Last summer I got a phone call from a lady who was vacationing near my observatory. She wanted some information on viewing times, etc. I told her that I don’t use my equipment for viewing the moon, planets, etc., but that my interest was in taking astrophotographs of deep sky objects. Since she was up for just a few days, she thanked me and I forgot about her call. This summer she called again, and I explained the purpose of my observatory. This time she expressed a determined interest.
“Could my daughter and I observe you at work,” she asked. I reminded her that my telescope was not used for viewing, just for taking pictures of DSOs. I offered to show both how astrophotography is done, and even suggested that they take a picture themselves.
That was agreeable. So, in the second week of August, despite a full moon, the cloud cover, transparency, and seeing were adequate, and the two of them showed up promptly at 10:00 pm.
After a short tutorial concerning the mechanics of the operation, I decided to image M27, the Dumbbell nebula. A 30 sec. image was all that was needed for the monitor to show what the picture looked like in Maxim DL. Interspersed throughout the process, we carried on a conversation that any cosmologist would have found interesting.
So I invited the daughter, Kelly, to try her hand at repeating the imaging. Come to find out she was a health care lawyer and, although she had not used Photoshop, she remembered the step-by-step process very well.
Here is her 30 sec. image of M27...click on for a larger view.
If there ever was a “wow” factor expressed, it came from both of them, particularly from her mother, Nancy, who sat transfixed at what was on the monitor.
After an explanation of what a nebula was, and a delving into other topics such as galaxies, their distances and age, it was apparent to me that both had never experienced what I take for granted each night I roam the skies with my scope and camera.
I guess when a hobby such as mine can yield results that help those interested in looking at what the universe contains, there is that conviction that there is no better avocation than teaching. Like ants on a tennis ball, we all need to look up at the heavens from time to time.
If any of my readers would like to take an astrophotograph, get in touch. Two to four persons would be a suitable group. Your plans will have to be flexible, though, because predicting the weather here in NW Michigan is often “as difficult as a frog with his eyes closed, trying to see in a hailstorm.” That last bit was courtesy of Sen. Alan Simpson…
