FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Photo from Vekol Saturday Night - The Pleiades

["Jon Christensen" <jonc97@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Randy:

Thanks for the kind words.  Glad you liked my picture.

The excellent article by (former?) club member Rich Jacobs on how to
collimnate the scope that Herb posted a link to describes the E210 pretty
well.  I actually bought this scope from Herb's company, as well as my C14,
camera, mount, etc. etc.

To sum it up, the E210 is a 210 mm (about 8 inch) newtonian telescope that
was designed primarily with astrophotography in mind.  It has fast F/3
optics and has a pretty wide field of view.  It has correcting lense in the
focuser that helps make a flat field of view for sharp pictures from edge to
edge.  It has a helical focuser that is a bit of a pain to use with a CCD
camera since you have to rotate the camera to focus, but it holds its focus
well and is very precise.

The E210 is my widefield scope.  The 14" SCT is my high magnification scope.
I actually purchased both scopes at the same time and I switch between them
depending on what I'm photographing.

Here's a photo of the scope set up in the desert:

http://members.cox.net/jonc97/images/astro/equipment/Desertsetup.jpg


- Jon


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Peterson" <rgpeterson@xxxxxxx>

> Great picture, Jon!  Sorry to sound ignorant, but what is a Takahashi
> Epsilon 210 Astrograph?  What happened to your 14" SCT?
>
> Randy Peterson
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jon Christensen" <jonc97@xxxxxxx>
>
>
>> I shot 3 pictures Saturday night/Sunday morning.  This is the first one
> I've had a chance to process - M45.  This was the last photo taken that
> night.  While I was shooting it, Joe Larkin let me know he heard a rattler
> by his car and when I came to investigate we both heard it loud and clear.
> By that time we were the last two left out there.   Not long before, we
> listened as two vehicles drove by with their headlights off.  They 
> probably
> knew I was taking pictures and were being courteous.  :-)
>> Joe left and I was there for another hour by myself shooting darks and
> packing up.  Right when I was ready to jump in the car and take off I 
> heard
> another vehicle drive by with its headlights off.  I decided to wait until
> it was long gone and I drove home without incident.
>>
>> I suspect the rattler that visited Joe was the same one that visited me
> earlier in the evening that Frank "Crocodile Hunter" Kraljic got rid of 
> for
> me (Many thanks to Frank).  It was headed somewhere when it ran into me 
> and
> I suspect after it was relocated it started heading where it was going
> again.
>>
>> Anyway, here's the photo:
>>
>> http://members.cox.net/jonc97/images/astro/clusters/m45.htm
>>
>>
>> Rattlers, illegals, drug runners, law enforcement or not, I'll still be
> making my way to Vekol unless we find a better place.
>>
>> I'm happy law enforcement is out there, and I will gladly suffer any
> inconvenience because I know they're trying to do the right thing.
>>
>>
>> Jon Christensen

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