Ice cream social day

Today was ice cream social day! Been a while since I had ice cream and it was great to eat it outside in the sunshine.

I hope you can tell by the photo of the scope area above that the sky is currently looking extremely nice and we are hopeful for a killer night tonight.

Today was very productive on the multimedia front as I conducted two additional astrophoto interviews including al nagler. I can't wait to work on this project.

Tonight's targets are the witchead, rosette, and maybe eta carinae. Much more to come so stay tuned.

An industry icon: Mr. Al Nagler

The astronomical marketplace is certainly a small one compared to other similar discretionary spending hobbies. But within all industries there are icons and founder/owner/optical designer of Televue optics, Al Nagler is one of those.

Televue is known for their excellent portable refractors and wide field eyepieces. Mr. Nagler is possibly the industry expert on eyepiece design. His eyepieces have taken astronomers from a very restricted view through the eyepiece to one that resembles a walk in space. The innovative eyepieces he and his team have designed have revolutionized the visual market and command a premium price.

Mr. Nagler is not only an icon for the amateur astronomer, but he is also an ambassador for the hobby. He is most kind with his time and knowledge to all who seek it. I had a wonderful conversation with him on Monday about his newly tweaked tv127 shown in the photo. The optics are largely unchanged at 660mm focal length, but he has extended the tube to achieve better scope balance as well as added a 10:1 microfocuser to improve fine focus performance. The views through the binoviewer in daylight were very enjoyable. The 127 would certainly make a very effective astrophotography scope being a native f5.2. Pricing for the 127 is over $6000.

Mr. Nagler also educated me on the importance of knowing the field stop for a given eyepiece so that one can make an accurate comparison from one eyepiece to the next on effective field of view. The calculations are available on the Televue website and Televue provides the field stop data for all of their eyepieces. The field stop calculation may also be utilized in photography for calculating the field of view for any given focal length lens and chip combination. Since I am writing this blog mobile while on the trip, I cannot provide links and data as I would like.

Mr. Nagler is an icon in the amateur astronomer industry. His telescope and eyepieces have enhanced the visual astronomer's as well as astrophotgrapher's experience immensely. If you ever have an opportunity to have conversation with him I highly recommend that you do so; I think you might just learn something.

Stay tuned for more info and images from wsp 2010.

Hello from the Florida keys

The winter star party is an annual event held around new moon in February each year. Approximately 600 amateur astronomers leave the cold confines of the north and pack their astro gear for a one week escape to the warm Florida sunshine.

I have joined a small group of astronomers in staying just down the road from the wsp at bararnacles bed and breakfast. After 3 nights I can say that I am very happy with the astro-friendly atmosphere

I have been working very hard at the party speaking with vendors and beginning video segments of an upcoming video presentation I am producing.

Please check back tomorrow with more information from wsp 2010.

Scout out shuttle launch.

In Port Orange FL visiting relatives prior to the final journey to the keys tomorrow. So today we scouted out a photographic location for the shuttle launch at 4:30 in the morning. This will be the final night time launch of the shuttle program. Modern technology proved invaluable today as the satellite imagery via the iPhone assisted greatly in our efforts to find a location that meets our composition needs. We are excited and I hope all comes off as planned. I will report back tomorrow on our success and maybe failures.

4 weeks and counting...

As most of you in the U.S. know, this winter has already been brutal.  So today begins my 4 week countdown to the Winter Star Party near Marathon, FL.  I plan on blogging daily from WSP and hope to incorporate video for those of you just finishing your snow shoveling:-)  The star party is really a wonderful break from the winter climate of the mid-Atlantic area.  I spent some time today working on compositions for the week and hope to bring back some wonderful data.  I also have plans for documentary work that I hope to share on the site sometime down the road.  So I post an image today taken from the 2009 WSP as I longingly look forward to the 2010 event.  Stay tuned for much more to come...