Multiply here to stay!

http://digg.com/d1sGzU

BTW, long tail is an economic strategy...

Good Saturn while dodging the clouds May 28

Capture notes:
The forecast called for ~50% cloudiness at the beginning of the evening and I wasn't really prepared to go out as my computers weren't setup for my captures software. I was able to get things running pretty quickly and with some luck caught some data before the clouds came in for good. Seeing was as good as predicted. Amazingly enough, I have not had this scope outside in over 1 month! I didn't even touch the focus or collimation for these captures! Clouds killed a straight up 3x min per channel run, so I mixed a few captures together. I hate shooting through the clouds, but the atmosphere was actually very steady so that made up for it.

Processing notes:
Being on the new Ubuntu 9.04 install I had to reinstall all my programs. Registax 5 is now out in full and I tried that out. Initially I thought my saved HowTo-v7 wavelets scheme's were too harsh, but I think they still worked well. I tried a different, lighter scheme but wasn't impressed so I went back to the old scheme.

Observing notes:
Despite varying cloudiness the RGB image came out well. Everything is well balanced. Does anyone know what the dark line is that is below the rings in the EZ area?

4-Temp

My best Galactic photo yet...

Since the major upgrade to the 6" f/5 Schmidt-Newt OTA on the Celeston CGE with the right LPS-P2-FF filter, I've had lots of variables to work with, including my post-processing routine.

Now I can drive up to and past 10min subs with guiding on the 4" piggybacked skywatcher.  It's pretty cool to work with, but the weather has kept me from practicing very often.

May 19th, I got a try at M101, the CN challenge of the month.

Mine is far from the best, but it's a personal best for me.

I followed my v1 routine which will end up as a blog here soon enough.

Enjoy,

Mike

Shooting Stars Explained!

Not cool....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RpCYGxzD0

Astronomy - Planetary - Mercury (all years) Gallery

I don't get much more than 1 or 2 views of Mercury each year so I'm lumping them all in together in one album

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'