2.5 million years ago (roughly)

On Saturday evening, I got out again, and set my sights on M31 this time. Much trickier target. Anyway, I went through the usual setup, level and alignment routing. For some reason, the NexStar failed the first alignment. Odd. Oh, well, I did it again, and this worked fine. Then from experience of trying to focus on my first foray, I slewed to Mirfak, a really nice bright star, swapped the 5mm Ortho (great for aligning the mount), for the 450d and set focus. A quick test shot to check, and yes, spot on, the Mirfak association showing crisp and bright.

So I told the mount to slew to M31. And I was off. First off to determine the maximum exposure time I could use. I started at 30 seconds. Odd, the image showed trails. I reduced to 15 seconds. More trails. Same at 10 and 8. Then I took another 8 and that one was fine... This is so weird. Anyway, I went back up the exposure times, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and finally 120 seconds. All were fine. I thought nothing more of it. I setup the timer remote to capture 20 x 120 second expoures, hit go and sat back. Each exposure flashed up on the screen and was looking good. At the end of this, my cheap-bay battery was showing signs of flagging. So I grabbed 3 dark frames and packed away. This took about an hour, and as I had to get up early the following day, this wasn't really a problem.

I downloaded the images, loaded them into DSS and set the stack running. After about 45 minutes, an image popped on screen. I took the 32 bit autosave.tif file, loaded it into PS, did a bit of lp removal, and this popped out.



This puzzled me. I couldn't understand where all those jiggles had come from. Very odd, here's a single image I processed to check, and this one was fine.



Although having said that and looked with more wideawake eyes, the trailing even in that shot can be seen.

I gave up at that point and went to bed.

The following evening, I reviewed all the images throughly and discovered that of the 20, 12 of them were showing signs of trailing in different directions. That was just weird. Then it struck me. The tracking was done purely using the mounts internal motors and unguided. The odd swiggles and trails must have been down to mount tracking errors. Not a lot I can really do about this, as I don't have any form of guiding capability at the moment.

So I restacked just the good frames, and processed the results. Here's what I ended up with. This is about 1000seconds @iso1600, tracked in Alt Az on the NexStar SLT mount, 450d mounted at prime focus on the Vista 80s.



I'm pleased with the end result. I know it needs more data to really get the arms and structure there, but I think I'm at the limits of the capabilities of my equipment getting even this much. Having said that, it was a very useful learning experience and a very worthwhile attempt due to that. I may have a restack again using a few of the only slightly trailed images just to see if I can get any more out of it.

Stacked Moon from the 18th

I managed to stack the moon shots, finally. Bit of a fight with registax as it doesn't like the 450d raw files. So I converted them to tif. Then registax complained the tif's were too large. I resized them. Then it would only open 5 of them, before throwing storage and divide by zero errors. I resized them again. This time I was able to stack them, here's the result.



However, something has been bugging me about this image, and I think I've finally sussed what it is. After repeated attempts and doing a lot of image comparisons, I think I messed up. I took the shots for this stack after doing the filter comparisons, and I don't think I can have reassembled everything quite as well. I didn't recheck the focus after the changes (so easy to do with the liveview too) and I think it's ever so slightly out of focus, that's caused some odd fringing effects too.... That'll learn me. Always check focus after changing anything....

DSO Imaging

A clear night... Ahhh.... The joy of looking up at the wonders of the heavens. Errrmmm, now where was I ? Oh yes, I got the scope out, properly, for the first time in months (June to be precise, although even then I didn't really get to use at as the clouds closed in too fast). Took me a moment to remember the setup... but I got there. So , plonked it down, levelled the legs, powered up. Didn't fall over the US date format (good start), did a skyalign (3 points and the mount works the rest out for you, very easy).

