On Sunday, May 8, Mr. Nolan LaVoie, Mr. Erik Born and I traveled to Blue Ridge Observatory on Flattop Mountain near Dyke, Virginia. Blue Ridge Observatory is a private observatory owned by Mr. Dean Wilder, who is a member of the Charlottesville Astronomical Society. Mr. Wilder was kind enough to show us around his observatory and let me set up my equipment on his property.
Inside his observatory, he had a 16-inch Ritchey–Chrétien telescope permanently mounted on a Paramount mount. It was one of the most awesome telescopes I’ve ever seen in person. The observatory also had a warm room with a com

Mr. Wilder’s 16-inch Ritchey-Chrétien Telescope

puter to control the telescope, and examples of Mr. Wilder’s astrophotography on the wall, including a beautiful picture of the Horsehead Nebula. Unfortunately, the observatory roof was in the process of being repaired, and we were unable to use his telescope, but I set up my equipment outside for a night of imaging.

From the position I set up my equipment outside of the observatory, I had an excellent view overhead and towards the east. I again used a laser to align the polar axis of the mount with the star Polaris and aligned the computerized mount with six named stars.

For imaging this time, I used the program BackyardEOS on my laptop to control the camera, which was extremely useful. I was able to display images immediately on the computer screen for examination, control all camera settings, and use the program to precisely focus the telescope based essentially on the width of a certain star, called the Full-Width Half-Maximum value.

My set-up in the field

I had decided that my primary target for the night was going to be the Lagoon Nebula, M8, but I knew that it would be low on the horizon until later in the night. I decided to try imaging M51, a spiral galaxy in the Constellation Canes Venatici known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, before M8 was at a better position in the sky. Fortunately, Mr. Wilder suggested that I start with an easier target to make sure everything was working properly. I took his advice and started with M13, known as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. I took several 60 second exposures of M13 and was very impressed with the way they came out on the computer screen.

After determining that everything was working properly, I switched to imaging M51. I was also very impressed with the way these images were coming out as well. I could clearly see the galaxy with a 60 second exposure at ISO 3200. I ended up taking 60 second exposures at ISO 1600 because the noise level was too high at ISO 3200. Throughout the night, clouds rolled in and out, sometimes obscuring the galaxy. I continued to image M51 for most of the night and collected dark and bias frames when the clouds were present. Unfortunately, the Lagoon Nebula was covered by clouds for the entire night, so I didn’t get to image it. I did however get some images of the open cluster M52 during the later part of the night.

It was a very successful trip to an awesome place, and I can’t thank Mr. Wilder enough for letting us set up at his observatory. I collected tons of data that I am now working on processing. Hopefully I’ll have some finished images to share soon.