Guerilla Astrophotography 4

 I am trying a different eyepiece now.  This is 9mm Orion Sirius Plossi.  Greater magnification, and a smaller aperture make this much more difficult.  The telescope is 1200mm focal length, and now I am using a 9mm ocular lens, so the magnification is 133.33x.  Almost too much.  Then I have the 4x zoom with the Power Shot A560.  Potentially 533.33x magnification, but that is outside of the theoretical specification of the telescope, so not going there.  It's a nice shot though at 133x magnification...

Keep in mind that the aperture of the lens is limiting my field of view.  Also the periphery of the image is not the edge of the Moon, and you are seeing a small portion of the Moon.  It is not focused perfectly, but it is the best image I got with the 9mm Plossi.  This is considerably more challenging than using the 25mm Plossi.  I have a 30mm Plossi, with a 2 inch mount, which is an exceptionally beautiful lens, but my SteadyPix Pro camera mount doesn't fit on it.  The SteadyPix Pro adapts to a 1.25 inch mount.  I've done some handheld shots with my phone on the 30mm Plossi, but have a hardtime acquiring an image that way.  I would much rather use the SteadyPix Pro to hold the camera.  So, yeah, I think this is progressing positively.  I think I would have much more fun with a Canon EOS 5DS with a 40 megapixel sensor.  You know, it's only $1500 for just the camera body...

Just found out the new Canon EOS 5DS has a 50.6 megapixel sensor, and is more like $2000...  Well, OK, that'll do...

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/cameras/eos-dslr-and-mirrorless-cameras/dslr/eos-5ds

Guerilla Astrophotography 3

 Starting to play with the optical zoom of the camera in combination with the telescopes magnification.  This is maybe one of the best shots I have ever got of the moon.  I'm going to look at Orion, M42, and Pleiades next...

Guerilla Astrophotography 2

 I've finally got a chance to play with my new (old) astrophotography setup.  I've been studying the stacking software, and it uses an AVI file for the source images.  It turns out that my little Canon Power Shot A560 produces AVI files.  What a nice coincidence.  Actually I think that is a standard, and I didn't know about it.  So I have a nice clear, cool evening, and the Moon is high, lets take some shots.

The Power Shot A560 has a 7.1 megapixel sensor.  Well by today's standards it is kinda small, but seems to do really well.  Playing with it tonight I found that I had to push the camera's lens in really close to the telescope eyepiece.  I'm using a 25mm Orion Sirius Plossi eyepiece.  The telescope is 1200mm focal length divided by the 25mm ocular lens gives us 48x magnification.  Then I get another 4x optical magnification from the Power Shot A560, so theoretically I can get 192x magnification from the complete system.  The shot of the Moon above is at 48x magnification.

I had this idea in my head that I needed an eyepiece camera for Christmas.  After letting that stew in my brain for several weeks I came to the conclusion that I could do this without spending several hundred dollars on an eyepiece camera, or several thousand dollars on a new Canon EOS.  Just back up, look at what you already have, and then figure out how to make a system work.  I'm kinda impressed I was able to do this without spending a lot of money.

Something else I have noticed is how dirty my camera, and telescope are, LOL!  The Camera is around 12 years old, and the telescope is about 3 years old.  I did clean the telescope about 2 weeks ago, but from this shot I can tell it's getting dusty again.  I guess it's time to scrub it down again.  If you look carefully at this last shot you can see a couple dog hairs too, LOL!  Thatz Harley, his fur covers everything I own...

Guerilla Astrophotography

 Sure I'd like to have a Canon EOS with a 20 megapixel sensor, but, you know, I don't have the scratch to make it happen.  No worries, I do have yesterday's technologies at my disposal.  I have used my phone to take astrographs, and it works fairly well, but I have been manually holding my phone in front of the eyepiece, and it is tedious getting a decent shot.  Well, look at this...

This eyepiece adapter is called SteadyPix Pro from Orion Telescope.  There have always been various telescope eyepiece adapters available for telescopes for cameras that have detachable lenses.  That makes it much easier when you can remove the lens of the camera, and then directly attach the camera to the telescope eyepiece.  I do have a 35mm Nikon F1 camera that I can do this with.  But...  It is a Film Camera, and doesn't really suit my vagabond shooting style where I post shots directly to the interwebz...

Another aspect of having a general purpose camera on the eyepiece of the telescope is that it drastically reduces the amount of equipment that I have to move around when I want to do astrophotography.  The NexImage 5 Eyepiece Camera from Celestron is a Great Sensor, but it requires support equipment.  You need to bring a computer, and cables, and a power supply.  While this might not seem like much, it consumes the time that you have available to take astrographs.  The SteadyPix Pro, and a cheap general purpose camera will allow you to take astrographs, and view them right at the telescope eyepiece.  It streamlines the process, and saves time when you want to be shooting the sky, and not setting up the computer, or troubleshooting cabling.