Then I manually slewed the scope to point to the Perseus double cluster. Swapped the diagonal for the 450d, and adjusted the camera settings. Hmm, not so easy. First off to get focus... My first couple of test shots revealed... Nothing. Hmmm.... Then I tried to see through the viewfinder... Nothing. I ran the tube from end to end... nothing. This wasn't going to well. Same with the liveview... still nothing. Then I tried the viewfinder again, and eventually spotted something right on the bottom edge of the view that swam in and out of focus. I used this as a guide, got it about right, and took a test shot, tweaked and shot. This went on for a while, until, with the zoom on the shot review, I got it about right. Phew.

Then I had to work out, how long I could get for an image before trailing occured. This is more difficult using an AltAz mount. But after some playing, I worked out 45 seconds to be about right. I set up my timer remote and hit the go button. In between shots I dashed in and grabbed the 15x70 bins for a look around.


I took in the usual suspects, the Double cluster, Mirfak Association, M31 and a few of the clusters around Cassie. After downloading the shots, it turns out I only had 9 usable frames, not sure why, I need to look at the configuration of the timer remote and camera I think... Anyway, here's the image.




When the camera stopped clicking away, I used the goto to take me to NGC457, the Owl cluster. This took me a while working out the max exposure of 15 seconds... The trailing is much worse, so I set the camera to iso1600, setup the timer and away it went. After downloading, I had 23 frames, and here's the result.



I think they have both come out well, and I'm very pleased. Especially as this is my first go at Prime Focue DSO imaging.

Once this was complete, I decided to try a couple of other NGC's and see what I could get. Unfortunatly for me, the mount decided to go the long way around, and in trying to move the power supply, knocked a leg. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but it had an effect as I'll explain later. Anyway, the first NGC eventually showed up in the FOV I snapped a shot, but couldn't see much. Odd, oh well. I used the goto to slew to M31. This I found ok. But after some experimenting I couldn't get a decent shot without trailling. I took the exposure down to 8 seconds. Damn knocking the leg. Ah well, have to come back another night and try this one again another night.

The moon was beginning to get high in the sky and this presented me with an excellent opportunity for a filter comparison I'd be meaning to do. I powered off and on, a quick solar system align on the moon and I was off.

Over the course of the past couple of months, I've added a couple of Baader CA filters to my collection and now have the following Baader filters.
Fringe Killer (FK), Contrast Booster (CB) and Semi Apo (SA). I thought it would be good to compare them side be side (well one after the other) on my little f5 achro scope. I used the moon as the obvious test subject, and compared both visually and with the 450d at prime focus. Ok, so Visually.

CB - This worked very well and reduced the intensity of the moon nicely, however, the view had a very obvious yellow tint

FK - This also worked very well, didn't have a lot of effect on the intensity and had less of a yellow tint

SA - This worked very well also, but, and this is the most useful difference, the image seen was by far and away the most natural and balanced in terms of colouring.

Here's the images. I manually set the white balacn to Daylight to force the camera to not adjust the captured image automatically.

CB


FK


SA


On the basis of this test, the SA filter is now going to be living in my scope. I hope that's helpful to some of you.

I also took a stack of 20 shots of the moon to have a go at in Registax, but so far this is defeating me. Complaining that the 450d images are too large, then there's not enough space, then a divide by zero. I've not given up on this yet though, and will continue to work on these. Watch this space for the results.

I was awoken at about 0520 this morning by something and took a look out the window. What did I see but the Hunter himself striding purposefully across the skies. An indication that soon there'll be my first views back in the sky. Excellent, I'm looking forward to pointing the camera at them now.

Dodging clouds

And again the clouds are returning. Ho Hum. I did manage to get a few shots off last night, first up an Iridium flare, Iridium 61 to be precise. I wasn't sure what I was going to actually capture thanks to the cloud, but figured it was worth a try. The flare being a Mag -8 was bright enough to cut through the clouds.



I then turned and saw quite a dramatic sight. Lunar playing hide and seek in amongst the clouds. I think this has caught quite a nice halo, but without the moon showing...



