Remote Southern Hemisphere Sky Safari - September

Remote Southern Hemisphere Sky Safari - September

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  • $350.00

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Join me remotely for three nights of imaging from the darkest skies on the planet! Together from the Khomas Highlands in central Namibia, I will be guiding seven people along remotely on a tour of the magical Southern Hemisphere skies. Together we will capture views of space that people typically travel around the world to capture.


Over the course of this workshop, you will receive:

- Approximately 60 hours of exposure time in total

- Two three-hour editing sessions

- Three remote telescope operation tutorial sessions

Booking out a remote telescope for this amount of time would typically cost you in excess of $1,600. So this is a literal steal as far as images go. Not only this, I will help guide you through editing this amazing data to its complete potential. 

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Saturday, September 16

10AM PST 

- Introduction to the telescope system 

- Tutorial of how I operate my telescope

- Target selection

- Starting the imaging run

- Q/A 

Day 2 - Sunday, September 17

10AM PST

- Target selection

- Start the telescope

- Data editing session (using either new or old data depending on target)

Day 3 - Monday, September 18

6PM PST

- Data collection will mostly finish Monday morning

- Data editing session

- The following morning the rest of the data will be provided, since the scope will still be running at 6PM PST. 


What you will need: 

If you want to follow along with the editing procedures, here are some tools you will need:

- Pixinsight

- AstroPixelProcessor

- Photoshop

- StarXTerminator

- BlurXTerminator

- HVB Pixinsight scripts

- StarSpikesPro (optional) 

- Registar (optional) 

About the Instruments: 

The telescope is located near Gamsberg Peak in Namibia. The timezone here is GMT +2, which allows us to maintain a good working schedule while operating the telescope. 

The instruments used for this workshop are a Takahashi FSQ85, and a Rokinon 135mm. Both are equipped with full-frame ZWO cameras, delivering us the best possible images. 

The FSQ is equipped with a monochrome camera, with LRGB and 3nm SHO filters. It has a focal length of 450mm.

The Rokinon is equipped with a color camera and has an Antlia ALP-T High speed 5nm dual narrowband filter equipped. At f/2.8, it delivers amazing widefield narrowband images in short periods of time. This filter cannot be removed, since the instrument is being used for sky survey work and is perfectly calibrated in its current state. 

The targets we shoot will be put to a vote, but I will have some recommendations. It will be ideal to find a target suitable for both systems at once to maximize data collection. Any emission nebula makes an amazing target, but you would be surprised by the amount of hidden narrowband gas that exists where people don't normally look! 

My thought process behind providing a workshop like this is that together remotely we can achieve the same or better results as doing a workshop in person, but for a fraction of the cost. Flying out to the location and bringing all your camera equipment provides an excellent experience, but a great final result is less guaranteed. Doing a workshop in this style also keeps our sleep cycle fresh, allowing us to properly focus on and retain more technical information.

FAQ:

What are the usage rights for the data collected? 

The data collected is yours to do with as you please! Print it, post it, whatever you like. 

What happens if the weather is bad? 

If the weather doesn't comply, it usually doesn't stay that way for long. I will continue data collection after the scheduled dates for however long is needed.