Many of you have likely seen the International Space Station (ISS) shining brightly as it passes through the evening sky. It’s amazing to think that bright dot is a fully equipped station with astronauts onboard. But wouldn’t it be even better to see it up close? Manually tracking the fast-moving ISS with a telescope is nearly impossible, but with the latest firmware for the TTS-160 Panther Mount and the Skytrack app, your telescope can do the tracking for you. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy a detailed view of the station, including its massive solar panels. Read on to learn how it works!   Your browser does not support the video tag. ISS visual impression in a small telescope  Your browser does not support the video tag. [...]

Camera rotators are today primarily used to frame the target when taking Astrophotos. With the newest high-resolution camera rotators, it is now possible to take perfectly tracked Astrophotos with an Alt-Az type telescope mount. Why bother doing that? Well, it means faster setup with no polar alignment and undisturbed imaging from east to west, with no meridian flip to worry about. Read on and learn how it’s done…                       Let’s start with a fast summary of how it works: Step-by-step procedure for an imaging session with an Alt-Az mount with a camera rotator Set up the mount and telescope. No levelling of the tripod is needed. Install and connect the imaging gear as usual: Main camera, filter wheel, off-axis guider, guide camera, [...]

An Alt-Az mount like the Panther Mount can be aligned completely from indoors. No need to be outside to level or Polar align the mount. And it is then ready for either EAA or long exposure Astrophotography   In this post I will explain how you easily can make a complete observation run remotely from a connected PC. As soon as the telescope is set up you can move inside and do the rest from the warm living room.   First lets look at: The typical procedure starting up with a German Equatorial Mount The mount, telescope and camera is set up – mount pointing north (or south if you are in the southern hemisphere) and levelled Go inside and wait for darkness Go outside and perform Polar alignment. This demands [...]

“If you are able to observe all 110 objects during one single night – from dusk to dawn – you have completed a Messier Marathon.”   This is the main definition of a Messier Marathon. There can be different versions of a Messier Marathon: The old style completely analogue Messier Marathon: Using just telescope, eyepiece and printed sky maps. A visual Messier Marathon using setting circles and perhaps goto to center the objects An Electronic Assisted Astronomy (EAA)  Messier Marathon where the objects are observed with a camera I know there are opinions about what is the right way to do it but for me the most important is that you do it and enjoy it:-)   The Messier Catalog There are 110 objects in the Messier Catalog – 40 [...]

“The struggle of setting up all the telescope equipment often stops me from getting out to observe“ I am sure most of you can recognize this situation: The sky is wonderfully clear, and the coming night will be great for observations. But do I have the energy to pack all the gear, set it up, connect all the cables, computers, cameras, batteries, etc.? It can be quite a task when going into the backyard or travelling to a darker sky site. And if you are unlucky, some vital part is missing when you make the setup far from home. A solution could be to build an observatory, solving all the setup hassle. But do you have the space in your backyard? What about light pollution? You could set up an [...]

EAA (Electronic Assisted Astronomy) is Astrophotography kept simple – Alt-Az mounts are tracking mounts kept simple – A perfect match   I define EAA as taking short exposure astrophotos and displaying them live. Typically the setup is simple with a One Shot Colour Camera on a telescope carried by a tracking mount. Stacking on the fly of more short exposures is often used. This will make the image improve over time as more frames are added to the stack. When the image is as wished, it is time to move on to observe another target. It’s Live –  It’s simple. And it is a great way to “Observe” faint objects and show them to the general audience when doing outreach.   The mounting for EAA – why Alt-Az is the [...]

Sometimes it seems like everybody has thrown out their eyepieces and only images the sky. Even though Astrophotography is hot there are many astronomers who wants to SEE the objects live with their own eyes. Some even acquire sets of eyepieces to be able to enjoy the wonders of the sky with both eyes…   In this post I will look a bit into the subject of Bino viewing. By Bino Viewing I mean any solution where the observer uses both eyes when observing Binoculars Bino-viewers –  Beam splitting device installed on a single telescope Bino-Scopes – Two identical telescopes installed in parallel   The post will touch the following subjects: The advantages of observing with two eyes The bino-viewer The bino-scope Telescope Mounts for Bino Viewing The advantage of [...]

Keep warm indoor, sleep all night – the automated system will collect light all night long. Automating your astro-imaging is getting easier and easier all the time. New hardware and software solutions becomes available for the dedicated amateur astronomer. In this post I will tell how I have used the software NINA – Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy to automate my imaging setup. With the automated setup I am now able to start up all the equipment in 5 minutes. Then I select and start a premade session for the night. That’s it. Back inside waiting for the subs to show up. Here is what the session script does: Slew telescope to target Recenter and rotates FOV to requested position based on plate solve. Perform autofocus Calibrates and starts the autoguider [...]

