20090207 Sun (follow up)

Yeah! My dream comes true, the cloud went away despite the sun is sinking low in the sky, anyway, I pulled out my C5/PST/BF10 based setup to take two shots. Extremely bad seeing like 1/10, transparency 4/10...

Celestron C5/PST/BF10 with Cheapy-ERF, DMK 31AF03.

1707 (GMT+8):-


1710 (GMT+8):-

20090113 Condensation tail

A snapshot taken with my Canon 200mm f2.8L and my Canon 450D. The original shot is resized, and the condensation tail is cropped from the original and then pasted on the resized shot.

20090227 Sun

Cloud never went away today, but we have some brief (within 1 minute) moment when cloud is free from the sun, seeing 3/10, transparency 6/10 (when cleared). AR1013 is still around, but it's going to disappear soon, I believe.



We got lots of prominence today! Too bad that it was so cloudy, or else I shall make more shots to create animations:



All taken with my Borg 45ED at prime focus, Solarmax 40 with BF10 using my DMK 31AF03.

20090225 A Evening Scene

Nothing special, just a snapshot from inside my usual observation local, i.e. what I always called Home@Walnut, it's nothing else but a small windows from an urban apartment indoor.

20090225 Sun

We have a brand new active region! Transparency is 4/10 with many thin cloud around, seeing therefore, 2/10 at best.

Borg 45ED II is used, along with my Solarmax 40 and BF10, DMK 31AF03 on my LXD55, i.e. my usual indoor setup.

1334 (GMT+8):-


1335 (GMT+8):-


Next, several shots were taken with a 2x barlows on the active region.

From 1336-1355 (GMT+8):-


Finally, I pulled out my APM Herschel wedge to see if it's detectable in white light with my small setup.

1402 (GMT+8):-


And then I pulled out my 52mm IR-pass filter to see if there's anything special in IR? Of course, from my past experience, since it's not a narrow band IR filter, it's just a special case of white light so that it's less affected by poor seeing. Let's see how it turns out.

1404 (GMT+8):-


The new AR has a number of 1013 and it should belong to cycle 24.

Setting sun

It's taken today (i.e. 20090224), when the time is suitable, the sun will appear between two close-by buildings when setting from my home. Not exactly special in a cosmic setting, but interesting with respect to my location.

Taken with my Canon 200mm f2.8 and 450D.

20090223 Sun

Went to Shen Zhen (mainland China) briefly this morning, and on back home, the sun was hanging outside with some scattering cloud. Did two simple shots before it's too low in the sky. Seeing is 3/10, transparency 5/10 -- a miracle indeed since it's extremely foggy this morning.

1630 (GMT+8):-


1632 (GMT+8):-


Extremely silent, just a record.

Jupiter Lunar Occultation

It's just so foggy outside, transparency is like 0.1/10, only solar imaging is possible.

No choice but to call an end to this rare event.

20090220 Sun

Seeing 6/10, transparency 2/10. The sky is white, but there seems no real cloud. Low surface activity except a short QRF, but prominence activity is strong, and we have several of them all around the solar disc. The sun is on fire!!!

First two are taken with my Borg/SM40/BF10 based setup:-

1406 (GMT+8):-


1407 (GMT+8):-


Then, I pulled out my Cheapy-ERF/C5/PST/BF10 based setup:-

This is one of the most interesting one, 1415 (GMT+8):-


The same one at 13 minutes later:-


Next is another interesting one, this one is so special that I never saw something similar before, taken at 1418 (GMT+8):-


Yet another interesting one, 1419 (GMT+8):-


Finally, an interesting part of the solar disc surface, 1423 (GMT+8):-

A plastic refractor

I've a 70mm f=500mm surplus lens and a plastic refractor focuser, so why not make a simple refractor for fun?

Hey, don't go away first, let's see the result here:


They are taken handheld with my Canon 450D! Minimal processing has been applied, and notice that the chromatic abberation is really low for this cheapy lens! This is to my surprise for sure!

The tube is from a bubble bottle, my kids used up all the soap inside and so I cut it to fit the lens and focuser there.

In order to avoid poor alignment, I flushed the lens cell all the way to the bottle, so you see how the lens cell sit inside the tube and there should not be "any" misalignment.


Similar strategy was used to fit in the focuser, again since it sits inside all the way to the "shoulder" of the bottle, "no" misalignment could be possible.


