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Please post your Image of the Month entries for April 2013 here....

IOM Rules:

1. Objects are to be captured and processed entirely by the user. Equipment on loan to a user is allowed providing the rig is setup and aligned by the user and the target is acquired, framed, focused...

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Good evening fellow astro buffs!

If you are involved in doing star parties or any astro education, you have I'm sure been asked about magnification.

Sure you can do the math and keep all the numbers for all the combinations of your scopes and eyepieces in your head... or you can purchase an iOS app.

I recently purchased Astro Aid ($2.99) to solve all these mysteries and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the User Interface as well as the library of equipment and targets.

Here is the itunes link ...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/astroaid/id541448395?ls=1&mt=8

Of the 30 plus astro app's that I have, this is one of the top 10 for usefulness.
...

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Recently I made the decision to return to mono imaging after having used an OSC (one-shot color) camera for a couple of years so I’ll relate it to what I have used in the past.

My first foray in using a CCD camera was back a few years when I decided I didn’t want to use my Nikon D70 for astro-imaging. Being a total “newb” at the time the all that I knew was that I didn’t want to deal with “amp glow” and wanted a more sensitive camera. Enter the SBIG ST-402ME. While being marketed as a dual purpose camera – imager/guider – it served my purpose well. The chip used is the KAF-0402ME which has a pixel array of 765x510 using 9micron square pixels. It has regulated cooling to -10C and an internal LRGB filter wheel. It was a great camera to learn the intricacies of LRGB imaging. But wh...

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For those of you that like compact small short focal length refractors, for either imaging or scanning the sky with a nice wide field, there are many options available to you at competitive prices nowadays. I will discuss one of these in particular the Celestron Onyx 80mm ED Fluro refractor. The 80EDF is currently a discontinued product but you can still find one on the used market on occasion. I will start out with the specs on the scope, it has a 80mm ED Fluro (fpl-53) doublet objective, with a native FL of 500mm and ratio of F/6.25. This unit has unique features and build however that separate it from the pack. The tube is a beautiful glossy black anodized aluminum finish, with a retractable dew shield, retained by a flashy Orange anodized aluminum retainer, the tube comes equipped with...

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The capabilities of the Atlas EQ-G (EQ-6) rarely come into question.  As with all things, even great ones, a few improvements can still be made.  I never understood the way the legs are leveled on the Atlas -- twist the locking mechanism and slip the leg in our out to raise or lower a side.  With the mount attached, that’s a bit of an awkward activity.  Even if you don’t attach the mount, it’s still a multi-step operation.  Adjust one leg, check level.  Adjust the other leg, check level and so on.  It sure would be nice if there was another way…

In comes another improvement from TPI Astro.  Leg-levelers!  These replace the “feet” on the stock Atlas (and others) providing very easy adjustment of the tripod legs.  Installation was a bit tricky.  The stock feet are glued in, but a ...

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On most lists of auto guiding cameras, many rank the Starlight Express Lodestar right at the top.  Equipped with a Sony ICX429XL Exview Interline CCD sensor, the Lodestar has plenty of sensitivity to go around.  In fact, with a resolution of 752 x 580 with 8.2 x 8.4 micron pixels, this little camera can easily double for a small-format imager.  To top off it

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Manufacturer's Link
USA Distributor Link

I have been seriously Astroimaging for about 5 years now and up until May of 2010 with Canon DSLR

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Manufacturer's Link

I purchased an Astro-Tech 8

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A quick review of the Astro-Tech AT8RC  

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After having used the Orion Atlas EQ-G for a couple of years, Tammy and I came to realize that there was some room for improvement in the stock tripod.  Although it comes with a “spreader”, it is more of an accessory tray than it is a spreader.  The problem, we found, was stability.  We were a bit disturbed that after setting up the mount and getting polar aligned, pressing hard downward would cause a little give.  It seemed that we had to tighten the “accessory tray” a ridiculous amount to stabilize the tripod, but it never seemed to feel very solid.

We contacted Dave Yates at TPI Astro to inquire about an EQ-G leg-spreader.  After several days, it arrived, along with a battery shelf.  Our first impression was this was a very classy-looking piece of gear.  Hand and CNC machined...

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After a couple of years in this hobby, Tammy and I, like many others, have begun to get

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The target for February/March 2013 is M81/M82 Bode's & Cigar galaxies in Ursa Major
RA (approx): 9h 55m 33s  DEC (approx): +69° 04' 01"

M81 Information from...