Some time later, she popped her head out of the clouds for a look around and I was able to catch her.

The Double Flare - Reworked

I managed to rework the double flare image and it's a lot more balanced now. I think this is now a much better image.

This weekends gazing and images

I actually had a couple of clear nights over the weekend. That makes a pleasant change.

On Friday, I setup the satcatcher for Iridium 41, and grabbed that..



What I hadn't realised until I'd downloaded the files from the camera, that I'd caught a faint satellite rising out of the tree on my framing shot (I moved the camera over to avoid the tree for the flare itself)

Cosmos 1703


Oh, I should point out, that I've made a couple of mods to the SatCatcher. I've added a quick release adapter, much simpler to add the camera now and far safer as the 450d weights a lot more and I wouldn't want to mess about trying to bolt that little lot together. I've also permanently mounted a cheap compass from Lidl to the back, so no more sticking it on with bluetac and hoping it won't move.

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I then got out the 15x70 bins and had a wander around the wonders of Cassie. Firstly I slid along Kembles Cascade, although it took me a few minutes to find it, the SLR screen is a bit bright. (I'm also going to have to do something about the new addition to the LP in my garden, we seem to have acquired a half dozen white LED solar lights around the pond, looks very nice, unless you want to look at the night sky ...). Anyway, after the cascade, I went looking for the usual suspects in the area M31 first up. Found it quite easily and spent a few moments having a good look. Not a lot to see in the bins really, but it's good to see. Hopefully M31 will get high enough soon, and I'll be bothered to humb all the scope and power supplies etc out, I'll grab some AltAz imaging of it...

I then wandered across to Mirfak and it's association. Amazingly bright the association, but can't be seen without the bins. Lovely sight filling the FOV of these monsters. Then, as I was nearby anyway... I drifted my vision up till the Double was in my sights. Another treat for the eyes. Then I set the bins on the tripod, they were getting a bit heavy.... I might have to take up weight lifting if I'm going to be using these for any length of time. I set the tripod up, so that when I was leaning back in the chair, eyes looking at just the right place, the eyepieces of the bins were in just the right place. Took a little effort to achieve, but well worth it. And stared around the area of NGC457 to find me an elusive little owl. It took about 20 minutes, before I worked it out, but I did see the elusive creature in the end. Just in time to miss setting up for Iridium 20 flaring, I did see it however.

At this point the Moon was climbing over the roof of the house, so I stopped with the bins, grabbed the Vista, mounted it on my normal tripod, attached the slr via the adapters and Barlow and grabbed a shot of the moon. I tried a little experiment, as I'd picked up a Semi APO filter second hand, I used this instead, the Fringe Killer, leaves a definite Yellow tint across the entire view, so I've not tried to image with it in place. However, the Semi APO does not do this as can be seen below. Unlike most of my moon shots, taken with the 55-250 lens and heavily cropped, this is uncropped. I do have to work out the tubing though, to get focus, I had to use the star diagonal, and it all felt a little rickety....



As there is some evidence of colour in the surface in that shot, I decided to have a play and try and pull it out a little more.



At that point, as I was getting cold, I hadn't got my winter layers on, I packed up and went in.

On Saturday night, I was really pleased when at about 2030, the sky was still clear. I'd got a prediction for a somewhat more unsual Iridium flare. A Double. The first prediction of this I'd had several months ago was a wash thanks to clouds. However, this time, I got it....



I'm really pleased I managed to capture this, and couldn't believe quite how close together they were. Unfortunatly, I had things that I had to get done, so didn't get to spend time out under the stars. Of course Sunday was clouded out again. Oh well.

Moon and Jupiter

I've actually had a couple of nights when the moon has poked her nose out of the clouds. It's been several weeks without a sight of the moon and night skies and it's getting to me. Anyway, I managed to grab a few pictures.

Tuesday 9th - I don't think the seeing was very good, I've got much better shots than this one.

