It took me about 1 hour to do the collimation. It looks much better now through the Cheshire tool. I did go out with the scope after collimating it but shortly after setting everything up the clouds rolled in and stayed. So I had to pack up. I did manage to get a glimpse at a star and do a quick star test to see how collimation has improved. It did look a bit better and more round when out of focus. But I’ll have to wait for my next observing session to see if viewing has improved.

It was an exceptionally clear night and I used it to do some pure visual observing. No camera anywhere near me to distract me from the beauty of the heavens…

This was also the first time that I did some planning before going out with the scope. I’ve prepared a list with the following objects, all of which I have managed to see that night.

NCG884/NCG869 - The Double Cluster
M3 - globular cluster
M100 - spiral galaxy
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy

In addition to all the objects above, I’ve also found and seen these by more or less randomly selecting objects from the database of my goto controller:

M81 - Bode’s Galaxy (right next to M82)
M44 - The Beehive open cluster
M63 - Sunflower Galaxy

I’ve also tried (and succeeded) splitting the double stars Mizar and 38 Gem

Note to self: Do not write down the to-observe list with a red pen on green paper and then try to read it with a red light torch.

I’m starting my very own astro blog. This will keep a record of my observing and imaging for myself and anyone who’s interested. I’ve started observing before I started this blog. Posts that appear to be older than this one are an attempt of catching up..

The pictures have been taken with my Canon Ixus 860is strapped in front of an eyepiece with a digital camera holder contraption. The photo album can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.yesyes/20091126AndromedaOrionNebula#

Jupiter definitely turned out bigger and the belts and bands on its surface can be seen much better this time. Although I think the images could still be a little sharper.

Here is the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.yesyes/20091103Jupiter#

…and a sample picture:

I’ve also had another go at making a Moon mosaic. This time with an almost full Moon.

Here is the result. Unfortunately this time I’ve missed a few bits; bang in the middle and on the right at the terminator. But there is definitely a bit more colour this time.

Album with a few sample individual shots and the final mosaic here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.yesyes/20091103Moon#

Today I wanted to image the Moon. I noticed that it doesn’t quite fit into the field of view of the webcam; not by a long shot. So I decided to try a mosaic. I took several separate videos with the webcam, roughly 400 frames per video. 24 of them turned out rather well and I converted them into still images using Registax. Luckily these images covered the whole visible part of the Moon. So I stitched these images together (using Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) which amazingly is free software from Microsoft!!).

I was well pleased with the result:

Here are some of the individual images used for the mosaic:

More images in the album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.yesyes/20091028MoonMosaic#

Celestron, the manufacturer of my telescope also seem to like this picture. I’ve uploaded the mosaic to www.celestronimages.com and Celestron decided to put the picture on their product page for this telescope model:
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=11&ProdID=57
(click on the Images tab)

Today I made my first attempt at webcam imaging. The target was Jupiter. 3 of Jupiter’s moons are also visible in some images. These are low quality first steps…

I was having a BBQ with the in-laws at the same time so couldn’t really concentrate too much on the imaging. Also, I didn’t choose the telescope position very wisely so I had to image through the smoke of the BBQ!

Still, these are my first astronomical webcam images…

Here is the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.yesyes/20091018Jupiter#

2 example images:

I got lucky. After unpacking and test-assembling the new scope I had a quick look outside. CLEAR SKY! unbelievable!

So I took the scope outside and had a quick look through it. I was amazed. Sooo much better than the previous smaller one.
I didn’t play with the GoTo yet, Just pointed it at the Moon and Jupiter manually and unpowered.

Here’s a few pictures taken quickly through the eyepiece with my digital camera handheld:

The Moon:

And Jupiter with 2 of its moons:

YAY!
My new telescope has arrived! Ordered yesterday, arrived today.

It’s a Celestron C8-NGT 8″ Newtonian reflector on a GC5-GT mount and it’s HUGE!!!