January AstroTrac Expedition – Part 3

After a good morning’s sleep, we woke at noon to another beautiful sunny day. Following a quick coffee jump start, we headed up to the top of the hill to check out the observatories. We were in astrophotography heaven – altitude, lots of big white domes, and clear skies!

We dropped back into the IAC for one last shot of coffee and lunch and had the pleasure of meeting Paul Cox from the Slooh observatory project. After a very interesting discussion we all agreed that we were very spoilt being able to work in such a great place.

Our final night looming, we headed down to our ‘home’ on the concrete man hole cover early.

The unsung heroes of the trip were two Samsung NC10 Netbook computers – superbly capable at half the size of my normal laptop, and weighing in at just over a kilogram with battery life of almost 8 hours.

After reviewing our target list, we noted how fantastic the light was and Gain scuttled around grabbing some shots of the kit.

Suddenly, it was dark, and we still had the evil tarp to put up. Thankfully for the last time.

Having got some great shots the previous two nights, we felt a lot more relaxed and opted to use the Canon EF 200 mm f2.8L lenses – my favourite piece of glass!

At about 4:00 am, we were quitely shooting away, when some headlights suddenly pierced the dark over a nearby ridge. They gradually got closer, and much to our horror, an off road vehicle swung around the corner at speed, lights ablaze, only 25 m or so from our manhole cover. Amazingly they negotiated our guylines and boulders, which stretched more than half way across the road, by putting the vehicle up the hedge, at an angle of around 45 degrees. We joked nervously afterwards that they could have taken the whole setup out, tarps, imaging kit and us!

Five am came quickly and we were running out of dark. We heaved a big sigh of relief when we finally packed the tarp windbreak up for the final time.

By 6:00 am we had piled everything into the car, and headed back to the observatory.

We then carried everything from the car into the IAC lobby (we handed in our keys the day before), sorting and packing all our equipment on the lobby floor on our hands and knees. An hour and a half later, we had finished and repacked the car ready for our drive back down to airport. I’ve never packed and unpacked equipment as many times in as many days!

With perfect timing, the Sun started to rise and we were treated to some spectacular views of Tiede bathed in gorgeous warm orange dawn light.

The drive down through the National Park lasted over an hour with me behind the wheel enjoying the twisty roads and Gain leaning out the window shooting away with the camera.

Finally we were back at the airport, and it was all over. We were tired, but inspired by our astrophotography marathon.

So in summary, yes we did get more great images, yes we were sleep deprived, and yes, small parts of our lips did fall off due to the dry air!

We plan to return to the Observatorio del Teide in the near future and would like to thank all at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias for their kind support and hospitality.

January AstroTrac Expedition – Part 2

After driving half way back to the airport checking out potential sites, we were beginning to get concerned. It was past 5:00 pm and sunset was at 6:37 pm – we needed to find somewhere protected from the wind, and fast.

In desperation, we headed back to the observatories and decided to compromise by stopping at a small pull in on a lethally sharp bend. We hoped the two 3 m by 3 m tarps, poles and guys we had brought, would provide sufficient shelter from the wind.

We set up the piers, loaded the cameras and lenses up and started laying out the tarp – we were almost ready to start imaging, and before dusk – a good result on our first night. And then, the luck fairy sent a national park warden to us, who after just about spotting us on the bend, reversed back, pulled in and demanded in Spanish that we move. At least, I think that’s what he said…

Panic started to set in as we ripped our kit down, we had just spent three hours trying to find a wind free spot, and another hour setting up. We now had less than 30 minutes to find another spot and set up all over again. We tried to console ourselves with the thought that it was great practice.

Squeezing maximum performance out of the vastly underpowered Renault Scenic, we screamed up the hill back to the observatory, and dived off the main road on the first dirt track we could find on the road which ran below the observatories in the lee of the wind

We then stretched the performance of the Scenic for the second time in 5 minutes into 4 wheel drive territory, only it didn’t have 4 wheel drive.

Gain lept out, checked the wind, and we settled on a 8 x 4 foot concrete manhole cover by the track. This would be our home for the next 3 nights.

The kit went together quickly, but the tarps were rather more fun to errect. We made a note to book onto a Ray Mears course when we got back.

We thought the fun was over, but oh no, there was plenty more in store. The fun started with one of the power cables, in the end we had to cut and rewire it in the dust. Luckily we had opted for mains connector blocks and had taken wire cutters so we could correct problems on the fly.

We left the car engine running and hooked up the inverters, one of which we had pre-wired with 5 Canon battery chargers for plugging into the internal cigarette lighter, the other which we wired with cable which we had purchased at a Chinese supermarket near the airport shortly after landing.

