Holiday Stars

After having my 8" telescope stolen about 4 years ago and finally replacing it several months back over the Holidays I had first light with the new telescope and all went okay. We took a road trip to the Grand Canyon stopping in Joshua Tree on the way there and back for some Holiday dark skies. Well at least dark compared to SF -:]

Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula(NGC 2024)

My first real target (M42 is always my goto test) was the Horse Head Nebula which I have been trying to get a better shot of for years. This is actually combine images from two nights but half of the time was from first light night.

Horse Head, Flame and M42

I also setup my very portable Red Cat rig for a wide field shot of M42 and the Horse Head together. I am super excited about the results I get with my Red Cat on a Move Shoot Move star tracker. The whole setup easily fits in a small backpack with a little room to spare. For sure my travel setup going forward.

Sombrero Galaxy (M104)

On the first night before breaking down the scope I thought I would try getting some images of the Sombrero Nebula. Probably the best image of the Sombrero I have taken yet even though I only spent a little time imaging it.

Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

And on the 2nd night in Joshua Tree again before breaking down I turn the scope to M51 for a little bit. Again I think this is probably my best image of M101 yet mostly due to the dark skies in Joshua Tree.

Now I just need to make more time to get back out under some clear skies!

Caught a comet for Owen's birthday!

Last year I caught a meteor for my new nephew Owen when he was born. This year I caught a comet. Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy to be exact. Got up at 4:30am and spent an hour or so taking the picture of Lovejoy over SF and another 2 or 3 hours processing it. Maybe my best comet picture yet? Happy birthday Owen!

Mobile Astrophotography kit v1.0

I've been trying to put together a compact yet very usable astrophotography rig for a while now. I think I have finally put together a version I am finally pretty happy and excited about.

 It all fits in this medium size camera bag.

 And here it all is. It consists of:
- Canon EOSM
- Canon 55-250mm zoom
- Bower 8mm
- Canon EOSM 22mm f2 lens
- Canon Infrared remote
- Vixen Polari Star Tracker
- Manfrotto Table Tripod
- Celestron StarPointer finder scope
- 3d printed hot shoe mount for the finder scope

 Here it is all setup with the 55-250mm zoom.

 And in 3D just because -:]

 

 And another view.

 And another 3D image -:[]

 I managed to test the new setup just before clouds and rain hit. I had about 20min on our roof to setup, adjust and take some pictures.

Here is a crop of the image. Not to bad for a quick test on a windy roof in a bright city. I'm excited to take this setup all  over the place in the coming months to see if I can get better at using it.

Milky Way from OBX

It's been raining and cloudy for days on our vacation to the Outer Banks. Finally ha a little bit of clear weather to play with my Vixen Polari and Canon s100 with CHDK. Unfortunately there was a bit of haze and some light pollution which caused some bright washed out areas.

Here is the first results of the Milky Way. 9x 50sec exposures stacked with Deep Sky Stacker and tweaked in Photoshop.


And here is my second image which includes Andromeda.

Spaced Out Friday

Finally had some clear skies and a little time so I took some old and new gear out to play with. Had fun but also technical issues with some new gear. Seeing wasn't to good either so none of my images came out as well as I would have liked.

Probably my best Satrun image yet but I am a little disappointed. I guess the seeing wasn't so great so there was probably not much I could have done to get a better image.


I think this might be my first image of Mars.


I think this is a slightly better image of the Sombrero Galaxy (M104).


And a noisy but okay(ish) image of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).

From Planets to Nebulas

10-28-2011, Tonight Jupiter is in opposition (closest point) with earth this year so I went out to take a few more pictures.

Not to bad. You can see the Big (aka Great) Red spot just about to disappear around the left side there.


Here is Jupiter's other side. I think this might be the most detail I have managed to get of Jupiter yet.


As usually here is a 3D image so get out those red/blue glasses!


And here is a short little animation I put together with some of the images I took. This probably spans about 10 minutes. Jupiter spins really fast making a complete rotation in just a little less than 10 hours. Maybe one long winter night I will see if I can capture a full rotation.


In between shots of Jupiter I did a little looking around and took a few other images. Here is the Ring Nebula or M57. It is a planetary nebula because some of these look a bit like planets through the telescope.


Next on the planetary nebula list I took a look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula or M76. This picture didn't come out to good but you can make out the core section and just a tiny bit of the fainter outer ring. I'll have to try this one again.


