Astronomy Log

After buying my A4 sheet of Baader solar filter paper I have been making all sorts of filters.

The last of which has been a solar filter for my Canon 450D digital SLR camera, but my method of construction will work for any SLR camera, as its really simple.

I started with a flower shaped lens hood. I bought the lens hood a while back cheaply from someone in China on eBay, I think it only cost a few pounds.

I then cut out two circular pieces of cardboard to put either side of the circular solar filter paper. I cut them to fit just inside the lens hood. I then cut out the circular solar paper.

Cutting the solar paper can be a pain, it is best to cut the filter paper between two other sheets of paper and then remember that there is a really thin piece of transparent film on the solar paper which needs to be removed once the shape has been cut out.

I previously used scissors to cut out the solar paper, but for this attempt I used a very sharp scalpel.

I then placed squares of double sided sellotape around the cardboard circles, in order to hold the cardboard onto the solar paper, be careful not to get fingerprints on the solar paper.

Then place the filter into the lens hood and I just used standard sellotape to tape the cardboard part of the filter to the plastic sides of the lens hood.

I then screwed on my new solar filter and took an image, usually I would take video of the sun with a CCD camera and then stack the results to get a final image. This time I took the sun image below with my DSLR at a setting of 1/4000th second at ISO100 with my 300mm lens.

I then played about a little with the brightness and contrast and colour levels with a photo editor program.

You can just make out two sunspots (1080) on the top right handside.

I have seen these pleasing images where the stars have spikes coming out of them, most notably on the pleiades (seven sisters) images.

I want to be able to get these in my images as well, and now I have found out how to get them by using a diffraction mask on my LX200.

Today I decided to make some by using some plywood left over from my observatory build.

Here is a list of the raw materials I used:

1. Plywood
2. 8x Screws
3. Spare length of wood (24″)
4. 2ft Washing Line
5. Black Wood Paint (optional)

I began by taking the LX200 telescope metal cover and drawing a circle around that thinking that would be just right, although after then cutting it out with a jigsaw I found out that it was far too big.

So I went back and just measured the diameter of the telescope and then found an old style school compass to draw the circle on the wood.

I then cut out the circle using my electric jigsaw.

I then cut down the piece of plywood into one manageable piece, with about 1.5 inches to spare around the sides of the hole.

Next I cut four lengths of some rough timber I had spare which was used on a previous gardening job. You don’t have to add this part, but I did because I wanted the mask to sit back from the front of the telescope, plus these pieces of wood at every side allowed me to make the mask fit snugly around the scope.

I then screwed the pieces of wood with 2 screws on each of the 4 pieces of wood, although I only used 1 screw on 2 pieces of wood so that I could still move the pieces of wood once the mask was on the telescope to fit them even more snugly against the scope.

Now go back to the telescope and place the mask on the front and mark on the blocks of wood you have just attached to the mask where the screws are on the LX200. You should have a screw in each of the four corners of the cover that holds the main front glass in place on the front of the telescope.

Doing this will mean that your washing line crosshairs will be exactly in the centre on the mask.

I then cut 2 feet of washing line from our main home washing line, although you could go out and buy this. I then cut the 2 foot piece into 2 x 1ft pieces.  I tied a knot at one end of each pieces of the washing line.

Now drill holes with an electric drill all the way through the blocks of woods at the location you previously placed your telescope screw marks.

Thread the washing line through one of the holes. To hold the other end of the washing line in place I could have used wing nuts or bolts, but I did not have any, so I used a piece of dowelling, and hammered this into the holes to hold the washing line in place.

I then tried the mask on the LX200 to make sure the washing line crosshairs were exactly centered.

On my first attempt they were not so I had to re-drill some more holes and re-thread the washing line, then they were perfect.

Here is the unpainted mask on my 10″ LX200 telescope.

I then painted the mask by using some black wood paint from Wilkinsons.

Hopefully I will now get the chance to try the diffraction spike mask out and see what images I get.

I am starting to get quite excited about having Comet Lulin to image, so if your like me and want to know how to plan your observing or astrophotography then you’ll need to know how to find Comet Lullin in the sky.

I began using an old version of Starry Night Pro, but that would not show me the comet. So I decided to install Stellarium again on my laptop. By default Comet Lulin is also not in Steallarium, but I did find a way to map it into Stellarium.

