Telescope Set-up Outside - USB Wire Through Window

Tonight, I tested the remote control facility, of my recently purchased Canon 1000D dslr camera.

I attached the camera to my refractor as before, but also connected it with the USB wire to my laptop PC in the sitting room.

Laptop in sitting-room, connected to remote Canon view

The wire passed through a slightly open window (still cold in February), to the garden where the telescope was set-up.

This is a wonderful facility of the camera and the supplied software.  You load the software onto your PC, then you can connect the camera and control it down the USB wire.

 I was using two extension usb wires tonight, making the total length around 10 feet (3+ meters). Ample to stretch from the table in the sitting-room, out to the telescope on its mount, outside.

So what images did I capture?

Well this was a new experiment, so I went back to my old favorite constellation of Orion.  At this time of year in the Northern hemisphere, it is excellently positioned for observing.

Alnitak, Flame Nebula And Sigma Orionis

To the right is a wide field image of Alnitak, the left-most star of Orion’s “belt”, showing the Flame nebula to the East.

To the South, is the multiple star Sigma Orionis.  Through binoculars it looks like a double, but with a decent telescope (or this wonderful dslr camera) you can clearly see the “star, moon and planets” appearance.

I also went to the great Orion nebula M42/43 and did a quick image…

Orion Nebula M42/43 Using Remote Camera Control

All these images are unprocessed and unstacked.

Hope you find this inspiring, as to what can be achieved using relatively modest equipment, from the comfort of your home indoors!!

We are familiar with occultations of the Sun and the Moon. We give these occultations a special name – eclipses – solar eclipse for the Sun and lunar eclipse for the Moon.

Lunar Eclipses

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth, Sun and Moon are aligned, with the Earth between the Sun and the Moon.

The Earth is three times larger in diameter than the Moon, so it easily blocks out the Sun’s light and casts a shadow on the Moon.

The Moon of course, does not produce light itself, only reflecting sunlight, so it looks dark during an eclipse.

In fact the degree of darkness does vary due to the condition of Earth’s atmosphere. If Earth’s atmosphere is clean, it will bend sunlight to some extent and this gives the Moon a slight illumination.

If however Earth’s atmosphere is dusty, as happens after major volcanic eruptions, it does not bend sunlight so much and a lunar eclipse can be a very dark one.

As the Moon orbits around the Earth once every month approximately, you might expect there to be a lunar eclipse each month, but this does not happen.

The reason is that the orbit of the Moon is inclined a few degrees to the orbit of the Earth. This ensures the Moon does not pass into the Earth’s shadow every month.

However, lunar eclipses are more often seen than solar eclipses because when they do occur, they can be seen from everywhere on Earth where the Moon can be seen at that time.

When a solar eclipses takes place, it can only be seen from a narrow strip of places on Earth. The path of totality tracks across the Earth’s surface, with a strip of partial totality on either side.

Solar Eclipses

WARNING… Never, ever look at the Sun through binoculars or a telescope, as you will certainly damage your sight. Observe an eclipse only by projecting the Sun’s image onto a sheet of card.

Solar eclipses happen when the Moon is aligned between the Sun and Earth, so that sunlight is blocked-out and a shadow is cast on the Earth.

This gives a remarkable effect here on Earth, as the Sun is obscured and then reappears some minutes later.

From a particular point on Earth, a solar eclipse is sometimes partial, and occasionally total, meaning that the Sun is completely covered by the Moon.

During a total eclipse, the Moon just about exactly covers the Sun. This is remarkable in itself.

The Moon covers the Sun in this way because the ratio of their diameters, happens to be very similar to the ratio of their distances from the Earth.

Putting it another way, the Sun and Moon have roughly the same angular size in the Earth’s sky.

This exact coverage gives rise to wonderful effects at the edge of the Sun during total eclipses such as the “diamond ring” and the “string of beads”.

It has also enabled astronomers to study phenomena very close to the Sun’s surface, such as solar prominences and the Sun’s corona.

Other Occultations

Occultations of other objects in the sky are always keenly observed and have been important to astronomers in the past.

Lunar occultations are when the Moon passes in front of a star or planet and this is interesting to observe. The Moon has no atmosphere, so stars suddenly disappear without any fading and then later, suddenly come back.

Double stars have been discovered through observing lunar occultations.

Sometimes, an star will “graze” the edge of the Moon, revealing details of hills and mountains on the Moon, as the star disappears and then reappears several times.

As recently as 1977, faint rings were discovered around the planet Uranus because a star flickered as it was occulted by Uranus.

For amateur astronomers, there has been a revolution is observing methods.

Digital photography (or imaging as it is more usually called), has brought capabilities within the reach of amateur astronomers that were previously available only to professionals.

Nowadays, every astronomy magazine you pick up and every website you visit, contains numerous, often excellent images of night sky objects.