The visual view is not bad either, given a Tele Vue diagonal plus a high quality 82 degree eyepiece. :-)


An interesting and fruitful project.

20090219 Sun

Cloud never went away, but during moments with thinner cloud, and after stacking, the moving cloud could be kind of averaged out. Seeing 1/10, transparency 0-1/10.

Prominence activities remained good, surface detail remain low.

1511 (GMT+8):-


1521 (GMT+8):-

20090218 Sun with an interesting prominence

Seeing 3/10, transparency 1/10. It's cloudy basically, and I've to push the exposure to 0.3s with nearly maximum gain to pass through the cloud! I couldn't comment on the surface detail since it could hardly be seen during cloudy moments, but I notice a big and interesting prominence immediately during the moments with thinner cloud.

1343 (GMT+8):-


1351 (GMT+8), close up with 2x barlows:-


Telescope: Borg 45ED II with Solarmax 40/BF10
Camera: DMK 31AF03
Mount: LXD55

20090213 White Light Sun

Cloud cleared up a bit finally when the sun was sinking low from my home window. Seeing very bad at 2/10, transparency low at 1/10 during the best moments (like 5 seconds windows).

Telescope: Borg 45ED II
Filter: APM Herschel wedge
Camera: DMK 31AF03
Mount: LXD55

Exposure used was 1/5000s but I could see the effect of the poor seeing. There's no sign of AR1012 before processing.



And there's no sign of it after processing, too.

20090211 Sun

Seeing 3/10, transparency 3/10, low activity except a medium sized prominence.

Telescope: Borg 45ED II
Camera: DMK 31AF03
Filter: Coronado Solarmax 40 with BF10
Mount: Meade LXD55

1226 (GMT+8):-


1227 (GMT+8):-


This one follows the above two, the first frame and the last frame are seperated by around 15 minutes:-


An alternative link:


http://oldfield.sinaman.com/gif/20090211.gif

Click reload if it does not show up.

Or here:

http://oldfield.sinaman.com/gif/20090211.html

20090209 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

There's a real time boardcast from HKAS:

http://www.hkas.org.hk/eclipse/


And a while ago when I was outside with my elder daughter, we could see a yellowish and lovely lunar disk. If my kids could fall asleep early, I will try to take my DSLR out to take a few snapshots, and of course, my 10x30 Canon IS will be with me.

--

One of my kids were still having her eyes wide open, couldn't go yet. The helper was only able to take care of them after they fall asleep, she couldn't make them sleep yet... (22:21 GMT+8, around 10 minutes before the deepest moment)

--
The Observation Log:

Just back from down stair, my kids were sleeping peacefully. I didn't leave them alone, my helper is staying with them. I just took some shots down stair where we have plenty of lighting.

I took with my Canon 450D with a 200mm f2.8L and Kenko 2x. I also brought my Canon 10x30 IS with me.

The view is interesting to the naked eyes, it's very noticeable since the air is dirty, I would say the transparency is like 2/10 or at most 3/10. With my 10x30 IS, the view is just wonderful. You could say a gradual dimming effect from one corner of the moon. Despite the moon is nearly directly overhead, the IS function is superb, I feel like using it on a tripod. Very nice! The view through the view finder of the camera at 400mm effective focal length is also nice, and if I were lazy, this view is interesting enough, but then who will be that lazy to bring as little as a 10x30? This is what's so good about the 10x30!

This is the first time that I really observed a penumbral lunar eclipse. I didn't even dare to take a look before. Now, I know that I had missed something.

I did a series of exposures at f/5.6 from 1/4000s, 1/2000s, 1/1000s, 1/500s, 1/250s all the way down to 1/30s at ISO 400. Of course, I tried some other exposures as well.

--
The Images

Under-exposure, 1/4000s at f5.6, ISO 400, this shows the dimming effect rather nicely:-


Over-exposure, 1/125s at f5.6, ISO 400, I love this one most, all the lunar disc is overexposed except the eclipse portion:-


This is an auto-exposure, by using spot metering, auto-ISO (ISO 320 which I found later), and P mode, this one reflects the reality nicely:-


Finally we have a HDR (high dynamic range) shot which is a combination of exposures from 1/4000s to 1/125s:-


--

One more shot is added here after the eclipse, to compare with the overexposed one above, notice that the illumination is uniform:

20090209 Sun

Transparency 4/10, seeing 3/10, low activity again except a "pair" of medium sized prominence.

