My Secondary Roll-off Roof Over My Observing Deck

A while back I added an 8x8 foot observing deck to the side of my roll-off roof observatory.
It became apparent that more needed to be done to make it useable year round (as we have a lot of snow in the winter months that even make moving the main observatory roof nearly impossible to move.)
After much thought (and a few trips to my local Ace Hardware store) this is what I came up with.
Positioning this new roll-off roof under the supporting beams that hold up the main observatory roll-off roof, I was able to construct this for about $225 for materials.
I am not a carpenter or a mechanic (nor am I an athlete) so the plan was simple as was the construction and the operation.
Perhaps you will get some ideas from my project and make your own without having to spend $1,000 to do it!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me in the "comment" section below.

A Brief Imaging Session of the Moon and 3 Galaxies

The Moon - nearly full - March 17, 2019

Due to the brightness of the Moon I selected a few galaxies that were sufficiently far away in the sky from the Moon:

M 81, M 82 and tiny NGC 3077 (can you find the smudge?)

Here is the imaging data for the Moon shot:

• Scope: Daystar 500mm f/6
• Camera: Canon T3i unmodded
• Exposure: ISO 100 1/400 sec
• Post-processing programs used:RawTherapee, GIMP, Mac Preview

Here is the imaging data for the three galaxies shot:

• Scope: Daystar 500mm f/6
• Camera: Canon T3i unmodded
• Exposure: ISO 3200 - ave. 15 sec each
• Stacked: 87 frames = about 21 minutes total (plus 4 darks and 3 flats)
• Post-processing programs used:DeepSkyStacker, RawTherapee, GIMP, Mac Preview

The First Clear Sky in 20 days! Result: The Rosetta Nebula!

The Rosetta Nebula

Daystar 480mm f/5 telescope

Canon T3i camera at prime focus UNMODDED

ISO 3200

Total integration time: 51 minutes (18 frames)

Wiki info:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette_Nebula

For the first time in 20 days I was able to open the observatory and do some imaging. The temp at 8:45 pm Sunday night was 24*F. By the time I ended (1 am Monday morning) the temp had dropped to 10*F ! Glad for my obs "warm room" where it was 43*F. Here are is the "best of the night" image with DeepSkyStacker: The Rosetta Nebula!

The good news here is that I was able, despite the deep cold temps, to get a few 6 and 5 minute "subs" (photos that are part of a stack of images in DeepSkyStacker 4.1.1). These longer exposures capture more photons and thus makes post-processing much more productive.

Don't Own A Telescope? There's Events to Enjoy in February's night sky!

It's February! And if you don't have a telescope, break out your binoculars for some quick and easy astro-viewing of the dance of the Moon with planets and stars! Read up on this in this article 
from Space.com: 

https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html

M 42 - The Great Orion Nebula - HDR technique used

24*F last night and the seeing wasn't great but here is an HDR image
of the Great Orion Nebula M 42. 
HDR (high dynamic range) imaging is becoming more and more popular with photography, from cell phones to professional scenic photography.
I used this technique, though poorly at the present, to hold the core of the brightest part of the nebula and still retain the faint outer "ring" of nebulosity.
This is only a combination of two images, one lasting about 2 minutes and the other less than 20 seconds.

Taken with the 480mm Daystar scope (80mm doublet refractor) and a Canon t3i camera (unmodded)

Here is the original longer exposure:

Here is the original short exposure:

I used a freeware program called "HDRtist" to do the combination. Interestingly enough, when I imported the brighter image first into that program before the shorted the combination didn't look as good as importing the images in reverse!

January 20, 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse

Sometimes it is just good to prepare for a celestial event even when the weather report and satellite images are discouraging. Such was the case last night.
Despite poor weather conditions, here are my captures of the total lunar eclipse last night (Jan.20, 2019) taken with the CATE Project telescope (80mm f/5.6) and my Canon T3i.  I had cloud cover that started to break up just before totality and then filled back in at totality. Enjoy! I didn't think I was going to get anything, so I am happy with this!

At first it was difficult to get focus because the cloud cover was so thick...

I started taking images because it was obvious that the eclipse had begun (darkening was apparent on the lower right hand side of the Moon)

Then as the shadow of the Earth was darkening nearly half the Moon I took this shot because it looked like the Moon was caught in the center of a nebula!  Yes, totally clear skies are great for detail but even partly cloudy skies create beautiful effects...

Well, it became mostly clear just a few minutes later...

I increased the exposure time to reveal the dark orange color of what would be totality. The color is caused by the light of the Sun passing through Earth's atmosphere, like a thousand sunsets bending their light upon the Moon.

Then totality came, well at least as much as I was going to see...

This was the last image I was able to take before thick clouds came in and my imaging session came to an end.

Here's what it looked like in my obs "warm room"... happy, happy, happy!

January 20, 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse Info

Source: https://www.skyandtelescope.com/

This Sunday evening is not just the first full moon of the new year but it is also going to be a total lunar eclipse. That simply means that the Moon will pass through the shadow of the Earth. The result will be a deep orange-red colored Moon. Totality will last for just over an hour. So if your location has cloudy/partly cloudy skies, don't give up on seeing it! Perhaps a gap may come in the clouds during that hour and give you an opportunity to see it and photograph it. That will be the case here at the La Pine Observatory in La Pine, Oregon, where the predicted cloud cover (as of Friday, January 18, 2019) will be from 80 to 100%.

The first illustration above will give you an idea as to the relationship of the Moon as it passes through Earth's shadow (cast by the Sun).

NOTE: The times show are "Universal Time" NOT local time.

This chart will show you when you can expect the various aspects of this lunar eclipse in your time zone (click on the chart for, hopefully, a larger view of it):

Source: https://www.skyandtelescope.com/

So for my location (Pacific Standard Time - PST) the beginning of eclipse (not totality) will begin about 7:10pm PST. As the Moon progresses through Earth's shadow it will seem like one side of the Moon is just getting darker, no color change initially but gradually becoming more obvious the closer to 8:41pm PST. When the Moon begins enters the full shadow of the Earth, about 8:41pm PST, the reddish-orange color will be very obvious! To the unaided eye (no binoculars or telescope) the Moon will appear to be caught in smoke from a forest fire, but the color comes from the light of the Sun bending around the Earth's atmosphere and it will take on the same color as a sunset just before the Sun drops below the horizon.

Source: https://www.skyandtelescope.com/

Totality will last for just over an hour. You will be able to easily see (weather-permitting) the stars in the night sky. If you have binoculars or a telescope you will see a patch of fuzzy stars to the left of the Moon and slightly down. That is a cluster of stars known as the "Beehive".

If you have a telescope that is capable of following the rotation of the Earth and can mount a camera on it and if you can set it up to take in the area shown in the diagram above, you should easily be able to image the Moon and the Beehive!

Here's hoping we all get some clear skies or a few holes in the cloud cover!