Red filter on Castor in Gemini
Good illustration of focus and collimation on the airy disk of a star. Set gain to full, leave gamma off / default and set exposure to a spot near where the 1st diffraction rings appear 'bright'
Monday, May 4, 2009
Older focus and collimation test
Red filter on Castor in Gemini
Good illustration of focus and collimation on the airy disk of a star. Set gain to full, leave gamma off / default and set exposure to a spot near where the 1st diffraction rings appear 'bright'
My weekend photo shoot of the Bluebirds
2nd nesting season for them in NC, but 1st of this season for this particular location/box.details on the photo page
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Spring's in full swing
That's honeysuckle or (Lonicera sempervirens) and one of the baby Cardinal's perched on the bushes right outside the garage door!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Moon, M45, Mercury - then Saturn and Ceres
Tons of great data the night of April 26/27.
Here's a wide-field of the conjunction of Moon, M45 and Mercury.
Taken after the Mercury caps by moving the tripod a bit further
up the road, away from the trees.
High-resolution Mercury
My 2nd high res Mercury in 2 nights. I'm not sure if its artifacts or real detail, but the CM is 114 which is on this section of the map:
http://www.solarviews.com/raw/merc/mer07.jpg
You tell me! I've only gotten Mercury at this FL like 1 time before these past 2 days.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moved the scope off the street back to the driveway.
Collimation and Focus on Regulus - Great!
kstars for adjustments and a good distance from the scope.
Long 300s @ RGB (no lum) caps
Seeing seemed to go bad after moving to Ceres, but moving
back to Saturn seemed it restablized and was the
best of the night and perhaps the best all year!
Saturn at 0159UT view 1:
Saturn at 0159UT view 2 - 200% OVERSIZE!! I think it held up well and am thinking it's time for a 5x PM and or scope upgrade!
....and finally Ceres. Someone help me find a site that details the angular size, but I do believe that Stellarium lists it as ~0.7"
Capture Notes:
I tried to get as much data as I could with 300s @ LRGB
NOTE: back to Saturn for last cap of the night
Processing Notes:
I didn't end up using the Lum, but took it anyway.
I had to manually align all the Blue data! UGH!
Wrap up:
Great data all-in-all. I still cannot find a good site for
the angular size of Ceres, but Stellarium says it's 0.7"
I am pretty confident that my exposures and processing
are giving a good view of the disk itself.
Now you pick your favorite.
Here's a wide-field of the conjunction of Moon, M45 and Mercury.
Taken after the Mercury caps by moving the tripod a bit further
up the road, away from the trees.
High-resolution Mercury
My 2nd high res Mercury in 2 nights. I'm not sure if its artifacts or real detail, but the CM is 114 which is on this section of the map:
http://www.solarviews.com/raw/merc/mer07.jpg
You tell me! I've only gotten Mercury at this FL like 1 time before these past 2 days.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moved the scope off the street back to the driveway.
Collimation and Focus on Regulus - Great!
kstars for adjustments and a good distance from the scope.
Long 300s @ RGB (no lum) caps
Seeing seemed to go bad after moving to Ceres, but moving
back to Saturn seemed it restablized and was the
best of the night and perhaps the best all year!
Saturn at 0159UT view 1:
Saturn at 0159UT view 2 - 200% OVERSIZE!! I think it held up well and am thinking it's time for a 5x PM and or scope upgrade!
....and finally Ceres. Someone help me find a site that details the angular size, but I do believe that Stellarium lists it as ~0.7"
Capture Notes:
I tried to get as much data as I could with 300s @ LRGB
NOTE: back to Saturn for last cap of the night
Processing Notes:
I didn't end up using the Lum, but took it anyway.
I had to manually align all the Blue data! UGH!
Wrap up:
Great data all-in-all. I still cannot find a good site for
the angular size of Ceres, but Stellarium says it's 0.7"
I am pretty confident that my exposures and processing
are giving a good view of the disk itself.
Now you pick your favorite.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Leo Triplet before the clouds...
Observation logsObservations
Galaxy in LeoAlias: NGC3623
| RA: | |
| Dec: | |
| Size: | 1.5′ × 8.0′ |
| m(vis): | 10.5 mag |
| Origin: | ObservationManager - Messier Catalog 1.0 |
| Visual impression
|
References
Sessions: 2009-04-12 um 20:08:25-05:00
| Begin: | 2009-04-12 um 20:08:25-05:00 |
| End: | 2009-04-12 um 23:30:00-05:00 |
| Weather: | S: ~6/10 Initially T=5/5 then haze and clouds moved in making it T: 1/5 |
| Equipment: | Optics: Meade LXD55 Mount: CGE mount on JMI Wheely Bars Camera: Canon XTi with Hutech LP Filter (LPS-P2-FF) Focusing Aid: STI focuser Shutter control: Hap Griffin long exposure cable Software: MaximDL Guiding: DMK21AF04 with a piggybacked 4" SkyWatcher via PHD and ASCOM drivers Operating System: WinXP Lenovo T43 driven via RDP from inside the house |
| Comments: | Got 3-4 images under T=5/5 of Leo Triplet before trying to RDP in... and couldn't Then found that XP had crashed and rebooted Couldn't get camera to respond until reboot and or power cycle of XTi Start C8i @ 22:04:00 Then Trans goes to 1/5 :( Tracking on faint star is hit or miss... trying visual via the C8 as seeing on Saturn with no cooling was avg. Was able to see M66/M65 with 'nearly' direct vision, but not nearby 3 galaxy (NGCxxxx) Ceres visually? Maybe?! Definatley a mid-mag object near the Cartes Du Ceil coords MUCH further than the saved user sky location in the C8i |
Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.
>> Observations <<| Longitude: | 35.682° |
| Latitude: | -78.743° |
| Timezone: | UT-300 min |
| Type: | Schmidt-Newtonian |
| Vendor: | Meade |
| Aperture: | 152.0 mm |
| Focal length: | 762.0 mm |
Filter: Hutech idas lps-p2-ff Light Pollution Filter
| Typ: | Corrective |
| Vendor: | Canon |
| Pixel: | 3888x2592 |
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