STARS
Last Update: December 2, 2001
Amateur Astronomy has a lot of aspects for me. I love to make telescopes almost as much as using them. But nothing is quite as good as simply sitting under a quiet, dark sky and letting an almost overwhelming sense of wonder wash over me as I simply look and take in the awesomeness of the universe around us.... Along the way I have met a lot of fine folks that share my interest in this fascinating field and I have included links to many of their websites on this page. Take the time to use those links to jump to many other fine sites.
(Click on the area of interest):
ATM (Amateur Telescope Making)
The following are projects I have built in the past and enjoy sharing with others plus ATM related links worth passing on to others:
- 10" f/6 Newtonian (featured in an article in "AMATEUR ASTRONOMY", volume 4)
- 14.5" f/5 Newtonian (Winner of several ATM awards at the Texas Star Party)
- Cylindrical Bearing Equitorial Platform (a simple way to allow your Dob to track the stars with no modifications required to the scope or mount)
Modem to Modem Comm Link (The results of a collaborative effort to hook two laptops together via their internal modems in order to exchange LX-200 commands)
- Lessons Learned (from converting a Dob to a Computer Controlled Alt/Az Drive System)
- Alt/AZ Guidescope Rotator (This is a description of the development, fabrication and use of a rotation system for a guidescope on an Alt/Az mount. It WORKS!!!!. Even with the initial setup of the prototype system, which still needed better alignment we instantly went from taking only 15-30 second shots with the Danciger 32" and keeping an average of 75% of them to taking 2 to 4 minute shots! And after the alignment was tweaked on 7/10/99 it now produces 2 minute shots with 100% of them "keepers"...(2 minute limit was blooming, not tracking!). Alt/Az drives have achieved a whole new plateau of capability!
- Mirror Cleaning with Collodian USP (a different and VERY effective way to clean telescope optics)
- Misc Links to really good ATM sites (in no particular order except for the first three, which I must admit are my favorites):
- Motorize Your Telescope - Mel Bartels (This is the "Mother Lode" of information on converting your Dob to a computer controlled Alt/Az system. This site has the plans, info, and software to run the system)
- The ATM Page (An EXCELLENT site! Many links to info and projects)
- ATM Archives (This link allows you to look up past threads on ATM Topics that were discussed on the ATM List server)
- ASTROMART (This is THE site for finding those "treasures" you really need!)
- Astronomical Formulas (tired of crunching numbers or cannot remember the formula?? Check this place out!)
- Telescopes and Telescope Making (Good info by Mel Bartels on his scopes)
- Andy Steere's Homepage
- Don Halter's Homepage (Don's excellent 16"f/5 that uses the same Mel Bartel's drive system as my 14.5"f/5 uses. I machined two sets of gearhubs/clutches and Don has the 2nd set. See how his scope uses them as compared to mine for more building ideas)
- 12.5" Computer Controlled Scope
- A Quartz Controlled Scotch Mount
- Steven Lee - Amateur Astronomy
- Fred Quarnstrom's Homepage (Fred is up in Seattle and has a beautiful scope sitting on a cylindrical bearing platform. He also does a lot of video work with his system)
- Jerry Pinter's Computerized Dob
- John Dobson (This site is worth visiting for some history lessons)
- Lenny Shaffer's Website (Good Cookbook CCD info, Observatory building info, and good links to lots of Electronics Suppliers [in the Cookbook portion])
- Bruce Johnston's Observatory (The author of the excellent suite of CCD processing software, SUPERFIX, has built a fine observatory. Check it out!)
- Jones on Stepper Motors (More than you ever want to know on stepper motors!)
- Tele-Vue (Super site for SUPER Eyepieces!!)
- Nova Astronomics (David Lane's: Micro Guider and Earth Centered Universe)
- Sinclair Optics (Download a really fine optical layout program from here)
- Edmund Scientific (On Line version of their catalogs)
- The Newtonian Pages (Good basic info on Newtonians)
- Clausing Optical Coatings
- ARCHIMAGE (This is the tracking system Ron Dantowitz uses for video of the Shuttle as it flies over Boston)
Because I live in suburban Houston, TX, the light pollution prevents me from visual observing or film astrophotography of most deep sky objects. However, the wonder of ccd astrophotography allows me to still image these dim fuzzies through a mostly 3rd magnitude sky when I cannot take the time to go to our dark sky site at Danciger TX. I built a "standard" Cookbook CCD camera (TC245 chip) and have REALLY enjoyed it!
- WCMY (Richard Berry, Al Kelly, Ed Grafton, and I have been working on an exciting new technique for color CCD imaging, using Cyan, Magenta, & Yellow filters rather than just Red, Green, and Blue filters.) In addition, we have developed some suggested techniques for improving color balance.
