Doncaster Astronomical Society

2012-01-22T19:30:00.004Z

The Sun, of course, taken 14.1.12, with the DMK31 and PST on the AP mount. Hopefully I've got the measure of sticking two frames together to produce a whole Sun.
Not a good day, and I still haven't got the trick of balancing the gamma to allow prominences and disc detail to show well.
Processed in Registax6, better than Registax5 by a good way, then finalised and coloured in Photoshop.

The Moon on 5.1.12

2012-01-06T16:08:00.006Z

A mosaic of 4 frames taken with a DMK31 camera in a William 98FLT. For easy matching up all of the frames, 6 actually, but I only needed 4, I ran the videos for 30sec each and processed each in Registax with the same wavelet parameters. Then stuck them together in Photoshop on a larger new frame, flattened them and finished off the processing there.Though cloudless the sky had plenty of haze and was turbulent, recovering from a stormy day and previous night, with up to 90mph winds.

NGC2392 the Eskimo nebula

2012-01-06T10:55:00.005Z

Taken, unusually, with the H9C, which is my usual guide camera. A small camera for a small nebula, so it's really more suited to it, and I should do more this way.

The Moon was a problem for choice of targets with nebulosity. It was big enough to turn almost all the sky to milk.

The exposure was 19x90sec, with no flats, I should have, and no bias either. Darks never used with this camera. The telescope was the Vixen VMC260L at native FL.

Acquired and pre-processed in Astroart, then finished off in Photoshop.

IC405 in Auriga - the Flaming Star nebula

2011-12-18T13:39:00.006Z

Taken on 17.12.11, with the usual kit, an M25C in the William FLT98, guided by an H9C in the Vixen VMC260L.
The exposure was 23x300sec.
A hazy sky with poor seeing, the guiding fluctuated quite a lot. No clouds though.
The Moon hadn't got up when I started but contributed a bit of light later.
It was cold in the dome, but not changing much.
Acquired in Astroart5 and preprocessed there to finish off in Photoshop.
I process on one machine and post from another, but I don't know which monitor is the more accurate for brightness and colour. The posting one is new so bear with me till I get them compatible.
The brightness at the bottom left is IC410, a similar nebula. Another night perhaps.

Sorry, but another one of the Sun, on 30.11.11

2011-11-30T23:33:00.001Z

A clear day but hazy again. I had to take a look and found this huge prominence, and a very busy Sun, so had to take it's photograph.It was using the now usual kit of PST (must get something better, though this one is a very good one), and DMK camera on the 900GTO mount at Austerfield.A problem is that the chip I have isn't large enough to cover the whole Solar disc, so I'm looking for a focal reducer. Is there one made in 1.25"?The alternative is to extend the focal length and concentrate on smaller areas of the disc.The clouds couldn't keep away long enough for me to follow the prominence long enough to make something of it.The telescope was tuned for prominences rather than face detail.Processing done in Registax6, fine software, and Photo Shop.

The Sun.... again

2011-11-20T14:29:00.001Z

Taken on 19.11.11. The day was drawing to an end and the Sun was setting behind the trees at the edge of the field. The photograph was taken through them as can be seen from the shading to the lower right.This is the first time Lesley Hardware and Elaine Booker had photographed the Sun; they used the IS DMK camera in the PST mounted on the 900GTO mount, a very convenient arrangement.There was a lot of fiddling with the difficult PST focusing(instructions from them to Paul Booker operating the tiny focus knob), and camera settings, to try to get a good balance with both the prominences, and face detail. Not easy with such a wide difference in brightness. They were also hurrying to get the job done before the trees took over completely. The focal length of the PST precludes getting the whole disc onto the chip, but it may be better in summer. The processing was done in Registax 6 and finished off in Photo Shop CS2.

The Sun - 15.10.11

2011-11-16T22:59:00.001Z

These photographs are two versions of the same file, taken on the 15th of October, with the Imaging Source DMK31AU.AS camera. It was used with the Coronado PST, on the AP 900GTO mount.The uncoloured one is the original version, processed in Photo Shop in the usual way. The coloured one was inverted first then processed. The camera is monochrome, so the colour has been added in Photo Shop.A busy Sun indeed, but the reason for the post is to ask for opinions as to which method is preferred.

The Moon ... of course

2011-10-16T12:16:00.006+01:00

These were taken on 14.10.11 while testing the Imaging Source DMK 31AU03 camera. I was torn between colour and mono and ended up with the mono. Not happy with it to start but getting used to it and liking it more each time I use it.
Most were only a minute's worth of frames, and all were processed in Registax6, with a little, a very little, in Photoshop. I think I've identified each location correctly, but if I'm wrong, please advise.
The first has Piccolomini on it, the next has crater Neander, the third has crater Gutenberg and the last is of Posidonius.

NGC7000 and IC5070 nebula in Ha

2011-10-04T10:03:00.002+01:00

This is a 6 frame mosaic of NGC 7000 North America nebula and IC 5070 Pelican nebula in Cygnus. I started the first sub exposures of this image in August 2010 and obtained the last frame in late September, 2011, which allowed me to produce this photograph. Each of the frames is made up of 11 x 1200 subexposures, giving a total exposure time of 22 hours. The final image is 27.5 millions pixels and 52.3 Mb.

They are quite a few interesting objects in this area, in the image below (not exactly a 100% crop), the Ferret is on the left, in the middle the dark oval eye of the Pelican with the Herbig Haro object at the end of that elephant trunk.

The image below shows one of Barnard's Dark nebula, B355, that chevron shaped object left of centre. In his book, A Photographic Atlas of selected regions of the Milky Way, E. E. Barnard passes comment on this "...is a dark, V-shaped spot (B355), pointing west, about 5' in length. This is perhaps an opening in the nebulosity".

Next year, I start collecting the OIII and SII data for a colour version

Designation: NGC 7000 - Caldwell 20 and IC 5070
Constellation: Cygnus.
Distance 1, 800 lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 at prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD
Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - Ha - 6 frames each frame 11 x 1200 seconds
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Then processed in PixInsight

Comet C2009 P1 (Garradd) - 27.9.11

2011-10-03T22:34:00.008+01:00

This was taken when it was getting close to the western horizon with the M25C and William 98. It was guided with the H9C but with an exposure of 23 x 45sec hardly needed it. The sky was cloudless but with the ever attendant haze. I always use an IDAS LPS filter so can get away with some of the light pollution that comes with it.
The comet wasn't moving quickly against the background so I didn't have to do any special processing.

NGC752 - 110927

2011-10-02T12:24:00.006+01:00

This is a cluster in Andromeda (I like clusters) that I'd been tripping over time and again, as I wander round this area of the sky, but never got round to photographing till we unexpectedly got several clear nights in a row. Hazy nights, but stars punch their way through that more easily than nebulae.
It was taken with the M25C in the William 98 on the 900GTO mount. Guided by my old H9C which I broke immediately after this shot. Almost like the classic, drink the wine and smash the glass in the fireplace. I actually snagged the wires on the mount in moving to the next target. I have done this before so should know to avoid it.
The exposure was 25 frames of 120sec. Calibration was with masterflat and masterbias, and the processing was done in Astroart and Photoshop.

Solar activity - 110928

2011-10-02T11:58:00.004+01:00

This is a nearly first effort with a newly acquired IS DMK31AU03 camera and I'm pleased with it. I used the society's PST for this one of a very active area of the Sun. I'm going to have to concentrate more on processing as well as getting to know the camera and telescope. Getting a good balance between the extreme brightness of the face and the much less bright prominences will take more practice. The colour is Photoshop induced
The telescope was riding on the Vixen at Austerfield.
Enough of the blather, here's the picture.