Install Stellarium, if you have not already

Located the ssystem.ini file in the data folder where you installed Stellarium

Edit the file and place the following text at the end of the file:

[Lulin]
name = Lulin
parent = Sun
radius = 1000
oblateness = 0.0
halo = true
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16×16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2454842.1414
orbit_PericenterDistance = 1.212289
orbit_Eccentricity = 0.999987
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 136.8614
orbit_AscendingNode = 338.5353
orbit_Inclination = 178.3730
lighting = false
albedo = 1
sidereal_period =

Then save the file and re-start Stellarium

Use the search facility in Stellarium to locate the Comet Lulin

Lulin is also in the Meade Autostar database as C/2007 N3 Lulin, so if you are outside already it should GoTo it, otherwise just connect your telescope to a computer and do an update within the Autostar program.

After buying my Panasonic SD9 HD camcorder I was thinking if it could be used for astronomy. I wondered if I would have to take a trip to my local astronomy store to see if they had anything in stock to allow me to connect my camcorder to my LX200 telescope.

In the same way you use a Ring on an SLR camera with a T mount I thought there may be the same thing for my camcorder, I definitely did not want one of the metal contraptions that are used to attach compact digital cameras to telescopes (more commonly known as an Ultra Afocal Digital Camera Support).

The Panasonic SD9 camcorder has a 37mm thread. Luckily I took a chance and ordered an adaptor, and I am so happy to say it worked. It is a 37mm adaptor to a T-mount. Which means that you can connect it to the Meade T-adaptor or any other connections such as a focal reducer and then onto the telescope.

The SD9 camcorder allows you to screw in the 37mm adaptor directly to the front of the camcorder, as shown in this accompanying image, although there is only space for the adaptor to be threaded on for about two turns.

Although there is another way to connect the adaptor to the camcorder.

If you unscrew the silver lens cover there is a deeper 37mm thread depth available underneath it, and the adaptor can be attached to this, as shown in the image. 

The only downside to doing this is that you must be careful to not damage the camcorder lens as there is no protection for it. 

With there being a chance of scratching the lens whilst out in the dark fumbling about, I have ordered an UV 37mm screw-in lens for the camcorder in order to protect the camcorders lens.

Now I just need to try and do some videoing with the camcorder attached to the telescope to see what I get.

I recently purchased a Hursch f6.6 focal reducer which just came in a cardboard case type box with a cleaning cloth. I also have a Meade f3.3 focal reducer but this came in a plastic bolt case.

I put a wanted ad for a plastic focal reducer bolt case on astrobuysell and I also called into ScopesnSkies to see if they had one, but they did not. 

But last week I saw some cake decoration boxes in the kitchen, and thought they may be perfect!

They are the half size cake decoration boxes that contain sugar stars, silver balls etc. from companies such as Supercook and Dr Oetker. So I removed the outer packaging and cleaned the inside out.

I then cut out some thin foam and glued it into the case and then placed my focal reducer in and it fitted perfectly. The focal reducer does only fit one way up though, but is now airtight.

I was quite amazed to find out that Meade still only allow you one way to connect your telescope to your PC, which is via an RS232 cable / 9 pin cable, the other end plugs into the RS232 slot on the LX200 base.

I would have thought by now that Meade may have added Firewire or USB to the LX200 range, but I must admit that RS232 is such a well known standard that it could be used for a while yet.

The only problem with serial connections on a PC is that some newer PC Desktops don’t have serial connections on their motherboards anymore, as I found out when I built my own new Core Duo PC earlier this year. Although most people probably don’t use a desktop PC with their Meade Telescopes unless they have PCs in their observatories, they would probably instead have a laptop. Another problem is that most newer laptops also don’t have serial connections, it seems now that the newer the laptop the less ports it actually has.

So what can you do? Well you’ll probably need a USB to Serial cable or adaptor. I went for the cable and purchased it on eBay. Once I had received the cable from Hong Kong which cost me about £4 including delivery I had to install the drivers. I found that the accompanying mini CD would not actually be read by my laptop cd drive, so I hunted around the internet for drivers, and I tried absoultely loads, but none of them worked, in the end I put the mini CD in my desktop PC and it read the disc ok.

But because some people may not have more than one PC I shall place the driver I used on this page in case I or anyone else needs it in the future.

The CD that came with the adaptor contained many different adaptors, but luckily the code of the driver folder required is actually the name on the adaptor cable at the serial end on the plastic sleeve.

USB to RS232 Serial Adaptor Driver

HS-232-340.exe – USB to RS232 Cable Adaptor Driver for Windows

Setting up your PC and Meade Software

Then just connect the cable you purchased to the supplied Meade LX200 cable and adaptor.

The Serial connection defaulted to COM Port 5, although the Meade software only really gives you the choices of COM1 – COM4, so I changed the COM port of the cable on the PC in properties of the cable to COM1 for ease of use.