Finally we were imaging – hurray! But no, we celebrated too soon, Gain’s mumblings soon revealed that the Canon 400 mm f2.8L was useless at f2.8, exhibiting every kind of optical aberration in the book. He tried stopping it down to f4 and beyond, but still no good. Only the very centre of the lens was useable, and then only just. Luckily I had brought the 2 x tele-converter and Gain had the cunning plan to jump to 800 mm focal length and image ‘close-up’ using the central area of the lens.

I was having more success shooting Orion wide-field with my Baader modded Canon 20D and EF 28 mm f2.8 lens at f3.5 with Astronomik 12 nm H-Alpha clip filter. I was amazed at what I could pickup in a single 12 minute frame at ISO 800.

I was having so much fun, I even had a go at the Vela super nova remnant area – it was like having X-ray specs on, only H-Alpha ones of course!

We worked hard through the night, testing every aspect of the equipment we could think of (it was after all a work trip!), until about 5:30 in the morning when Gain announced he had an idea. He checked our Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas and confirmed that he was going to go for Omega Centauri. It was low in the murk, but worth a try.

After shooting enough frames to stack we decided to call it a night. All we had to do was break down the equipment, reload the car, and make our way back up the 4 wheel drive track with our 2 wheel drive car – easy!

We crawled into bed back at the observatory and my head hit the pillow just after 7:00 am – only another 2 nights to go – this was going to be easy!

Did we manage to get more images?, did we die of sleep deprivation?, did the 4% humidity cause our cracked and bleeding lips to fall off? – all will be revealed in the final part 3…

January AstroTrac Expedition – Part 1

I am delighted to report that we are now safely back from a highly successful trip. Amazing scenery and skies, lots of sleep deprivation, and over 42 hours gear testing in 4 nights. Not bad given the last minute change of location from Spain to the Canary Islands.

We ended up taking two complete TT320X setups, each with the new ultra portable field pier, wedge and head (which we will be demonstrating at Astrofest in London on the 6-7th February). We somehow managed all this within our luggage allowance – then we remembered we needed clothes. It was very warm boarding the plane!

No astrophotography trip report would be complete without a list of cameras and lenses – here’s what we took:

• 2 x Canon 50D
• 1 x Canon 40D
• 1 x Canon 20D (Baader modded)
• 1 x Canon EF 400 mm f2.8L
• 2 x Canon EF 200 mm f2.8L
• 1 x Canon EF 28 mm f2.8L
• 1 x Canon EF 50 mm f1.8L
• 1 x Canon EF 15 mm fisheye

I was amazed at the amount of time it took to check, double check and pack the equipment for this trip, you only have to forget one item and you are in trouble!

After a smooth journey from Bristol, to Gatwick to Tenerife, we finally reached the observatory at dusk, the shadow of Mount Tiede in the Earth’s shadow was memorable.

We were warmly greeted at the Instituto Astrofisica Canaria by Daniel Lopez (take a look at his amazing astrophotography from the Observatorio del Teide). Daniel kindly showed us around and took us up to the observing pad near one of the large telescope domes.

When we got out of the car, the first major challenge of the trip presented itself – the wind. At around 40 km/h, we knew right away that we weren’t going to get far without some form of wind shelter!

We were so focused on trying to evade the wind, that we barely stopped to take in the beautifully clear skies that accompany altitude over 7,000 feet, low humidity and good seeing. Venus was brilliantly bright and high in the sky, you could easily see your shadow, and Orion was almost overhead.

After 2 hours of roaming around the hilltop between the domes in the dark searching for a wind free area, we decided to go to bed and continue our quest with the benefit of light in the morning. The pressure of expectation and results still to be achieved weighed heavily upon us.

We woke to a fantastic view from the observatory. Inspiring clear blue skies, and snow capped Tiede standing over us at 12,000 feet. I’m sure I had my year’s supply of Serotonin that morning, the sun was so gorgeous and the air so fresh.

With spirits high, we packed our sandwiches and water, and set off in the fully loaded Renault Scenic to find a wind protected spot somewhere in the massive volcano crater at the top of the island which comprises the national park.

Find out what happened in part 2…

January AstroTrac Expedition – Latest

After a couple of very helpful posts on the forum today from Terry Medcalffe and Rob Keown I learnt that camping was prohibited in the Tenerife national park. I found a hiking blog site and rang the owner who advised that it would also be very cold. Things were starting to look less than ideal. I had visions of running round with my feet sticking out of the bottom of my sleeping bag in the dark at -10 degrees trying to hide from park rangers behind volcanic boulders – somehow not very appealing.