- Image Gallery (some of my ccd images) (In BAD need of updating with later images.....)
- Camera/eyepiece "slide" (This is an indispensible aid for CCD photography! It allows you to quickly swap between the camera and an eyepiece for visually finding and centering targets)
- Filter Wheel (This is a device designed by and available from Andy Saulietis for holding Edmund Scientific 25mm dia Dichroic Filters).
- Flat Field "Lightbox" (Next to the Camera/Eyepiece Slide, this is one of the most handy "accessories" I have made. It allows me to take very good quality flatfields very easily. Shooting under light polluted skies makes Flats quite important, even for deep sky objects!)
- QuickCam (A growing number of folks have modified the Grayscale [black and white] QuickCam's for use as inexpensive astronomical CCD cameras, and have also started using them as autoguiders. I had to try it too and have been pleasantly surprised!!)
- Al Kelly's Homepage (Al is really my main mentor for ccd activities and is on the leading edge of color ccd photography. Check his spectacular site out to see what REALLY can be done with a Cookbook 245 CCD Camera!)
- Kunihiko Okano's Gallery (Kunihiko is possibly one of the best ccd astrophotographers around. Don't miss reviewing his outstanding work at this site...)
- Ed Grafton's Homepage (Ed is my other mentor for this exciting activity. Ed does some of the best imaging around and does it from under the same lousy 3rd magnitude sky as I do, but he REALLY does it well!)
- Cookbook CCD Homepage (Richard Berry, Veikko Kanto, and John Munger wrote the "CCD Camera Cookbook" that I used to build my camera. I have been fortunate to meet and stay in contact with Richard and appreciate his enthusiastic help and support)
- Lessons Learned for Imaging and Image Processing (Half the fun of this activity is the image processing, the equivalent of dark room work for film photography)
- Misc Links to a number of additional outstanding CCD sites:
- Robert Dalby's Website (A superb CCD'er also working in Quad Color) (A superb CCD'er also working in Quad Color)
- NTO (A fine website to show what a group of partners can do!)
- CCD WORLD (Excellent source of CCD information)
- CCD Listserver Archives (The CCD Listserver is a SUPERB forum for CCD enthusiasts. There are also instructions for subscribing to the CCD List)
- WhatUSee (Calculator for your CCD's FOV)
- A Diffraction Focuser for CCD Cameras (Good tool for focusing!!)
- ASTROFILI on the Web (Italian CCD Imaging)
- SUPERFIX (Bruce Johnston's EXCELLENT CCD Image Processing Software)
- CLOUDBAIT Observatory (I would LOVE to have a place like this!!!)
- KAO Observatory (Here is another place that I would LOVE to have!!!
- Quick Cam (A low cost way to get into CCD Imaging!)
- Bloops and Blunders (A good site to show some things NOT to do!!)
- Lenny Shaffer's Website (Lenny has a great site on CCD'ing, that includes links to electronics suppliers and a growing number of CB245 builder's sites)
The real mystic of Amateur Astronomy for me is visual observing. Actually looking at the objects you read about and that are, in fact, a way of looking back in time. The following links are excellent sites for useful information for observing as well as links to amateur astronomy club sites. The club I belong to is the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society (JSCAS):
- JSCAS Homepage (Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society)
- HAS Homepage (Houston Astronomical Society)
- FBAC Homepage (Fort Bend Astronomy Club)
More Sites for "Observing" info:
IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (This is the place for finding out how to report any "discoveries" you may find!!!_
SEDS Messier Database (Images and info on the Messier Objects, plus links to images of other objects)
DSS (The Palomar Digitized Sky Survey: Images of about everything!!!)
NED (NASA/IPAC ExtraGalactic Database... a HUGE database of info on objects)
AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers)
ARP's Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies (Dennis Webb's excellent site on ARP Galaxies)
NGC Images on the Net (Images of all the NGC Objects and links to Image Sources)
Astronomical Images Archive (Good site to see an image of an object you have or plan to observe)
NSSDC (The National Space Science Data Center. This site has a wealth of Astronomical info)
SKYVIEW (An Internet Virtual Relescope)
Map Blast! (Need to know your observing site's Lat/Long??? This Map Link gives it to you!)
Amateur Astronomy Magazine (This is a really fine Magazine by, about and for Amateur Astronomers)
Astronomy Magazine (One of the major Astronomy Magazines, lots of good info!)
Sky & Telescope (A Superb site for a wide variety of Astronomy related information!)
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (Good info!)
Anglo Australian Observatory Links ( EXCELLENT links related to astronomy and observing)
American Astronomical Society (The major professional astronomical organization in North America)
STAR PAGES (A series of websites that have a wealth of information to browse!)