Let us examine some of the key aspects of digital astrophotography and imaging.

Sensitivity

Modern digital cameras and imagers are much more sensitive to light than the human eye. It its therefore possible to capture digitally, much fainter detail than you can see yourself, through a telescope.

Ease Of Use

Previously, photographic film was used for astronomy imaging. Digital technology is so much easier to use.

This is mainly because you can see immediately on a screen what you are capturing, allowing you to adjust the set-up to improve the results.

Also, there is no cost for film or processing, of course.

Recording And Publishing Images

Digital astro-imaging allows us all to easily record our observations acurately.

Previously, most amateurs had to rely on sketchbook drawings and written notes. This was perhaps good for sharpening your observation skills, but could be innaccurate, to say the least.

Also, digital images can be easily published on screen or website for other people to examine.

Stacking And Enhancement

By using freely available software, you can enhance your images by “stacking” multiple frames that are captured by the devices. This often produces a remarkable enhancement in the final image.

I use the free stacking software called Registax. It is a wonderful piece of work, to be provided for free to amateur astronomers.

Let’s say you have captured an image of an object with a webcam. The image will be saved as a video file on your computer.

What you do is load the video file into Registax and then select one or more “alignment points”. For example, if the image is of an area of the Moon, you would use a crater for alignment.

The software then analyses each image frame and uses the alignment points to stack them. It then combines the frames, by using the best parts of each.

This process can compensate for telescope tracking errors and variations in seeing conditions, producing a final image that is far superior to the individual frames that were originally captured.

Equipment And Cost

The cost of imaging equipment has reduced dramatically.

You can get excellent results with bright objects like the Moon and planets, just by using a decent webcam costing about £50, attached to a telescope.

It is even possible to capture some images with a simple, fixed lens digital camera that most of us have.

However, for deep-sky objects which are much less bright, you will need either a digital slr camera, or preferably, a specialist CCD imaging device intended for astronomy. Each of these options will cost a few hundred pounds or dollars.

Summary

In some ways, it is a shame that digital imaging is taking over from traditional “eye at the eyepiece” observation.

However, digital astrophotography and imaging brings remarkable capability to the amateur astronomer and I think that the new technology should be embraced.

With a modest telescope and relatively inexpensive digital imaging equipment, you can now produce images to be proud of.

However there is a problem…

As soon as you try observing the heavens with a handheld pair of binoculars, after just a few minutes, you will find out that it is not very comfortable.

Standing upright, trying to hold a pair of binoculars steady up to your eyes while gazing straight upwards, soon gets tiring and becomes a literal “pain in the neck”.

I have tried quite a few different ways for observing with binoculars in comfort, over the years.

Here are some ways you can try…

1. Use a deckchair or a reclining garden chair. This works pretty well. You can adjust the angle, depending on whether you want to observe up near the zenith, or at lower altitude in the sky. It is fairly comfortable, particularly if the garden chair has arms that you can position so you can rest your elbows and cut down the hand wobble.

2. Lay back, flat on the ground, preferably on a rug or groundsheet and maybe with a cushion under your head. Observing the stars through binoculars while in this position, can be amazing. If you let your imagination go, you can get a feeling of being “at one with the Universe”. But it does not give your arms or hands any support.

3. Get a tripod for your binoculars. This is perhaps the more dignified, grown-up approach. However not all binoculars and tripods will attach to each other. It tends to be only the large and specialist binoculars that come with a fixing point for a tripod. Also, and importantly, with a tripod you lose the easy mobility of a handheld pair of binoculars.

4. Make a special support frame to help your observing with binoculars in comfort. I have seen a simple wood frame made from 2″ square timber to provide support for the arms and binoculars. It has two legs, each with a “foot” and a crossbar. You lie on your back on the ground, with the frame over your chest. The crossbar should then be in the perfect position for resting your forearms and therefore, for supporting the weight of the binoculars. It might sound a bit weird, but with a couple of hours handy carpentry work, you could give it a try!

If you can come up with a comfortable arrangement for binocular observing, I am sure you will enjoy your astronomy much more.

Excellent astronomy fun and discovery, can be had with nothing more than a pair of binoculars, plus a little knowledge and a good dollup of enthusiasm.

Binoculars have some great advantages over telescopes,  when it comes to astronomical observation:-

1. Binoculars are totally portable.
You can pick up even a large pair of binoculars, without thinking about it. You can take them easily to anywhere you plan to observe from, be it a friend’s house, your astronomy society meeting, a nearby dark location or even a star party.

2. Binoculars require no set-up.
A telescope it will need to be moved, together with its tripod and associated add-on equipment, to the observing position. It will usually then need to be positioned on a level surface and North aligned. If the telescope has a computerised drive, you will have to make sure the batteries are charged and then go through the initiation and set-up, followed by “training” the telescope drive so it can track and find stellar objects. This can easily take 15-45 minutes.

