Tolookthrough,andevenjuststand
under, this iconic behemoth, in the
sameplaceasthelikesofEdwinHubble,
Harlow Shapely, Milton Humason and
evenAlbertEinstein,atopperhapsthe
most famous astronomical mountain
on Earth, was exciting, humbling and
totally awe-inspiring.Whathasbeenyourproudestmoment?
In2010animageofmine,oftheSword
ofOrion,wasselectedasatopthree
finalist in the scientific photography
sectionoftheEurekaPrize.Tofinish
runner-upinmycategorymademe
very proud. It was fabulous that an
astronomical image was selected
amongst the plethora of scientific ones.What’s on your ‘to do’ list?
WhileIdoreallyenjoytakingpretty
pictures,I’malsoquiteinterestedin
taking deep images to look for new
undiscovered faint features, such as
outer halos around planetary nebulae
and faint star streams around galaxies.
I’dalsoreallyliketovisittheChilean
Andessomeday,toseesomeofthegreat
telescopes that are under construction
there.Toseea39-mtelescopeatop
a3000-mdesertmountain,would
certainlybehardtotopforany
astronomy tragic like me!Mike Sidonio
M
ike Sidonio got the astronomy
bug as a teenager back in 1982.
For 10 years he worked at the
Canberra Observatory giving night sky
lectures to hundreds of people each
night and conducting sky tours using
the observatory’s telescopes. Years
later and he’s now an accomplished
astrophotographer.What was your first telescope?
I purchased a Tasco 114-mm f/10
Newtonian on an equatorial mount with
adjustable wooden tripod at the then,
for me, rather hefty sum of $325. In less
than 12 months I had upgraded to a
15-cm f/5 Edmund Scientific Newtonian
and then a 20-cm f/7 Newtonian on a
Sampson equatorial mount from Astro
Optical in Sydney, complete with motor
drive and drive corrector.What sort of gear do you use now?
I have two main imaging setups. One
is a 30-cm f/3.8 corrected Newtonian
with a Starlight Xpress H694 small-
chip, small-pixel-based CCD camera.
This rig collects faint light fast and,
with an image scale of 0.83 arcseconds/
pix, enables me to take high-resolution
images. My other setup is a Takahashi
FSQ106 EDX4 APO refractor with FLI
CCD camera, utilising a large 37mm
X 37mm 16803 chip, for wide field (4°x 4°) imaging of larger targets. The
two rigs are mounted piggyback on a
Takahashi NJP mount and are housed
in a manually operated 2.3-m Sirius
observatory.What has been your favourite astro
moment?
My best moment was a whole night
of visual observing, with a few mates,
through the famous 100-inch Hooker
Telescope on Mt Wilson in California.IN PROFILEMike spent a night
observing with the
100-inch Hooker
Tele scope.Detail in the
Orion Nebula.http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 75