Al Nagler discusses his astrophotography endeavors

Al Nagler discusses his astrophotography endeavors from Jeff Ball on Vimeo.

Noted telescope designer Al Nagler discusses his early efforts at astrophotography and current telescope designs aimed at improving imaging performance of his telescopes. A wonderful few minutes spent with one of the industry's icons and a terrific ambassador for the amateur astronomy community. I am sure you will enjoy the discussion and learn a thing or two.

This video is part of a project I am putting together, but felt that Mr. Nagler's presentation stood on its own from an entertainment and information point of view.

I have had an opportunity to image with Televue instruments over the years including the TV85 and TV101. These instruments are capable of taking wonderful astrophotos. The TV101 and TV127 IS systems are particularly noted for their astrophotographic performance. I encourage you to consider Televue for your astrophotography needs, not to mention those unbelievable eyepieces for the visual astronomer!

A very special THANK YOU to Tom Kennedy for his technical assistance on video production!!

Thanks and clear skies.

Candy for good little boys and girls...

Vendors at a star party provide the candy for the good little boys and girls.  We all manage to find some reason why we need that beautiful new ????? for our next observing/photography session.  It is always great to see the vendors goods live and in-person and WSP provides a great opportunity for one to do just that.  Believe it or not, one could sign up for a loaner program from TeleVue where you could actually borrow the eyepiece for a two hour period and fully evaluate the eyepiece on YOUR scope.  I bet they sold quite a few Ethos eyepieces through the loaner program.  A great win-win program for all.  

Meade Telescopes featuring a 16" SCT.The diversity of the group is quite substantial ranging from telescope manufacturers like Meade and Televue to t-shirt retailers and fine art painters.  One can purchase a $20,000 telescope setup or a AA battery (thanks Astro-Gizmos!)  I always learn about a new product or feature each time I visit a vendor. Prior to this WSP I knew little about ATIK cameras.  After speaking with Warren Keller, I have a pretty good idea about their products and will likely purchase one of their cameras as an autoguider.

Warren Keller of ATIK CCD Cameras 

Meade offered views of the sun through their solar scopes which were quite enjoyable.  They also had the monster 16" SCT in the photo above that was available for night sky viewing.  Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to take in the night sky views through the 16".  I spent some time with Jim from JMI discussing his motorized binocular telescope system.  He had several sizes on hand including the 10" in the image below.  I remember one of my first views through a home-made 10" binoscope a few years ago and the views were quite stunning.  I had others share with me that the views through the binocular scopes were the equal of larger one-eyed scopes.  These are instruments that serious visual observers should consider when purchasing a large scope.  

Jim of Jim's Mobile Instruments

It was also nice to see the Disc Mounts in person again.  Every time I see one of these I salivate a great deal.  I can just envision one of my refractors on one of these mounts on a night of planetary observing bliss.  But I just can't fit it into the budget right now...but I am waiting.  

WSP provides a wonderful opportunity to see and test gear first hand.  That is a rare opportunity, especially under such wonderful conditions as the steady Florida Keys skies.  Definitely one of the great reasons to check out the Winter Star Party.  

Just for old times sake, you can check out my archived report from the 2001 Winter Star Party at this link.  

Solar viewing at it's best

The Wsp often affords the astronomer terrific views of the sun. Viewing the sun in high resolution requires very special filters and long focal length instruments.

Jim Sweeney had a wonderful solar viewing setup at wsp and was most gracious in sharing the views. High resolution views of the sun reveal intricate details on the surface as well as prominences that stretch out from the solar disk in wispy detail. These views were some of the finest, if not the finest, i have ever had.

Jim was viewing with a .2 angstrom solar sentinel model 3 filter. The more narrow the filter the more detail one can see on the sun. The ångström is often used in the natural sciences for expressing the sizes of atoms, lengths of chemical bonds and the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, and in technology for the dimensions of parts of integrated circuits. It is also It is my understanding that many of the most popular commercially available filters can only reach .4 angstroms.

The scope also needs to have a long focal length and large alerture. Jim uses a 7" astro-physics refractor with barlow lenses that effectively yield an f ratio of 22-25.

One of the best benefits in attending a star party is viewing through wonderful instruments that you would not normally get to view through Jim sweeney's solar viewing setup was fantastic and provided views of the sun unlike any I have seen.

Recovery

Traveling home after an exhilarating and exhausting trip. My mind is racing with ideas and image processing possibilities. I can't wait to share the information with you.

For the moment, rest and recovery are in order, but I have much more to share with you from the star party, many new images, and some new video features as well.

So please check back soon for more new information.

Maybe the best...

We are nearing the end of what may have been the greatest night under the stars I have ever had. The sky has been crystal clear all night with no trace of dew to be found. The horizon was clear and transparent which permitted the imaging of one of my favorite objects, eta carinae. Eta just clears the horizon in the Florida keys and I have not had a good opportunity to image on previous trips. But tonight proved different and I had an excellent opportunity to image the nebula. I am very excited about the image possibilities with eta.

Viewing through binoculars has been outstanding with views of our our old friends like omega centauri. Naked eye treats like the southern cross were spectacular.

Right now the summer milky way is rising high overhead with the pipe dark nebula standing out in stark contest to the bright milky way core.

Yep this just may be the best night I have ever had under the stars. What a treat and I am most thankful to God for the opportunity to view His wonderful creation