Astrophotography Begins

Many years ago, I purchased a 6" newtonian reflector telescope at a carport sale. Before long, I learned some likely reasons for its availability. Most damning, was that the primary mirror’s scratches blurred images that no amount of focusing could remove.

But I also learned that pointing the thing at what I wanted to see was, uhm, very challenging to put it mildly. In time, I would learned to use the two small holes in the sighting scope’s brackets to sight-through for an initial, and very coarse, alignment. Only then would the sighting scope itself be used to get things closer. Third step was a low power (high mm) eyepiece so I could [gently!] nudge the large telescope’s tube even to my goal before, finally, switching to the high power (low mm) eyepiece and some more, even gentler, nudges to get it aimed precisely at what I wanted. Only then would the rings of saturn or the color bands across the face of jupiter be visible in the eyepiece.

And blurry.

And then all too swiftly move out of view as the Earth inexorably rotated beneath my feet.

Eventually, I sold the telescope with the house where I’d poured concrete for a pylon on which the ‘scope was mounted, and dismissed the hobby and its frustrations from my mind.

That was fifty years ago.

Today, things have changed.

And in a word, that’s due to computers.

Today, images of deep space objects far superior to what serious, professional astronomers could expect a century ago are commonplace for every Tom, Dick, and Harry that invests the time and money.

The newest term in this evolution is “Go To.” Modern, amateur-level telescopes, come with computerized controllers that know how to point at celestial objects. You punch in the name of what you want, “Andromeda galaxy,” for example, and the computer moves the telescope. Peering through the eyepiece, there it is!

Digital cameras have also become prevalent. Many amateurs use nothing more than their favorite DSLR camera, attached to the telescope in place of an eyepiece, to take stunning pictures of celestial objects. And the dedicated cameras specifically intended for this purpose are even better, not to mention more expensive.

Today, it is becoming commonplace to set up the telescope in the backyard, turn everything on, and then go inside to sit on the couch with a tablet or notebook computer. With a WiFi connection to the computer attached to the telescope outside, amateur astronomers create scripts that play-out through the night and take dozens (a hundred or more, sometimes) of multiple astronomical objects with the backyard telescope turning, focusing, and then tracking each of those objects while the owner (astronomer) sleeps in his/her bed. The next day, those images are transfered to a faster computer, one that can do some massive number crunching, and the multiple images of each object are de-noised, rotated, dithered, stacked, and tweaked with professional-grade software intended for that very purpose.

And the results are astonishing.

That’s where I’m headed.

Equipment is on its way, and a lot of it from China. Dollars are still dollars, and for pricey items, the numbers are significant. The OTA, “Optical Tube Assembly” – what you’d call the tubular part or “telescope” – is already here, an Askar 71F F/6.9 Telescope. And the motorized mount, a Juwei-17 model, is expected today by DHL. In addition, there are cameras, focusers, and all sorts of other doo-dads still on their way from multiple locations.

I don’t expect to be taking pictures for several weeks because even after everything in this initial order arrives, I still have to assemble and then learn how to apply it. And only after that’s done, then it’ll be time to choose the computer and software that’ll be mounted on the telescope itself, order (and pay) for that, and then add that to my “observatory.”

Eventually, I’ll be posting some pictures here, probably not great ones at first but, with time and practice, they should get better and better.

There’s a lot to learn, and a ton of technology to apply.

And that’s what I like: learning new stuff!