Moon 17 Sept 2011

2011-09-18T12:23:00.001+01:00

Taken last night at Austerfield with canon 450d balanced on car roof 55-250 zoom lens max zoom exposure 1/80 sec at f5.6

Jupiter and LPV star RT Cygni

2011-09-03T13:40:00.000+01:00

Last Friday night/Saturday morning (27/28th Aug) was a very clear sky up at Austerfield! The Milky-way was so bright, and stretched from horizon to horizon. The constellations became almost unrecognisable due to the hoards of fainter stars on show. Early in the morning, I webcamed Jupiter and three of it's moons and because the sky was so clear, the planet looked remarkable with fine cloud details. Moments after capturing this image, Io vanished. It wasn't until I got home, did some research and found that the moon had moved into Jupiter's shadow. Meanwhile in the the other Dome, Bryan took this shot of the Long Period Variable RT Cygni. This star varies is brightness from magnitude 6 to 13 in periodic cycle and is the brightest star here at magnitude 7! The image is 10x8 arc mins in area and all the small blobs are very faint stars that you would struggle to see with a telescope!

NGC7000 - the Water Buffalo - 110821

2011-08-24T09:27:00.003+01:00

Sunday, a full and productive night. A clear sky throughout though the fat Moon was in the way somewhat. This is my latest of NGC7000 and took 12x600sec.
It followed a couple of hours with Lesley and Dave wandering round the sky with both telescopes. Lots seen, but they had to leave at 11:30pm, leaving me alone.
Taken with the William 98 and M25C, guided by the H9C in the Vixen, not very well but well enough, seeing wasn't as good as first thought. The exposure was 12x600sec.
Processed in AstroArt and Photoshop.

Jupiter - 2.8.11

2011-08-05T10:36:00.008+01:00

A clear sky at home so I had to go, but found streaky cloud at the observatory. This restricts photography greatly, so I experimented with various configurations of telescopes, hopeful of using the information later. But I usually forget anyway. However, Jupiter came up and hid behind a tree for a while and was quite high when it came out. So I put the webcam on the Vixen and took aim. But the streaky clouds, heavy haze too, got in the way. This is the best of 4 efforts, all with cloud, the videos were constantly flashing bright then dull, making it difficult to set parameters. The above was from a video of 2000 frames, but when processed in Registax and set to "pick the best 90%", it picked out about 200, so I reset to 50% to get 700 frames into the stack, relying on further processing to get a result.

Is this one better? Taken on Sunday the 21st, after the Water Buffalo above. Io has crept into the scene and it's shadow is on the face of the planet too. I've been inclined to process too aggresively, perhaps less is more in this case.
Oh yes, I've tilted the camera differently too, Jupiter hasn't flipped.

Noctilucent Cloud

2011-07-10T16:36:00.000+01:00

Taken last night down at Austerfield they only lasted a few minutes about 11.30pm

The birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton

2011-06-21T17:08:00.002+01:00

This last Sunday, 19th June, 2011, I paid a visit to Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham. The manor was the birth place and home of Sir Isaac Newton.

It's now owned and maintained by the National Trust and opens only on Saturdays and Sundays, to members of the public. Photography inside the house is not allowed.

This is Newtons apple tree and is a variety called the Flower of Kent. The wicker fence surrounding the tree, is there to stop feet from compacting the ground around the roots.

15.6.11 - Wednesday

2011-06-15T22:42:00.002+01:00

5 of us made the short trip to Gringley on the Hill to observe the Lunar Eclipse forecsst to occur at Sunset/Moonrise. We chose Gringley because it was on a hill on the plain....
It was very heavily cloudy, of course, so we waited, and waited, knowing it wouldn't improve, and the only thing to change was the sunset at the other side of the sky, and the throat dryness. So we climbed to the top of the hill where a beacon/lantern used to be built in times past to signal important happenings to places further north on the line of beacons. Things like pub opening times etc.
And on to the Bluebell where a folk group was practising in the adjoining room.
These photographs were among the more sensible ones taken. One in either direction, I'm sure you can tell which is which. Not much else to see from the top of a hill on a plain.

NGC7000_IC5070_110608_Ha_Mosaic

2011-06-13T07:35:00.007+01:00

A two pane mosaic of this well known area in Cygnus. IC 5070, the Pelican nebula on the right was imaged in August, 2010. NGC 7000, North America nebula on the left, I took 7th/8th, June, 2011. There's about a 1/3 of a frame overlap, the left pane was exposed for 7 x 1200" the right 5 x 1200".

As usual the focus, framing, acquiring and calibration was done in Nebulosity. The processing and mosaic building was done in PixInsight.

Designation: NGC 7000 - Caldwell 20 and IC 5070
Constellation: Cygnus.
Distance 1, 800 lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 at prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20° C
Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - Ha 7 x 1200 and 5 x 1200 seconds
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Then processed in PixInsight

M51 The Whirlpool galaxy, supernova

2011-06-04T13:31:00.000+01:00

Supernova SN 2011dh located Ra 13h 30m 5s and Dec +40° 10' 11.2" in the Whirlpool Galaxy, Canes Venatici.

A comparison photograph showing the galaxy on the 27th March, 2011 and after the discovery of the SN, imaged on the 3rd, June, 2011. Click on the image to enlarge.

2011-05-30T13:43:00.006+01:00

A couple of Globular clusters, I like Globulars, but many think that if you've seen one you've seen them all. Not so, take these two, within a stone's throw of each other, perhaps not literally, 3° actually, in Ophiuchus. One is quite heavily compressed while the other is much less rich in stars, but each carries it's own appeal.
I like to pick up the colours if I can, blue stragglers(?).
These two photographs were taken on the same night from Austerfield, using an SX M25C camera and an Astrophysics .67 Focal reducer on a Vixen VMC260L, all sat on an AP 900GTO mount. I'm not fully happy with the AP FR but it's better than the alternative I can use a Meade .63.
The night was cloudless but fairly heavy with haze, for which I also used an IDAS LPS filter. I had the chip exposed for about an hour for each photograph and processing was done in Astroart5 and Photoshop. Guiding was in the capable hands of an SX H9C camera in a William 98FLT.
Both are full frame with just the stacking edges cropped.

Barnard's star, animation

2011-05-01T21:02:00.004+01:00

This is a very long term project which I started on the 13th April 2010. That was the date of the first exposure, the second exposure I took in the early hours of this morning 1st May 2011, so it's just a few days over 12 months between exposures. It's an animation consisting of two frames showing the proper motion of HIP 87937 a star also known as Barnard's star in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The star has the largest proper motion of any star as seen from Earth. It moves 10.35 arc sec per annum and was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard hence its common name.

The star is a Red Dwarf with a magnitude of 9.56 and is at a distance of approximately 5.97 light years.

Clicking on the image will enlarge the animation and start it.

Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 at prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20C
Filter - Luminance
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Each single animated frame consists of 5 x 60 seconds subexposures with the necessary Flats and Dark Frames.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Then processed in PixInsight and the animation made in Photoshop CS5

2011-04-21T09:34:00.003+01:00

A portrait of the Moon, taken by Peter Smith, from his garden on the 17th of April, using an Aspen Newtonian on an EQ1 mount.
It had a 2x barlow and a 20mm eyepiece fitted and he used a Kodak MD41 point and shoot camera set at 6.4Mp, focussed at infinity and held up to the eyepiece. No socks were needed in this configuration.