We decided to chance our luck and Gain and I sent out a couple of emails and made a couple of phone calls to the Observatorio del Teide. Having heard nothing by 20:00 this evening, we were resigned to roughing it.

Then things improved dramatically – at 20:04 we received an invitation to the observatory, and even better, use of the observatory accommodation. What a result! It turns out that Miquel Serra, the Site Manager, is an AstroTrac owner – small world!

To say I’m relieved is a slight understatement. I was wondering what customs would make of the body bag I was going to pack for my return journey, the cold having got the better of me after 4 nights.

All we need now are clear skies and equipment co-operation…

January AstroTrac Expedition – Update

We checked the weather forecast for Madrid this morning and the weather looks pretty dire for Spain later this week with rain and snow forecast. We checked the weather in the Canary Islands, and its forecast clear, so we’ve rebooked our flights and car hire, and we’re off to Tenerife now.

This means we are now camping rough between 7,000 and 10,000 feet, and its likely to be well below zero Celcius at night, so packing plenty of clothes!

Our spreadsheet puts us both at 20 kg luggage each in the hold with as much as we can carry in our hand luggage (approx. 15 kg each at present). When I rang easyJet to check the hand luggage allowance, they confirmed there is no weight limit, only a size limit, with the proviso that the bag can be lifted unassisted into the overhead locker. Lets hope the overhead lockers are strong!

We hired the awesome Canon EF 400 mm f2.8L lens from Calumet photo this morning, so hopefully this will arrive tomorrow in time for our departure.

More to follow…

January AstroTrac Expedition

We need to do some rigorous field testing of the new AstroTrac wedge, head and pier, and we need to get some product shots for the website and events this year, so what better way than to organise a mini expedition!

We scoured the dark sky maps of Europe and settled on Spain. Our decision made mainly on the basis of cheap airfares. There’s a ring of dark sky areas around Madrid, punctuated with the odd town, but overall fairly dark:

the highlighted circular areas show our regions of choice to the east and the south west of Madrid. We will be carrying an ultra lightweight netbook computer with 3G modem, the plan being to get daily weather forecasts so we can optimise our location for clear skies.

We are flying out from Bristol to Madrid on EasyJet on the 21st of January, returning on the 25th, and hoping for 4 clear nights! Price of flights is around £55 per person all inclusive, so very good value.

There wouldn’t be much point in going, unless we do it properly, so we’re taking everything with us on the plane and we’re lightweight camping. More details to follow…

New AstroTrac Products for 2009

We’ve been making excellent progress over the Christmas break with not one, but three exciting new AstroTrac products.

Many of you will have experience using a camera tripod with the AstroTrac, and its perfectly adequate with a camera lens or small refractor. For bigger lenses and 3-6 inch refractors or small reflectors, something more substantial is required. With this in mind, we are aiming to launch three new products at Astrofest in London on 6-7th February 2009 which we hope will work together with the TT320X to provide the ultimate portable tracking system.

The new products are:

• A special wedge for mounting the TT320X on a tripod or pier
• An ultra portable field pier
• A rigid head to mount larger instruments on the TT320X

We are in the process of submitting several international patent applications at the moment and more details will follow in January. I must admit I’m rather excited!

AstroTrac’s First Blog Post

I’m Richard Taylor, the designer and founder of AstroTrac. I have a strong passion for astrophotography and designing equipment which makes it easier to take great astro images. I have a degree in Theoretical Physics and a background as a software developer and always hoped that one day I would find an occupation that combines all my interests. After converting a small lathe and milling machine to CNC control early in 2006, I designed the first AstroTrac prototype.

I first showed the AstroTrac TT320 at Astrofest in London in February 2007 and I’ve been on an amazing journey ever since. I’ve learnt many new things, travelled to interesting places and met loads of great people – wow!

The AstroTrac team has rapidly grown from just myself working from home, to a dedicated and highly skilled production team using the latest CNC machinery at our Bristol factory. We are also very fortunate to have a worldwide network of individuals who are unpaid supporters of AstroTrac – we call them AstroTrac Angels. The Angels bring a great range of perspectives, and between them, many years of experience in astronomy and astrophotography.

We have many exciting things to share with you over the coming months, including:

• New product updates
• Tips and techniques to help you get better images with less hassle
• Equipment test reports from our numerous worldwide expeditions
• Profiles of top astrophotography experts
• Help for beginners
• And lots more

There is nothing we love more than talking to fellow astrophotographers so please leave a reply below and start telling us about your interest in astrophotography.