A few from last night M27, M45, Perseus Cluster

[Jeff]

It was a beautiful night but pretty windy which ruined most of the shots through the scope. Gotta get me one of those equitorial mounts:)

M27 - Dumbbell Nebula - Yeah, I know...yuck
http://www.seivertfamily.com/POTN/IMG_0424_M27.jpg

M45 - Pleiades - Wish it had more of it's blue color
http://www.seivertfamily.com/POTN/IMG_0448_M45.jpg

Perseus Cluster - Happy with this one
http://www.seivertfamily.com/POTN/IMG_0464_Perseus_Cluster.jpg

[Celestron]

Looks good Jeff , just needs some levels adjusting in the gray point and noise worked on some . That M27 is better than i have ever done . I've not been ale to attempt M27 for lots reasons . Mainly hard to see from my location because of LP . That last one is Mel20 in the Perseus constellation . I've done that before in the past and heres my image of Mel20 along with a jpeg image from Cartes Du Ceil program .

[ebann]

[snip] ... and heres my image of Mel20 along with a jpeg image from Cartes Du Ceil program .

Cute little program! How does it compare with The Sky?

[Nighthound]

Given the conditions you still made good Jeff. The 10 inch LX200 is plenty solid feeling but it also offers up a lot of wind resistance and consequently shake. I generally shoot with my refractors unless there's little or no wind. Even the R200SS really grabs some air. Do you remove your dew shield when there's a breeze? It helps quite a bit up to a point.
Any plans for which GEM you might consider?

[Jeff]

Do you remove your dew shield when there's a breeze? It helps quite a bit up to a point.
Any plans for which GEM you might consider?

I did last night but it was just too breezy. I then mounted the 70-200 on top with a little better success. One new toy I got to try was a wireless remote trigger and loved it. My hands got to stay warm in my sweatshirt pocket and still hit the trigger.

As far as a new mount goes I was looking at some Orion Atlas mounts - the EQ-G I think was the model. I've been using about 35-40lbs as a load for it to support. I'm thinking I'll be putting about $1000 into it. I'll most likely keep an eye out over the winter and get serious about buying in the spring.

[Celestron]

Cute little program! How does it compare with The Sky?

Honestly i can't compare because i have never had the Sky ( more than i care to pay for a program that i won't use totally or enough) . I know lots ppl rave about the Sky program and how you can use it with go-to scopes . Also images of objects are real images in the Sky if i'm not mistaken and with CDC only the planet images are realistic and work with the animation part of the CDC program well . The main difference between the SKY and CDC is the price . CDC is a FREE program (http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/index.php) , the SKY has different versions i believe and cost different $$ . CDC is probably one of the most detailed planetary program available that is FREE . I would say that the TheSky6 program (http://www.bisque.com/Products/TheSky6/) is probably the best program on the market to all public that still cost $ . Some telescopes came with some version of the Sky program and worked different so as far as to compare them , sorry but all i can tell you is what i know and have read about the Sky since i have never tested it .

[Celestron]

I did last night but it was just too breezy. I then mounted the 70-200 on top with a little better success. One new toy I got to try was a wireless remote trigger and loved it. My hands got to stay warm in my sweatshirt pocket and still hit the trigger.

As far as a new mount goes I was looking at some Orion Atlas mounts - the EQ-G I think was the model. I've been using about 35-40lbs as a load for it to support. I'm thinking I'll be putting about $1000 into it. I'll most likely keep an eye out over the winter and get serious about buying in the spring.


Just to mention , Celestron just came out with a new CGEM Computerized (http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/LRNUN3QEHVXV9JJ389JS82DRU0/product_id/CGEM)mount probably in the same class as the Orion Atlas and pretty close to the same $$ . I only know what is readable , haven't read any reviews yet .