Archive for the 'Pics' Category

Minor Observing Report 4th June 2012 (Kit-test and sunspots)

Posted by on June 4th 2012 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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I'm planning a local mini-expedition to observe the 2012 Transit of Venus on Wednesday morning. As part of the kit-prep I rattled off a few frames this afternoon using the stripped-down gear that I'll be taking, here's a sample of the test-results showing a fair spread of sunspots and active regions (mouseover the pic for the labelled version):

 

Sunspots and Active Regions 04/06/2012.
Nikon D50 with 2x Powermate on the C80ED-R.
Baader Planetarium AstroSolar™ Safety Film (neutral density 5.0).
Hand-held shot, 1/100s exposure @ ISO200.

Of course the weather forecast for Wednesday morning is crap so all this prep could be a waste of time, but as as the next transit will be in 2117 this'll be my last chance to see such an event for real.

Observing Report 5th-6th December 2011 (Last year’s last cluster )

Posted by on January 9th 2012 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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A belated report from the last observing session of 2011...

The seeing was OK but there was a thin haze of high cloud - hardly ideal conditions for this sort of stuff. Visual observations of Jupiter, Mars, Andromeda Galaxy and several star-clusters. Tried again to image M97 (Owl Nebula), got the settings completely wrong again, dumped the imaging data again. Same story for M95, M96 and C23.

The night wasn't totally wasted though - M50 was a fine sight:

M50 (aka NGC2323), an open cluster in the constellation Monoceros.
Subs: 11 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

Observing Report 1st-2nd December 2011 (Two more clusters)

Posted by on December 3rd 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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Another night looking at pretty much the same as before. The seeing was better but still not brilliant. Visual observations of Jupiter, Mars, Andromeda Galaxy and several star-clusters. Tried to image M97 (Owl Nebula) but got the settings completely wrong and so ended up dumping the imaging data. Managed to do better with two other Messier objects as follows:

M38 (aka NGC1912), an open cluster in the constellation Auriga.
Subs: 18 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

M103 (aka NGC 581), an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Subs: 19 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO800.
1000D with 2x PowerMate on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

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.

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).
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