Widefield Veil

 

 

 

Full res here - https://i.imgur.com/920FNWb.jpeg

 

 

 

Other wide field shots here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/DrBxobexE9qLU8kbA

or

https://imgur.com/gallery/bFo3ZxQ

 

 

 

I was trialing out my new iOptron CEM120 with a few, smaller scopes to push my
wide-field skills.  I noticed something concerning right out of the gate with the C8i and overly simple right angle bracket that was not properly aligned on the axis of the OTA's rotation.  I was worried the mount was off so I swapped this setup:

 

 

 

 

For this one!

 

 

 

I removed the 4" Achromatic refractor and placed a better quality but smaller 200mm zoom lens in it's place.  It's the same imaging setup, a Canon 60Da with 200mm Canon EF 70-200 mm f4L IS USM that was on the Orange tube (the photo is old but the rest is the same.  I used the main OTA to do the guiding, which I know is overkill but it works!

 

I'm pretty happy with the results on the CEM120 and now need to figure out astroberry or get a 2nd Win10 computer for NINA!

Late Spring Inferior Planets

 

 

I eyed up Mercury on the previous evening side apparition and failed to find it in the daytime.  Setting up the CGE and 14" during the day was too error ridden on alignment and I slewed and slewed in the hot sun endlessly to find nothing on 3x different days!  I decided, while this apparition wasn't as high in altitude, that morning would allow a stellar alignment and better opportunities.  Also having the 14" on the CEM120 was way too easy compared to no stellar align on the CGE!

 

Here's Mercury

https://i.imgur.com/Rq7HZPe.png



 

 

I'm not 100% certain but I spent some time learning the lat/long system for Mercury in WinJUPOS and comparing to the USGS / IAU / NASA's atlas pages.  I do think I can spot part of Lugus Planitia or possibly the Water's crater (-15Lat / 106Long), the white spotted area seen in H7 - https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/H-7.pdf

 

While the seeing was poor I was quite happy to see Mercury and it's phase for the 1st time in 4 years.  Also of note, it's a derotation (not really needed I know) of 3x captures of 90s each and a stack of 2000 of the best frames.

 

 

Here's Venus

https://i.imgur.com/K4QuMCa.png



 

 

False color is a substitute following:

 

Red=InfraRed

Green= 50%/50% (1:1) mix of IR and UV

Blue=UltraViolet

 

See all previous years here:

• 1 - Mercury
• All
• Imgur https://imgur.com/a/xL4Kszf
• Google Photos

 

• 2 - Venus
• All
• Imgur -https://imgur.com/a/SG7ezvf
• Google Photos - https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLMsf6Rytm7A5KNj9

 

 

    

My low key Lunar Eclipse

 I was trying to setup my new iOptron CEM120 in case the clouds cleared.  By the time I got it setup I noticed totality was near and it was in fact clear.  I bailed on the new mount as it was very much over kill and needed a steep learning curve.  I took out the tripod mounted binos and the 70mm zoom lens on the Canon 7D (not even the 60Da) on its own tripod and shot away and just soaked my eyes in the orange dipped goodness of a total lunar eclipse!  Quite a nice event!

 

 

Venus/Saturn/Mars/Lunar/Comet/Titan Conjunction 2022

 

C8i SE DEC gear tweaks

Long ago I may have gotten to used to attaching a LOT of weight to my C8i SE with single armed fork design.  Likely it stressed the DEC miter gears and so instead of paying TOO much to Celestron, I found a cheap Chinese pair instead.  The only issue I had was the set screw maintaining a good grip on the shaft.  It's not easy to photograph but here's essential the design.

The supplied set screw had a tiny Allen head and it was difficult to get the right amount of torque.  Luckily I was able to find the same diameter and pitch screw in an old cache horde of left over PC screws from the 1990's and while the head is ugly, it makes no contact and provides much more torque for driving the screw into the shaft.  It is great!

 

Make sure you 1080p it this video - https://photos.app.goo.gl/qheygodtATuq6JTe8

Wide Field Horsehead and Orion Nebulae REDO

 

Sadly I had not properly archived the raw images and upon cleanup up my drives I thought it was unprocessed.  Upon this finishing this version, which I'm quite happy about, I found my logs which linked to the more timely blog of - http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-widefield-horsehead-flame-running.html  THE DAY AFTER imaging, not 6 years later!  

While I like this version for the fainter, inter-nebula molecular clouds, something in between the 2016 and 2022 processing might be the best.

Early morning planets cellphone edition...

This one is from the cellphone

Arranged as...

Venus

                  Mars

       Saturn

             Moon