Galileo's Camera

Disclaimer: I didn't do anything other than clicking a few buttons to get this photo. But this is the kind of photo you can get by using SLOOH's remote telescopes. M42 - Orion Nebula. 3x5min via SLOOH Chile Two (17") telescope Following through my hunt for telescope-as-a-service offerings, my next evaluation was SLOOH. Originally started back in 2002, SLOOH's telescopes became available to the public in 2004. SLOOH currently operates two sites, Chile and Canary Islands and has a total of 8 telescopes. SLOOH is not just a remote telescope or telescope-as-a-service offering. It also has a community set up where remote operators, astronomers, SLOOH staff can discuss various aspects of astrophotography as well as astronomy. SLOOH does not have a free access like the MicroObservatory. It's minimum plan starts at 50 USD per annum and you basically piggyback on missions that are set up by others and extract the same photos they take. They offer a 100 USD per annum and a 3...

For 2 years now, I've been postponing the decision to buy a telescope. My reluctance was based on two things; the nearly 1500 USD cost that I would be spending on it and the really sketchy weather that we have in Sri Lanka which makes it very difficult to get clear skies. The more I read and researched about how the amazing photos like the following are taken, the more I realised that my casual approach of just grabbing the telescope and going somewhere to do astrophotography isn't going to work. It's going to need some proper preparation. Photos like these require hours of shooting and at least a good one hour of prep work.

Comet NEOWISE became a pretty popular name among stargazers as well as non-stargazers in 2020. One of the main reasons why it was so popular was that it was one of the brightest comets in about 13 years (since the comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) - which was a daylight comet as well).  Unlike for example the 9 comets that turned up in 2019 or the 19 that turned up in 2018 - which clearly not many knew about, NEOWISE was a naked eye comet.

When I covered the 21st June solar eclipse, I took 19 photos over roughly 3 hours to create a montage of Moon's path across the disc of the Sun. There were some private queries on how it was done, so I figured might as well explain it all in a post.

Thesolar eclipse of 21 June 2020 appeared to Sri Lanka as a partial eclipse. The timing of this wasn't that great given that the area I live is under the monsoon season and there is absolutely no guarantee of clear skies. The day before the eclipse however, it was extremely sunny. But things got complicated when two different weather sites gave two completely different predictions for the day of the eclipse.

When I planned the year, I planned my vacation travel to be in June so that I can stop over in Oman to view the solar eclipse that is happening on 21st June 2020. While the eclipse is viewable in my own country, Sri Lanka, we can only see a partial eclipse, whereas in Oman you can view an annular eclipse.

It's the traditional new year time here again in Sri Lanka. I find this new year celebration fascinating because it is celebrated at a particular time of the day (which changes every year) as opposed to midnight. The tradition is celebrated among Budhhists as well as Hindus in Sri Lanka. You can read more about how the timings are calculated in two of my old posts: http://galileoscamera.blogspot.com/2013/04/math-of-astrology-1.html http://galileoscamera.blogspot.com/2013/04/math-of-astrology-2-sinhalahindu-new.html