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Bill's Astronomy and Model Plane Website
The Celestar 8
Astrophotos
How I became a variable star observer
Birth of a Solar Observer
Favorite Links Page
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Astrophotos done by author William Anthony, and Mark Hansen
click on thumbnails for larger images! |
| William Anthony's Photos |
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| 2 photos of Hale Bopp (8min. Exp, 200mm Lense and Pentax K-1000, Piggyback on 8"SCT, T-Max 400, Image enhanced digitally) |
Shot with Kodak Max 400, 1/500 sec exp. primefocus with 8"SCT (Celstar 8) 12/25/00
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| Originally I had doubts about the ability of the Standard Celestar 8 to produce long exposure prime focus astrophotos. After contacting Mark Hansen over the internet, my doubts were put to rest. The standard version of the Celestar 8 uses a spur gear and not a worm drive. The drive can produce an unacceptable amount of tracking error which can not be easily guided out. Marks solution was to grab the fork arm with an elastic bungee cord. The other end of the bungee cord should be wrapped around some other part of the tripod. Just enough tension, is then place on the gear mechanism to reduce the slop inherent in the drive mechanism. This allows for an acceptable amount of tracking error which can be manually guided out during long exposures even at f10. As you see Marks photos demonstrate that this solution works very well. |
| Mark Hansen's Photos |
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M8 "Lagoon Nebula" 40Min (8/18/00)
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M45 "The Pleiades" 40Min (9/06/00)
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M17 "Omega Nebula" 40Min (8/19/00)
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M20 "Trifid Nebula" 40Min (8/19/00) |
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