Make sure that your PC COM port is set to the same as the Meade software Com port in order to get the telescope to talk to the PC.

The first thing I did once I got the PC drivers installed was to update the Autostar software to 4.2g and to upload the latest autostar tours, comets, asteroids and satellites. All of which were easy to install via the Meade control panel on the PC.

I finished off by updating my Autostar Update (AUS) Client Application Software to Version 4.6 on my PC, but you don’t need a usb to serial cable to do this.

After owning my Bresser Messier 130N for around two months I decided to invest in an RA Motor Drive for it. This particular RA Drive fits just the 130N and R90 telescope models. Other models of telescope in the Messier range can use another drive system which operates both the RA and Dec Axis.

I decided to buy one as I thought that the Messier RA Drive would make my job of keeping an object centered a lot easier, whether this worked or not can be discussed in another post when I actually review the RA drive, but this post will take you through how to attach your RA Drive to your MON1 telescope mount (as you can tell from the images I did this in the garden on a nice hot summer day).

Unpacking your RA Motor Drive

You should find the following contents in your box, the nice manufacturers even supply an Allen key and screwdriver!

Below you can see the hand controller, battery pack, motor, screwdriver and RA knob etc.

Attach the Motor

The first thing you need to do is attach the motor part to your MON1 mount.

You need to first tilt up your telescope mount to reveal a screw hold underneath as shown above, this is where your Allen key screw will go.

Now locate the motor and the Allen key and the screw, and get ready to attach the motor.

The image above shows the motor attached by the single screw.

Remove RA Arm

Now remove your RA ‘wobbly’ movement arm, just unscrew the screw on this and remove it, so you are left with your mount looking like the image below:

Screw on RA Knob

Now screw onto this the new RA adjustment knob. There are two screws to this so make sure you align it up properly and screw both of them quite tightly using the provided screwdriver. The most important part to this is to make sure you get the teeth of both cogs nicely touching, not so tight so they don’t move but so they can turn each other.

Attach Hand Controller

Now attach the hand controller DIN plug to the motor drive, as shown below:

RA Motor Drive Batteries

Finally you will need 4 x D Batteries to get the RA Drive to work, I purchased mine from Wilkinsons, and only paid about £1.20 for 4, the instruction booklet says you can use an AC adaptor but I would not recommend it.

Now plug the mains lead into the hand controller and you are ready to go!

RA Motor Drive Hints and Tips

I would advise removing two of the batteries when you are not using the RA drive, as the batteries could still use a little power.

Always remember to ‘Unlock’ the RA handle when you want to manually move the telescope on its RA axis or you could damage the motor drive. It’s also important to check that the same RA handle is completely ‘Locked’ when you want to use the RA Motor Drive as sometimes it can come loose and the telescope can stop moving.

RA Motor Drive Instruction Manual

There is a very good instruction manual included in the box, which is shown below and it should tell you everything you need to know.

Prime Focus is the name given when you take the lens off of the camera and insert it directly into the telescope. In order to do this you will require a number of extra astronomy adaptors.

T-Ring

The first one is the T-Ring which screws directly into the neck of the camera. Not an expensive part to purchase, mine for my Canon 400D was around £10. But they do all differ, so make sure you get the correct make and model to match your camera.

Check out Pixmania who stock T-Ring adaptors for Nikon and Canon SLR Cameras.

1.25″ Camera Adaptor

This optional adaptor is used for prime-focus and eyepiece-projection astrophotography with SCTs and refractors. It can also be used successfully with many Newtonian telescopes that either have removable sections on the eyepiece holder (to allow the camera to reach focus), or by employing a 2x Barlow lens to extend the focus point.

The rear section screws onto the nosepiece and is designed to hold a 1.25” eyepiece (ideally a mid-focal length Plossl, say a 12.5 to 20mm) for eyepiece-projection photography, with a thumb screw to lock the eyepiece in position, or you can just leave this part on without an eyepeice inserted.

The 1.25″ adaptor comes with the nosepiece and cost me around £15.

The image below shows how the pieces fit together, with the camera, then T-ring, the 1.25″ camera adaptor and then the nosepiece adaptor.

Nosepiece Adaptor

This adaptor can either be used together with the 1.2″ Camera Adaptor above (and it usually comes with the above adaptor anyway) or on it’s own with the T-Ring.

This nosepiece adaptor allows any digital or film interchangeable lens SLR (single lens reflex) camera to be attached to any 1.25” eyepiece holder. So you just slot this part into the telescope.

