20240116 ASI 662MC

The new baby arrived, gonna test it despite the poor sky condition, I would say seeing 3/10 with transparency 5/10.

I am adjusting myself on the transparency rating, and if I were still in Hong Kong, I would say it's 6//10 and if I were to compare with the previous clear nights, I would say it's more like 3-4/10, even Orion was not too visible to the naked eyes.

With the strong tripod, the mount was steady enough for the Meade 8" SCT.  Focusing was tricky anyway, the mirror shift worsen the problem further but that was doable with patience.  Patience is cool weather came with a price, especially when you couldn't use the glove.

Anyway, here were the results.  First up were prime focus shots on the moon, given the pixel size of 2.9um, the optimal sampling would be like f/14.5 so f/10 is a bit under sampled.

Next up was the Jupiter, I've to adjust my Rigel Quik Finder in order to point at the Jupiter properly, the flip mirror did help but still requires some effort.  Adding a 2x barlows means oversampling.

First up is a f/10 shot, but with the flip mirror, I expect it works longer than f/10.

The Jovian satellites were smeared by the wind current.  Pushing up with a 2x barlows did not reveal any more detail but worsen actually.

I will try to attach the barlows lens cell to different locations of the optical chain to find an optimal one when weather permits again.

20240114 M45

 

Transparency dropped, cloud rolled in before getting more signal, yet another test shot, no dark no flat.

20240113 M31

First light of my Canon FD 300 f2.8L, unguided, stacked of 18 frames of 3 minutes exposure, no dark no flat, straight out of the ASI air.

A very light touch of post-processing.

20231229 M31

Spent half an hour polar aligning with ASIAir.

And then took some images with my Canon 200mm f2.8 wide open, stacked some 30s, 120s and 160s shots automatically by the ASIAir, no dark no bias, unguided.  Some of the shots were damaged by dew.

Just a test shot.

20231221 Moon, second test on the new tripod using the 85mm ED

I forgot that I have tested the 8" SCT amd I pulled out my 85ED to test.

I would say it's rock solid, focusing is easy.

But the cleaning job of the 120mc was not very successful, patches of dust could be seen everywhere.  This aging camera is only USB 2.0, leaving a lot to be desired.

I shall play some DSLR deep sky wide field shots, leave planet and lunar imaging aside first, since I felt myself bitten by the equipment bug again, it's not healthy.

Time to give a pause.

20231218 Moon with a new tripod

I have got a much bigger tripod since the old one is too light and thin, it even falls down twice!

Got a clear sky briefly tonight after much rain, but it's still windy, so it's a test of the stability of the setup rather than an imaging session.

I have slewed the Meade 8" SCT around, and the setup remained stable, no sign of tipping over.  I won't say it's rock solid, but it's definitely a stable setup.  Good enough for manual focusing, but of course, the resuilt tonight is not good enough, most likely due to the wind.

Take at prime focus, I didn't pull out any barlows for it does not make sense under such wind!

20231125 Second trial Jupiter and moon, 85ED scope with 5x Powermate

 The tripod is inadequate for the 8" SCT, so I went back to the 85mm ED scope.

Focusing is still a bit hard, but not impossible, so the result is better than before.  Will keep trying...

20231124 Trying out a new mount

I got a iOptron HEM15, mounted on Meade 8" SCT on it but my tripod was not doing well.  In order to prevent it from tip over, I spreaded the leg but it introduces even more vibration.  Accurate focus is difficult if not impossible.

Just to keep the results, all out of focus apparently:

Shall try again soon, maybe try a smaller scope first, and then move to the 8" SCT again later when I got a better tripod.

20231109 Moon Venus Occultation

A failed observation, very sad:

Some shots taken with my Canon 100-400mm:

8:39

9:07

9:46

10:37

10:45

Too bad that I missed the moment of the contacts.

20231108 Jupiter

 Carefully aligned the corrector again, recheck collimation, windy night but far better result.

I will certainly spent more time on exercising the technique.

Collimation and first shot of Jupiter

 I did collimation around a month ago:

Spent over an hour tuning, and then the sky finally clear again on 22/Oct:

2005 and 2006 (GMT+1), seeing rather bad since Jupiter was still quite low. 

I could see low frequency seeing disturbance even at 50x.

Anyway, it's enjoyable to resume bigger aperture imaging after all those years, something like 20 years ago!

20230906 Sun

Catching the last dose of summer.

1313 (UT+1), with reducer:

Removing the reducer and dropped in a 3x barlows, 1320 and 1329 (UT+1):

I believe 2x should be better, 1337 and 1340 (UT+1), I love the filament the most:

Enjoy the sunshine!

20230904 Sun

My 8" white light filter arrived, but the collimation seems no good, all images failed badly. 

1036 (UT+1):

Switch back to my H-alpha setup:

The Sun is very active today.

1106 (UT+1), taken with a reducer:

taken with 2x Barlows, 1117 (UT+1):

1120 and 1123 (UT+1) with 2x barlows:

Really need to fine tune the collimation of the 8" SCT, I did try before but it seems not going well.

20230830 Jupiter

First Jupiter shot of the Meade 8" SCT

Just an exercise, and to try out the flip mirror.

2023 August 26 Sun

This is my new setup, the small chair and bench were both DIY projectors, they're helpful as some astronomy equipment too! 

Close up with 2x Barlows:

Mosaic of two frames:

20230605 Sun

 1543 (GMT+1), Ranger at prime focus:

20230531 Sun

I made a solar finder and this is the first trial, much quicker and simple to use, no need to crank my neck and to stand the glare of the bright sun.

1520 GMT+1, this is a failed shot, couldn't be stacked in avistack but asivideostack managed to do it partially.

Close up with 2x Barlows, taken at 1523, 1525 (GMT+1)

Finally push up the exposure, 1527 (GMT+1):