 

The camera that I am using is the Canon PowerShot A560, which we bought back in 2008.  Sure, kinda old, but its image sensor is still bigger than the NexImage 5 at 7.1 megapixel.  OK, now I go snap some shots...

Cherry Smoked Turkey and Fixinz

 The forth Thursday in November is Culinary Nirvana.  Chefs spend months thinking about this one day, and how to make it perfectly sublime.  We want to Wow! everyone, and make them say "This is the Best meal I have ever had."  Sure, not so easy for the Chef, but everyone delights with the creation of the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal...

Well, you gotta haz The Big Bird.  Not really the biggest, just big.  Turkeys are ambiguous, overbreeded specifically for Thanksgiving.  Turkeys probably outnumber humans.  I know Chickens do.  That is because they are delicious.  Om nom nom nom...  So there are some very specific, and deliberate things you have to do to "The Big Bird" to make it Thanksgiving savvy.  Brine, uh...  Salt Water...  Very Important!  Smoke...  Even more Important...  Culinary skills are perhaps the apex of importance.  To take a raw Turkey to "The Best Thing I have ever ate" takes skills, and not easily acquired skills.  I have around three and a half decades invested in what I do...

One of the accolades I enjoy is Gravy.  The Turkey concurs...  You must make Gravy...  My process includes the acquisition of Turkey Fat.  It is a quintessential element of Thanksgiving Gravy...  Thanksgiving cannot proceed with out it...  Traditionally there is Giblet Gravy.  Well, over time I think I like Mushroom Gravy better.  So this year it is Mushroom Gravy.  It still has the Turkey Dripping from baking the Turkey at a low temperature before we smoke it.  This year I baked the Turkey at 350F for around an hour, then reduced the temperature to 225F overnight, around 6 hours.  This let the Turkey come up to temperature over a long period of time, rendering the fats necessary to make Gravy.  Then in the morning I built a Cherry Wood Fire, and smoked the Turkey for around an hour.

Then there is the Stuffing, er, uh, Dressing, also a Thanksgiving Ubiquity...  You Must Have Stuffing (Dressing)!  It is a unwritten rule...  It just haz to be there...  If you at the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, specifically at Cornbread Stuffing, there is a 50/50 mix of Bread, and Cornbread.  OK, yea, I live in Texas, and we know Cornbread Stuffing...  Mix up a batch of Jiffy Cornbread (Denton, Texas), and bake it off.  Let it sit for a day, and then dice it up.  Get some nice rustic sourdough, and dice it up.  Saute some Celery, Onions, and Mushrooms in Butter, then throw in the Breads, some Herbs (Weed), and some Chicken Stock.  Load them into a Pan, and bake it off at 350F for 20 minutes.  The combination of the Cherry Smoked Turkey, Cornbread Stuffing, and Mushroom Gravy is almost perfect.

The last, perhaps most important thing, is the Cranberries.  The perfect Thanksgiving has to have this Sweet Tart addition.  This is a contrastural addition to the Thanksgiving Dinner.  Everything that we have made before this has been Savory.  We need this Sweet Tart contrast to smack your palette to the other end of the spectrum every once in a while.  This resets your palette, and when you go back to savory it is really delicious again.  It is Umami, but in a Uniquely American Way...  Trust The Plan...  Patriots are in control...  and...  Bon Apetit ala Americana...

Friday the 13th Crescent Moon

 Today has some interesting astronomical phenomena to be seen.  One day before the New Moon, on Friday the 13th we have a conjunction of Mercury, Venus, and this nice Crescent Moon.  Also, Mars is going direct today.  It is interesting both astronomically, and astrologically.  This should make for an interesting day...  LOL!

Beef Lo Mein

 I've been playing with Asian Spices again.  That and the Beefz.  Cherry wood smoked Beefz.  Homemade noodles are always better than take out.  This one is Beef, Mushroom, and Onion...

Lets look at the Beefz first.  I am not starting with raw meat.  My Grill was down when I made this so I used the Smoker.  I don't usually smoke steaks. but it was the only option this time.  This was a couple Chuck Steaks that I seasoned with my usual rub, Tony Chachere's, and Black Pepper.  Then they hung out in the Cherry Wood smoke for around an hour.

This is the next day after I prepared the Beefz, and they are cold.  This helps to make nice thin slices.  Then we need some Beef compatible vegetables.  My favorite are Mushrooms, and Onions chopped into large pieces.

This is an Asian flavored preparation, but I am still going to start with butter, and not oil.  It's a country boy thing.  Also I am using Extra Wide Egg Noodles instead of Lo Mein Noodles.  I don't like messing around with noodles that are too long.

Once the vegetation softens up, and the Egg Noodles are cooked I'll add the Beefz into the pan with the vegetation to warm it up.  Then dump in the Egg Noodles and mix them up.  The last thing is the Asian flavor.  This time I have used Soy Sauce, and toasted Sesame Seed Oil.  Itz Nomz Time...