Archive for the 'Astrostuff' Category

Observing Report 22nd-23rd November 2011 (A couple of clusters)

Posted by on December 1st 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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This was the first proper night using the warm-room. The excuse was that I was testing the data-cabling and control-wiring systems. It was a nice clear night that started cold and reached minus 3 before dawn. The seeing was awful! Visual observations of Jupiter, Mars, Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy and several star-clusters. Pics of Messier objects as follows:

M36 (aka NGC1960), an open cluster in the constellation Auriga.
Subs: 16 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

M67 (aka NGC 2682, King Cobra), an open cluster in the constellation Cancer.
Subs: 13 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

Observatory progress – warm-room nearly finished

Posted by on November 13th 2011 in Astrostuff, Making stuff, Projects
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Done on the cheap...

  • Second-hand slabs from eBay for the base
  • Free old second-hand shed for most of the walls (thanks to Brian)
  • Free reclaimed chipboard for the roof, inside and out (thanks to Paul)
  • Free reclaimed MDF for lining the walls (thanks to Marc)
  • Free reclaimed 8" x 1" T&G planks for the floor (thanks to Geoff)
  • Free second-hand carpets (thanks to Mum and Dad)
  • Free cadged off-cut of kitchen worktop for the work-desk (thanks to Graham)
  • Even the creosote was bartered from my neighbour, in exchange for some unwanted roofing-felt (thanks again to Paul)
  • Oh, and free quality-control, tea-making and labour (thanks to Graham, Geoff and Ella)

Had to shell out for felt/primer/adhesive, some four-by-twos for the floor frame, a few bits of ship-lap cladding from the timber-merchant, dirt-cheap loft-insulation for inside the walls and ceiling, some cheap lighting from Ikea and some other sundry electrical bits.

 

 

It's usable now but there are a few things still on the to-do list:

  • Fit the cadged-for-free reclaimed guttering/downpipes to direct the run-off into water-butts
  • Paint the inside, using up old paint that I have in the attic
  • Get the old kettle from the attic and install it
  • Get shot of the set of encyclopaedias that we didn't have the heart to burn on bonfire night

Maybe soon the weather will be suitable for using the place for sky-watching rather than book-storage.

Observing Report 3rd-4th August 2011 (Garradd through the cloud-gaps)

Posted by on August 8th 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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An odd night - a lot of isolated clouds but with crystal-clear dark skies beyond. I'd got my night-pass from my better-half and wasn't going to waste it, so I got set up for imaging Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd which was up there in the constellation Pegasus, visible as a fuzzy white patch through the binoculars. I set up the scope for a 50-shot run of 300s exposures and let the kit run on auto while I got on with other stuff.

As I expected, most of the exposures were rejected due to the clouds, and I ended up with just three useful frames. Then it rained stair-rods.

No matter, I've stacked and processed them anyway and the result's fair if not brilliant. Give me a clear night for this target and I reckon I could get a much better image. I'll wager that it won't happen soon though, what with all this glorious summer weather. I'll see what I can do in the coming months.

Anyway, it looked something like this:

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd (04/08/2011 @ 01:09 approx), in the constellation Pegasus.
Subs: 3 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

Observing Report 2nd August 2011 (Sunspots and Active Regions)

Posted by on August 3rd 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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There's been a lot of sunspot activity over the past few days, far too much for me to pass up an opportunity to nab some image data.

Mouseover the pic for the labelled version:

 

Sunspots and Active Regions 02/08/2011.
1000D at prime on the C80ED-R.
Baader Planetarium AstroSolar™ Safety Film (neutral density 5.0).

Observing Report 24th-25th July 2011 (Messiers, Jupiter and Moon but no Sun)

Posted by on July 28th 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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Sunday evening was still and clear with good seeing so I made my excuses and headed to the shed for another Messier Object imaging session. For some reason the northern skies were darker than I'd expected so I had a look around there and decided to try to image M81 and M82 in one hit. After a bit of jiggery-pokery I got the 1000D rotated to get a decent framing and then I set to with the hardware and software. After a couple of hours I'd got some decent subframes so I moved to a different target - M74. This thing isn't called The Phantom for no good reason... it's hard to image because it's so dim. I upped the exposure from the standard 5 minutes to a more realistic 15 but still didn't get useful results so I scrubbed the attempt.

By then the Moon was rising and the sky was lightening. Jupiter had already risen and was an obvious target so I opted to go for a wide shot with the webcam and CCD camera in order to pick up some Galilean moons.

That finished, I turned the scope towards the Moon which was by then well above the horizon with the Sun not far behind. Just enough time to grab some CCD data to make another big mosaic.

I had intended to go the last mile and get some early-morning sunspot images but before the Sun reached a suitable position I was too knackered so I called it a morning, packed up and got me a few ZZZZs before the usual waking-up time.

Clickable results as follows:

M81 (aka Bode's Galaxy, NGC 3031, lower-right) and M82 (aka The Cigar Galaxy, NGC 3034, upper-left),
a pair of galaxies in the constellation Ursa Major.
Subs: 24 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

L to R: Jupiter, Europa, Io, Ganymede.
Luminance: 100/1000 frames stacked with K3CCDTools3, DMK mono CCD camera on the 6" R-C.
Colour: 100/1000 frames stacked with K3CCDTools3, SPC900NC webcam on the 6" R-C.

 The Moon.
14-pane mosaic created with iMerge.
Each pane 500/2000 frames stacked with K3CCDTools3.
DMK mono CCD camera on the 6" R-C, unguided.

Observing Report 26th-27th June 2011 Part 3 (Wargentin late in the morning)

Posted by on July 5th 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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The area around Schickard is fairly easy to see and to image when the Moon is approaching Full as it's well-lit from the West. Usually these conditions can be met during the hours of darkness. Trying to see it when it's lit from the East is a different proposition with the Moon approaching New and the sun nearby in the sky - usually it's a daytime-imaging jobbie, and that's what we have here.

The main object of interest here is Wargentin. Take just one look at it and you can see that it's not like standard lunar impact craters. No high walls surrounding a deep basin, here we have an impact crater that was filled to overflowing with basaltic lava to form a 900ft high circular plateau somewhat reminiscent of a huge coin.

Again, a red filter was needed to cut the blue glare and to reduce the effect of the bad seeing,  so the resolution's not great, but I'm quite pleased with the result...

Wargentin (51 miles dia.), Schickard (137 miles dia.), Phocylides (69 miles dia.),
Nasmyth (47 miles dia.), Inghirami (55 miles dia.)

The "coin" effect is easier to make out in the above image if you cock your head over to the left. To save you from the hassle and inherent physical danger of such gymnastics, here's a rotated version:

 

If you fancy a peep at Wargentin, here's where to look:

 
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