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easily. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts can be used for short exposure AP as they are. When you want to take longer exposures you need a field de-rotator. In this article I will explain how you can use the ASIAIR Pro computer unit to automate the imaging process. Most things are general for any mount type but I will focus on the things that needs special attention when using an Alt-Az mount. This PART 3 article will focus on how you [...]

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easy. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts can be used for short exposure AP as they are. When you want to take longer exposures you need a field de-rotator. In this article I will explain how you can use the ASIAIR Pro computer unit to automate the imaging process. Most things are general for any mount type but I will focus on the things that needs special attention when using an Alt-Az mount. This PART 2 article will focus on how you [...]

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easy. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts can be used for short exposure AP as they are. When you want to take longer exposures you need a field de-rotator. In this article I will explain how you can use the ASIAIR Pro computer unit to automate the imaging process. Most things are general for any mount type but I will focus on the things that needs special attention when using an Alt-Az mount. This PART 1 article will focus on making the [...]

In the autumn of 2020 I noticed quite a few great astrophotos on Instagram from @azastroguy. All the images were taken with a Panther telescope mount in Alt-Az mode. The guy behind these great images is Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona. I asked Mark if he could tell a little about his images.         Can an Alt-Az Mount produce good astrophotos? Yes! I have been an active amateur astronomer for decades but only began my first astrophotography in June 2020, so keep in mind these photos were taken by a relative beginner. 100% of my photos are taken with the TTS-160 Alt Az mount. First of all, I’d like to say the mount is awesome as a visual mount. Portable, rugged, easy & quick to set up [...]

When observing and imaging the moon, the sun and the planets you need a mount that can track the object fairly precise. Generally speaking you can use either an Alt-Az mount or an polar aligned mount (GEM or fork). Here I will look at how an Alt-Az mount can be used and how it compares to a polar aligned mount for this kind of observations. It is important to remember that an Alt-Az mount is not necessarily (even though it often is so) of a lower production quality than a polar aligned mount.   Setting up for planet observations Setting up and Alt-Az mount is faster and easier than setting up an polar aligned mount. The basic steps are: Setup the tripod/pier and mount head no leveling needed no polar [...]

Comet NEOWISE is making a great show right now. It passed closest to the sun on July 3rd and is now slowly moving away from the sun. This means we have to observe the comet very low in the sky. This is absolutely normal for comets but it put some demands on us observers. 1. Find an observation spot with a free horizon in the comets direction Find the comet position for the planned observation time and find the Azimuth direction.  TheSkylive.com is fine for this kind of planning. Using the Azimuth direction look at Google maps and find an observation spot where you have a free view in that direction. Google Streetview can help estimating the local horizon. 2. Bring your mount and telescope to the observation spot Most [...]

The winter sky with the many gas nebulas has disappeared in the western twilight. In an earlier post – Fast Deep Sky Imaging – I described how these large objects could be imaged with fast optical systems with limited focal length and large field of view. In springtime our view points away from the milky way arms and we get a free look to myriads of distant galaxies. Observing and imaging galaxies is a quite different matter as you can read in this post. Galaxies and dark sky For most unskilled visual observers Galaxies are faint hazy spots. If you try to observe galaxies from a light polluted place and don’t give you the time it takes to learn to really see these faint objects – all you will see [...]

PHD2 is a fantastic tool for guiding our telescope mounts. Most of the basic features and settings were created with a German Equatorial Mount in mind. Using it with an Alt-AZ mount is just as precise, as long as you have the right settings. In this post I will explain how to setup PHD2 when using an alt-az mount with special focus on the Panther mount, but the general aspects will be the same for all Alt-Az mounts. Two simple terms you need to know PHD2 was created with Equatorial mounts in mind. Therefore PHD2 uses the terms Right Ascension axis and Declination axis. When guiding an Alt-Az mount: Azimuth is equal to Right Ascension     AZ = RA Altitude is equal to Declination     ALT = DEC How to [...]

                  To many clouds – to little clear sky – what can you do   In Denmark we have few clear nights and from May to August we have light summer nights. So the nights where I can image the sky – as I love to do – are few. What to do about it?   Some people invest in remote observatory facilities – but that is not really me. I enjoy to much being out with the telescope under the clear sky. Instead I decided to try how I can get the most from the limited clear sky hours I have. The focus has been on: A fast optical system A pixel scale to give best sensitivity One Shot Color camera [...]

In this post I will introduce a technique to test your telescope/camera system independant of the telescope mount and at the same time get information about your mount  – if you have any questions or comments  send me an email.   What you can learn from this post The sky area around the celestial pole rotates very slow How untracked pictures of this region shows the true optical performance of your telescope. Find the guide tolerances needed to get pin point stars with your setup How to analyse your star images/profiles using PixInsight Relevant for all kinds of AP mounts (Alt/Az, Polar aligned, Dobsons)               Introduction – the stars are not pinpoint in my image I am sure you all have tried to look [...]

