2009 Trip to Sunglow Ranch Az
I just returned from my 3rd trip to Sunglow with a friend of mine and
his 20" scope. This time I also brought a camera so I could do
some astrophotography.
For those not familar with Sunglow it is
located in southeastern Arizona about 2 hours from Tucson. The
location is about as dark as you can get with only a minor glow from
Douglas. The site is astronomy friendly, serves excellent food, and
provides a comfortable room to collapse at twilight. Oh and the
site is dark!
The weather cooperated again. We had 3 excellent nights (plus a
short first night and one cloudout).
Click on the pictures outlined in blue for a higher resolution image.
Sagittarius
This 24mm shot was a combination of 50 one minute exposures at ISO
800. This map will show the
approximate location of the image.
This is a sequence showing
Sagitaritus rising that I will be using in the intro of my "Summer Sky" movie"
M8/M20
This 100 mm exposure shows the Milky Way near M8 and M20. It is a 18x3
min exposure @ ISO 1600. Ambient was in the mid 30s but I also
actively cooled.
Centaurus
This 24mm photo shows the southern horizon and the area of Centaurus.
This
exposure is 4x2min f/2.5 ISO 800. The yellow arrow marks omega Centuri
and Centaurus A. The latter only dimly visible in the 24mm image.
Here is a closeup at 100mm. Omega Centuri and Centaurus A should
are easy to see, but this map will
help
orient you.
Downtown Virgo
Finally the reason we came to Sunglow in the spring - galaxy
season. This 100mm 21x3 min @ ISO 1600 with active cooling shows
the central region of the Virgo Cluster. This map
will help you find the various galaxies.
Equipment
I am using a Canon 20Da on an Astrotrac mount.
For these pictures I polar aligned using just the supplied polar
scope.
That is adequate for 24mm, but not for 100mm. I will need to
drift align for longer exposures. That defeats one of the goals
of using the Astrotrac (simplicity). It is still less equipment
than a full GEM mount.
Actively cooling the camera improves the noise.
Copyright
Copyright
©2009 Robert J. Hawley. Some Rights Reserved
All Photos are created under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
This permits the non commericial use of the material on this site,
either in whole or in part, in other works provided that I am credited
for the work. I grant permission to Sunglow Ranch to use these photos.
Rob Hawley 5/3/09
