Tuesday 11 June 2013

Mu cephei

I have had another go at the Garnet star (Mu Cephei) Far left and associated nebulosity IC 1396. This time using the UHC filter. I never usually over process an image, but I have gone a little overboard this time just to see what is there. 5 minutes shy of 2 hours has revealed some deep stuff. I am very pleased with star shapes using 5 minute guided subs. I want to try the same 2 hours without the filter now.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Polar Alignment.

I can say I have never been perfectly happy with my polar alignment of my set up. Don't get me wrong it has never been out by more that a gnats bits. But sometimes that is enough to send the mount into a spin. I have moaned a few times about PHD and the Dec tracking, it just seemed to go haywire. The graph plot was up and down worse than the UK economy. So frustrating at times, I could never manage exposures more than 2 minutes at best. I had come to accept this and sat and watched patiently many times as a hundred or so short exposure  images aligned and stacked together. However  I recently came across a programme that Bob http://www.rsamuel.me.uk/astroblog/called Alignmaster. http://www.alignmaster.de/  had used. A clever little programme by Matthias Garzaroll. I wont bother explaining the ins and outs you can see from it's homepage the process and how simple it is. A trial version is activated by a registration key sent via email. After the small adjustments I made, I made on it's recommendation a second alignment to increase accuracy and within 10 minutes I was done. I tightened up all loose screws and made sure nothing had moved. I sent the goto to Mu Cephei and began PHD. After its set up all was well as the star remained central. I like to use the graph function to see where / when  errors are creeping in. I left the observatory for a while and returned 10 minutes later to see the graph had not deviated a pixel's width the entire time. I was amazed to see the difference. The Canon was already connected to balance up the system. So i fired off a couple of 10 minute exposures and was truly amazed at the result. I would have done more but the following day was my first day back after my 18 days holiday with a 7.30 am start. By now it was gone midnight. Before you call me an astronomical lightweight. We have suffered a bit from jet lag.
It looks like I will have to start a new library of darks too now. Here is the result of just 2 x 10 minute exposures tweaked of course in Images plus. I am eager to get back outside and see what 3-4 hours worth of 10 minute subs can deliver.Watch this space.

Dominican Republic

I have included a few sunrise, sunset pics in the past. Here are a few of my favourites from our recent holiday in the Dominican Republic.It was unfortunate that the evening skies were hazy. So I never got the chance to see Sagittarius high in the south.





Planetary Alignment

We had a night flight travelling home from our holiday in the Dominican Republic last week. Our seats were nicely positioned to get a view and a snapshot of the Alignment of Mercury, Venus & Jupiter. Sorry it's a bit shakey. The best one I could get travelling at 500mph. Taken over the Atlantic ocean 700 miles East of Bermuda at approx 35,000 ft.

California Nebula

  NGC1499 The California Nebula. Discovered in 1889 The California Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation of Perseus, currently v...