1438 (GMT+8):-


1439 (GMT+8):-


1442 (GMT+8), with a 3x barlows:-


If the transparency keep on like this tonight, I might be able to take a few shots of the penumbral lunar eclipse from somewhere near my home. I guess that I won't even stay outside, but instead, go down stair occassionally to take some sample shots on a tripod with my DSLR.

20090207 Sun

Seeing 3/10, transparency 2/10. Low activity.

1259 (GMT+8), there're two extremely small active regions:-


1301 (GMT+8):-


Additional Remarks:

They should be called ephemeral regions, which are basically small magnetic dipoles that could develop into true active regions. Thank David Knisely for pointing out.

Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott

Before this pocket sized atlas, I've a DeepMap 600 as my field guide and I've a SkyAtlas 2000.0 for planning at home. Frankly, DeepMap 600 is kind of too simple and due to the aspect ratio, the shape of the constellation is not that intuitive; on the other hand, the SkyAtlas 2000.0 is too complicated with too much detail, way more than my instruments and I could manage, and of course, it's huge to use in the field.

So you know what I'm going to say about this Pocket Sky Atlas... yes, it's the best for both world. If you have only moderate equipments like 5-8 inch aperture telescope under light polluted sky, that's what you will want. More detailed charts are not going to be very useful.

Technically speaking, it's more like a scaled down and dumbed down version of the SkyAtlas 2000.0. However, given my situation (equipment + sky), it is just even making it more useful by removing unwanted detail. Of course, it still contains some stuff which I could never see from my sky, but they're always good for me to try in case the sky got darker due to weather changes, or when I travelled to darker places.

Each page is covering a good portion of sky, and each pages have sufficient overlapping so that you could move across the pages easily without being lost among the dots. There are four close up charts for interesting areas.

In short, this is currently the only chart which I will use both at home and in the field. Of course, but if you have better sky and better equipments, you need a more detail chart.

Having said that, I think this book can be made a little bit bigger, say like the size of a notebook, or at least A4 size. You know, we usually bring along a computer and it's nice to have a book which can be sneaked under it. Bigger page is always desirable, and I believe A4 or around the size of a notebook PC should be great. And it would also be nice to have a few more pages of close up charts.

20090206 Sun

Seeing 6/10, transparency very low at 1-2/10. Low activity except a long prominence.

1612 (GMT+8):-


1613 (GMT+8):-

20090205 Sun

The sun is virtually very inactive, lack of active regions or bigger prominences. Seeing 3/10, transparency 5/10. Taken with my Borg 45ED II, Coronado Solarmax 40 with BF10 and DMK 31AF03 all on a Meade LXD55.

1404 (GMT+8):-


1405 (GMT+8):-


But on closer look, there are several small active regions here and there. Here's a representative corner taken with a 3x barlows.

1408 (GMT+8):-

20090204 Sun

Seeing 4/10, transparency 4/10. It was cloudy earlier this morning but we got a break now! It's nearly totally cleared but the transparency remained low. Anyway, it's not a huge problem for solar observation or imaging.

1356 (GMT+8):-


1358 (GMT+8):-

Solar Image Processing: Photoshop

This is the second part of my image processing skill sharing article. Last time we have talked about how to do stacking via Registax, this time, we shall see how I process the stacked final.

The first step is to bring out the prominences. Exposure time of surface detail and prominence is very different, we are talking about 1/500s or faster for a particular setup for surface detail, and with the same setup, the exposure time for prominence will be like 1/40s! However, if your camera is good enough, i.e. having good dynamic range, you can bring out the dim prominence captured when you're targeting surface detail. To do this, we selectively push the level of your exposure by using the magic wand tool:



Frankly, this kind of processing is somehow overdone. What I'm trying to say is that, image processing should not be done partially or else it should be considered as over processing. In the extreme case like you *draw* something on your photograph, it's a kind of selective processing. Anyway, for prominence and surface detail to appear at the same shot, you will need some selective processing, be it a combination of two exposures by layer masking, or similar techniques. So the above method I proposed is simplest and suitable for lazy guys like me.

The next step is to adjust the level. There's nothing special about this, and you want to maximize the whole dynamic range of your image, so it's done like any other image, astronomical ones or even daily snapshots:



Next, we are going to make a false color shot. H-alpha imaging is monochromatic in nature. You got black and white. So the colors are all introduced later to make them more beautiful to our eyes. Here, I shall introduce a simple method in which you can make your solar image more colorful.

