Astroimaging, accessories...

Preparing my photo system this time. I do not yet have a decent solution to take a flatfield calibration images. Many astrophotographers today, use a convenient EL-foil solution. The foil is thin, and provides even illumination. So It was time get ones for myself also:

A5 EL-foil (white)
12V inverter

I will use these in combination with Nikon D200 & 300/4.5 tele lens.

Imaging laptop, controlling Nikon DSLR...

Plan is to dive into the world of deepsky photography, mainly galaxies and star clusters. These will be first targets, since my current camera (Nikon D200) is not yet modified for astrophotography, when H-alpha band is considered. I have planned to use 300mm MF Nikkor tele lens.

For controlling Nikon from the imaging laptop, I have purchased following stuff from Shoestring Astronomy:

DSUSB contoller
Nikon 10pin interface cable

My mount (HEQ5) has certain faults in bearing, tightened propably too much. And go-to kit I already have - that is to be installed. I will use USB2EQ5-cable to connect laptop to the mount.

Imaging laptop, accessories...

Only one "mandatory" software missing, Nikon Camera Control Pro2. Carrying case for the laptop, there was one suitable model from Pelican. Today I placed an order of following gear:

Nikon Camera Control Pro2 upgrade
Pelican 1450 case

Both of them were out of stock currently, delivery shall be estimated in two weeks...

UARS deorbit information

Yesterday and a day before that, eyes around the world - have been watching the sky more often. NASA's atmospeheric satellite UARS has been lowering in its orbit, and burned (partially?) in the atmospehere. Some of the biggers part may have survived to fall into ground. Not sure where the debris has been landed to. Here is the NASA update:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html

Imaging laptop, setup continues...

Most of the astronomy related software is already installed, some still to-do. Hopefully job is completed, within one week (no real hurry since I do this after my daily work hours)

Also ordered an AC / DC combo adapter, to use my ThinkBad laptop on the field with 12V battery system. I had a good old Targus DC -adapter, too bad there was no proper "tip" available for my new laptop model.

New imaging laptop

Since time is passing by, and my oldie faithful laptop (IBM T43) almost dying, it was time to get new one. Smaller and lighter Lenovo Thinkpad EDGE 11" lies now on the table.

Following days will be spent by installing win7 and all the required software. First thoughts of the laptop are pretty ok, but a clear minus is from the special keys in the keyboard. PgUp / PgDn too small, not responding well. Also Delete and Insert keys are tricky to use, maybe since I have used to larger keys in older IBM laptops. Normal keys with alphabets - those are responding well. Markings on the function keys, is too difficult to find in low lightning (since used red text).

Compared to old laptop with win XP, the startup and shutdown times are totally different. I do not have to wait for 5 minutes for the computer to start, and couple of minutes to shut down.

Basic laptop specs are:
Lenovo Thinkpad EDGE 11
Display size 11"
System memory 4GB
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
Intel core i3 processor

Start of aurora season

Two messages about auroras and both sides of the summer... It maybe (?) is a sign that nights are getting darker. Last friday/saturday night, there was a good display at Espoo.

Peak of the show happened little bit before 1am, lasting about 10 minutes. Auroras were easily seen on the northern sky. They were expanding all the way between NW and NE sky. Greenish curtain showed approx in 20 degrees height, all the way up to near zenith. Little movements were visible and vertical "bars" rised to zenith over the curtain.

I messed up with my camera, so no photos this time. Nice aurora disply, still...