Imaging

M8 (Lagoon Nebulae) by Dan Bush, 20"

M27 (Dumbell) by Dan Bush, 20"

20" Sidewalk show

Don Himes sidewalk show

Hi Dave,

At last put together a dream machine sidewalk show...
Obsession 20" and TWO HDTV on a perfect Thursday evening...far superior to the smaller scopes I've run for years.

5 Saturn moons
Epsilon Lyrae both pairs split
Saturn and star colors remarkable

This is a high water mark in 15 years did walking it ...
Don Himes
Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Reflector mag

Published on the back cover of REFLECTOR Mag. - Shot with iPhone 4S & 31 mm Nagler. Tim Conners

Hi Dave -

A couple of years ago, I had sent you a photo of the Moon I took with my 25-inch Classic using an iPhone 4S.

On a whim, I sent the same photo to Astronomical League earlier this year. I Just received the latest issue of the Reflector and was amazed they published it on the back cover. Check out the attached.

I recently moved from Georgia to Tucson, AZ. I’m closing on a house next week. Our new home will be less than ten miles from the center of Tucson, but the skies here are surprisingly dark because of the lighting ordinances and the low aerosol and moisture levels in the air.

I have yet to buy a trailer to transport the scope, but plan to at some point so that I can bring it to some truly dark skies for the first time.

Take care -
Tim Conners

Straight Forward Prime Focus

Occultation of Jupiter taken by Johan Moolman
using 18" UC Obsession.

Jupiter grazing occultation - Nov. 2, 2012

Hi Dave

Talking about having fun – the 18 inch Obsession + Canon DSLR (7D and 5D) – no stacking etc. – just straight forward prime focus (bottom part of a barlow lens - attached to camera adaptor/ nose piece).

We were fortunate to see a grazing occultation and the photon shields (clouds) stayed away JUST long enough!!

Keep well.

Johan Moolman
Pretoria, South Africa

CCD and video astrophotography

The Horsehead Nebula, B33 - photogpaphed by Glenn Schaeffer using 20" Obsession. Visit his website

Imaging with a large aperture reflector like the Obsession is exciting. The large light gathering area means CCD exposure times are very short - usually under a minute. Minimal guiding or none at all. Multiple images are stacked in your PC to build up a vivid image. With proper software, field rotation at the focuser is elliminated.

Live video work is the ultimate in immediate gratification. The newer cameras are very sensitive. Entertain a crowd with deep sky images on the monitor. Actually see deeper than you can with eye at the eyepiece in real time! Or connect to a DVD camcorder or VCR and capture the video to watch later. Or make stills of the best shots.

To learn more about imaging with an Obsession, please see the work of these Obsession owners:

CCD imaging Glenn Schaeffer 20" Santa Fe, Texas

CCD imaging Pierre Schmid 15" Switzerland

Webcam imaging Becky Coretti 15" Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Video stills by Dave Kriege 25" Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Johannes Brachtendorf photos

These images were taken by Johannes Brachtendorf in Rottenburg Germany with an 18" Obsession / ServoCAT / software derotation - no plattform, no derotator, no adaptive optics.

Todd Kozikowski photos

These images were taken by Todd Kozikowski in New Boston, New Hampshire with an 18" Obsession and ServoCAT.

Becky Coretti photos

Occultation of Jupiter taken by Becky Correti and Bill Williams with web cam and 15" Obsession. This photo series also appears in the April 2005 issue of Sky and Telescope on page 132. Visit Becky's website

Doug Murphy photos

Hi Dave, Long time, no write! Clearly, I’ve been having a good time with my 18UC. As you saw from the post I do a lot of video-astro imaging with MallinCam from the back yard, but the video provides a live feel to observing that guests and visitors get excited about, and the views with extreme light pollution in suburban DC are like views you can get in a 50 inch under dark skies. And then again there’s the color. It's a great way to go. Feel free to use these photos. Emphasize that they are just video frames. They match very closely what you can see live looking at the color monitor next to the scope. Here are the conditions:

18UC with Mallincam HP color video camera
Mirror is moved out, but poles not shortened (yet)
MFR3 focal reducer and extenders gives f/2.7 effective focal ratio
Camera integration generally set at 14 sec, sometimes 28 sec, only 1-2 steps of gain, gamma = 1
SVHS output to a Matrox MXO2mini frame grabber
Frame grabbing rate set to match integration time of the camera and controlled by iStopMotion (Boinx Software) on a MacBook Pro laptop
Pictures are the averages of about 4 frames in Lynkeos software on a Mac
Adjusted contrast and gamma and color balance in Photoshop

So you see, I’ve been lovin my 18UC and having a wonderful time with the stars. My mirror is a beauty. These are recent photos of the March skies.

Doug Murphy, Leesburg, Virginia