication. Today it's very simple to line up a DSLR with the eyepiece of a telescope and get great images. Here are a few examples.


Wide angle view of the moon taken with a 26mm eyepiece on the telescope and 36mm on the camera lens. Exposure was 1/80 sec, f/10 and 800 ISO.


The crater Gassendi taken at the eyepiece of the scope. 800 ISO, 1/80 sec exposure at f/10 and 46mm. The eyepiece was at 26mm wide angle attached to a 1.25" barlow lens. Just to the left of the crater is Mare Humorum, to the right is Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms).



Orion and Taurus setting in the west. Taken at 22mm with a 20 second exposure at f/5.6 and 800 ISO. If you have a tripod, you can do this shot too.



Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) is tucked into the border of Montes Jura (the reverse "C"). The little crater on the edge of Sinus Iridum is Bianchini. To the far left of the photo is Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains).

For more fullsize photos, go to the main website and download to your heart's content. If you have a camera and tripod, see if you can do some astrophotos of your own. Its a lot easier than it used to be but still a lot of fun.

We'll see ya!