First, we will need to handle the Blue channel, I always set it like below:-



Second, we will deal with the Green channel, I always set it like below:-



Finally, the Red channel is not as important as you would think as you can see from the above image. Do whatever you would like. Finally, you can adjust the curve to suit your taste. I would suggest any one to have some eyepiece time so that you can judge what's the best way.

Lastly, crop your picture to cut out those unwanted black area. Done!

20090203 Sun

It's cloud free today! Seeing is 5/10, transparency 5/10. Sun is still silent, with only one slightly bigger prominence.

1405 (GMT+8):-


1407 (GMT+8):-


I've tried to setup my DIY toy refractor for white light capturing, however, the mounting part still need refinement, it's just too cheapy for image capture right now.

20090202 Sun

Partially cloudy, but the cloud were not thick and thus by using longer exposure, we could penetrate them and after stacking, we could average them out to get even surface detail.

Seeing 2/10, transparency 1-6/10. Sun remained inactive, with a couple of small prominences.

1408 (GMT+8):-


1409 (GMT+8), with two interesting prominences:-

20090130-0131 Camping in Tai Mo Shan

We arrived earlier before sunset. A friend of mine took us there and after parking his car, we have to walk around 10-15 minutes with all those stuff like the LXD55 on a Gitzo 1415 tripod, two tents, big bottle (or bucket?!) of water, food, our other camping stuff, etc. I have two backpacks, so you know how much we took.


This is the first sight! Very lovely, taken with my Canon 450D + 200mm f2.8 at f2.8.


Extend the exposure a little bit more and you can see another view, the image of venus show diffraction pattern due to the trees. The trees were there in the first shot.


M44 by the same setup, you can see the whole cancer.


M42 by the same setup.



M36 by the same setup.




Our Location: Tai Mo Shan Campsite, this is not exactly a dark site, but it's considered to be acceptable for stargazing in Hong Kong. Skyglow can be seen from all directions. We have to go to another closeby location for observation since the camping area is surrounded by trees.

The Visual Tool: This is a Canon 10x30 IS binoculars, handy but powerful despite its relatively small aperture. Other than this one, we have a C5 with a 20mm Widescan Type III eyepiece.

Goto and Tracking performance of my LXD55

LXD55 on a Gitzo G106

Review of my LXD55

Believe it or not, I never tried out the GOTO performance of my LXD55 despite that it had been with me for more than two years (or even longer). I used it primarily inside my home and since the window is too small, GOTO is never useful for you only have a couple of very obvious targets to shoot. I didn't own a car and taking out a mount like this is not easy at all, so the LXD55 only used for tracking the planets, the moon and the sun.

My friends suggested a camping trip and one of my friends can drive me there virtually and so I took my LXD55 out. There was a 15 minutes short walk in the countryside but it's still manageable despite I would say it's close to my personal limit with all the camping stuff, photography stuff as well as telescopes, batteries, counter weight.

With careful polar alignment using the built-in polar scope, GOTO is surprisingly accurate! With my C5 and a 20mm eyepiece, that means over 60x, all my selected targets were in the field immediately after the beep! That polar scope was only roughly aligned when I first purchased this mount, so it shouldn't be in good alignment supposingly. But I was proved wrong later.

After visual observations of all the available targets (with a C5 and light polluted sky - pinky orange!!!), I mounted my Canon 200mm f2.8L with my Canon 450D there to start photography.

No guiding was used, the counter weight is moved to the top of the shaft to make it less imbalanced. Guess what, all the stars remained pinpoint except the first exposure. I did exposure up to 2 minutes only since my friends were feeling cold, but 2 minutes unguided for this low cost mount is enough for me! The first exposure is not very excellent because the backlash of the gears I believe, since when you first GOTO a target, the gears might not be fully engaged. So, if you can wait for say 10-20 seconds (at most), you will have perfect tracking after that.

GOTO between different targets are nice indeed. For example, before my first exposure, I GOTO to Sirius to let the lens do the autofocus itself, and then I slew to my target, turn on live view and then fine tune the focus, it's just so easy!

In conclusion, this aging refurbished LXD55, self-hypertuned with lithium grease indeed worked exceeding my expectations! The accuracy for tracking and GOTO are both fantastic for visual purpose, as well as for short exposure deep sky imaging. If you are not really determined to get world class shots, this mount is more than you will need.