M3 - at the bottom of Canes Vanetici

2011-04-14T12:49:00.006+01:00

Taken on 2.4.11, with the Vixen VMC260L at native focal length, 3000mm, using an M25C, guided by an H9C in the WO98. The exposure was 7x120sec. Acquired and calibrated with bias and flats and finally processed in Photo Shop.
GradX used to even out the background and some unsharp masking done.

M81 in Ursa Major, above the bowl of the plough

2011-04-14T11:05:00.005+01:00

A favourite of mine but usually coupled with M82 in a wider field. This time in one of its own. Taken under a noisy sky, and with too short an exposure. It needs much more time, though a better sky would have helped greatly.
Taken on the 6th of April 2011, with an M25C in the Vixen 260 coupled with a Meade 63 focal reducer. The effective focal length was about 1900mm and the focal ratio f7.2. Guiding was with an H9C in a WO 98 of 617mm focal length. The exposure was 24x300sec, and all of them hazy.
I get better results with the Meade reducer than with the new AP67, though the problem there is in taking flats. I hope to return to it when I've sorted out the taking of flats with it.
It took lots of trial and error during processing in AstroArt and Photo Shop, to get this result and it isn't really good enough for the field shown, but it's not easy to wipe the sky clear of noise. Now if I could do that...
I'll take another shot at it when the sky improves. It was a cloud free night covered in heavy haze, but you must take every opportunity as the alternative is cloud and no activity. The intention that night was actually to test the focal reducer with the Vixen, and in that intent the result in my opinion was a good match.

Galaxies and even more galaxies

2011-04-04T13:29:00.002+01:00

This image is made up of 30 x 600 sub exposures, a total of 5 hours. It's M51 the Whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici. Such a deep exposure reveals numerous fuzzy background objects, Tim Walker a member of the Webb Deep Sky Society has identified some of the fuzzies.

PGC = Principal Galaxy Catalogue
NGC = New General Catalogue
IC = Index Catalogue

Clicking on the image will give an enlarged view.

Makarian Chain

2011-03-09T10:40:00.005Z

On the Coma/Virgo border, this group of galaxies, was named after B E Makarian who discovered that the seven of them are moving together. Many others are in the same field in this part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies.
The second photograph is of the same field but inverted so the naming can be seen more clearly. Not terribly deep, the faintest are in the mag 13 region, but none of them is a point source of light.
The one at the bottom left, M87, is supposed to be the largest in the Virgo cluster. Unfortunately many here are elliptical and show little detail or colour.
It was taken on 7.3.11 in a clear but hazy night, with an SX M25C in a WO 98FLT sat on an AP 900GTO mount, all guided by an SX H9C in a Vixen VMC260L.
A bit geeky? But it really means, a small 3 element refractor with the taking CCD camera on it, beside a larger reflector with a small guiding CCD camera on it. Both sat on a large driven mount. The mount follows the path of the heavens and the guiding camera adds corrections to help ensure that all the photons from a given star fall on the same pixel on the camera sensor for the length of the exposure.
The exposure was 36x300sec, acquired and calibrated with bias and flats in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop. More geekiness.

Civic Mayor's visit

2011-02-17T11:24:00.009Z

A couple of photos, taken by Paul Booker, on the occasion of the visit of Cllr. Eva Hughes, Doncaster's Deputy Civic Mayor, to the observatory, on the 9th of February. She's certainly interested in astronomy, and much nicer than any politician is expected to be.
She's welcome to come back any time.

The sky wasn't helpful, complete cloud cover, but it did part just for a minute, during which time our three visitors were able to see the Moon and some of it's craters quite clearly. None had looked through a telescope before so were very well impressed. She stayed 3 hours chatting and drinking tea and eating Jaffa cakes and looking at photos we'd taken.

With her in the photos is her husband Derek, her Consort, and on the larger photo, behind them is her Officer, Paul Lawson.
With them are several members of the Society.
Brian

False colour NGC 2244 Rosette nebula

2011-02-10T19:30:00.007Z

This is a false colour image produced using the HST palette. The exposures were taken over 4 separate nights and the image consists of SII (Sulphur) 7 x 1200, Ha (Hydrogen) 11 x 1200 and OIII (Oxygen) 10 x 1200. The subs are mapped SII to the Red channel, Ha to the Green and OIII to the Blue.

Nebulosity was used to Frame, Focus, Acquire and Calibrate the sub exposures. Each of the three individual images was then processed in PixInsight and combined to produce this colour image.

Takahashi FSQ-106ED at f5 prime focus with a QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, mounted on a EQ6 Pro mount. Autoguiding with PHD and a Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera.

22.1.11 - Saturday

2011-01-23T16:56:00.002Z

A strange cloud formation seen on Saturday, no, not strictly astronomical, at least I don't think so, but interesting and strange nonetheless. I still haven't been able to work out the exact nature of the phenomenon. Has this sort of formation been seen before? If so does anyone know where and what causes it? Some sort of cloudburst?
Brian

M42 - the Orion Nebula

2011-01-19T10:32:00.005Z

Taken on the 8th of Jan. on a clearish night, by Paul Booker left alone on his own in the small dome, while others were in the other dome observing doubles.
He used the Skywatcher 80ED riding on the Meade 14". The poor drive of the Meade restricted frames to 20sec before trailing became likely, so he took 100 frames, as he wasn't guiding. Focusing is difficult and labourious with a DSLR, without the aid of a laptop and helpful software. He didn't use a filter but the short frames suited that.
The processing was done by manual stacking in AstroArt, which has a routine for interrupting the automatic stacking so you can see each frame in high magnification, and move the frame to a chosen position to stack, or discard it if there is excessive trailing. This way only 50 of the 100 were used, but they all stacked, by addition, perfectly.
The result was saved as a tif and transferred to Photoshop for the rest of the processing, where some sharpening and noise reduction were used as well as other routines. Darks and flats weren't used.
The result looks well enough to say that it was the first time a real effort was made on the subject.

Chinese New Year 2011

2011-01-03T13:31:00.002Z

The Chinese calendar is based on the phases of the moon and as New Year starts with a New Moon, the actual day varies each year. So every Year I get asked "When is it Chinese New Year?" Well this year Day 1 of the Chinese New Year is 3 February 2011. Traditionally the big festival was The Lantern Festival which is on day 15 .
As Chinese New Year always starts with a New Moon it is always a dark night. This is the start of the "Spring Festival" and ends with the Lantern Festival.
This makes a lot of sense if you do not have Street Lights. The best night to have a Festival is one with maximum moonlight for the maximum amount of time - A Full MOON which surprise surprise will always be on the night of the Lantern Festival since the Chinese New Year starts with a New Moon.

I could show a picture of a Full Moon but that would be boring. Instead the picture is a full moon from a Lunar eclipse. This is when the moon goes through the earth's shadow.
Photo courtesy of D Adshead and Happy Birthday.

Total Lunal Eclipse on 21.12.10

2010-12-22T12:03:00.006Z

This was taken by Paul Booker with a Canon 450 and 100-300mm zoom lens. The exposure was automatic, so the little man in the camera must have set it to the whole field.
It was taken in very cold conditions and under bright street lighting. Well, you can't go far from the house in pajamas in freezing conditions, can you?
The eclipse was total, but totality was after the Moon had sunk below the horizon, so this was very low in the sky indeed.

