[APML] Success after two years

["Robert Reeves" <reeves10@swbell.net>]

Hi everyone,

Looks like I can communicate with my web host again, so I shoveled up some
new stuff.  I'll let you know when its viewable because I haven't written up
the HTML for it yet.

But in the meantime, I can show an image at www.robertreeves.com/scutum.jpg
that has been a two-year struggle.  It started at Okie-Tex in 2001 when Kent
Kirkley let me borrow his 105 mm f/2.5 Nikor.  This lens has a field of view
that fills a nice nitch in wide-field work that I hadden't been able to
address because I didn't have that lens.  I shot the Scutum Star Cloud,
among other objects, using Kent's goodies at Okie-Tex.  But somehow I bumped
the lens out of focus and got a really mushy image of Scutum.  So at TSP
2002 I bummed the lens off Kent again for a shot at the same area.  Darned
if I didn't somehow knock it out of focus again!  Jump to early this year
and Tony Hallas put his 105 mm Nikor up for sale.  I snagged it!  I checked
it with a Hartmann mask and the infinity focus was at infinity.  So I waited
for clear sky here at home...and it never came.  So off to TSP 2003 and a
week of clear skies.  I set up the 105mm for piggyback work and my drive
corrector goes up in flames (it was 25 years old and the transformer
toasted).  The scope worked on 110V, but I couldn't correct for photography.
The next day I scuttled up to Rex's Astrostuff and bought another drive
corrector.  I plugged it in that night and... poof!  It goes up in flames as
well.  An astonished Rex gave me my money back and photography at TSP went
out the window.  I got a third drive corrector back home and got everything
working.  Now wait for clear weather.  Finally got some in late October and
off I went for skyshooting.  Another try at Scutum and incredibly it is
again way out of focus!  A month later on November 20 it is beautifully
clear and I have the 105 mm locked on infinity with about two pounds of
masking tape.  Scutum sets really early in November, so I got off one shot
before it sunk too low.  Then off to other objects as the clear night went
on.  But the north never really looked as clear as it should, it looked
hazy.  But there were no clouds and I thought "Aurora? Naw, not this far
south."  Well it was, and it was a damn bright one on 30 minute E200
exposures.  Who would have ever thought a shot of Scutum from south Texas
would get whacked by an aurora? Now I know why Canadian astrophotographers
chunk their telescopes into Lake Ontario and take up stamp collecting.
After fiddling around trying the de-aurorafy the Scutum image in Photoshop,
it looks halfway descent now.  So take a peek at the above link to see the
result of a two year battle that is not yet won.

Tony, BTW, that lens is really quite good.  Its the sharpest lens I have
now.  It does way better than my 135mm and 200mm Nikors.  Thanks for selling
it to me.

Robert Reeves                +29.484   98.440
reeves10@swbell.net      San Antonio, Texas  USA


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