Pictures from Horten Natursenter and the moon eclipse 28.10.2004

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	Scope and camera ready for the big event later this night. Later on we would regret the early setup due to the cold and humid conditions. The Celestron 8i stopped working just as the eclipse started ;-( The fault was a defect power supply and a lot of water inside the electronics.
	Live web cast from Horten Natursenter. The small and lightweight ETX-70 with a web cam was providing the live web cast from Horten Natursenter. The ETX-70 scope did withstand the cold weather and the humid conditions all night. One battery change was necessary. Well done Meade for the little and cheap scope!
	The Celestron 8i starting to ice up a little. On screen a newly taken picture of the moon to calibrate focus. This is my basic travel setup for the 8i, a chair, table, power cable 220v and 12v, laptop, camera and my eyepiece suitcase. All nicely fitted in a small car. The homemade dew cap is functioning ok, but for late and cold nights I use my wife’s hairdryer to help taking off the dew. She want miss it in the night I think;-)
	Humid and icy fog was drifting in the FOV. The dome of the 18” SC scope sighted in the back. The Celestron was about to say goodnight soon;-)
	Tore Rolf Lund is taking pictures of the moon with an Olympus C-750 digital camera, the scope is a 4” Mead AP refractor. Nice conditions inside the dome compared to the outside. All my moon pictures is taken with the Meade 4” refractor after my Celestron 8i had broken down.

The night started out good with this picture from my 8i, taken long before the moon eclipse and the problems to come. Needless to say that I was pretty angry at the 8i breakdown later.

But I have learned something out of this!

The next time I rig up early I will have a blanket over the scope and gear to protect it from the environment.

Local time is 04.50.

The first picture taken after fiddling around with the broken Celestron.

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	8 sec shutter speed
	800 ISO

Local time is 04.56.

Seeing is poor and the moon is out of focus

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	8 sec shutter speed
	800 ISO

Local time is 05.00.

Changing the exposure setting didn’t help.

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	15 sec shutter speed
	400 ISO

Local time is 05.15.

Getting frustrated of the bad seeing I turned on the “God mode” on the 10D.

And light it was;-)

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	30 sec shutter speed
	1600 ISO

Local time is 05.16.

The conditions were rapidly getting worse.

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	15 sec shutter speed
	400 ISO

Local time is 05.19.

This is like taking pictures of faint fussies.

I could not see the moon with my eyes when I took this picture.

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	30 sec shutter speed
	1600 ISO

Local time is 05.20.

The last picture before the moon was gone behind thick layer of fog and clouds.

See u back in 2007.

	Meade 4” Apo refractor
	Canon 10D camera at prime focus
	30 sec shutter speed
	1600 ISO

That’s all folks!

Thanks to Horten Natursenter for letting me borrow the Mead refractor.

Taking my wet 8i back home trying to find out of the “no response 16” message.

Latest:

The scope worked again after draying in the warm house for a day.

Is the Celestron scopes build for Florida…. I wonder ;-)

Anyone have a greencard?