Astronomy clock, Prague

2010-12-01T10:08:00.001Z

I was in Prague, Czech Republic, last week and visited the famous astronomical clock built into a wall of the Old Town Hall Tower. It dates back to the 15th century and shows the positions of the sun and moon in the heavens.

Horse Head nebula in Hydrogen Alpha

2010-11-16T13:23:00.001Z

B33 the Horse Head nebula in Orion. One of Barnard's Dark nebula cast in silhouette by IC 434 the emission nebula behind it. Also to the left, the well named Flame nebula. This image is made up of 9 x 1200 subexposures.

Rosette nebula

2010-11-04T06:23:00.002Z

An Hydrogen Alpha photograph of the Rosette nebula in Monoceros, it's made up of 2 x 1200 exposures, taken just before I packed the kit up one morning, after a long night of imaging other objects. I'm looking forward to getting more of this nebula as the year progresses.

The cropped image below shows the detail of the dark structures called Bok Globules, regions of dense gas and dust, where stars are formed.

NGC7243 Open Cluster in Lacerta - I think

2010-10-30T10:58:00.004+01:00

Taken on the fruitful night of 19.10.10, I recorded this as NGC6243 when taking the exposures, but in TheSky that's a spiral galaxy! So I had to guess again and I think I've finally found it to be 7243, as that's also listed in my plan of exposures for the night, though I don't often follow the plan. The problem is that I have difficulty matching the actual, the photograph, with what TheSky says it should look like, though I've come across that before.
So hopefully, it really is NGC7243.
The photograph was taken with the M25C with IDAS filter through the WO98FLT. The exposure was 20 frames of 120sec each, unguided, stacked and coloured in AstroArt and further processed in Photoshop. A bit of GradX and smoothing of the background but no sharpening.

M45 - Drawing by Elaine Booker

2010-10-25T22:53:00.006+01:00

The first one was drawn in off-white pencil on black card, and the second was drawn in white pencil on black card. The nebulosity wasn't visible in the eyepiece so she copied a photograph. This was her first attempt and she intends to continue as she enjoyed doing it and intends to do it at the eyepiece in future.

NGC457 - 101019

2010-10-22T18:56:00.004+01:00

It was a good night, clear and cloudless all night, though the fat Moon encroached on everything I did, but not badly enough to prevent this.
This is of NGC457, the ET or Chicken cluster in Cassiopeia. Looks very well in telescopes but not so easy to photograph, at least it isn't for me, till now. Also in the frame, below the Chicken's feet, is Open Cluster NGC436.
I used an SX M25C and WO 98FLT. Processed in AstroArt and Photoshop, with some GradX and a little pinching. I also dimmed the stars to make the Chicken stand out more.

Comet Hartley - 101019

2010-10-22T18:36:00.004+01:00

Taken Tuesday the 19th with an SX M25C in a WO 98FLT sat on an AP 900GTO mount. I took 60 frames of 60sec each and stacked them manually, on the comet, in AstroArt, then further processed the result in Photoshop. A short tail can be seen out to the right.
Not seen naked eye or in binoculars but easy enough in the telescope.
Very fast moving, hence the long trails on the stars, but it should slow down now as it pulls away from us.

Two different types of nebulae

2010-10-20T22:33:00.006+01:00

The first is NGC 6960 the western part of the Cygnus loop, a supernova remnant. The nebula is believed to be 1,500 lights year away, the bright star is 52 Cygni and is a unrelated foreground star. This image is made up of 4 x 1200 subs, hence the star trail.

NGC 1499 is an emission nebula in Perseus at a distance of 1,140 light years. This image is made up of 8 x 1200 sub exposures and is an improvement over the single shot one, I posted earlier below.

Both images have been obtained using a 3 nm Hydrogen Alpha filter, which is very beneficial when there's a fat bright moon up causing havoc, as last night.

M94 - 070323

2010-10-16T16:37:00.005+01:00

Taken a long time ago, 23.3.07, when I didn't know what I was doing. At least I think I do now. M94, in Canes Venatici, below the bowl of the Plough, is 12 arcmins wide and mag 8, but not a very popular target. I'd like to have another try at it with our current kit, but this isn't the right time of the year for it.
This was taken with an SX H9C in the 80ED and the result is better than I expected, though I never got round to processing it till during the rainy season this summer.
Recorded and stacked in AstroArt and further processed on Photoshop. The exposure was 12x300sec.

NGC 1499 in Hydrogen Alpha

2010-10-12T11:38:00.004+01:00

It's been sometime since I did any astro imaging, and it'll be a few more weeks before I'm able to get stuck back in. So, I thought this may be of interest, it's NGC 1499 in Perseus an emission nebula. That bright star at the bottom is Menkib, Xi ( ξ ) Persei and that's the star that drives the nebula, causing it to emit Hydrogen Alpha and also Hydrogen Beta light.

This was just a test shot taken in August, low down in the sky. I wanted to see how the object fitted in the frame. It's made up of 1 x 1200 seconds exposure, consequently it's a bit noisy. After capture and preprocessing in Nebulosity I then processed it in PixInsight. Its not been touched by Photoshop at all. Darks used but no Flats.

Jupiter yet again

2010-10-10T21:38:00.001+01:00

We must make most of Jupiter while it's here.This image was taken on 6th October at Austerfield on the vixen scope using a toucam webcam 1100 frames processed with registax and tweaked in photoshop.

Comet Hartley - yet again

2010-10-09T13:26:00.014+01:00

This is an avi file made of a series of 10 frames taken on 7.10.2010 at 3am-ish. The frames were of 60sec and the comet was moving so fast that they all trailed. I took a further series at 30sec and will have to work on that later. Taken with an M25C in the Vixen VMC260L, and processed in AstroArt and Photoshop and animated in Animation Shop. It may also be easier to see full screen.

M42 - the first of the year - 101006

2010-10-08T11:54:00.005+01:00

A clear night with some high haze, a very dewy night, the car was streaming with it. I couldn't resist this. Always a difficult target because of its wide dynamic range. I tried to get a reasonable result without having to take a variety of exposure lengths, short to suit the Trapezium and long to suit the nebulosity. The kit used was the WO 98 and M25C, but it's mostly in the processing and this time I tried a self-devised DDP curve in Photoshop. I think with a modicum of success, but much more to do during this apparition.
The exposure was 15x120sec, perhaps between two stools? But worth persuing for this or other targets.
Stacking and calibration, flats and bias, in AstroArt and all the rest in Photoshop, including some GradX and High Pass sharpening.

Comet 103P Hartley, again - 6.10.10

2010-10-08T09:27:00.006+01:00

It was a rare night indeed, cloudless from dusk to dawn. This photograph was taken over a 35min period centred round 3.15am, on the 7th. 60 frames of 30sec each. The comet is moving so fast that any longer than 30sec caused trailing.
Not much to see visually at all, very faint, to say this is likely to be as bright as it gets, as it'll pull away fron Earth from the 20th of this month.
It was photographed with an SX M25C and a Vixen VMC260L on an AP 900GTO mount, while passing close to the Double Cluster in Perseus.
The frames were stacked manually and other processing was done in AstroArt and Photoshop.

Jupiter by Elaine Booker - 101001

2010-10-02T10:45:00.017+01:00

This is Jupiter on a very poor night. It rained and the rain clouds left heavy haze and streaky thin clouds behind, so Jupiter was partly hidden, but she had to take the opportunity to take his portrait, with a couple of attendants, Io to the higher left and Callisto lower left. The Red Spot is coming onto the face from the left too.
She used an old 740 Philips TouCam in the Vixen VMC260L at prime focus, it wouldn't take a barlow. Using Registax 5.1 and 700 of the 1100 frames she got this result.
She has also caught a large white spot that I hadn't noticed before, in the NEB.

