Telescope Porn (SFW)

[fivemack]

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

Here's my baby. Sorry for the quality of the image- its a quick picture of a print; can't find a digital copy. This is my favorite shot of my 18-inch scope. Its a 23-minute time exposure (on slow slide film, probably Kodachrome 25 or 64). I guess back when this was taken, it would be called a "selfie": we set everything up, started the exposure, then ran into the frame and stayed as still as possible for the 23 minutes. (That's why you can see part of the ladder through my legs; it's a single exposure, with no stacking of images or photoshopping.) The foreground is illuminated by a car dome light off to the left, and that's Sagittarius in the sky.

The scope is probably taller than a lot of the Dobsonians of that size now; this is an f/6, but I think nowadays, they're usually f/4 or f/5 or so, so easier to handle and transport.

Norm

What a splendid scope; what a spectacular cactus!

[Spherical Cow]

Originally Posted by LaurV

Lovely! Totally!
I made it large on screen and looked to it for more than 30 seconds (that is a huge compliment, the most of the pictures I see on the web I discard in less than 1 second)

Thanks- we had a lot of fun taking that picture; had to find a really photogenic cactus, fairly near a road so we didn't have to carry the scope too far. Then numerous test exposures several nights before, to be sure of how long the exposure could be without having the foreground lighting all overexposed and washed out. We were hoping for a really fortuitous meteor, too, but no such luck.

Originally Posted by fivemack

What a splendid scope; what a spectacular cactus!

That was indeed a really spectacular cactus- I'll have to go back out there to see how its doing. This picture was 29 years ago...

Norm

[fivemack]

I have fairly dreadful eyesight and really like image processing, so Dobsonians aren't my thing; I've got a C6 on a reasonable mount, which with care and an intervalometer can produce some pictures I quite like, though it's been months since I last took it out.

[xilman]

Wow, he's got a big one!

[Spherical Cow]

Originally Posted by xilman

Wow, he's got a big one!

Good grief. Well, size isn't the only thing that matters...

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

Good grief. Well, size isn't the only thing that matters...

Indeed. It's how you use it, or even if you use it. Being too b ig is sometimes a disincentive to getting it out and putting it into action.

[Xyzzy]

Our optical dream is to have a set of giant battleship binoculars.

https://howtospendit.ft.com/house-ga...val-binoculars

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Our optical dream is to have a set of giant battleship binoculars.

https://howtospendit.ft.com/house-ga...val-binoculars

I have a pair of ex-military Fujinon 25x150 binoculars. They have been painted dark green (to help preserve night vision) but are otherwise standard.

The original mounting was damaged and almost useless so I had a large equatorial fork mount made so that they could track the sky. The mount is slightly damaged (a roller bearing has come adrift) but could be repaired easily enough.

How much are you prepared to pay?

[Spherical Cow]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Our optical dream is to have a set of giant battleship binoculars.

https://howtospendit.ft.com/house-ga...val-binoculars

I'm not sure if these would qualify as a dream, or a nightmare, but I looked through a pair like this (12-inch diameter) once at a star party, and it was indeed very nice.

Norm

[xilman]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...telescope.html

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

I'm not sure if these would qualify as a dream, or a nightmare, but I looked through a pair like this (12-inch diameter) once at a star party, and it was indeed very nice.

Norm

Nice Phyllostachys nigra in the background ...