20201229 Sun

Seeing moderate, transparency a bit low.

0713 UT with reducer: 

0721 UT with 2x barlows:

20201227 Sun

 Moderate seeing, poor transparency, I failed to tune the Tmax and Richview properly still....

With reducer 0642 (UT)

With 2x barlows, 0646, 0649 (UT).

20201221 Winter Solstice Sun

 Very poor seeing, nearly zero detail, very hard even to focus, this is a shot with reducer:

0646 (UT).

20201204 Sun

 On leave at home doing some solar imaging, seeing becomes slightly better, transparency similar.

0722 (UT), I managed to get full disc with the reducer at a longer distance from the camera.  Rich view and T-max was not tuned well so that the bright spot was apparent.

0730 (UT), taken with a 2x barlows.  Seems like the low transparency was killing detail.

I have conducted experience to use MONO16 instead of MONO8 but the frame rate was reduced to less than 10 fps with my slow notebook.  The SER file was not well processed as well, AS! support was less than perfect.

20201203 Sun

 Poor seeing, I guess 3/10 at best, transparency 5/10.

Better not to colorize it.

2020/11/30 Sun again

 Working with my new monochromatic camera again.

0646 (UT):-

0650 (UT) with 2x barlows:

AR2786 is the biggest one.

20201127 Sun with new ASI 290mm

My new ASI 290mm arrived a couple of days ago, and this is the officially first light!

AR2785 and AR2786 come out on time to test my new gear, I have been doubting about my Solarmax filters, whether it's dying or rusting or not.  Before I sold them, I managed to capture this shot with the aperture partially blocked my the window frame.  

Not bad it seems.

The ASI 290mm has a smaller chip than that of the 120mm, even with the reducer in place, I could no longer capture full disc in a single shot, so I simply removed that reducer lens!

The visual view was stunning as well.

A few more shots pending, time to get back to work.

20201102 Solar session?

My ASI 120mm seems dying.

On plugging in, nothing shows up with only dropped frames.

Trying to plug in another computer, same thing.

Trying to plug in my ASI 120mc, everything works.... Going back to the first computer, no problem too.

Going back to an old monochromatic camera, Sharpcap no longer works with it.

Going back to the ASI 120mm, it works suddenly however the image quality was a bit strange.  Extremely poor seeing?  I dunno.

Shall try again next time.

Luckily,  nothing worth to record after checking visually.

20201019 Home Solar imaging season again

Last switched on time was late March.

Failed to detect my ASI 120mm for the first time, have to re-install the device driver.  And then upgrade Sharpcap thinking every will be fine.  But then cloud rolled in!

Waited for half an hour or so?  Finally managed to take a brief video clip, super poor seeing as below.

An interesting prominence on top, and a tiny active region a bit off the center.

Sun Rise

Camping trip shots:

Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise

I got it finally, after one more un-recorded failed attempt, so after four failed attempts, I got it.

200mm f2.8 ISO 800 8s cropped, 23 frames stacked.

This is the first time I really took an image of a comet, and this is also the first time I really process the image of a comet.

Another version: 105mm f4 ISO1600 6s slightly cropped, 8 frames stacked.

**************************************************

****************** Some more results pending..........

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Waiting for the sky to get darker.

Got it with my Canon 24-100mm f4.

And then I pulled out my Canon 200mm f2.8 to capture some more close up, while waiting, I took this selfie with my setup, 8kg total which includes:

Canon 70D
Canon 24-105mm f4
Canon 200mm f2.8
Velbon tripod
Sky adventurer
Canon 10x30 IS for visual observation

The comet tail was apparent with my Canon 10x30 IS, the site was very bright as shown in the above picture, and so I couldn't see the comet with naked eyes.  Actually, only a few stars could be seen with naked eyes.  But once it's located with the binoculars, it's easy to point at it.

Failed evening attempt on C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

We might see this comet in the evening sky, so I went to a nearby location to try.

The moment just before the sun went down behind a small hill top nearby, it was a bit cloudy.

Another failed attempt on C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

In order to avoid foggy weather, I went to another campsite (黃石營地) where we might be able to have a relatively clear East to NE horizon.  But since it's on the sea side, the temperature was much higher at 30 degree C inside the tent.

So, I couldn't sleep much and I woke up at around 4:00am myself before the alarm clock.

The first shot looked quite promising?

Here is my tent:

As time went by, more cloud came out.  I kept scanning around with my Canon 10x30 IS but then I saw nothing.

After the sun came out, I cooked a simple breakfast and left as soon as possible to avoid the hot weather.  I bought myself a cold drink while waiting for the bus.

A bonus shot of the milkway before sleeping, taken with a Canon 24mm f2.8 pancake lens, 14 shots stacked:

Failed attempt on C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

I planned a day off on 9/7 in order to prepare myself to capture the comet.

I will have to find a place where we might have a clear view of the East or NE, and since it will rise very early in the morning just before dawn.  

My first plan was in the East Dam of High Island Reservoir but then I couldn't setup a tent, and transportation is either expensive or I will need to walk for two hours.  So, I gave that up.

My second plan was in Tai Mo Shan where there's a campsite nearby the potential observation spot.  Therefore, I took the plunge to calculate whether the view would be clear:

And it seems feasible, so after dinner, I packed up my stuff and went out.  The sky was a bit cloudy but it's not without hope.  I arrived the bus station at around 23:15 waiting for the bus scheduled at around 23:25.

Armed with minimal camping setup, I've a just a tent and a small stove with a titanium cup for boiling water for the cup noodle breakfast tomorrow.  I also had a small bottle of Yakult.

Summer night was not too hot up there in the campsite, but it was super hot at home.

The humidity was very high, and it was very foggy with strong wind.  My half pitched tent was blew down.  I setup the alarm clock at around 4:30 and I have prepared myself to walk around 10 minutes to the observation spot.

On waking up, I heard some stepping sound around my tent.  There's no body around the campsite, anyway, on going out, I saw a cow plus super thick fog!  So, I gave up and sleep again.

At around 7:00, the cow was still there as well as the fog.

After short breakfast, I went to the observation spot to check whether my calculation is correct or not, but then it was full of fog!

I believe that it's no good to attempt any observation on the hill, here are some more shots during my morning walk:

Packed up my stuff and caught the bus on 9:00, and then back home for sleeping.

My stuff:

Canon 70D, a 24mm f2.8 lens, a 50mm f1.8 lens plus a 200mm f2.8 lens, a simple carbon fibre tripod and a pair of Canon 10x30 IS.

Some Chinese keywords:

荃錦營地

露營

夏天

彗星

白果之旅

2020/6/21 Partial Solar Eclipse

We had a partial solar eclipse of over 89%!

But it was so hot so that I went out only when it's so near the deepest moment, here is a brief record:

I only brought minimal equipment, leaving my Solarmax at home:

And for visual observation, I had my Canon 18x50 IS with Baader filters.

People tend to look up but it's interesting to look down:

I went to another nearby location near the end of the event:

I noticed that there were some unusual cloud when the sun was blocked by the cloud, over processed to bring out the detail:

While processing the images taken this afternoon, I found there was a 4-5 minutes of clock skew in my DSLR!