Category Archives: Telescopes

A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation.

Telescopes, Travel

The Leviathan of Parsonstown

Back in May of this year we enjoyed beautiful weather while  visiting the “Emerald Isle.”  A couple of hours drive generally west of Dublin, Ireland is the town of Birr, and Birr Castle Demesne.

The Great Telescope at Birr Castle
The Leviathan of Parsonstown.

We took a guided tour inside the castle itself which is only offered during certain months of the year. The castle is not just an unoccupied museum piece but is the home of Brendan Parsons the 7th Earl of Rosse and his wife. The Parsons family have lived at Birr Castle since 1620. They celebrated their 400th anniversary last year.

We were able to walk and explore the extensive surrounding grounds or demesne (domain) which included award winning gardens, historic science center, I-LOFAR radio telescope, lake, river, waterfall, huge treehouse playground and the main attraction I was there to see, the The Great Telescope.

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Telescopes

Meade’s LXD55 + 20 Years

Meade LXD55 10″ Schmidt-Newtonian

I realized recently that I’ve  been a Meade LXD55 Schmidt-Newtonian telescope owner for just shy of two decades now. Wow! “That’s hard to believe,” I thought. It got me to thinking about the telescope, and it dawned on me to write about the LXD55 scope & mount.

Meade’s LXD55 line of scopes, and maybe more importantly, the GOTO German equatorial mount (GEM) was all the talk back in late 2001 and 2002 when the company began advertising it in the usual magazines. However, Meade had an issue getting the units to market and in the hands of eager amateurs chomping at the bit to have a GOTO mount that wasn’t going to break the bank.

I’m not entirely sure why the promised release date was pushed back. Maybe it was manufacturing delays or there was something else afoot but only a smattering of scopes and mounts were initially released. What I painfully knew at that time was my order had not been filled and the delivery date kept getting pushed back. If I recall correctly, (this was 20 years ago) I think I ended up waiting an additional 6 agonizing months before my shiny new telescope finally shipped. Receiving the scope was another tragic story entirely which you can read about here.

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Astrophotography, Telescopes

An LPS Filter Rabbit Hole

The Problem

Shooting from Bortle 8 skies with an f/5 scope means exposures get blown out or go white fairly quickly. Shooting long exposures is doable but with my skies and setup I’d greatly benefit by using a light pollution filter. But what type of filter would work best for my rig a 2″ round or clip-in, etc.  What’s available for my older Nikon D5100 DSLR and where would the optimum location for a filter reside in my light train?

With these questions in mind I ventured to find out. My first stop? A quick scan of the owner’s manual for my Meade Series 6000 70mm Quad APO Astrograph but surprisingly this revealed no information at all. There is this in the owner’s manual:Meade OM

Not much help really and the “picture” mentioned above is not actually on the whopping 2 page owner’s manual. So after searching online for information on adding a filter to my specific scope and even calling Meade Customer Service for assistance; I got nowhere. I felt sure that a filter could be added I was just seeking assistance with the best approach.

The Test

I didn’t have a 2″ filter so I bought an inexpensive 2″ Solomark Moon & Sky Glow filter for $20 bucks off Amazon mainly as something to test with before taking the plunge and buying a high dollar LPS imaging filter. I’m glad I decided on that route. I very quickly found out that the 2″ filter did fit nicely between the 48mm to 42mm adapter that is used to connect the DSLR to the telescope. The line up goes like this:  DSLR, Nikon T-Ring adapter, 48mm to 42mm adapter, Moon & Sky Glow Filter, telescope.  Success!  Not quite. Adding the filter at this point in the light train increased the distance that the camera was from the back of the scope. By pushing the DSLR back slightly I was then unable to achieve focus. The focal point with this telescope is very close to the end of the scope with the focuser almost fully racked in. There is hardly any travel to work with. Back to the drawing board.

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Astrophotography, Telescopes

astrophotography Part 1

I recently took the plunge and bought astrophotography gear including a telescope, a German equatorial mount, guide-scope and camera, and DSLR.  Getting serious about taking long exposure images of the night sky, and most importantly having them turn out decent, in most cases is an expensive endeavor.

Tripod mounted Nikon D60
Tripod mounted Nikon D60

I have enjoyed taking unguided images of the night sky for years. Its pretty simple. Get a camera, put it on a tripod, adjust the ISO and exposure length to the film or CMOS sensor and then see what you get. I have a page on this web site where I have listed tips on how to create those types of shots.  That goes back to the not so distant days of film and having to wait days to get your results.

While I was experimenting with star trail shots, various films, lenses, telescopes, ISO settings and exposures, I longed for the proper gear to take images of objects in the night sky to a much greater degree. By that I mean tracking faint objects of interest and taking multiple exposures that can then be combined or “stacked” using software such as DeepSkyStacker to produce a final image which is then processed in Adobe Photoshop or other photo editing software to bring out the fine details. Well, I’m finally at that point close to twenty years into this hobby.

In my next few blog posts I’ll outline the individual components of my new astrophotography rig. I’ll let you know what equipment I’m using, why I choose it specifically and how it’s worked out for me thus far. I’ll also share my first images and talk about what I’ve learned. 

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SAP Site, Telescopes

Telescope Instruction Manuals

There’s nothing like getting a new telescope! The anticipation of the delivery and then once it does arrive the pure excitement of unboxing your new instrument. Yes, it’s like Christmas and your birthday all wrapped into one.  After the boxes have been cast aside and a rough assembly takes place we turn our attention to the instruction manual for all the “hmm, I wonder where this fits?” or maybe “I know this is the thing that goes on here but why is it not staying on?” We’ve all been there at some point. Time to consult the manual. My Dad always used to say “If all else fails, read the directions!”

I myself enjoy instruction manuals for all things electronic and of course that means telescopes to. You know you’re a nerd when you actually look forward to kicking back with a nice cup coffee and reading through the entire instruction manual page by page whether it be a hard copy or online in PDF form.

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DIY, Eclipse, Telescopes

Solar Funnel Project

5″ Meade Newtonian reflector with solar funnel.

Doing star parties over the years I have witnessed long lines of party-goers queued up to take a peak through my telescope. I’ve found this to be the perfect time to talk to folks about what’s being looked at in the telescope. I like to throw out some fun facts and this always spawns more questions and curiosity in the gathered group. Talking to adults and kids about the night sky is one of the greatest aspects of doing star parties.

There is a limit to how many people can look through the scope at any given time, put simply it’s one at a time.  But when I saw this neat gadget called a “solar funnel” I immediately knew it would be great at eclipses to show participants the partial phases and better yet it could do this via projection so many people close by can view the eclipse at once.

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