The CCD cameras at the observatory are very light sensitive but have a smaller number of “megapixels” as compared to the digital camera that you may be using at home. The CCD chip in many digital cameras today might also be physically larger in area which corresponds to a wider view of the sky. I have been Continue Reading…
Pewaukee Astronomy Club
News and Information About the Pewaukee Astronomy Club and the Harken Observatory
Archive for September, 2009
Long Time Exposures for Deep Space
Monday, September 21st, 2009October 10th Pewaukee Sky talk – Jupiter: King of the Planets!
Saturday, September 19th, 2009Hello all! You have seen the nice image of Jupiter that we obtained with the telescope. On Saturday night, 7PM on October 10th, I am planning to do the talk specifically on Jupiter. It will make use of many of the great images from the Hubble as well as the many probes that have been sent to study Jupiter and its moons. Hope you can join us that night for some amazing images!
Fun Imaging Jupiter
Sunday, September 13th, 2009On Thursday night, 9/10/09, Mike Paquette and Randy Buchwald tried some webcam imaging of Jupiter using the Harken 12” scope.
A webcam is the same thing that you might have attached to your PC for Skype video contacts. While it is not as sensitive to light as the other cameras at the observatory but it is capable of continuously streaming frames to an AVI file on the computer. At 30 fps, those 2700 images may be grabbed in just a minute and a half. Jupiter is plenty bright to show up well using a webcam. Continue Reading…
Hubble telescope is back in business!
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Check out the following link for the post-servicing mission pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. These pictures showcase some of the new capabilities installed during the last servicing mission in May. I think they are amazing and speak for themselves
Enjoy!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/index.html
Balancing the telescope
Monday, September 7th, 2009Balancing the telescope tube is essential to good slewing and tracking. Putting the guide scope on top of the tube messes with the balance in two axes. Both axes must be brought back into balance by moving the counterweight under the tube. Use the following method to do this:
First, point the tube straight level south Continue Reading…
