[pranavmichael]

Sir just read this report of yours for the first time, and I got to say what an amazing write up and what great photos. Astrophotography is something I wanted to take up when I was in school, went for a few astronomy trips as well to remote villages, my school used to organise them. But somehow the passion just died. Your report might just make me venture into it again.

Amazing pictures Graaja and not just this report, but all your reports are a delight to read. Thanks once again.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by pranavmichael

Sir just read this report of yours for the first time, and I got to say what an amazing write up and what great photos. Astrophotography is something I wanted to take up when I was in school, went for a few astronomy trips as well to remote villages, my school used to organise them. But somehow the passion just died. Your report might just make me venture into it again.

Amazing pictures Graaja and not just this report, but all your reports are a delight to read. Thanks once again.

Thank you for the kind words

I hope this rekindles your interest in astronomy and you get back to this great hobby.

[advenk999]

Graaja sir, wonderful post! Enjoy reading your travelogues, your gorgeous 330i GT and now your hobbies!
The setup looks absolutely fabulous! This is something that fascinates me and I'd love to invest in this the day I can manage to do so.

Just a suggestion from my end. I see that you have drilled 4 holes in your set up onto the concrete slab over the waterproofing layer. I suggest that you grout the junction between the plate and slab along with sealant over the bolts or apply concrete over the pedestal base with a layer of brush bond (FOSROC) to prevent any water leakage.
Water could possibly accumulate between the plate and concrete over the long term and create leakage into the concrete which can be avoided.

I'm an architect by profession and couldn't help but make this observation with good intention.

Best Regards
A

[graaja]

Originally Posted by advenk999

Graaja sir, wonderful post! Enjoy reading your travelogues, your gorgeous 330i GT and now your hobbies!
The setup looks absolutely fabulous! This is something that fascinates me and I'd love to invest in this the day I can manage to do so.

Just a suggestion from my end. I see that you have drilled 4 holes in your set up onto the concrete slab over the waterproofing layer. I suggest that you grout the junction between the plate and slab along with sealant over the bolts or apply concrete over the pedestal base with a layer of brush bond (FOSROC) to prevent any water leakage.
Water could possibly accumulate between the plate and concrete over the long term and create leakage into the concrete which can be avoided.

Thank you so much for your kind words

And thank you for the tips about water proofing. Right now, the holes drilled for the bolts are filled with anchor grout which the fabricator said also acts as water proofing. Here is a picture.



But there is gap between the pedastal base and the concrete floor. I will plan to apply a sealant along the edges to seal this gap to prevent water seepage. I want the system to be removable as well in case I plan to change the mount that requires a different base or move the position of the mount in the future. That is why I did not plan to cover the base with concrete.

[Dieselritzer]

Hi Folks,
Can someone suggest me a decent telescope? Budget not more than 10-12K. Intent is to watch the mood and if possible planets like Saturn etc. I will be setting it up at Nasik.

Thanks in advance.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Dieselritzer

Hi Folks,
Can someone suggest me a decent telescope? Budget not more than 10-12K. Intent is to watch the mood and if possible planets like Saturn etc. I will be setting it up at Nasik.

Thanks in advance.

For a budget of 10K-12K, you will get refractor telescopes with 50mm or 60mm aperture and focal length of 600 to 700mm. An example is Celestron Power Seeker 60AZ.

However, I would suggest you not to buy any telescope in the 10K range. They will not have the necessary focal length to see anything of interest and you may end up losing interest in the hobby. You will be able to see the moon, but not the planets. If you want to look at the planets, then you need a telescope with at least 1000mm focal length and an aperture of 6" or 8".

For visual astronomy, the best beginner scope would be an 8" dobsonian telescope. For this, you will need a budget of around 30K. With this you will be able to see so many interesting objects like moon, planets, nebulae, galaxies etc. and will stay interested in the hobby.

So, my suggestion is that you increase the budget to 30K and get a proper 8" dobsonian like Orion XT8 Classic. You could wait a few more months and save up a little more if needed. But go for an 8" dobsonian at the least. In India, you can get these telescopes from Tejraj and Go Scientifics. (Click for link)

[vaspro]

Originally Posted by graaja

For a budget of 10K-12K, you will get refractor telescopes with 50mm or 60mm aperture and focal length of 600 to 700mm. An example is Celestron Power Seeker 60AZ.

However, I would suggest you not to buy any telescope in the 10K range. They will not have the necessary focal length to see anything of interest and you may end up losing interest in the hobby. You will be able to see the moon, but not the planets. If you want to look at the planets, then you need a telescope with at least 1000mm focal length and an aperture of 6" or 8".

+1 to what graaja said. Apart from buying the main telescope, you also need to budget buying additional lenses, filters and other accessories as well. So you need to consider the costs of those as well.

I have one suggestion, for the beginners and low budget, i would advise look at astronomy binoculars. Celestron Skymaster series 25X70 fits in your budget. It is not same as having a telescope, however Binoculars are one of the easiest ways to get into skywathing / star gazing.

[Dieselritzer]

Hey guys, thanks for the reply. Isnt there anything between this range? Frankly 30K is a bit too much considering that my setup will be at Nasik which i visit once a month or so and i live in Mumbai. I will be very happy to see the ring of Saturn, and the main intent is to observe the moon !