M45 - 100911

2010-09-29T10:11:00.009+01:00

Taken on the 9th of September 10, from Austerfield, using the WO98 and M25C, guided by the Vixen and H9C during an exposure of 14x240sec, in rather poor skies. The Moon was absent but the clouds were not.
Acquired in AstroArt and stacked, calibrated with a masterflat and a masterbias and coloured there too. Then passed to Photoshop as a tif data file for further processing, including some GradX and a touch of High Pass sharpening. Most of the processing involved fiddling with the curves line and setting the black point in curves. I also used the Reduce Noise algorithm in Photoshop.
While looking for faults, I came across a couple of galaxies PGC13696 at mag 17.3 and PGC13557 at mag 16.3. In the lower right of the photograph. Quite faint of course, so you may not see them in this reproduction, but I can on the original on my PC.

M31 - The Andromeda Spiral

2010-09-18T10:53:00.005+01:00

Taken last week by Eddie Marris using an SX M25C camera and a C11 Hyperstar at f1.95, sat on a Skywatcher EQ6 mount. The exposure was 18x120sec unguided. Well, you don't need to with such a speedy system. An Ultra High Contrast filter was used too, to help combat his polluted skies.
He stacked in AstroArt and finally processed in Photoshop, with the help of GradX, Noise Ninja and Noel's Actions. Soms High Pass sharpening was done too.

Uranus - 100914

2010-09-15T13:10:00.003+01:00

This was taken on Tuesday the 14th in a clear sky. I'd had a try at Jupiter but it wasn't too steady, very windy night, so I moved to Uranus for this. Three moons visible, but which is which I don't know.
The exposure was 6x120, using the Vixen 260 at native FL and M25C camera. No guiding. Processed in AstroArt and Photoshop. Some sharpening and Noise Ninja needed.

Comet 103P/Hartley

2010-09-15T12:24:00.007+01:00

I was finally able to find it so took this portrait. It consists of a series of 120sec frames, stacked manually on the comet's nucleus, in AstroArt. then further processed in Photoshop. Stacking this way makes the surrounding stars into streaks, but highlights their colour more.
Not as bright as predicted, I couldn't see it visually with the Vixen, but it shows up with exposures longer than the eye's 1/10th of a sec.
It takes some imagination too, to see a tail.
It was taken with the M25C through the Vixen VMC260L. The exposure was 17x120sec. Processing as always in AstroArt and Photoshop
This inverted version will make it easier to see.

The Markarian Chain - On the Coma/Virgo border

2010-09-10T22:55:00.013+01:00

This was taken on the 30th of March 08 from Austerfield with the 80ED on the big Meade and an M25C. The exposure was 15x300sec. You can see the shortcomings of the 80ED. I wasn't able to get much out of the data then, but the second time round, I used AstroArt to acquire, stack, calibrate and colour, and Photoshop to do the final processing. GradX, Noise Ninja and a little high pass sharpening helped to produce a better result. Perhaps some of the witchcraft from those round me is rubbing off.

The second photograph is just an inverted version of the first, and makes it easier to see all the galaxies in this cluster, the brightest of which form the Markarian Chain. It also makes it clear that I should have composed it more carefully. As someone used to say, I must try harder. To help you sort them out, the bright one out on the left is M87, and all the fuzzy spots are galaxies.

NGC6905 - the Blue Flash. A planetery nebula

2010-09-06T20:31:00.004+01:00

Taken on the 2nd of September from Austerfield with the M25C and Vixen 260 on a hazy night. Blue Flash? I don't know, many others are equally blue.
Acquired and pre-processed in AstroArt and finally processed in Photoshop. The exposure was 7x240sec. I like to retain star colours, but aren't always able to do so, particularly with longer exposures. It really needs longer exposures, so I'll try it again some time soon.

Jupiter and Ganymede - 100903

2010-09-04T13:38:00.004+01:00

Taken on Friday the 3rd of September with a webcam and the Vixen, through poor seeing and thin cloud, and quite low too.
Processed in Registax and Photoshop.
I must plan another occasion when I can take a series to produce a video of this sort of occurrence.

NGC7380 - Open Cluster with Nebulosity in Cepheus

2010-09-01T23:47:00.006+01:00

This was taken on the 31.8.10, from Austerfield, with the FLT98 and M25C, guided by the H9C in the Vixen. A fairly long exposure, 22x300sec. But in very poor though cloudless skies, so not really getting the full value of the time, which is why I took more, but it doesn't make up for the sky condition. I took 50 flats of 2sec each to produce a master flat for calibrating in Astroart followed by final processing in Photoshop. I use a master flat and a master bias frame, taken perhaps twice a year, for calibration, no darks. GradX used in Photoshop processing and a touch of unsharp mask sharpening.
If you look carefully, you'll note lots of lines of stars and circlets of stars and other unlikely groupings. The cluster NGC7380 is in the middle with the red nebulosity, but it hardly stands out among the multitude of stars in the field.

Jupiter - Tuesday - 31.8.10

2010-09-01T23:31:00.008+01:00

This is a good season for Jupiter, after two years when it didn't rise much above the southern horizon. So no excuses for taking it's picture whenever possible. But we need more people doing it, so borrow a webcam, and use the PC in the dome.
The very heavy haze steadied it well and I could get Io in the picture too without having to fiddle it at all. In fact I didn't give it much credence, thinking of the point of light as a hot pixel. But then realised there wasn't a hot pixel there. 444 frames used in Registax. Still haven't caught the Red Spot though.

Sh2-142 in Cepheus

2010-08-31T18:43:00.000+01:00

Sh2-142 in Cepheus sometimes goes under the popular name of the Wizard. This image was made over two nights capturing 6 x 1200 each night and the resultant image is 12 x 1200, 4 hours total exposure.

The first is the full frame and the second is a crop from the same.

Designation: Sh2-142

Constellation: Cepheus
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED at f5 prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD
Sensor temperature - 15° Celsius
Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha
Autoguiding - OAG,Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 12 x 1200
Dark Frames, Flats and Dark Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquiring, aligning and stacking. FITS Liberator and Photoshop CS3 with Gradient Xterminator and Noel's Actions.

Jupiter missing SEB!

2010-08-29T12:13:00.008+01:00

Last Friday night at the observatory, I imaged Jupiter with my webcam using the 14" Meade. Initially the Seeing was very good but under high magnification the image was not as steady. As we all know by now, the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) has faded. Apparently this tends to occur in cycles and could be due to Jupiter's weather system...but the scientists are not really certain of this! The last time this happened was 2007. Two of the Galilean satellites are visible to the west of the planet, Ganymede and Io.

NGC1501 - Planetary Nebula - 24.8.10

2010-08-29T10:00:00.007+01:00

This is quite a small one, but then they almost all are. This is in Camelopardalis on the edge of the Milky Way disc, as seen from our vantage point.
I've tried it before but with much shorter focal lengths, and as you know it's all in the focal length, long ones for small items and short ones for large objects.
It's under an arcmin in size and has a WR star in the middle at mag 14.5.
I used the Vixen VMC260L and M25C camera, controlled with AstroArt. The exposure was 6x300sec and colour synthesis and stacking were done in AstroArt and final processing in Photoshop.
Not a good night for clarity, watched over by a fat Moon though the IDAS filter helped. North is up.

NGC 281 the Pac man nebula, part two.