The front nosepiece section – which is usually threaded can also take standard filters. Using the nosepiece alone allows simple prime-focus photography and you can also use it with a Barlow lens to increase the image scale.

You can purchase a nosepiece separately (the chrome part) and it will cost about £6.

The image below shows the SLR camera then the T-Ring and the nosepiece, I also have a moon filter at the front of the nosepiece:

So all in all the cost of adapting your camera for telescope photography is not expensive at all and really easy to setup, it’s just the cost of a good SLR digital camera in the first place is the expensive bit.

Adding the Adaptor to the Quickcam Pro 4000 meant you had to unscrew the webcam and take it apart first, but luckily the Philips SPC900 webcam is really easy to take apart and add your eyepiece adaptor to.

Remove monitor clip

The large plastic clip on the webcam can be removed, there is no screw or anything you can really break here, just pry and pull the long plastic clip away from the webcam.

Below is a picture of the clip after it has been removed.

Remove outer lens cover

First of all you will need to pry off the outer lens cover of the SPC900, I did this myself with a small jewellery type screwdriver – the smallest I could find. You may be able to see from the photos that I did manage to slightly scratch/indent the plastic where I inserted the screwdriver.

After you get the screwdriver in, just gently pull out the lens cover, which once out completely, looks like the image below.

Unscrew the main lens

Now just unscrew the main lens cover until you can take it out.

Remember – do not leave the sensor open to the air for too long as dust could get in. So have your eyepiece adaptor ready.

The image above shows the webcam with no outer lens or main lens, and it’s now ready to have the adaptor added.

Now just screw in your eyepiece adaptor, the one I have fits really well. When you purchase your webcam eyepiece adaptor make sure you purchase the adaptor which is made for the SPC900 luckily this also fits the Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 and 5000.

Once you have finished you will have your eyepiece adaptor ready for use. Mine is pictured with an extra screw-in clear lens to keep the dust away from the webcam CCD sensor.

Cover white light on webcam

The Philips SPC900 webcam has a white light which comes on when the webcam is in use which is very bright and annoying when out in the dark. Some people have used a black felt tip and coloured it in, instead in the photo below I have just added some blu tak and placed it over the light area, just in case I ever want to use the webcam as a normal webcam or even sell the webcam at a later date.

SPC900 Webcam has common screw mount

A nice thing about the Philips SPC900 webcam is that it has a screw-in mount socket, so you could always screw the webcam into a mini tripod or even a regular large tripod if you so desire.

Where to purchase the Philips SPC900 in the UK

I purchased my Philips SPC900 from Amazon, but Pixmania also sell the webcam. In 2007 mine cost £46 delivered through Amazon.co.uk. Other companies did stock the webcam but it did cost a lot more from them.

Overall Initial Impressions

After using the webcam once – compared to the Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000, the Philips SPC900 does seem to be a lot better for Astronomy use, even though both have CCD sensors.

The VLounge software that comes with the SPC900 webcam gives you a lot more control of the webcam – such as being able to change the brightness, contrast, gamma, shutter speed, frames per second and much more. You will need to play with these settings to get the best out of the SPC900.

If you want to get into using a webcam for astronomy, then most people recommend the Philips SPC9000NC webcam, but luckily I already owned a webcam which I use for Skype, from Logitech called a Quickcam Pro 4000.

I knew that webcam adaptors existed so that you can insert the end of the webcam straight into the telescope eye piece area and then use a laptop to record your footage. What I needed to know was if the Quickcam Pro 4000 could be used with one of the stanard telescope webcam adaptors.

I decided to try and take the Quickcam Pro 4000 apart, this can be easily done by inserting a screwdriver into only one of the holes on the webcam and unscrewing the screw in the webcam.

Now prise apart the webcam and then you should be able to take the webcams main front ring off and then unscrew the lens out of the webcam.

This image below shows the webcam after I have opened it by unscrewing it and then taking off the rubber surround, I have then just screwed the webcams lens back in.

Now you can unscrew the lens from the webcam, which will leave the CCD sensor open to the air. It is advisable to not let a lot of dust get into the webcam, so do not leave the CCD chip in the webcam open to the air for too long.

I then purchased a webcam adaptor for £20, luckily the webcam adaptor I required for the Quickcam Pro 4000 was the same webcam adapter which is used for the new Philips SPNC9000 webcam.

You can also purchase ends for the adaptor or filters that screw into the end of the webcam adaptor in order to protect the CCD sensor from dust.

Now you are ready to try your webcam in your telescope and get some photos and video.

All you need to do is insert the adaptor end into the telescope eyepiece area, and use some video capture software to get some great images.