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Astrophotography with a remote telescope

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Open University’s COAST telescope on Teneriffe

The best location for an astronomical telescope is on the top of a mountain. Remote, cold and a pain to get to. But with an internet connection – you can “work from home”.

During the summer, I signed up for a free Open University course called Astronomy with an online Telescope. With it you get access to a telescope on mount Tiede on the Island of Tenerife for 6 months.

This professional grade telescope COAST (COmpletely Autonomous Survey Telescope) consists of a 17 inch f/6.8 Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph telescope (a PlaneWave CDK17), is equipped with an FLI ProLine KAF-0900 CCD camera, broadband and narrow-band filters, also mounted on a GM4000. You pick which objects you want to image and select filters. A few days later, you receive an email that the image is ready for download.

The OU course is free and explains how to use the telescope as well as the many aspects of basic astronomy. The course is online, free and available right now. Some of my images are below. Click for a larger version.

M16 Eagle Nebula
14072022 at 222203UTC
M8 Lagoon Nebula
14052022 at 030453UTC
NGC6992
16102022 at 23156UTC
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
21102022 at 235612UTC
M20 Triffid Nebula
10052022 at 0241UTC
M42 Orion Nebula
21092022 at 034742UTC
NGC6946
23052022 at 231231 UTC
M45 Pleiades
30102022 at215101 UTC
IC5146
18062022 at 014050 UTC
M13 Hercules Cluster
20052022 at 205216 UTC
M57 Ring Nebula
16052022 at 001750 UTC
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
10052022 at 2235 UTC

Episode 100 Sandra Benitez Herrera – ESA Education Outreach

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Astrophysicist Sandra Benitez-Herrera  talks about the opportunities for teachers and students made available by the European Space Agency‘s CESAR (Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research) program. This episode was recorded in Athens in July during Cospar 2022.

If you are a student or a teacher in Europe or beyond, Sandra explains how you make use of CESAR’s resources – optical, solar and radio telescopes, online seminars, face-to-face training and an enormous quantity of space data from ESA and other space agencies. All in one place and with no charge. She starts with an explanation of what CESAR is – in audio and Youtube video below.

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Episode 98 Astrophotography with Nik Szymanek

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Nik Syzamnek is one of the UK’s leading astrophotographers and one who has been doing it for almost four decades.

Nik Szymanek

In this episode, Nik shares his unique perspective on how the hobby of astronomy and especially astrophotography has evolved since the 1980s when he first started.

We cover a lot of ground including modern software used for image processing and telescope control, increasing use of robotic telescopes e.g. Telescope Live by amateurs and the obstacles introduced by Climate Change and the mega-constellations of satellites. We conclude this episode on his lesser-known skills as a drummer in a band.

Books
2005 – Infinity Rising: A Personal View of the Universe
2018 – Co-author of – Spacerocks: A collectors’ guide to meteorites, tektites and impactites
2020 – Shooting Stars – 2nd Edition (AstronomyNow website)

Nik’s images on Flickr.

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A video of this interview is also available here on Youtube and includes many of his images.

As the lock-down begins to end – Nik is getting out and doing some talks live. If you are in the area – catch him live in 2021 here


2nd November: Stour Astronomical Society
17th November; Havering Astronomical Society twitter.com/HaveringSociety

Episode 59: Astrophotograpy

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Nik Szymanek
Nik Szymanek

If you have ever been to London and used the underground Tube service, it may well have been driven by the speaker in this episode. That is his day job but Nik Szymanek  is one of Britain’s best known astrophotographers.

This interview was recorded during National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Manchester in 2012. Nik collaborates with Ian King and in this episode discusses how he got started, issues to consider for those moving in to astrophotograpy and how things have changed in this developing field. He also talks about another growing area of interest to amateur astronomers  – a personal remote telescope.

David Ratledge another accomplished astrophotographer based in the north west of England has  some very useful links for astrophotography on his website http://www.deep-sky.co.uk/links.htm.

 

 

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