The Canon 1100D modification involves the removal of the stock UV-IR filter, making the camera more sensitive to H-alpha wavelengths emitted by most deep-space nebula.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

Like many other astronomy enthusiasts, I also recommend investing on a pair of binoculars first before buying a telescope.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

Telescopes and other imaging equipment must be handled with extreme care. Below are some of the hard cases I use in moving my telescope and its accessories, especially when travelling to remote observing sites.

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Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

The Celestron Travel Scope 70 is a small telescope designed for viewing distant land-based targets (such as birds and trees) and for casual astronomical observations. While many enthusiasts would purchase this telescope as a grab-and-go telescope, I intend to use it as a guide scope for my autoguider setup.

To view images taken with a Celestron Travel Scope 70, click here.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

I have just finished making a couple of solar shades using a solar filter. If you do not have access to a solar filter, you may use instead what is called a no. 14 welder’s glass, available in most local hardware stores.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

Here’s my recent version of a peltier-cooled Canon 450D for astro-imaging. It is housed in an aluminum case with custom-fabricated mount to accept standard Canon lenses and T-adapters. The camera’s stock filters, both the IR and the dust-cleaning filter, were replaced with a Baader UV-IR filter to optimize sensitivity to H-alpha wavelengths. During operation, sensor temperature drops to 35 degrees C below ambient.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

During an exposure, the imaging sensor of a DSLR heats up to 10 degrees above normal exposure, resulting to noisy images. By cooling down the sensor, it is possible to eliminate or somehow minimize this thermal noise.

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Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

Identify constellations and planets using Google Sky Map! This app uses sensors in a smartphone to generate a real-time map of the sky. Just hold the phone against the sky and Google Sky Map automatically plots the current sky objects such as the sun, moon, planets, and constellations.

Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)

A hardware modification with a Logitech Pro 4000 allows it to detect faint targets like galaxies and nebula by using a computer to externally control the camera’s exposure time.

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Night Sky in Focus
Astronomy and Amateur Radio
© Anthony Urbano (Manila, Philippines)