At times it could be great to setup the telescope mount in daytime. Generally this is not possible when you can’t see any stars. In this post I will describe a method to align the mount precisely in daytime.   Sometimes on a nice sunny day you would like to observe the sun or the brighter planets – Mercury and Venus. Unless you have a fixed installation in an observatory this can be difficult, as you can’t easily spot the planets with the naked eye. Using the principle described below, you will be able to align your mount during the day and make goto’s directly to the brighter planets and even the brighter stars can be seen in broad daylight. The basic idea of using a terrestrial object I got [...]

This is a video recording of a talk about the Modern Alt-Az mount held at The Practical Astronomy Show in March 2019. Actually the recording was made a few weeks later when I repeated the talk at The Astronomical Society of Copenhagen. Unfortunately the video quality is not perfect but I hope it can be useful anyway. The video is rather long so here are the timing if you want to jump to certain sections: Introduction My Journey into amateur astronomy (01:24) Comparison of Polar aligned and Alt-Az Mounts (05:05) Summing up the Comparison (19:12) Alt-Az short exposure Astrophotography (20:39) Alt-Az long exposure Astrophotography (30:41) Summing up (38:30)

In this post we will look at the most advanced type of Alt-Az astrophotography using camera rotators – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts were introduced. There are two basic approaches. 1. Take multiple short exposures to eliminate the effects of field rotation (read more) 2. Use a rotator device to rotate the camera and achieve precise equatorial tracking If you wonder why we want to image with an Alt-Az mount see this post “The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise” The first principle has already been described in an earlier post. We will now look [...]

The trip into Alt-Az astrophotography continues – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts were introduced. There are two basic approaches. 1. Take multiple short exposures to eliminate the effects of field rotation (read more) 2. Use a rotator device to rotate the camera and achieve precise equatorial tracking If you wonder why we want to image with an Alt-Az mount see this post “The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise” The first principle has already been described in an earlier post. We will now look more into the second principle. Rotating the camera can be done [...]

You can take great astrophotos using your Alt-Az mount – learn how here If you own an Alt-Az mount, you most likely think “It cannot be used for deep sky astrophotography”. But that is not correct. It is possible to take wonderful deep sky images with an Alt-Az mount if you know how to do it and pick the right objects. As with any astronomy equipment, the quality of the mount (stability, tracking accuracy), telescope and camera will of course have influence on the final result. But with good knowledge and persistence, you can take great images even with modest equipment. This article will explain how. In this post, I will look into the following subjects: Equipment considerations Alt-Az mount tracking Guiding an Alt-Az mount Influence of field rotation How [...]

You may have learned that for taking good astrophotos, you need a polar aligned mount preferably a german equatorial mount. But with new high quality Alt-Az mounts, this is no longer true. New technologies introduced in Alt-Az mounts mean they can deliver precise equatorial tracking while maintaining the basic advantages of the Alt-Az mount (read more about these advantages and a comparison to Polar aligned mount here). Tracking needed for precise astrophotography One of the first challenges when taking astrophotos is to achieve good tracking. Without good tracking of the object imaged, the rest doesn’t matter. Top quality optics, super sensitive low noise camera, everything collimated and aligned perfectly – all this will not help you if the tracking is bad. Tracking the sky means that the telescope must continually [...]

 The Alt-Az mount is gaining fame again after many years in the shadow of the polar aligned parallactic mount. The ever increasing possibilities within computer control has made it possible to design Alt-Az mounts capable of delivering precise equatorial tracking. Having the simple mechanical principles of the Alt-Az mount, these new mounts offer easier transport and faster setup than the typical polar aligned mount. Setting up an Alt-Az telescope mount – no leveling needed Basically, an Alt-Az mount has a vertical azimuth axle and a horizontal altitude axle. However, this does not need to be precise with many newer mounts where the software handles the alignment. Therefore, the great advantage setting up an Alt-Az mount is that no leveling of any kind is needed. Just set up the tripod [...]

This is the first article in a small series that will focus on the use and possibilities of Altitude-Azimuth (Alt-Az) telescope mounts. First the basic overview will be created and in the coming articles more details on the actual use and possibilities of the modern Alt-Az mount will be covered. The historic view The very first telescope mounts made were Alt-Az mounts. Logically, it is the easiest way to mount a telescope to get a compact and stable base. For astronomical telescopes, the need for tracking the objects across the sky lead to the invention of the Polar aligned Parallactic mount. In the times of no computer control, the fixed speed drive needed for the polar aligned mount was easy to make as a mechanical clock. With modern computer controlled [...]

Below is the slides from a presentation I have held several times at different Starparties. The presentation gives a basic introduction to eyepieces and how to select the right ones for your telescope.