Astrophoto Workshop
The Workshop  Roger Blake of TAURUS Technologies will conduct a hands-on demonstration/workshop of astrophotography methods and equipment.   This is a FREE workshop.  Star party attendees may participate either actively, or as observers.   TAURUS Technologies will provide the astrophoto equipment,  or attendees may bring their own.  The objective is to provide the equipment and hands-on training to allow a novice participant  to take astrophotos during the star party.  
About the Author  Roger has been an amateur astronomer specializing in 35mm film astrophotography for 30+ years.   He is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia with a degree in Physics.  He  spend 20 years in nuclear core physics analysis in support of many of the nuclear power plants around the country.   In 1994 he founded TAURUS Technologies, specializing in astrophoto equipment for amateurs.

 

Astrophoto  Workshop Description

Workshop Overview

This is a FREE workshop, open to all attendees.  Star party attendees may participate either actively, or as observers.   The objective is to provide the equipment and hands-on training to allow a novice participant  to take astrophotos during the star party.  

35mm film photos will be developed on-site daily to allow participants to see results.

Equipment Requirements 

Star party attendees may participate in the workshop either actively, or as observers.  Active participants must have a telescope with a clock drive on the telescope polar axis.   Dual axis drives with slow motion controls are best but not required for these demos.   A guiding eyepiece with illuminated reticule, or autoguider,  is also recommended, but not required.  

 

TAURUS Technologies will provide astrophoto equipment (flip mirrors, off-axis guiders, 35mm cameras) at no charge, for use during the show, but quantities are limited so register early (see below)  to reserve the equipment you will need.   

 

See www.taurus-tech.com to view the TAURUS equipment.   

 

Attendees may also use their own astrophoto equipment.
Schedule - In progress.  It would be nice to have scheduled day sessions on specific subjects.  This would be efficient.   But in order to be effective,  this workshop must be largely interactive with individual attendees.    The present plan is to schedule  informal daily group sessions (to be announced) during which Roger would be prepared discuss any/all of the workshop skill sets that are described below,  followed by roaming at-scope sessions for hands-on demos and/or specific user problems.
The Workshop Skill Sets
Polar Alignment -  Astrophotography requires accurate polar alignment.  This chore has gotten a bad rap, that it is complicated and tedious.  Not true.  A simple, two part alignment procedure will be demonstrated.   The 1st part is done during the day when the scope is first set up.   It requires a good compass with rotating dial bezel and a standard dial incline meter.  TAURUS will supply both.   The second part is a refinement, which is typically done during twilight when Polaris first becomes visible.  Both steps only require about 15 minutes each.
Target  Acquisition - There are two ways to navigate the night sky to find a celestial target.  One is visual star-hopping, and the other is  "indexed star-hopping".    Visual star-hopping is difficult to learn because it requires one to memorize the constellations and a lot of practice in dead-reckoning navigation.  If you know how, that's good.  If you don't, Roger will demo the "indexed star-hopping" procedure which is very easy.  It utilizes the telescope setting circles (those numbered circle thingies on the  telescope axes).  Roger will provide at-scope demos during the day and hand out written navigation instructions and  coordinates for selected easy targets. 
Focusing - Accurate focusing of the camera is one of the most difficult tasks in astrophotography.   Roger will demo the "direct eyepiece view" focusing technique that has been developed and implemented in the TAURUS equipment.   
Guide Star Acquisition - Once the target is centered in the field of view of the telescope, a guide star must be found and centered in the field of view of the off-axis guider.  One should note that these are two completely separate fields of view!  Motions in both fields are independent.  The task is to get both the target and guide star centered simultaneously.  This requires a dual port (the view or flip mirror port, and the off-axis guider port) capability like that provided by the TAURUS equipment.
The Guided Exposure - This is the easy part.  Open the camera shutter.  If the exposure is long, then the telescope must be guided during the exposure to correct for small errors in the the clock drive motion.   This requires slow motion controls.  Roger will discuss and demo.  For those active participants without slow motion controls, some short photos of bright targets are recommend.
Film Development - For those using the TAURUS supplied (FREE) 35mm film, we will develop the film each day following the previous nights photography session so everyone can see the results right away, and discuss problems before the next nights session. Roger  will have available a portable darkroom bag, developing tank, and chemicals, and will demo how to develop the film.   Each attendee will develop his/her own film.  The process is simple.  It takes only about 15min of processing, 30 min rinse, and about 30min to dry.
 Registration
Registration is important for two reasons.   The first is to let Roger know how many sets of handouts to bring.   The second is to reserve TAURUS astrophoto equipment.   The equipment is limited, so register early. 

Contact Roger Blake at rablake@erols.com for questions or to register.