first saturn of this apparition:
my astronomy club received an unusual request from an author writing a book about Robert Frost (the poet) as amateur astronomer: images from an instrument of the same caliber and quality as Robert Frost's telescope.
Frost "...followed the science of his day closely, and was interested in astronomy
and cosmology. This is reflected in some of his poems and lectures. He
lived from 1874 to 1963.
Frost had a 2-inch achromatic telescope, purchased around 1890 when he was in high school."
we're specifically tasked with an image from an instrument of this caliber and quality, to show what his views were like. spoiler: not good.
my reply:
an amherst college grad,
i'm compelled to give it a try
i'll view, and image this weekend
2" finder's moon and saturn
on the way
points for style?
OK i'm sticking to astrophotography
thank god Frost had a crappy scope
so anyway, i spent a saturday night on the task
dusted off my 8" SCT on an alt-azm mount because it has a 50 mm finder scope.
it was a wonderful evening in coastal southern california,
one of the rare nights warm enough to be out until 2 AM in a T-shirt. the seeing was excellent.
sadly, i was unable to bring my camera to focus on the finder, but can assure you i could not see saturn's rings.
frustrated by the experience i decided to image with the camera on the back of the SCT, capturing the surprisingly sharp image above despite the fact that i was imaging through a diagonal with saturn low in the sky. a bit red due to the low altitude.
the next night i tried again with the 50 mm finder scope i use for my FS 60:
 |
| note the camera is on the finder scope, while the high-end Takahashi refractor lies idle with optics far better than Frost's scope. |
Having viewed through a 5 mm eyepiece with stacked barlows (which increase magnification), here's my rendition of saturn through Frost's scope.
it should be noted that i was using a tracking mount. it would have been exceedingly difficult to get saturn in the field of the scope at this magnification. here's a lower power version more easily tracked.
 |
| The blue halo due to chromatic aberration was evident visually. |
for comparison here's my capture through an 8" SCT again.
here's the moon through the 50 mm finder:
looks decent at this scale. no barlow was used to increase the magnification.
imaging details:
Eastbluff, CA
8/23-27/26
camera ZWO ASI 664MC (one shot color camera)
small saturn
svbony
50 mm f/3.8 guide scope
2 element achromatic design
this is representative of my view with a 5 mm eyepiece with stacked 2x and 2.5x barlows.
smaller version missing barlows
moon without barlow
large saturn
nexstar 8 GPS (8" SCT)
.jpg)
