M57 The Ring nebula and focusing

I had to wait until the early hours of this morning to allow time for Lyra to rise high enough above the roof tops, before I could start imaging M57. This was the first period I've had the opportunity to use the 'Auto Focus' facilities that I have gathered together. Here, I mentioned the motorised Feather Touch focuser with its driver this is used with ASCOM compliant software, such as Focus Max or DSLRFocus.

ASCOM is 'Microsoft Windows' only but I use a Mac laptop, so I had to install 'Windows' on my Mac as a virtual machine via VM Fusion.

DSLR Focus connects to the motorised focuser and also to my Canon 10D. I do a rough focus* through the camera and note the digital position indicator on the laptop, via the DSLR Focus software the focuser is then moved outwards slightly.

The software then makes 3 exposures averages them, moves the focuser a predetermined step inwards and takes three more. This it does for 10 iterations, at the end of this action a graph is produced and the optimum focus position is suggested.
All this happens whilst you just sit back and twiddle your thumbs or put the kettle on.



DSLR Focus does all these focus images in JPEG because it downloads quicker via USB to the laptop. Of course, you must remember to switch back to Raw when you are capturing your sub exposures and of course, I didn't!

So this is is the result of 30 x 120 seconds of medium quality JPEGs.

* This rough focus only has to done once, this particular make of focuser is an 'absolute focuser' so it's possible to put it in the same predetermined position every focus attempt, the software remembers it, even if you don't.

80 mm refractor, Astronomik CLS filter and a standard Canon 10D DSLR.
Aligned and stacked in Nebulosity and finished in Photoshop CS3.

M27 the Dumbbell Nebula

A clear sky last night but with a half Moon high up, reasonable transparency too, made a change from the recent clear but very hazy skies. This was taken, an easily available old friend welcoming me to the nebulae of summer, at 3.30am, just as dawn was lightening the sky.

Racing against the dawn, I took 7x120sec frames and a dark for a defect map. No flats, knowing the telescope and chip didn't match and I'd have to crop anyway, and such a small target would still leave acres of starry sky around it. I used GradientXTerminator to help even the background.

The telescope was a Skywatcher 80ED riding on and guided by a Meade 14" LX200. The camera was an MX25C. Processed in AA4 and Photoshop 7.

Brian.

M97 The Owl nebula

I've spent another night on the garden bench imaging the Messier object, M97, otherwise known as the Owl nebula, NGC 3587. It's in Ursa Major and has a magnitude of + 11.2, also close by and in this frame is the edge on spiral galaxy, M108, NGC 3556.

This planetary nebula is a small dim object, this first photograph is a crop of about 25%, on the second I've cropped even closer to give a better view of that open owl face.





The photograph is made up of 50 x 120 seconds subexposures.

80 mm refractor, Astronomik CLS filter, standard Canon 10D DSLR.
Aligned and stacked with Nebulosity and finished in Photoshop CS3.

Star spots and space weather

At 7.30 p.m. Thursday, 22nd. May, 2008, guest speaker Dr. Chris Watson of the University of Sheffield, will give a talk entitled, "Star spots and space weather".

Non members welcome, we meet in St. George's House to the rear of St. George's Minster, Doncaster town centre.

NGC 7000 The North America nebula

This is my first attempt at this nebula and I was surprised at the large size it is, this is an APS full frame shot with no cropping, taken with a standard Canon 10D and an 80 mm refractor, the frame covers an area of sky 2.7° x 1.8°. I think that a focal reducer would probably help here -it would also help flatten the field- the nebula would then sit comfortably within the frame, rather than shoe horned as here.





This image is made up of 11 x 120 seconds exposures, it obviously needs a lot more, but I kept falling asleep at the wheel ( well on the garden bench actually ), so I called it a morning, especially as the garden song thrush was starting to warm up for the chorus.

Click on the image for a slightly larger version.

Moon and Mercury

Having seen on Brian's "whats on" write up that the Moon and Mercury are close on the evening of the 6th of May and a pleasant evening as well I was determined to get a shot or two of the pair setting. Mercury has evaded me quite a few times through cloud etc. So I looked out of my front window and sure enough there they were towards the WNW. I took quite a few pictures from my driveway including this one at 2142 BST.

Taken with my Canon EOS 350D. Tripod mounted for 4s at f9, ISO 200, 55mm lens. Cropped and shopped in Photoshop.

Another view. This time zoomed in....


Taken 5 minutes later. Again with my Canon EOS 350D. Zoom set at 245mm, 3S, ISO 400 at f9. Again cropped and shopped in photoshop.

The sky this month

We now have another associated link called..... well the title says it all. This will evolve into an information and resources blog, which will enable amateur astronomers to get the most from their observations.
There's also a link for this down the right hand side.

The Vixen VMC260L has arrived

The first of the new observatory's telescopes has arrived, the Vixen VMC260L which will be used "to take pictures of smaller items, galaxies, Planets, Planetary nebulae, Asteroids etc."