(March 27, 2012 at 6:45 am)Mosrhun Wrote: How would I go about getting pictures like this myself? Is the majority of the equipment yours or do you use stuff provided by the Observatory? I have no idea how it works.
Well, there is a story behind this picture I'm reluctant to tell, but, oh well, I'll tell it anyway.
I was hoping to go to the observatory last night because I had not been in a while. I managed to scrounge up enough gas money to get there. But I had to repack my equipment in my car because I had removed it yesterday to take a friend's mom home (she had been visiting for a week or so). So I was busy packing everything and was in a hurry because it was getting late in the day. So off I went, driving 60 miles to the observatory. On the way, I kept getting the feeling that I had left something behind. Then it dawned in me - - - I had left the telescope behind (but had the mount and everything else)!!!
Well hell! I was already half way there, so I decided to go ahead and go. We have plenty of scopes there (and an astrophotography set up), so it wasn't a really big deal, but I would rather have used my own scope.
Anyway, I pulled the crappy camera off the astrophotography set up (which is officially a no no, but I'm on the instrument committee, so screw em!), and put mine on it. This picture is the one image I managed to get last night/this morning. The seeing was pretty bad, though the sky was transparent.
Anyway, to answer your questions, my best advice would be to contact a local astronomy club in your area and see if they will let you attend a meeting. They are the best sources of information for getting started. I am sure they would be eager to let you attend one of their outings so you can see a variety of scopes and ask questions. It is the best way to decided exactly what you want to do (observe, image, or both) and what you will need to accomplish your goals. And most moderate sized clubs have scopes they will loan out to members.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
