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Have you ever
wanted to go deep in an image, in a relatively short amount of
time, using a big fast telescope over a large area of sky, at
a reasonable image scale? In other words, have you ever wanted
to image using a top-quality 16" f/4.9 astrograph with a
35mm-sized CCD camera? At AstroImaging Adventures, you can. The
Bell observatory's 16" f/4.9 astrographic telescope is offered
for rental to anyone with a broadband Internet connection. The
cost is $0.50 USD per minute of image data collected. The 16"
is coupled with an excellent 3" Astro Systems Austria (ASA)
Keller/Wynne coma corrector, providing pin-point star images
across the full 35mm-sized CCD chip of an SBIG STL-11000M camera.
The $0.50/minute USD is the cost of the image data collected
during the night when taken through the 16" telescope. For
example, if 60 minutes of STL-11000M image data are collected,
the cost is $30 USD, no matter how long using the telescope it
took to collect the data.
The Bell Observatory's
16" telescope is located on the plains of the state of Colorado,
about an hour and a half's drive southeast of Denver. The elevation
is about 6500 feet along a high ridge of land called the Palmer
Divide. Truly remote locations have a hard time getting fast
Internet access allowing pleasing real-time remote control of
robotic telescopes, but being relatively close to Denver, DSL
has finally come to the Bell Observatory and opens it up to the
net. The skies are relatively dark at magnitude 5 to 6, and hours
of imaging can be performed on any object desired. A typical
run includes collecting 2 hours of image data on an object before
meridian passage, and 2 hours after meridian passage, for a total
of 4 hours of image data (or more) usually easily attained in
one night. The seeing often equals some of the best amateur sites
anywhere, with values of 1.5" or better not unusual. Colorado
is known for its high percentage of bright sunny days, and that
means clear nights are often seen.
For LRGB operation,
a set of Custom Scientific LRGB filters is available for use.
The cost here is still $0.50/minute USD through the 16"
but if desired, color image data can be collected at the same
time at no added cost using a 6" f/6 Newtonian telescope
(all Parks components) mounted on the 16" (see About the Telescope
and Related Hardware). The 6" has an excellent TeleVue Universal
Paracorr coma corrector/field flattener attached, producing a
fine medium focal length 6" f/6.9 imaging scope. An ST-4000XCM
camera can be inserted, and the reduced image scale of the 6"/4000XCM
covers almost all of the 35-mm sized field of the 16"/11000M
setup. Hence the 6" provides color data/images which can
be used to colorize essentially the whole 35mm-sized luminance
image from the 16"/11000M, and you also get the 6"/4000XCM
color images to create a nice wide-field image of your object
at no cost. Also available for use is an ST-10XME, which can
be used in the 6" for RGB imaging through the Custom Scientific
filter set, also at no cost when imaging through the 16".
The color data can be concurrently collected, in parallel with
the luminance data using a second separate computer controlling
the ST-4000XCM or the ST-10XME. This parallel processing makes
your time at the scope extremely efficient. In fact, your efficiency
is almost doubled.
All combinations
of this equipment are available for use. For example, you may
wish to shoot an entirely different object through the 6"
scope instead of collecting color data for the object being imaged
through the 16" using the 11000M. This 6"/4000XCM collection
is offered at no cost in this case. Or you may want to use only
the 6" as the imaging scope. Using the 6" telescope
as the imaging setup costs $0.30/minute USD, regardless of which
camera is used. No image data are collected through the 16"
when using the 6" as the only imaging scope.
The introductory
pricing scheme used at AstroImaging Adventures is therefore simple
and straight-forward: $0.50/minute USD of image data collected
through the 16" regardless of which camera is desired for
use, with all 6" concurrent data collections taken at no
cost, or $0.30/minute USD of image data collected when only the
6" is used for collection, regardless of which camera is
desired for use, and no image data are collected through the
16". These charges are per minute of data collected, and
are the total costs to you, regardless of how long at the scope
it takes to collect your data.
The main way
to use AstroImaging Adventure's services is to contact the Observatory
Director (OD) by email to setup a date and time for renting the
telescope (see email link at left). On the night of use, the
OD will call you (or send email) and provide you with a user
name and password you will use to login to the computer in the
observatory dome. You will gain complete control over the dome,
telescope and cameras, and computers, exactly as if you were
in the dome yourself, using the keyboard and mouse of the dome
computer. A webcam has been installed, and you can see a real-time
video feed of the telescope while slewing, all the while watching
the cross-hairs on The Sky move from object to object. This gives
you a real sense of using the 16" scope, just as if you
were there, but all from the comfort of your own location. (See
About
the Telescope and Related Hardware for a video clip of a meridian flip.
You will be able to see this in real-time during your imaging
experience.) The OD will be there, in complete communication
with you at all times, and will be able to resolve any issues
that may arise. If you are new to the fine art and science of
astroimaging, do not worry, the OD will be there to guide you
through every step along the way.
Want to capture
a 1 deg x 0.7 deg patch of sky using a top-quality 16" f/4.9
"astrograph"? Contact AstroImaging Adventures and start
your trip... |
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