2010-08-27T09:59:00.003+01:00

The other night I obtained more Ha subs of this nebula. There was a very fat bright moon in the sky but one of the benefits of imaging with narrowband is being able to image in moon light.

I captured 11 x 1200 frames, threw one away and added the remaining 10 to the two I previously obtained.

This image is made up of 12 x 1200 sub exposures a total of 4 hours.

Designation: NGC 281

Constellation: Cassiopeia. Distance 10,000 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED at f5 prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD
Sensor temperature - 15° Celsius
Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha
Autoguiding - OAG,Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 12 x 1200 seconds
Dark Frames, Flats and Dark Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquiring, aligning and stacking. FITS Liberator and Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions.

IC5070 The Pelican nebula

2010-08-19T19:24:00.001+01:00

The Pelican and Ferret an emission nebula in Cygnus obtained in the early hours of the 18th August. It was a long slog getting the 7 x 1200 subs for this one, I finally hit the sack at 5.00 am., pleased with myself for having a good run. The clouds were a bit naughty though, threatening and abusive a night of high tension.

Designation: IC 5070

Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 1,800 light years.

Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED at f5 prime focus

Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD

Sensor temperature - 15° Celsius

Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha

Autoguiding - OAG,Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.

Exposure - 7 x 1200 seconds

Dark Frames, Flats and Dark Flats used.

Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquiring, aligning and stacking. FITS Liberator and Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions.

The Elephant's trunk in IC1396

2010-08-17T10:58:00.005+01:00

I've imaged this before in colour with my DSLR. T'other night, I had a couple of hours of cloudless sky and took the opportunity to have another go, but this time I used a CCD camera and a 3 nm Hydrogen Alpha filter which gives a totally different type of image.

The Elephant's trunk a cometary globule designated VdB 142 a place where star formation takes place.

Designation: VdB 142

Constellation: Cepheus.

Distance 2,400 light years.

Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 at prime focus

Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD, sensor temperature 15°C

Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha

Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.

Exposure - 5 x 1200 seconds

Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.

Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with FITS Liberator and Noel's Actions.

NGC 281 the Pac man nebula

2010-08-12T14:59:00.002+01:00

My latest Hydrogen Alpha image the so called Pac man nebula in Cassiopeia. This is a crop of a larger frame to show some of the details in the cloud and also the Bok globules, those dark tight looking structures, named after the chap who first described them, Bart Bok. Apparently they're the birth place of stars.

I only acquired 2 x 1200 seconds of sub exposures before daybreak stopped play.

NGC7023 - the Iris nedula

2010-08-07T10:52:00.007+01:00

This is another old set of files I took. In May 2008 this time, with the M25C in the 80ED guided by the Meade 14" and an SX guidehead.
I couldn't get much out of it at the time but my processing methods have changed and hopefully I've managed to get just a bit more this time. The exposure was 5x1200sec and no flats or darks were taken. It's very noisy and needs more time on it to do it justice, so I'll add it to the list of things to do. It's getting to be a long list. But, now that I say that, does anyone have suggested items to add to the list?

NGC7000 and IC5070 - The North American, the Ferret and the Pelican

2010-08-05T10:26:00.007+01:00

This is a large nebular cloud to the left of Deneb in Cygnus.
Taken last year with a TV Pronto on the Meade 14" with my M25C. Why so late? Because you re-process old files when it's cloudy of course.
The exposure was 14x300sec and it was guided by the Meade and an H9C. Acquired and stacked in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop.
The North American is the large part to the left and the Pelican is the smaller one to the right. The Ferret is the little one between them around the 2 bright stars, the eyes. You need an astronomer's imagination. The ferret needs a lot of it,
the Pelican is quite clear but the North American I see as a Water Buffalo. Choose your own names if you don't like these.

The Double Cluster in Perseus

2010-08-05T08:56:00.009+01:00

Taken from Austerfield on the 29th of July. The sky was very patchy and I had to be speedy between cloud banks, no time to set up the guiding system. So I took 20 frames at 90sec each with the M25C and WO FLT98 on the 900GTO mount. They were acquired and stacked in AstroArt then processed in Photoshop. I took 25 flats but no darks.
Very little sharpening, I'm getting weary of the ill effects of sharpening so avoid it if possible, preferring to try to get it right with the telescope. The exposure was held at 90sec to try to retain some colour in the stars. A touch of work with GradX helped too. Nice piece of software.

NGC 6888 the Crescent nebula in Cygnus

2010-07-30T19:58:00.010+01:00

A new type of image for me, one taken with a Hydrogen Alpha filter of the Crescent nebula. I've been fiddling and processing this one most of the day, trying to get a pleasing result. For now I'm going to give it a rest. This is made up of 5 x 1200 seconds subexposures.

Edit: I've reprocessed the image slightly to give it some more depth. I hope.

Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 4,700 light years.

Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED with reducer at f3.6 refractor at prime focus

Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD

Sensor temperature -15° Celsius

Filter - Astrodon 3 nm Ha

Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount

Exposure - 5 x 1200 seconds Luminance only

Dark frames, Flats and Dark flats used.

Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquiring, aligning and stacking. Photoshop

NGC6905 - a Planetary in Delphinus

2010-07-28T22:52:00.011+01:00

Known as the Blue Flash, and located at the top right corner of Delphinus, this is 1.2arcmin and mag 11, so quite big and bright, though not to be compared with M27 nearby. Quite clearly blue though.
Perhaps you begin to think I'm interested in photographing planetaries. Yes indeed, though not well yet. They catch me out, some by being brighter and some by not being as bright as I first thought. So almost all I've photographed, will be re-done later, but I see so many I can't think of doing repeats when there are so many I'd like to do for the first time. I like to see what they look like. So I'll keep doing it. I think I'm getting better, I certainly hope so, looking back on some of the recent ones.
This was taken with the Vixen 260 and M25C camera on the 900GTO Acquired in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop, though with minimal sharpening. The exposure was 13x120sec. I also like to try for star colours.

NGC7026 - A Planetary in Cygnus

2010-07-15T12:44:00.009+01:00

It's known in American circles as the Cheeseburger nebula, but you'll have to enlarge it to see why. Taken with the Vixen260 and SX M25C, guided by an H9C in the WO98.
Mag 10.9 and quite small at 8arcsec, it looks lost here, particularly with the bright orange star in the same field, but the focal length of the Vixen is 3000mm so it really is tiny, but beautifully formed as they say.
The exposure was 7x120sec and it was acquired in AstroArt and processed there and in Photoshop. It was cropped, but only to remove the stacking mis-matching edges.

Noctilucent Clouds

2010-07-10T10:18:00.006+01:00

Taken by Paul Booker last night with his DSLR and a chair. The sky cleared very well to become the clearest this year. The Milky Way was easy to see and many objects were seen, Elaine recorded them all, or most of them. A very good night indeed.

NGC40 - A planetary in Cepheus

2010-07-08T20:44:00.003+01:00

This is quite a bright one, recorded as mag 12.3, but being compact, about 1.2 arcmin across, is easier to catch than the number suggests.
Near the top of the sky, so well clear of the rubbish near the horizon. Taken with the Vixen and my M25C camera, though I could have used the H9C but that was in the WO98 for guiding. Acquired in AstroArt and processed in AstroArt and Photoshop, and not cropped. 25 flats were taken but darks aren't needed with my camera. An IDAS filter was used, as always. The exposure was 30x120sec, 120sec to retain star colours.

