FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: az-observing Digest V7 #251

["Dan Heim" <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Keith Parizek had his comparator set up so that, during alignment,
superimposed images of both plates were seen.  Not sure how he did that
except for that it involved a prism (or prisms) he scavenged from an old set
of binocs.  He just had to get a few bright stars at opposite corners to
line up, and he was ready to blink.  When he demonstrated it to me, he was
using prints instead of plates, and it was already aligned.  I'm guessing it
only took him 10-15 minutes to load and align.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Loucks, Scott" <LoucksScott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 9:38 AM
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: az-observing Digest V7 #251


> Dan,
>
> Yes, I'm wondering what the time interval was between placing and
> aligning the plates and actually blinking the images. Must have been
> time consuming and I've heard that handling the glass plates meant often
> breaking them - Bummer!
> =20
> For comparison, some amateur grade software can load, calibrate, reduce
> and blink the frames in just a few minutes. Moreover, automatic
> detection routines can even pick out the movers in the frames. Makes you
> truly appreciate the effort this task once was and those who did it..=20
>
> -Scott
>
> =20
> > Still, it seems a step backwards from what we can do on a=20
> > computer these
> > days.
> >=20
> > Dan Heim
> > President
> > Desert Foothills Astronomy Club
> > http://www.dfacaz.org
> >=20
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