Hodgson Observatory

Fernando and I had discussed some practice as I am very new to Astro Imaging and he has a very similar system he would like to get set up. We decided to set up in his back yard as it is fairly protected from light. We set up at about 8:30 pm on 6/29/08 to get the hardware set up work done in day light. We then waited for some guide stars to appear. At about 9:45 we were able to do an alignment and proceed with the adjustments to put the system into a camera only mode. We imaged M57 the Ring Nebula and M27 the Dumbbell nebula. All images were taken through a 120 mm F 8.3 Orion refractor at double focal length using a Televue 2X powermate. The system was guided with an Orion Star Shoot Guide Camera. Pictures were taken with a Canon EOS XSi DSLR at ISO 1600 and 5 images each of 10 minutes. All I can say is WOW!

This is from a previous imaging session when I was testing out the new SSAG (Star Shoot Auto Guider). I was not trying for the best shot here only to test the system. This is 10 images of 5 minutes each of M13 at ISO 1600.

*Saturday June 14th 2008* Construction Continued on the Astronomy education building. Our goal for the day was to raise all the roof trusses. Construction began at 9:00 am and went very smoothly. By lunch time half the trusses were installed. After lunch we finished the rest of the trusses and concluded work at 4:00 pm. Next week we plan on sheeting the roof.

*Saturday June 21 2008* Weather was beautiful for our 5th day of construction. Our goal was to get the roof sheeted. After finishing boxing in the corners of the roof we proceeded with the roof. We were glad to have some extra hands show up for the rigorous job ahead of us. Work went very smoothly with the exception of one warped truss that gave us a problem. Some fancy cutting put that behind us. Work wrapped up at 4:00pm. Another day of work well done! Next Saturday we plan on putting on the roof’s steel sheeting.

*June 28 2008* We all gathered again for day 6 of construction on the Astronomy Education Building. Due to very high and gusty winds, we decided to put off doing the roof sheeting. We felt better being on the ground rather than trying to hang on to to steel sails! We decided to finish the end roof gables and install the windows. Work went smoothly again and we got all four of the main windows in. Rain fell upon us in the late afternoon so we shut down for the day. There will be no work over the July 4th weekend to allow a break for our club members and to also enjoy a new Moon weekend.

Link to Part 3: "http://www.hodgsonobservatory.org/?p=291