[Dieselritzer]

Originally Posted by skyocean

Moon shot from telescope shot back in 2015 :
Attachment 2136416

.

Hey that is a fantastic pic. A question for you, with the telescope you have, is this the closest you can see the moon or you can still zoom in more?

[ant_vas]

One of the best places to do this would be Markandeya Hills, about 11kms from Kolar.
You will find it absolutely dark on the hill top, there is a temple that is closed by afternoon and the whole hill is at a good height.

Just make sure you don't go alone or as a couple, as the place is sort of isolated in the evenings. There is ample place to park car and zero noise and light disturbances.

Thanks for the pointers SS80. will surely try that place. with bangalore having cloudy weather these days i hardly get a chance to use the telescope. But sure will plan to visit markandeya hills.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Dieselritzer

Hey guys, thanks for the reply. Isnt there anything between this range? Frankly 30K is a bit too much considering that my setup will be at Nasik which i visit once a month or so and i live in Mumbai. I will be very happy to see the ring of Saturn, and the main intent is to observe the moon !

In this case, a good place to start would be a good pair of binoculars. With this you can see details of moon and many other celestial objects like clusters, nebulae etc.

A couple of options in telescopes would be:

Orion 90mm Maksutov Cassegranian telescope. With 1200mm focal length, you will be able to see the rings of saturn and details of Jupiter. But the F ratio of 13.9 means that the objects will be a little dull.

Orion 70mm refractor telescope: This telescope has a focal length of 700mm. You can still see the rings of saturn, but not as clear as with the 90mm reflector. But at an F ratio of 10, you will get to see brighter objects. You could start with any of these.

[skyocean]

Originally Posted by Dieselritzer

Hey that is a fantastic pic. A question for you, with the telescope you have, is this the closest you can see the moon or you can still zoom in more?

Well this is nothing actually. This is how it appears to the naked eye without any eye pieces. Eye pieces give the magnification, in this case a hollow eyepiece(T adapter) is connected to the DSLR, much more like viewing from naked eye. This is done to click pictures that too in a crude manual manner, we have sophisticated cameras which can capture with more magnification as viewed from eyepieces.

Now coming back to the moon, its very close to the Earth hence its not a big deal for any telescope at all, even the beginner ones. With the different eyepieces(15mm,10mm,8mm,5mm etc.) of most telescope you can literally count each pot hole on the moon

[graaja]

A virtual star party has been planned for tonight from 7:30 to 9:30. Details below.



The event will also be streamed live on YouTube in the below link.

https://youtu.be/V5zSb5fDKeA

Note: The plan is to show live various celestial objects through the telescopes of the presenters. As there is a cyclone forming in Arabian sea, weather in most places from where presenters are participating (Bangalore, Pune, Coimbatore, Delhi) is cloudy and raining in many places. Under this circumstance, presenters will show and explain their telescope setups.

[graaja]

After 2 months of cloudy nights, got a couple of nights of clear skies. Managed to shoot a few targets on the nights of 17th and 18th May. With the pier setup, I spent an hour on 17th for polar alignment. After this, it took just 10 minutes on 18th night (or early morning on 19th at 2:45AM) to open the enclosure and start capturing.

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy:



The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. This galaxy is situated at 23.16 million light years from the earth and has a radius of 30,000 light years. This galaxy is 400 million years old, a child compared our own Milky Way which is 13.5 billion years old. This image is an integration of 1 hour and 12 minutes (24 images of 3 minute exposure each)

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula:



The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. It is situated about 694 light years from earth and has a radius of 2.87 light years. This is a relatively young nebula at an age of 10,600 years. This image is an integration of 2 hours and 6 minutes (42 images of 3 minute exposure each)

M104 The Sombrero Galaxy:



Sombrero Galaxy (called so because it resembles the Mexican hat Sombrero) a.k.a M104 is situated 29.35 million light years away from earth and has a diameter of 25000 light years. Yes. What we see today is what the galaxy was 29.35 million years before. This galaxy is about 13.25 billion years old. Total exposure time of 90 minutes - 30 exposures of 3 minutes each.

M13 Hercules Globular Cluster:



Hercules globular cluster a.k.a M13 is a dense cluster of stars packed with several hundreds of thousands of stars in a very small area with a radius of just 72 light years. This cluster is situated at 22,180 light years away from the earth. The age of this cluster is 11.66 billion years.

One issue with shooting galaxies with my current setup is the inadequate focal length. The telescope has a focal length of 480mm. But with the 0.8x focal reducer, the effective focal length becomes 384mm. The galaxies are too small a target for this focal length. Here is the picture of the whirlpool galaxy without any cropping. See how small the galaxy is in the frame.



I am putting together the needed accessories to shoot using my Celestron 6SE. With an effective focal length of 945mm (1500mm x 0.63 focal reducer), this should give me a much bigger coverage of the galaxies in the frame and with integration time of 4 to 5 hours, I should be able to get more details.

The gear in action.



That's all folks, I have for now.

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by graaja

That's all folks, I have for now.

^ This line is a bit of understatement.

Your astrophotography thread here and dpreview’s ones on their website are the only sources of astro-photo digest for me. Keep it coming. Thanks.