As you know I'm very interested in the subject and have commented on your two AP images so far. Last night I sat in bed designing a computer controlled device to automatically make large parabolic mirrors for a hand-made neutonian-type telescope. Maybe I'll have some photos of my own in a few years. =)
Interesting subject and something that is very uncommon here. Do you mean using a telescope-camera combination or just general shots with a camera at the night sky?
O, that is great caedes, i know a couple of people that are planning on building newtonians i hope that you do....
mayne, well i was thinking more along the lines of telescope camera combinations, but i know some pretty neat pictures where someone points there camera at Polaris, or they point it at the Norther Celestial Pole, and take like a 4-5 hour picture, leaving the shutter open, and letting the stars rotate in the feild. Hmmmm.... thats a good idea, i might do that next time i go out.....
I did see your first shot before you posted this btu I assumed it was CG or abstract work. I don't know much about home astronomy and I think it's remarkable that you can take pictures like this yourself. I used to have a telescope but the sight wasn't aligned properly so it was very frustrating to use and I got rid of it.
Caedes I gather you mean a tooling device to cuts the convex shape in the mirror. That’s interesting. What type of arch are you aiming for? I always want to make my own by hand but I was afraid I would screw it up the mirror.
Well the basic idea is that you melt the borosilicate glass and then spin it while it cools. That will make a reasonably good paraboloid shape on the surface of the glass. Then you'd use a computer to polish it and perfect the surface height and smoothness.
Very interesting. I have an older Celestron c-8 with dual axis drive. But have not yet gotten into astrophotography, I would like to give a try one day. What I’d really like see made is a reasonable priced correcting device that could be mounted on the back of a Cassengrain or a Newtonian. That wont put you in hock for ten years. Good luck on your project enjoy.
does that c-8 have a GOTO feature, or is it manually driven. if it has a GOTO feature, and you have a 35mm camera, ar a digital camera, you can hook those up to it..... you dont have to buy a ccd...And what do you mean by correcting device.
Not on this model. I was looking into updating to a goto. Bot the coat is almost half of that of a new one. You point it to polasi and puul out a map. and yes I have a 35 mm. And d ioo .
well, if you have a mount that is calls for manual tracking, it will be impossible to take pictures with it.... you have to have a motor driven mount with auto tracking....