Recently, VAS was fortunate to obtain a substantial grant from WightAID towards new astrophotography equipment. The equipment purchased provides both club members and visitors with an introductory and an advanced route into this fascinating area of astronomy.
Introductory: Seestar S50 All-in-One Smart Telescope
The Seestar S50 is a small but feature packed telescope. All it needs to operate is power and a flat level surface to stand on. This telescope is both small and light, weighing in at just 2.5kg and measuring just 142.5 x 130 x 257mm !
When first switched on, the telescope starts by scanning the visible sky and working out where it is on the earth (this takes about 30 seconds or so). Control of where the telescope should look is made by an app on a smart phone or tablet. That’s simple enough as the app has lists of astronomical objects so it’s just a few clicks to complete the alignment. The real fun begins now as the telescope has a camera and can start taking photos and, after a few minutes, combining them into a fully complete colour photograph. The photo is shown live on the phone/tablet screen as it “develops”, and improves in detail as the exposure times lengthens.
Visit us on any clear Thursday evening and you can experience this amazing little telescope for yourself!
Advanced: Our APM telescope and the new Altair Hypercam 26M
We’ve had the APM refractor telescope for sometime now but this has now been promoted to be the main observatory telescope with the additon of the Altair Hypacam 26M camera.
The camera has been fixed to the telescope but there have been a few problems with the colour filter wheel which needs further testing. Once this has been completed there will be photographs of both the installation and the resulting astro photographs on the this page.
Many thanks to WightAID for their generous grant. This has enabled VAS to move forward, providing members with extra new and exciting facilities and enabling visitors to take a clearer view into the dark skies on the Isle of Wight.