More Sun and moon, and at last some deep sky

I'm gonna have to work on getting this updated a bit more regularly..

The sun is an interesting and challenging target and I've been having fun with white light imaging. These are all with the C80ED, 2xTC and 450d mounted on a camera tripod.
















Then I put together the above images into an Animation



It could do with some adjustments... but I've added some more and adjusted the alignment, I'm hoping to add a few more shots to get 14 days worth..









And I had a go at, what I thought was AR1117, but it looks like it was AR1119 instead with the 5v



The moon mosaic I tried didn't work as well as I'd hoped.. I really struggled with the sheer number of files and the amount of storage needed (my own fault for using a 5x barlow)... and it meant that I ended up having to take long breaks whilst dealing with the data files before I could capture the next set...



The nearly full moon (single shot)



And the early morning moon



I also managed to do some Deep Sky... I figured it best to go for a reasonably easy to find target, as I'd not done any Deep Sky in months, and make sure I could remember how to setup and get all the bits working together... It worked well.



The Double Cluster.

Some more Sun, Moon and Jupiter and a quick binocular session

I need to update again... I need to try and keep on top of this more... Ho Hum... So not in time order again....

Just one Sun shot... C80ED, 2xTC, 450d and smooth Baader solar filter



And a crop of AR 1109 and 1110 from the above image. I'm impressed how well this has come out.



One of these weeks, there might be time, and clear skies on a weekend to allow me to try some real close up stuff.

The Harvest Moon, a single shot from the 450d, with the 2xTC on the C80ED



and with some colour lifted out



I had a play with the moon, completing a full mosaic, a terminator mosaic in a bit closer, and some other bits a bit closer still. The seeing wasn't great...

A 24 pane mosaic, 250 of 1000 frames per pane, C80ED, Celestron Ultima x2 Barlow and QHY5v stacked with Avistacks, stitched in MS ICE.



Click for full size

Then a mosaic of the Terminator, with a single tube between barlow and camera



Click for full size

And some bits and pieces with an extra tube







And finally, The moon in the blue sky



I got back from the AS meet quite late, having had a quick look afterwards for Hartley2 with my 15x70's from the car park. Not great conditions, a bit murky, but I did point the bins at Mirfak, and a couple of others, had a look.

I got home, and it was still clear, so I dug out my 10x50's and trotted out into the garden for a look around. I started out trying to find the comet again, even after referring to the computer, I still failed to find it. But hey ho... another night maybe.

So I had a general look around... Nice to see some winter sights appearing again... M31 was an easy find, as was the double cluster and the Mirfak association. I found a couple of other clusters I wasn't expecting to see either side of Mirfak (M34 and NGC1444). M45 was, as usual, a stunning sight in the bins.

After only 10 minutes looking around, I took the bins away from my eyes to see if I could spot the location of the comment, and spent a couple of minutes looking to confirm what I was seeing, as it couldn't be right. But no... with a little averted vision, I was able to see smudges where the Double Cluster, the Mirfak Association and M31 are.

The bad news is, that was all the time I could afford, as I had to get up for work early, so I quickly swung around to look at Kembles cascade (I couldn't believe how easily I spotted it) running down to the little cluster at the bottom (who's name/designation I forget) and headed in.

And finally, a couple of attempts at some LRGB imaging, only using the QHY5v...

C80ED, QHY5v, Ultima x2 Barlow

L-500 of 2000 frames
RGB-300 of 800 frames



Then with 60mm of tubes between camera and barlow

250 of 1000 frames of each LRGB



These could have been better, I need to work on this, it's harder than I expected. It wasn't helped with few on the objective of course. And I need to work out if the exposure levels need adjusting for each colour, as the exposures seem to be rather different.

Some Sun, Moon and Jupiter

Ok, lets start with the Sun... it's been a bit noticeable by it's absence behind thick layers of clouds recently, but there have been a few peeks... Oldest first...

The first two were shot with the NexStar 60





Then these two were with the same filter cell on the C80ED





Another with the NexStar



And finally with the C80ED but with a proper filter cell, designed to fit, not home brew, and no ripples in the filter itself (makes quite a difference)



And onto the Moon

A few quick single frames, all with the C80ED and 2x TC







And finally the Harvest moon



I had a go at some closeup work, whilst setting up for a bash at Jupiter the other night, QHY5v with a 5x barlow on the C80ED. Each is about 500 of 1800 frames.

Schiller to bailey


Sinus Iridium to Pythagorus


Grimaldi to Cavalerius


And finally, after months of waiting, clouds covering the moon at the best point in the cycle, I finally got Aristarchus


And onto Jupiter

I had a bash at my first RGB image, I don't have the equipment to do this properly, and I don't have imaging filters, just cheapy wratten filters. This was using a 2x barlow and some tubes on the C80ED with the QHY5v. I'm rather pleased with how it came out. I do need to adjust the size of the blue filter, as it's about 0.5mm to large to fit in the filter holder. This is 300 of 1000 frames in each colour



I had a bash (whilst getting the single frame moon shots) at Jupiter with the SLR, not ideal equipment, but when I cropped in, I was amazed to find, that not only had I got the Galilean moons, but also some surface details



I also had a try at getting both Jupiter and Uranus in the same field of view. Much harder than it sounds... still.. C80ED, 2xTC with the 450d. It took some work to fit them both in, and I ended up having to take two exposures, one for Jupiter and one to include Uranus, I was aiming to try and get some detail on Jupiter (although it's really rather hard to see at this size. Jupiter is obvious, Uranus is the star in the upper left.



And finally, I had a bash at Jupiter with the 5x barlow. I opted to try some LRGB imaging this time, but rather than use filters, used two cameras, one mono for the L and one colour for the RGB. It worked nicely too...

C80ED, Antares 5x Barlow

L - QHY5v


RGB - SPC900


LRGB - Combined


And the normal orientation


I'm really pleased with that last combined Jupiter image, I even got the GRS (a first for me).