Comet C/2014 E2 ( Jacques ) Visible In The Morning Sky

Thanks for the info. That's a great shot, especially considering the conditions. It looks like Jacques will be even better placed by the middle of this month, and still bright.

[link to www.aerith.net]

K

Nice.

Excellent shot! I can't wait to observe Jacques again, just need the weather to cooperate.

Though the weather was quite sunny the last days, it was always a little hazy in the early morning hours.

But this morning the weather was fine (ok, had to fight the usual light pollution in my area) - thus another, closer shot of C/2014 E2 (Jacques).

:C2014E214008061:

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Man, those are great, I gotta break out the scope again this weekend if I possibly can.

Yes, it's a nice small comet.

But I think it's not as bright as predicted, about mag 8 (should be 7.5). But may be it's because of the light pollution.

Forgot the data for the photo above:
Meade LX6 10", Canon EOS, focal projection, ISO 1600, 20 x 20 sec.

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Oh wow, one of these eh?
[link to www.astrobuysell.com]
Digital setting circles and clock drive system I assume? Those are great images. Is it an f/6.3? That's handy if so, there are times I wish mine was natively f/6.3 instead of f/10.

Actually it's a 2120 f/10 (LX5) [link to www.astromart.com] but on a LX6 base.

Got it used with wedge but no DEC drive and handbox - thus I have to find my coordinates the old fashioned way by using the setting circles manually :)
It's from the time, when Meade switched from the LX5 to LX6. Since the LX5 DEC drive and handbox was optional in Germany they initially sold the LX6 without these parts, too.

But if I'm lucky my be I can get a LX200 GPS/Autostar II for a 10" OTA on ebay this weekend - keep your fingers crossed for me.
I'd like to get the original DEC drive and handbox - looking for it since almost two years now, without avail.

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Well good luck, I hope you get it! That is very much the old fashioned way. I never really mastered manual setting circles to be honest, I would always do star hops from the charts. That would be much harder to do with a camera I imagine, by the time I got into deep space photography I already had the LX200.

The scope is from 1991 ( as you can see, I like old scopes:) and in perfect condition. I solved the usual focuser shifting problem with a helical focuser.

The setting circles are very accurate with a vernier gauge - took me some time to get accustomed to it, but then it's quite easy to find the objects. I use a 50mm eyepiece initially and the object of my desire is (almost) every time in the FOV.

My main problem is: the focus of the eyepiece is different from the focus of the camera.
Get the object into the eyepiece's FOV, look where you find a bright star nearby, go back to the object, change to the camera, change to the bright star (count the turns of the RA/DEC knobs), focus the camera, go back to the object, make some shots until the object is in the middle of the camera screen, programm the camera remote (exposure time, delay, number of exposures), lean back and have a beer.
Sounds complicated - but works.

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I'm not sure if this will work, I suppose it depends on whether the camera's focus is farther back from the eyepiece or closer in (as well as how far apart they actually are), but I've found that parfocal rings can be quite handy for situations like that.
[link to www.telescope.com]

Last Edited by Astromut on 08/07/2014 11:34 AM

Perfect!

The camera's focus is about 7mm farther back from the eyepiece. A parfocal ring don't work well - I have one and tried it, but the focus changes always a little. Thus I have to make some shots to find the exact focus by try and error. Takes about the same time as my methode above.

I have to lathe a distance ring for the T2 adapter - but I'm lazy, and since the above approach works ....

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I see, I still deal with mirror flop on mine, so I always need to take some test shots anyway to ensure final focus.

Had the same problem and solved it with an additional helical focuser mounted between star diagonal and eyepiece.
Rough focus with the build in focuser, fine adjustment with the helical. Works perfect.

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