Yet Another Hobby, Things are "Looking Up"

BluzPlayer

I wanna Rock n Roll All Night...
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Hey guys,
Motorcycles, Cars, Powdercoat Oven, Music and Guitars....
Not to mention a wife that needs more attention than a pot of boiling water;
and we all know that requires constant watching. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I do love eye candy.
Anyways... What else could I possibly need to divert my time and attention?
Well I love looking at the night sky. I love to see the planets and the stars.
I had been looking for some time for a deal on a large aperture telescope for a while.
I came across an Orion 10" with computerized tracking. They are call a GoTo scope.
Actually the scope is better at finding objects than it is in tracking them. Great for observing.
I had to go through the scope and correct some issues but it has been a great diversion.
A rather large scope I made a rolling chassis for it to make it easier to move around. (Heavy AF).
Once in position I have to block it up as the tires do not provide a solid enough platform.
It has levelers built into the setup so that is easy but I intend to upgrade those as well sometime soon.
I will also be updating the chassis to add an equatorial platform to allow me to take longer exposure pictures.
Recently started taking photography of the night sky objects and have run into some limitations.
Anyway, I have included a few pics of the scope.. I'll also share a few pics I've taken with it.
Looking forward to Dark Sky trip sometime this year or perhaps next. Meantime I'll just keep practicing and modifying
what I have to maximize my ability to capture the night sky.

Scope barrel being refinished.
After initial assembly.
On the rolling cart before finishing the project
 

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Few pics of the moon
The labeled pic is simply for reference to locate the area of view.
The area is highlighted. The Crater's name is Kepler.
The small craters are about 2 km across.
Pic wasn't taken on a particularly good night.
 

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Planets....
First pic I ever took of Saturn as well as my first pic ever of Jupiter.
Neither pic is even a little bit good.
Taken with a cell phone through my lens. No real duration.
Only shown as an example of improvement.
The other Jupiter pic was taken the other night when the skies were fairly clear but there was a lot of wind.
Some duration and a better camera but far from the best I can get.
 

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Splitting double stars...
There is a pair of double stars in the handle of the big dipper.
They are known as Mizar and Alcor.
Barely distinguishable as a double star with the visible eye.
Big Dipper pic is for reference.
The two bright stars in the other pic are Mizar and Alcor.
Nice to see how well they split.
 

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