The Moon


The Moon and Jupiter



Wednesday 10th Sept - Much better seeing

The Moon



The Moon with a halo



Jupiter and the Moon - Earlier in the evening than Yesterdays



I noticed that the Moon shot from last night had some v subtle colouring, so I pushed it in processing.



Of course, the clouds were back in force within an hour of taking those shots, and theres no sign of them shifting again.

A perseid and a flare

Firstly, I missed one... Oops. I managed to catch an early perseid and didn't post it.... Anyway, time to rectify that..



The sky looked quite clear early on Monday evening so I set up the satcatcher. Of course within 10 minutes the sky had been blotted with clouds. I left it setup as my targets were a -8 and a -6 flare. Always worth a try. Anyway, with only a couple of minutes to go, a large gap appeared in just the right location for the -8. The alignment was a bit of a rush job, so the flare isn't as central as I would have liked, but at 74mm that becomes all the harder and more demanding. I really must remember, that for rushed setups no longer than 55mm.

First Light, Skymaster 15x70 and a star trail

Thanks to Andy (high25 @ AC), I'm now the proud owner of a set of 15x70 monster bins. I got the monster bins out (they are pretty darn big, at least compared to the 10x25, 10x50 and 12x50 bins), after adjusting them earlier today in daylight. Whilst I was trying to capture the star trails shot, I had a good look around with them. The light grasp is something else, for a handheld easy to use and point instrument, they are nearly as good as my scope. I had a look through the milky way and got totally lost in the huge number of stars... (seems to be happening a lot at the moment ).

Then I decided I really ought to have a look at a few targets.. M31 was up first, and the view was much better than bins, almost as good as the scope.
Then onto the Mirfak assoc, almost filling the field of view. Same with the double cluster, up to Cassie and the clusters around there were clear. I had a thought I'd go find Mr Kemble's starfall, and after only a moments search, found Kemble's cascade quite easily, and the cluster at it's bottomost end was quite clear (I don't remember it's designation).

I then turned around and had a look for the coat hanger, having found this once, it's much easier to find, and it nearly filled the FOV. Onto Jupiter and the moons were easier to see thanks to the higher mag, but it was harder to keep still. I couldn't use the tripod as the camera was on it

Then someone turned the lights on, and that knackered that.

Great set of Bins, and they are going to get lots of use.

My star trails shot, after a bit of experimentation to get the right settings, 10 minutes f3.5 iso100, NC tools to remove LP and colour grad looks like :

Observing in proper dark

I've been away camping for the past week, and despite the usual cloud and rain I always get, I manage to get a couple of gaps during the week and one absolutely clear and stunning night.

The Thursday before going away, I set up to catch an Iridium Flare, and decided to sacrifice pin point stars to get closer to the action, as it were. So instead of using the kit lens at 18mm, I went for 55mm. This meant the stars in the background trailed, but the flare itself nearly filled the FOV, much better image scale.



The night before going away, I managed to catch the moon early on, before the clouds moved in, Jupiter is in the shot too



Over the course of the week, I managed to get a few shots of the moon, although the cloud wasn't being the most helpful.













And one amazing sunrise
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On Monday 18th, there were a few gaps in the clouds, and I was able to see Jupiter, Arcturus, Deneb and the Moon. I did get the bins out to try and have a look at Jupiter, but in the time it took to mount the bins on the tripod with the bin mount, the cloud gap had closed.

Wednesday 20th, revealed a few larger cloud gaps. I grabbed the bins to see what could be seen. The middle of Perseus was visible, so had a peek at the Mirfak association, had a good look at Jupiter, but either all the moons were hiding or I just couldn't make them out, possibly thin cloud. And around Cassie.

