Modine-Benstead Observatory

Category: Miscellaneous

This is the Modine-Benstead Observatory in Union Grove, Wisconsin on June 25, 2016, 23:44. Many thanks to the Racine Astronomical Society for their hospitality and warm welcome, giving us a tour of the observatory and allowing us to shoot some night photography from the grounds when we crashed a member’s night meeting unannounced. I was in Wisconsin on family vacation and my cousin and I decided to do some impromptu night photography with some friends. Looking for the darkest skies we could find within a half hour drive or so, we wound up at the observatory and were very happy to be welcomed by other night sky enthusiasts! There are two domed telescopes at the observatory: a 16-inch Newtonian-Cassegrain reflecting telescope designed and built by club members on a custom German equatorial mount with an attached 6-inch refractor as a guide scope, and a 14-inch Celestron Schmitt Cassegrain reflecting telescope on a Lomansdy German equatorial mount. The larger telescope weighs 2 tons and was fabricated by local industries and manufacturers. You can read more about the history of the observatory on the club’s website: http://www.rasastro.org/club.htm This 360 panorama was taken from the roof. The Milky Way is faintly visible over the red glow of club members observing Mars and Saturn through their personal telescopes. The green streak in the sky above is a firefly. Camera settings: 10.5mm, f/4, ISO 2500, 30 seconds. Stitching data: 1 row of 8 images plus a dedicated zenith shot of the sky. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye, MeFOTO RoadTrip tripod, and Really Right Stuff MPR nodal slide. Edited with Lightroom. Stitched with PTGui Pro. Dark frame subtraction via Pixel Fixer.