Some things we can do at HJRO part 2

Sorry about the delay in continuing the topic of options. It's been a busy holiday and I hurt my back a bit moving some equipment. So I've been resting and not writing much lately.

Now for the topic.
Some things we can do at HJRO - part 2 - the list.

As I mentioned before, It's probably a good idea to have a list of possible activities to reference. This is a quick attempt to expand the list of items more dependent of stuff Faac members may bring from time to time to HJRO. (These are optional things that may be available.)

Long exposure photos
We can take long exposure photos of the observatory surroundings with a canon camera. These would be shot at night. Photos can be taken either outside the observatory or inside and may include a photo of a visitor. We could email that photo to the visitor or perhaps post it on my blog.

3d photos
We can also take 3d photos of visitors inside or next to the observatory. The 3d photos are fun to look at but they often require a flash and are better taken when visitors are finished observing as the flash will ruin your night adapted vision.

Binocular observing
We can look at the moon or some objects with a big pair of binoculars, a binocular telescope which I often bring out to the observatory. The moon looks awesome through the binocular telescope.

Wide field telescopes.
We often can look at some brighter wide field star clusters with the binocular telescope or with big Bertha as well, giving a wide field of view. This view can be seen with the Meade refractor as well.

I also have a small four inch f4 wide field scope I can show people which is a wide field telescope, giving a view like a half a binocular.

Take a shot of the moon with your camera phone.
We can show people how they might get a good photo of the moon using their camera phone with our telescope looking at the moon. This requires a low powered eyepiece and we can show you how to attempt this. This works good on the moon, but not many other objects. If you have a camera phone and were are winding down or starting a tour you can ask us to turn on the lights inside to take a photo inside the observatory.

Other astrophotography
We have some cameras in the observatory and can show you the basics of astrophotography. Depending on who is present and what cameras we have available results may vary.

Hook up a visitors Eos camera.
I often bring a canon Eos adapter, if you have an Eos camera we can show you how to hook that up to get photos through the telescope. We may have additional adapters in the future, but most visitors don't think to bring a camera along. Most visitors are happy to look through the telescope. Sometimes a goal of mine is to have more than one telescope setup for visitors and allow them to look first through the smaller ones and move up toward looking through the c14.

To be continued.
There are some things we may improve on and these are dependent on more equipment. I would rather not speculate, but I almost bought a really nice camera over the holiday season. Those deeper astrophotography options are few and far between, but we have a Stellacam and an affordable Meade camera available for some astrophotography. We may be able to show you basics on astrophotography processing of images as well, but that's really a deeper subject and something better off done away from the observatory environment. We have an astrophotography special interest group in the FAAC club and I can let you know when they meet if you are interested in finding out mire details on astrophotography. That group meets at Henry Ford Community College.
I'm going to stop this post for now.


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