NGC7008 - a planetary in Cygnus

2010-07-08T09:20:00.005+01:00

Always a bit of a disappointment, not because of it's appearance but that I never get enough time on it to do it justice. We get accustomed to seeing planetaries as disc shaped, from seeing the Ring and the Dumbbell, but this isn't, nor are most of them anyway.
Taken from Austerfield with the M25C in the Vixen 260, exposed for 30x60sec, so really not a lot of time. I should do more, but the clouds forced me into a corner. Didn't have time to set up the guiding. I'll do it again.
Processed in AstroArt and Photoshop.

Processing Astrophotographs - Thursday 24 June 2010

2010-06-24T17:19:00.000+01:00

Brian Joynes (who is famous for his astrophotography)
will be giving his talk at Church House starting at 7 - 30 pm.

Church House is easy to find as it is in the grounds of the Minster

with free parking in the precinct.Visitors are welcome.

There is a door fee of £2 -50 for members and visitors.
Refreshments are free.

21.6.10 Sunset over the Domes

2010-06-22T11:36:00.003+01:00

At Austerfield for a stargazing session for the Sunnyfields children, but these closed it down for them so I took this, in compensation? Of course it cleared up when I'd gone home, as usual.
We need to have some serious discussion with those trees.

M8 and M20

2010-06-20T23:07:00.004+01:00

This was taken almost exactly two years ago, only available in summer in the south, just above the trees. The trees have grown, making it more difficult.
They are two brightish nebulae, the larger, the Lagoon, an emission nebula lit up by the Open Cluster in the middle, the smaller, the Trifid, an emission too, but with an element of reflection in the blue section to the right. Both are individually beautiful objects in their own right.
It was taken with an M25C in the 80ED on the 14" Meade and processed in Astroart and Photoshop. The exposure was 6x300sec. I finally got the hang of taking good flats and have improved my processing skills, so am going through some older files to try to improve them. I'd never been able to get the better of this set of data before, hopefully with a little more success this time.

Tickhill Gala Saturday 3 July 2010

2010-06-20T21:45:00.000+01:00

This is one of my favourite events.
After 36 years they are getting rather good at it.
We will be there with some of our special and unusual telescopes.
Yes we use different telescopes to look at different types of object.

That is why it is useful
to belong to a society
that has a variety of
telescopes.

We will be there
from 11 am

Come early to make sure
YOU- get a look.

The Gala is held on the
fields near the centre of Tickhill.

From the Butter Cross in the centre of
Tickhill, walk 100 m towards Bawtry.
The Gala is held at the end of Tithes Lane.

NGC7662 the Blue Snowball

2010-06-18T13:38:00.004+01:00

This bright little planetary is in Andromeda, and listed as mag 8.3 making it easy to find visually as a light blue fuzzy star. Not so easy with a webcam as we found last year. I'm on a planetary run at the moment with all the new kit in the new dome, and hope to learn to use it all by trolling for them.
This was taken with an M25C and the Vixen VMC260L on the new 900GTO mount.
I didn't need to guide for this bright object and recorded 13 off 60sec frames relying on the mount to keep things steady. 25 flats were also taken and used in the processing in AstroArt, pretty academic really for this tiny object. I also had a Meade 6.3 focal reducer in the optical train, another item to learn about. Focusing was helped by using the new Lakeside/Moonlight focuser.

The Iris nebula

2010-05-24T21:16:00.003+01:00

LBN 487 the Iris nebula in Cepheus, usually referred to as NGC 7023 but that, is actually the star cluster in the nebula. The central bright area is a reflection nebula which feathers out to the dark interstellar dust, in fact this whole FOV is dusty.

This is the Luminance exposure only, the colour will be added at a later date, when it has been obtained.

Designation: LBN 487
Constellation: Cepheus.
Distance 1,400 lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20C
Filter - Astrodon LRGB
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - Luminance 46 x 300 seconds
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with FITS Liberator, Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator

The Needle galaxy

2010-05-18T12:06:00.000+01:00

NGC4565 the Needle galaxy in Coma Berenices has a remarkable similarity to our home galaxy the Milky Way. This edge on spiral is apparently what our galaxy would look like viewed from the same angle and the similarity doesn't end there, both are 100,000 light years in diameter as well.

This is a LRGB image the separate components collected over three nights, the RGB channels merged in Registar and the Luminance layered in Photoshop CS3.

Designation: NGC 4565
Constellation: Coma Berenices.
Distance 35 million lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20C
Filter - Astrodon LRGB
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - L 21 x 300, RGB 10 x 180 2x2 Binned
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with FITS Liberator, Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator

The Owl and the galaxy

2010-05-15T13:32:00.003+01:00

Imaged by member Eddie Marris.

M97, the Owl Nebula, and M108, a spiral galaxy, form one of the more interesting random juxtapositions of near and far objects in the same telescopic field.

Although its distance is somewhat uncertain, given anywhere from 1,300 to 12,000 light years, M97 is definitely located inside our own galaxy, whereas M108 is another galaxy entirely separate, located at a distance of some 45 million light years.

M108
Sc Spiral Galaxy
Magnitude 10.0
Size: 8.8' x 2.2'
Constellation: Ursa Major
RA: 11h 11m 22s
Dec: +55 40' 23"

M97
The Owl Nebula
Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 3.4' x 3.3'
Constellation: Ursa Major
RA: 11h 14m 40s
Dec: +55 01' 23"

Taken: 11th April 2010.
Telescope C11 with Hyperstar and M25C Starlight Express CCD camera and UHC filter.
Exposure : 20 x 60 seconds sub exposures

15/05/10: Thanks to Brian Joynes last night for instructing me on Adobe Photoshop.

Copernicus.

2010-05-08T22:48:00.006+01:00

Taken on the 23rd of April, with an old Philips 740 webcam and the Vixen VMC260L. There were no clouds but so much haze that the Moon had difficulty getting through. As for stars, I could only see Arcturus. The sky was also like jelly, but nonetheless I had to try. 600 frames taken and processed in Registax, with a bit of work in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

M51 - the Whirlpool galaxy, at the end of the handle of the Plough

2010-05-07T12:08:00.004+01:00

Taken on 8.4.10, but not very well so I didn't process it till later. I used the Vixen VMC260L and the M25C with a .5 focal reducer in the optical train. The exposure was 45x60sec unguided. Processed in AstroArt and Photoshop with help from GradX, Peter's and Noel's Actions. I must try it again properly.

M 57 - the Ring nebula - 100426

2010-04-30T23:51:00.002+01:00

Taken with the Vixen VMC260L and M25C camera on the 26th of April, a clear sky but full of Moon too. The newly arrived focus controller for the Vixen worked well, and was easy to use with about an inch of travel.
The exposure was 12x300sec, but I feel it overexposed the Ring itself making for difficult processing, which was done in Photoshop CS2 with help from GradX and Noel's and Peter's Actions. I tried it many ways and scrapped them all till I finally succeeded, I think, but I'll do it again, but more carefully next time and with 60sec subs. Still having difficulty with flats.

Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Mars and the Sun

2010-04-23T18:35:00.013+01:00

A week last Monday, (12th), Sandra and myself joined Brian up at the Observatory on what was a gloriously clear night. Both Domes were opened with myself webcaming on the 14" Meade and Brian and Sandra looking at Star Clusters and other heavenly delights. We got there early to try and see Venus and Mercury through the Meade. We just about managed it but the trees were hampering us, but we did see both...just! We stayed until about 12:30am and I obtained these images of Saturn and Mars using the webcam. As usual stacking video frames using Registax and enhancing in Photoshop.

