20241119 Testing old stuff

Using my Ranger with a reducer as the guidescope, piggybacking the Canon FD 300 f2.8 as the main scope.

M81, 180s x 20, -20 degree Celcius:

I've also taken some M45 and the double cluster.  

20241111 M31 (testing of new toy)

Canon FD 300mm f2.8 self modified to EF mount, with my new ASI 533mc.

My first target was M33 but it was a bit too dim as a test target., so I turned to M31.  Took around 120 shots of 60s exposure, medium gain, 0 degree Celcius cooled.

Stacked by ASI Air out of the box:

Adjusted using PS:

Polar aligned using the ASI air internal routine to acceptable level, one minute exposure was about maximum without guiding.  I will be doing guiding shortly.

A new toy

Weather so bad for a very long period of time, so it's the right time to buy a new toy.

It arrived this morning.

It requires 12V power supply to work, even without using the cooler.  

It could do planet imaging, but then it would need to connect to a 12V power supply.  The bigger chip should make centering the target much easier, I believe.  ROI should increase the fps.

My solar charged battery won't work at 12V, insufficient power apparently, using the 220V output will work, however.

It comes with a 2" adapter, also with M42.

It comes with a 1.25" adapter which should be more than enough.

A narrow band filter is included as a bonus.

Can't wait to test it but the weather will not cooperate.

P.S.: I did test it again at night and it works with my solar charged battery.

20241105 Sun

 Resumed imaging since suffering from sciatica.

The poor Scottish weather also a huge factor.  I found the sun was so low already and it's blocked by some trees.  So I just did an overexposure to cover up the shadows of the branches:

Need to wait until the Sun goes farther up.

I got a new sunshade for my notebook. it's actually a foldable leaves collector.  It works perfectly.

Way cheaper than a foldable sunshade for notebook but it works.

2024/10/19 Comet C/2023 A3

I got nothing, but the sky was clearer than last time.

Last time was 14th of October, the lower part of the sky was partially covered.

20240812 Meteor

I was hoping to get one or two meteors together with some aurora, but unluckily:

Cropped meteor:

The uncropped version:

And finally the aurora:

Push process a bit:

20240812 Sun

The sun is still very active.  We have a thunderstorm thuis morning but the sky cleared later in the afternoon, it's very windy, however.

1410 and 1411 (UT+1), at prime focus:

And then I insert a 2x barlows for close up:

1416 (UT+1)

1414 (UT+1)

1413 (UT+1)

Sorry about the reversed order.

I also pulled out my 8" SCT for a couple of white light shots, I guess I will want to add a color filter, say red, to reduce the disturbance from seeing but I forgot.

1433 and 1434 (UT+1)

20240810 Sun

Very active sun, glad that I did some imaging.

1136 (UT+1), taken with a reducer:

1139 (UT+1), taken at -prime focus:

Cloud moving around, I have to catch the cloud gaps, I actually waited for more than an hour to get two clips.

20240731 H-alpha Sun

The Scottish summer is nearly non-existent this year.  We finally got some sunshine and I pulled out my gear to take a few shots.

1319 + 1320 mosaic of two frames to show the prominences, very active and lovely.

And then 1310 + 1313 mosaic of two frames to show the surface detail, sorry for the ulgy stitching:

And then close up with 2x barlows, first up is 1313 + 1314 mosaic of two frames:

And then another 2x single shot, 1316:

Enjoy a short session.

I used a tripod instead of the short pier I setup for deep sky inaging, far more comfort and still good enough for solar imaging.  I have some concept of the pole in my backyard.

20240603 Sun in H-alpha

 Going back to H-alpha, just before a family BBQ.

Windy day, suboptimal seeeing I would say 4/10, transparency nice at 8/10.

20240516 Sun (White Light)

Trying the 8" SCT white light again, this time with a green filter, I hope it could help a bit on combating seeing?

1541 (UT), using 50% of frames:

Same source, but using 10% of frames only:

1527 (UT) using 10% of the frames:

I didn't try AB comparison with or without the green filter.  Still no granulations.

20240510 Aurora

This is an naked eye visible event here in Scotland, and maybe actually from the whole UK.

I planned a wee trip to the Dechmond Law which is the highest point in the small town of Livingston West Lothian.

My daughter was joining the birthday party of her friend, and so we waited on top of this small hill, the full show came after her party.

Such a powerful and amazing show!  Glad to have my family with me.

20240510 Sun (White light)

 Still following the huge active region but this time in white light, the cloud is still following me.

And then I scanned around to find this "smaller" sunspot:

Taken with my Meade 8" SCT at prime focus, ASI 462mm, Baader.

20240509 Sun (H-alpha)

 AR3664 and AR3668 are probably one of the biggest active regions that I have ever taken, glad to have a few minutes of gaps among the cloud.

Ranger with 1.6x barlows, 1433-1441 (UIT)

An animation will tell the subtle changes:

Several big prominences group as well:

I would like to take some white light shots with my 8" SCT but then the cloud forbid me to do so.