And then I turned the scope to the first planetary nebula I tried to image, the Eskimo Nebula or NGC 2390. This came out a little better than my previous attempts but I'm sure I can do better.


Finally I turned to one of the easiest targets the Orion Nebula or M42. I think this is my best nebula image so far. The thumbnail is a bit blurry because I scaled it up a bit but if you click on it you can see a nicer large version.


Here is a self portrait of me at about 1:30am imaging the Orion Nebula. If you know your constellations you should be able to make out Orion. The 3 stars of his belt are almost right above my head and I'm kind of looking at his sword which are the 3 stars just to the lower right of his belt. The Orion Nebula is the middle star of his sword. If you click on the image to see the larger version you might even notice that middle star glowing which is the nebula. Oh, and how the hell do I fit in my tiny little car?! It's clearly half as big as me or at least that's what the wide angle lens on the ground does. Lucky or unlucky as it was the last people to leave before me happened to turn on their car lights just as I took this picture causing the nice glow and probably screwing up an image or two. But it was all good since the Orion Nebula came out just fine.

Same Stars Diffrent Night

Went out the other night to catch super nova 2011fe close to it's peak intensity and to work on my imaging techniques. I got the super nova again just fine. Not sure if my images are any better though. I think maybe the are a little less noisy but I'm not really sure.

Here is M101 and Super Nova 2011fe. I think you can tell the super nova is a tad brighter than the image from a few weeks ago but again I'm not totally sure.


I think this may be my most detailed image of Jupiter yet.


Here is m8 a.k.a. the Lagoon Nebula. It was the first deep space object I tried to image about a year ago. I think this image is much better than that attempt which you can see here.


And Comet Garradd is still up. I think this image is a bit better than the one from a few weeks ago as well.

Exploding Star, Comet, Whirlpools and Jupiter's Pimple!

Went out to look at and take pictures of the new super nova 2011fe. Had lots of fun and met a few other guys, Warren, Corey and Dave, out doing the same. My images didn't turn out as well as I hoped but I got something. Lucky for me Warren had some pointers and I if all goes well my next outing should get me some better images. And Dave gave the rest of us coordinates for Comet Garradd so I managed to get some pictures of it too. Again not so great but better than my first attempt at a comet picture!

M101 aka the Pinwheel Galaxy and Super Nova 2011fe.


In case you couldn't spot it here is where SN/2011fe is. By the end of the week it is supposed to be bright enough to see through binocular!


And here is Comet Garradd.


M51 aka the Whirlpool Galaxy. Cool even if it is a pretty bad image with butterfly stars because of tracking issues. At least you can make it out right?


Check it out, Jupiter has a pimple! Actually That's Jupiter's moon Io just starting to peak out from behind it. Dumb luck. Not sure if it's cool or not to have Io stuck on Jupiter's side like that. Mostly I think it's kind of cool. Oh, and this is probably the best image of the night even though I wasn't set up for taking images of planets. I would have taken more shots but my camera battery died right after this. Stayed for a bit longer just looking through eye pieces and chatting with the other guy. All in all a fun night!

Deep Space Nailbula

I got this back in December the first night with my new 8" telescope. I just got around to processing all the photos I took of it recently. It's my first nailbula. What is a nailbula you ask?


It's what happens to your nail when it gets stuck between bits of the German Equitorial telescope mount! Ouch! Astronomy is dangerous! I think I end up with a new cut or pulled muscle every time I am out with my telescopes. Who would have thought.


And in 3d because I know you all want to see nailbula in the 3rd dimension!

It's Cinco de Mayo...

...a fitting day to post a picture of the Sombrero Galaxy (aka M104). It's not a very good picture but I was talked into posting it. Now to go get a better picture of the Sombrero Galaxy! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

New Telescope!

I got a nice new telescope a few months back but have not had a chance to use it until last night. We are at my Mom's in Phoenix where it is less foggy, wet and it actually seems a little darker but probably not. Anyway here are the goods. Be sure to click on the images fot the larger versions.

M42. Very first picture!


M42 after a little more fiddling.


Same image unedited.


Moon.


Eskimo Nebula.


Eskimo Nebula a bit closer and tweaked.

Took some pictures of Saturn too but I need to stack them and dont have the software on my travel computer.

And here are the rest...

...of the things I saw while catching my shooting star.

Jupiter and its moons (nearest to furthest), Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto! I think you might have to click to get the larger image to really see the moons.

And my first semi-successful deep sky image. This is M8 also know as the Lagoon Nebula.

It's a little more blurry than I would like but you can see it!