Then on Friday 22nd, after a promising afternoon, the weather pixies decided to be kind and night settled about clear and crisp. As the evening wore in, it became increasingly clear just how good the skies were going to turn out to be. The town above which we were camping, was quite small and therefore doesn't have a large number of streetlamps to mucky up the skies. The Southern aspect looked straight out into the English Channel and the campsite itself, was distinctly lacking in lighting (Gutted I wasn't). So when the lightening of the western sky finally faded my first thought was OH WOW!!!!!. The milky way shone above me like an iridescent bridge across the sky.

I just stood there staring for a few minutes at this amazing sight. I then grabbed the camera, setup on the tripod, and started grabbing some widefield shots. Once this was setup and running I had a further look around, sharing the sights with one of my fellow campers. I was amazed to see Ursa Minor, normally I can only see Polaris, but I definitely saw 5 or 6 of the stars, possibly all 7. After a little time hunting around, I was also able to find M31. At this point I still hadn't got the bins out.

I grabbed the bins and started scanning. I just couldn't get my bearings as there were just so many stars and I wandered around across the heavens just gawping at the sheer numbers of pin points of light above me for some time. I then remembered the other camper and handed the bins over. I directed them to look at the Mirfak Association the double in Perseus and M31. They were quite amazed also at the number of stars. We also took at a look at Jupiter and could clearly see 3 moons. Io to the left, then on the right, Europa and Callisto. I then stole back my bins and spent some few minutes studying the moon. The detail was very sharp, but too fine to be able to pinpoint many of the features.

I then took a look at the Perseus double cluster and had a nose around Cassie. I then had a wander out to Kembles cascade and had a good look around there. I did see a couple of clusters in the area, and checking on Stellarium, I reckon they were IC1808, NGC1027 and IC1848.

I then turned around and had a scan of the southern sky and again just spent some time lost in the sheer scale of it all. I did stumble across the coat hanger, and grabbed some shots of this too.

I then had to turn in as it was getting cold and the lenses were all beginning to mist up. However, I had an absolutely amazing time looking about me and it's renewed my enthusiasm. I really enjoyed that.

Here's the results of the stacks of images I grabbed

Jupiter and the Milky Way



Cygnus



The Coat hanger in the Milky Way



The night of returning from Holiday I was able to catch a Flare, Iridium 80 and a guest

A couple of good clear nights

Haven't had this in quite some time, a couple of clear nights. It's been great.

Wednesday 13th August, I didn't get a lot of specific observing done, as I was out looking for Perseids. I definitely saw one low and fast to the east. I also managed to get some photos.

The Moon


The Moon and Jupiter


And I caught one Perseid in this shot, upper left


Then onto last night. 14th August, Whilst I was out capturing the images for my other posts, I used the Lidl Bins for a good look around. I started out with looking at the Moon (I did consider getting the scope out, but it's too low and I can't make the scope high enough). However, even using the bins, there's plenty of sights to see upon the face of Lunar, identifying them now that's another ballgame entirely.

I then had a wander around Cassie, Perseus and Andromeda. M103 and NGC663 were first up, easy to find now after various hunting sessions last winter. Nearby the double, NDC869 and 884. Of course the Mirfak Assoc, can't miss that one out. I then went back up to Cassie, and followed the line across looking for the Kemble Cascade. I'm pretty sure I found it. Then back to Andromeda for a peek at M31. I really enjoyed the combination of taking images and viewing with the bins.

Here's the images
The Moon, this is a crop of the image using the 55-250 at 250mm


Iridium 63, Mag -4, the position of this put the flare smack bang in the middle of Perseus, crossing the Mirfak Associaton, at 55mm on the kit lens


I caught a satellite passing through Cassiopeia whilst capturing images for a little experiment


And finally my little experiment. I wanted to try and capture a sequence of shots spaced out to show the effect of rotation. I setup the camera at 55mm, and used my timer remote to take 5 x 30 second exposures, at 3 minute intervals. I will be doing this again, but I setup to try this before the flare and really wanted to capture that, so ran out of time. Sorry about the scale, but to make the image of a reasonable size it has to be.