Last night (22nd) just before leaving for the Thursday meeting, I photographed the Sun from my garden. I placed some mylar over the lens of the digital camera,(hence the blue colour of the Sun) and took the snap at 1/125sec at 200 ISO. The Sun is currently spotless and has been for the last 7 days so there are none to see. I've only cropped the photo, no processing was done.

"Jupiter, Friend or Foe" - Thursday 22 April

2010-04-22T13:30:00.002+01:00

Dr. Jonti Horner from Durham University will be giving a talk on Jupiter at Church House at 7-30 pm.

Church House is easy to find as it is in the grounds of Doncaster Minster. Visitors are welcome.
There is a charge of £2-50.
Refreshments are free as is parking in the Minster Precinct.

Dr. Horner will be discussing the crucial role that Jupiter has played in the development of life on Earth, by preventing us from being overly bombarded by comets and asteroids for the past four and a half thousand million years (or so).

Venus and Mercury

2010-04-12T15:15:00.004+01:00

This image of venus and mercury was taken from home last night using the canon 450d about 9.30 pm the only editing is to crop and reduce file size and of course the names, they don't come with those attached.

M13 The Great Hercules globular cluster

2010-04-11T13:33:00.005+01:00

In 1714, Edmond Halley first noted this globular star cluster in Hercules, it's 160 light years across and around 26, 000 light years distant. A hazy night when I took this also without a light pollution filter in the imaging train, I need the practice to get those gradients out.

This is a full frame shot, look carefully and you'll see a couple of faint fuzzies in the background, maybe more.

If you click it and click it again, it gets bigger.

Designation: NGC 6205
Constellation: Hercules.
Distance 25,890 lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20C
Filter - Astrodon LRGB
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - L 20 x 120, RGB 6 x 120 2x2 binning
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with FITS Liberator, Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator

NGC2392 - the Eskimo planetary nebula

2010-04-10T11:28:00.008+01:00

A planetary nebula in Gemini, sometimes called the Clown nebula. Not as good as the CFHT version, at least I think it was theirs, you know the one, but not bad for 45x60sec unguided frames on a hazy night. It was taken using the Vixen VMC260L with an Antares .5 focal reducer. The camera was an M25C. Stacked and pre-processed in AstroArt4 and finalised in Photoshop CS2.
One of the few objects in the sky with any green in them, due here and in other planetaries, to the presence of oxygen in the nebula.
Brian

M 3 - 22.3.10

2010-04-03T12:18:00.007+01:00

Taken with the William 98 and M25C on the new AP 900GTPO mount. Guided by an H9C in the Vixen 260L. This is the first guided try with the new mount and all seems to be working nicely. The exposure was 7x120sec, which isn't much but the night wasn't good enough to be worth more between clouds and that fat Moon in the way too. Pre-processed and averaged in AstroArt and finally in Photoshop with some GradX work to substitute for flats which I still have difficulty with.
An additional note, clicking on the picture produces an enlarged version, then wait a moment till the cursor changes to a + then click again for an even larger version.

26.3.10 - Friday

2010-03-27T13:21:00.011Z

A relatively poor night, starting cloudy but quickly cleared to be completely cloudless, but with an all pervading haze which got worse as the night progressed.
These two pictures were taken by webcam under the control of Elaine Booker, who'd also just been given a crash course, figuratively speaking I hope, in operating the new dome and AP mount.
Both were taken with the Vixen which seems to perform better than the Meade in all things except light grasp and ease of focusing, but that should be corrected in time, when we get the Lakeside focus controller.
Both were processed in Registax with a little fiddling in Photoshop, particularly to settle the three colour histograms onto one.

2010-03-21T14:03:00.004Z

Here is an image of the sun complete with sunspots taken midday today 21st March 2010 using the 8 inch celestron and a mylar filter, camera was a canon 450d shutter is 1000th second at f8

Saturn - 6.3.10

2010-03-20T21:39:00.003Z

This is Elaine Booker's effort on Saturn. Taken with the Vixen at native FL and a Toucam, on the same night as Lesley took hers. 2000 frames taken and processed in Registax, with a final touch in Photoshop. So much is dependant on the seeing at the time of taking the video, and the focusing.
Look carefully towards 10 o'clock to see Titan's small disc, more easily seen on the brightened picture on the left.
Look too for the Cassini division on both.

Saturn at Austerfield

2010-03-19T01:24:00.009Z

Last Monday night, Sandra, Brian and I spent some time under a mostly cloudy, with a few clear patches of sky.... but you had to be quick! Brian with the Vixen, me with the Meade and Sandra flitting between the two! We stayed until about 1am and who knows how long Brian stayed as the sky got better. In Dome A with the Vixen, Sandra observed various Deep Sky objects and then in Dome B with the Meade, we observed and webcamed Mars and Saturn, though I didn't use the Barlow on Mars so no decent image to show. But we did get a cracking view of Mars with a 9.7mm lens. The polar cap was very apparent. This image of Saturn was obtained by Sandra doing the webcaming-bit and me fiddling around to get the image. The sky wasn't good at all but at least we were treated to some stunning visual views of Saturn and seven of his Moons!

Last night, (Friday 19th), I was on the receiving-end of some barracking by Elaine over the above image of Saturn! So Elaine, here is our revamped image of Saturn with more colour and a little less peach-looking!

The Whirlpool galaxy

2010-03-15T15:25:00.006Z

My latest effort of Messier 51 the Whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici, if you look carefully you'll also see some faint fuzzies in the background.

Designation: NGC 5194-5 M51
Constellation: Canes Venatici.
Distance 2.6 million lights years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD camera, sensor temperature -20C
Filter - Astronomik CLS, Astrodon LRGB
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - L 10 x 300 , 6 x 300 R, 4 x 300 G and 5 x 300 B
Darks, Dark flats and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions.

2010-03-14T09:09:00.004Z

We appear to have a new astrophotographer in our society.These images were taken by Lesley with guidance from Brian on the 6th of March both images used a phillips toucam webcam onto the vixen 260c at the observatory.They were then processed in registax to give the final pictures.

Double Quasar in Ursa Major

2010-03-12T21:33:00.001Z

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3079 at the centre of this image is about 50 million light years away, and is a convenient finger post to my real object of interest the Double Quasar QSO 0957+561 components A and B.

I've done a large crop on the image (below) and circled the Double Quasar. It has a Redshift z = 1.41 which places it at a distance of 8.7 billion light years. It also proves Einstein's theory of gravitational lensing, because component A is also B and vice versa, this is owing to a massive galaxy cluster between the Earth and the Quasar which bends the light giving two images from a single object.

Designation: QSO 0957+561
Constellation: Ursa major. Distance 8.7 billion light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - QSI 583 wsg CCD
Sensor temperature -20° Celsius
Filter - Astrodon Luminance and Astronomik CLS light pollution
Autoguiding - OAG, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 16 x 300 seconds Luminance only
Dark frames, Flats and Dark flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquiring, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

2010-03-10T20:19:00.003Z

This image of m42 and ngc 1977 was taken last Saturday 6th March at the observatory.Equipment used was canon 450d and the 600mm 80ED.72 frames were taken 5 flats and 5 darks then stacked using deepsky stacker.I still forgot to change the camera settings to RAW so all shots were in jpeg resulting no doubt in excess noise.I'll try harder next time.Regards Dave

2010-03-06T09:37:00.005Z

Image of mars taken at the observatory 4th March 2010 equip was the vixen 260 and x3 barlow and my toucam webcam, the avi file was 365 Meg in size comprising of 2216 frames,stacked in registax and tweaked in photoshop.