3. You keep both eyes open when observing.
For some people, this is a huge advantage. I have met many people who find it very difficult to close one eye, while looking with great detail and concentration through the other eye. Binoculars give a far more relaxed experience.

4. It is easy to find objects in the sky, through binoculars.
Yes, this is partly because the magnification is lower than with a telescope, but nevertheless, most find it fairly intuitive to point the binoculars on the small area of sky they want to observe and actually find it in the field of view.

5. Binoculars are not expensive.
My pair of 7×50 binoculars cost only about $60 and they work really well. You can get better quality, of course, but even for a high amateur standard, $200 or the equivalent should be more than adequate.

You should be able to observe many very interesting Night Sky objects with a reasonable pair of binoculars. To help you, I very much recommend my friend Robin Scagell’s book, Stargazing with Binoculars. (see image on the right).

The Moon is always good to look at. Also the star constellations.

The great thing about binocular observing is that you can get a whole constellation in the field of view, in one go. This encourages a nice familiarity with the shapes, which will help you find your way about the sky. Star clusters like the Pleiades are also excellent to view. Plus, many double stars can be easily “split” with decent binoculars.

I hope this article has given you the sense that binoculars can be really enjoyable for astronomy. They can open up the Night Sky easily, for a very small investment.

Nowadays, once dusk falls, so many artificial lights come on that the sky still seems illuminated.

Even when we reach the scientific definition of night-time darkness, called Nautical Twilight and defined as the Sun being more than 12 degrees of angle below the horizon, it just does not seem properly dark.

Millions of street lights, road lighting and security lights, usually coloured, make sure the sky glows in a yellow-orange hue.

Certainly if you live in a city or town, or even within a few miles of one, you will be affected. And the consequence for astronomers is that any objects other than the very brightest planets and stars get “drowned out” to the point of invisibility.

My actual home location is fairly dark, but when I occasionally visit a truly dark place and the sky is clear, the difference is astonishing. So many stars become visible, it’s as if space has been swapped for a different one!

Sometimes the problem is caused more by the type of lighting, than its sheer brightness. Older lighting technology, or poorly aimed lighting units, can scatter light all around, including upwards, even if the light is actually required down on the ground.

So if light pollution is upsetting your astronomy, what can you do?

Here are a few steps to consider.

1. Perhaps your main problem is with a very localised light source, such as the security lights of a nearby business premises, or even just one neighbour’s house? You could approach the people concerned. Then ask politely, if they would examine what changes could be made to their lighting.

2. Get a portable telescope. The modern Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes (SCT) pack a lot of capability into a small and highly portable package. With one of these, you can simply put it in the car and drive to a darker observing site, if you have one nearby that you can use.

3. Obtain special filters for reducing the effect of artificial light. These can work well if you are doing digital iamging observation.

4. Attend an organised star party. These are usually held where possible, in good dark sites.

5. Support the organisations that are lobbying Government to introduce legislation to control and reduce light pollution. It is possible that this issue may be taken up by the International Year Of Astronomy in 2009.

Now, I also think that telescopes like this can be pretty cool, but you don’t need ANY telescope at all to enjoy astronomy, let alone a complex, high-end monster! In fact, a complicated telescope can actually get in the way of your enjoyment of the Night Sky.

I have often spoken to people who have gone out and bought an expensive clever telescope, only to find it too dificult to use. They then get frustrated, put the telescope away in a cupboard and forget about the whole idea of doing some astronomy. This is a shame.

You really don’t need any special equipment to get started with astronomy. All you have to do is to go outside on a dark night. Then wait for a few minutes to allow your eyes to adapt to the darkness. And then you look up! It’s that simple!

Outside with your eyesight adapted, you can start to find your way about the Night Sky. This is very enjoyable, but does take a little practice.

Finding your way about, also depends on being able to recognise the prominent star formations (constellations). You will also want to learn how to use a few particularly bright stars as pointers, to help you move about the sky.

Being able to visually “hop” from star to star and constellation to constellation is good fun. It will also give you a great sense of achievement and will stand you in very good stead, if you decide to use a telescope for observations in the future.

To learn how to find your way around the Night Sky, you will need a map. Because you will be standing at some point on the Earth surface while it rotates and moves in Space, you will need a special map that takes account of this movement.

This type of special star map is called a planisphere. What you will be able to see depends on the time of day, the date in the year and your latitude on the Earth. Consequently, a planisphere adjusts for these factors and shows you what will be visible above the horizon for you to see on a given night.

You can find star charts and planispheres on the internet, that you can study and print free. However, you may choose to buy a more durable version (some are printed on plastic) that will last for years of outdoor use. There are also some good books which show you the commonly used paths for finding your way around the Night Sky, using bright stars as pointers.

I hope this has article has shown you that you can have a lot of fun observing the stars and doing astronomy, without a telescope.