Baitz Observatory

Amateur Astronomy by Peter Baitz

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and
all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. -Psalm33:6


And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: -Genesis1:14

Equipment

  • 2006
    • Celestron NexStar 8iSE/SA/XLT with ToUcam Pro installed
    Side views
    NexStar 8iSE & Volkskop 13.1 Dob
    ToUcam Pro short exposure webcam
    ToUcam Pro III LX webcam mounted on scope.

    Software

  • 2006
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS v4| Fedora Linux Core 6
    qAstrocam image grabber
    Philips Webcam drivers for Linux
    AstroStack image stacker
    Gimp image editor
    Kstars planetarium ephemeris software for Linux - compatible with NexStar telescopes
    Astro-Linux (formerly Lin4Astro) CD

    Webcam Modifications

  • 2006
    • Peter Baitz SPC900NC USB-only LED-driven LX mod
    Matthias Meijer SPC900NC mod
    Frank Larsen SPC900NC mod
    QCUIAG webcam long exposure modifications

    Resources

    Local Site Seeing
    Local Weather Forcast|Local Weather Map
    Space Weather
    CalSky Celestial Object Similations
    Christopher Go's super imaging site| Matthias Bopp astronomy site
    Celestron telescopes
    The Universe| Distance Scale
    Messier Objects| SEDS Messier Objects
    Eyepiece Calculator| ScopeMath Calculator
    Mettler Wedge mount| Mettler 2nd Site
    Astrophoto Newsletter| Alt-Az Mount Long Exposures
    Daytime SCT Collimation
    Sky&Telescope Jupiter Study
    Trans-Neptunian Objects
    The New Solar System
    M. Brown at Caltech
    Titus-Bodes Law
    Titius-Bode Revisited for new Solar System
    Hubble Dark Matter Study Site
    NASA JPL Ephemeris NASA JPL Small Body Orbital Elements Data (for Kstars) NASA JPL Small Body Search (eg. Trans-Neptunian Objects)
    World Clock
    Draco Productions| Baadar Solar Filter Material
    Telescope Tutorial| Types of Eyepieces
    Harltman Masks| Hatman Mask Template Generator
    NexStar Resource Site|Celestron

    Astro-Photos

  • 2007
    • Big Meadows - atop Skyline Drive Mile 51, Blue Ridge mountains, Virginia | 1 | 2 |
    The Rappahannock Astronomy Club held stargazing nights up here, and I finally got up there myself.

  • 2006
    • 2003 Aurora display visible in Virginia - Sony digicam 8sec exp.
    Jupiter May 23, 2006
    Jupiter June 16-17, 2006
    Jupiter Post-Processed June 17, 2006
    Jupiter Feb 4, 2006
    Electric Mars - overprocessed in 2003
    Quickcam tests on the moon
    Moon traveling companion
    Moondance with Venus
    Saturn Apr 3, 2006 - raw Saturn Apr 3, 2006 - stack
    Sony digicam snapshot of Venus

    Astro-Library

  • 2006
    • Jupiter Quickguide

    New! See Library for 'ToUcam Pro III (SPC900NC) Long eXposure (LX) Modification LED-driven'
     [Library Entrance]

    Local Sky Observing Conditions



    NASA Global Hydrology and Climate Center
    Clear Sky Clock Homepage

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