Máistir Nádúraí: Dusting off the Celestron 8" SCT

10.29.2005

Dusting off the Celestron 8" SCT

The Moon

I lugged out my Schmidt-Cassegrain 8” Celestron Telescope to the deck tonight in order to glimpse Mars. You may have heard or read that Mars is at its closest approach to Earth on the night of October 29-30, passing 43.1 million miles (69.4 million kilometers) from our planet around 11:25 p.m. on the 29th Eastern Daylight Time. However, Mars will look just about as big and brilliant for a couple of weeks before and after that date.

Merely a casual interest now, I used to be big into astronomy and astrophotography and it’s partly the reason how I ended up birding and doing bird photography. How else might all this optic equipment be used? Imaging celestial objects millions of miles or millions of light years away presents an entirely different set of challenges versus bird photography. For one thing, they don't move around as much! Precision is more of an issue, though.

Anyway, here is just a small sampling of some of my astrophotography work from the late 1990’s…

Lunar Eclipse

The Orion Nebula (M42)

Mars

Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)

Bio:

Mike McDowell has been documenting southern Wisconsin’s flora and fauna since 1987 and began leading field trips in 2002. Prolific at Pheasant Branch Conservancy, other highlighted natural areas include Pope Farm Conservancy, Spring Green Preserve, and the Baraboo Hills. His nature photography has appeared in various publications, newspapers, magazines and was even featured on a Wisconsin Endangered Resources license plate, a Capital Brewery beer label, and a National Geographic publication. He began journaling nature observations on this blog in 2005. He's the recipient of the 2012 Bronze Passenger Pigeon Award from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in their local communities or state to promote the field of ornithology. He was a finalist in Swarovski’s Digiscoper of the Year photography contest several times. His other interests include insect macro-photography (especially tiger beetles, treehoppers, and robber flies), fossil collecting, amateur astronomy, botany, natural history, and marksmanship with long-range rifles. Once a gigging musician, collecting Fender Stratocasters is a recently revived interest—most prized being a 1957 Vintage Custom Shop 'Mary Kaye' White Blonde. A former IT Professional, he's spent the last 24 years employed in the sport optics industry.