THE GUIDE SCOPE

When doing Astrophotography of Deep Space Objects (DSO) most folks recommend that you get and use a Guide Scope.

To get good, clear photos of DSOs (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters) you need to keep your camera pointed to the object for hours at a time because you will be taking very many photos of that object (hundreds to thousands of photos because of how dim the object are).

For the most part modern mounts (what the telescope sits on) do a fair job of finding and tracking those objects and keeping them generally align and centered in the camera’s field of view. But, not enough to get accurate, detailed pictures of the object, especially when you are taking so many.

To get the photos right and clear you need a Guide Scope (GS). In the photo you can see the guide scope sitting atop the Imaging Scope (IS). The two scopes need to be aligned and bore sighted to ensure that they will be pointing to the same area of space that your object is in. What you do is to point the GS at a star that is in the field of view as  your object and use a program such as PHD (Push Here Dummy according to some sources) to keep the GS locked onto the star and tie the GS camera to the mount (notice the two wires coming off of the GS camera) so that it can send signals to the mount to have it move to keep the guide star centered in the GS camera and thereby keeping the DSO centered in the main imaging camera for the duration of the shoot.

Some folks do astrophotography for the art and beauty of the pictures. Some do it to study the universe in which we reside in an effort to understand more about our place in the grand scheme of things while also appreciating the beauty of the quest as seen in the photos of the stars and planets and galaxies and nebulae and other objects beyond the bounds of our neighborhood.

I like to think that I fall in the latter category. I love the photos I have produced, despite their obvious amateurishness (I hope to get better) and at the same time for me seeing them is a gateway to the understanding and appreciation of the One who set them out there for me to see and wonder over and about.

I have studied this enough to come to the very strong conclusion that what is out there is not a result of unconscious accident. The complexity and beauty of what I see (so too what those who observe the micro biological and physical realms) has got to be from the mind and hands of an Engineer far beyond the capabilities of the greatest minds in the history of the earth. So too, the idea that it all is a matter of sudden appearance from nothing with no cause flies in the face of logic. Dean Overman in his A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization dealt with this nicely. There is someone behind all of this.

Just like the pencil I talked about sitting on my desk, I knew that someone had designed that pencil – it just didn’t pop into existence on its own. It had to have been designed by someone. So too the materials of which it is composed – they just did not pop into existence, and, someone had to design those materials. And this applies to everything in that string of things that I observed were responsible for the fact that I had a pencil on my desk or that Carl Sagan concluded allowed him to enjoy an apple pie.

My study has also led me to the conclusion that that Person is the the God of Abraham and Jesus; YHWH, the God of Israel who gave us the Bible with which to know Him and understand Him and to understand what He would have of us in our relationship with him.

As such, just like if I want to learn and understand what I see through my telescope I need something to guide me. For that I have the Bible as my Guide Scope as it keeps me locked onto the Guide Star who is responsible for both the pencil and me who noticed it! In this I recognize the fact that the One who Designed the Universe is the One who Wrote The Bible. They both have the same Author. Now, before anyone says it, yes, the Bible does  not give detailed information concerning the intricacies and the details of sub-quantum things and their design but it does speak enough of who that Engineer is who designs at the sub-quantum/plank level for me to begin to come to a greater understanding of how we fit into this unbelievably vast cosmos.

And, He knows my name and he knows your name!