Amateur Moon photos.

It says what kind in the video.
ng: great video, bit shaky at the space station bit. What kind of tracking system you have? Manual?

Originally posted by ThaLoccster
reply to post by ngchunter

 

That's pretty spectacular footage man, what type of telescope do you have?

Thanks! I have an 8" LX200 Classic. An oldie but a goodie.

For a cell phone thats purdy dang good
@nd line

Originally posted by PsykoOps
It says what kind in the video.
ng: great video, bit shaky at the space station bit. What kind of tracking system you have? Manual?

Computerized tracking using the LX200 mount in alt-az mode. The satellite tracking program runs on my laptop and commands the telescope to slew to the calculated coordinates for ISS many times per second, taking into account manual inputs from the mouse to compensate for any pointing inaccuracies, producing effectively "smooth" tracking; the shakiness mostly comes from the vibrations of the motors themselves as the telescopes revs up to keep up with the fast moving ISS. I'm not sure where my anti-vibration pads are at, but hopefully I'll find them before my next opportunity to track ISS tomorrow morning before sunrise. Had I been using the pads on that video I could have cut down on the vibrations by easily as much as 50%. This is definitely pushing the equipment far beyond what it was designed to do, but that just makes it more fun.

I figured it had to be something computerized. Curious that it still shakes.

Thats a nice telescope.

Mine isn't near that quality, I have been trying to find Andromeda Nebula for a good month atleast. I know its position in the sky, just have a hard time actually finding and seeing it with the scope. I'm gonna head out tonight if its not too chilly and see if I can see it or Orion Nebula, haven't tried that one yet.

I'm hoping next year I can buy a good one with computerized tracking.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
I figured it had to be something computerized. Curious that it still shakes.

Yeah, the magnification in these shots is extremely unforgiving; if the scope's on concrete (which it was, unfortunately), even walking anywhere near the telescope on the same concrete will cause significant vibrations. The motors are consequently as shake-inducing as they are noisey. Nonetheless, you can occasionally pick out a clear frame if the exposure is fast enough. Here's a fairly clear frame from this morning's ISS tracking attempt. Still couldn't find the anti-vibration pads, so I settled for grass.
farm5.static.flickr.com...
You can make out quite a few of the station's segments. I was particularly happy to distinguish the Columbus module; the last time I saw it clearly was when it was sitting at the space station processing facility at Cape Canaveral and I remembered thinking to myself that the next I'd get a picture of it, it'd be a small blotch in my telescope.

Originally posted by ThaLoccster
Thats a nice telescope.

Mine isn't near that quality, I have been trying to find Andromeda Nebula for a good month atleast. I know its position in the sky, just have a hard time actually finding and seeing it with the scope. I'm gonna head out tonight if its not too chilly and see if I can see it or Orion Nebula, haven't tried that one yet.

Thanks! You'll love the orion nebula. To be honest it took me a couple years to learn how to star hop properly to andromeda. I didn't have anyone to teach me so I had to learn on my own. I could find it in binoculars, which you should try first to get a feel for the layout of that region, but translating that to telescope motions which can be reversed or upside down was quite tricky. Once you get the hang of it you'll find the learning curve gets easier. Finding dim galaxies and nebulae was a snap for me after I mastered that first star hop. See if there are any astronomy clubs that hold public viewings near you and go to one. See if you can find someone who will take the time to teach you to star hop.