20250817 Sun

It has been several months since my last imaging session.

The weather was nice occasionally, just no energy to pull out the stuff for imaging.

Glad that I did it today.  I have also taken a vlog in Cantonese, might be published one day in my youtube channel.

1521 taken with a reducer, prominence brought out by pushing the level selectively, merged with the surface detail without pushing.

1524 taken with a 2x barlows, colorised.

1525, same setting as above, it's a filament day!

1526, around with same area of the one at 1524

I guess I will be doing some more astronomy in the near future.  It's a shame to waste the weather and the equipments.

20250517 Sun (reducer finally works)

This is a test of equipment, a 1.25" 0.5x focal reducer.  It won't come to focus before, but then I remember that I have a very short 1.25" nosepiece for C mount.  It comes to focus finally.

It's easy to take a full disc shots now!  Maybe good for continuous monitoring, like making animations, I shall try later.

This is a simple two frames mosaic at prime focus.  The non-uniform illumination makes it a bit tricky, but this does not worth the effort now.

Close up with AR4087, with 2x barlows.

Solar imaging is happy in Scottish summer.

20250513 Sun

Didn't pull out my setup for quite long, the thing couldn't get focus properly at first for unknown reason.  I removed the filter and insert again, things work normally then.

Those two 1.25" focal reducer did not work, they looked identical optically and physically.

The solar filter is not very useful too. 

I am going to sell the above on ebay.

1055 (UT+1), prime focus:

1106 + 1108 (UT+1),, failed mosaic at prime focus

And then finally push up the exposure to bring prominences., not well executed:

Too little practice.

20250417 Setting up and testing

Add a quick release mechanism between the mount and the pillar, need to try out polar alignment so that it could be far faster later.

Did a few test shots afterward of M81 and M82.

Also M41.

Canon EF 200mm f2.8 acting as the main scope, and the Canon FD 300mm f2.8 modified as the guidescope.

It didn't get dark until around 9:30pm... so summer came!   

20250401 Stargazing with my family

Our small backyard opens up some cosmic opportunities.

I used my 85mm ED refractor for observation.  Wide field with a 20mm widescan, high power with a SVBony 9mm and a TMB 4mm eyepiece.

The moon was so close to M45, a great side that could be seen within the same field of view of the 20mm widescan.

Soon I pulled out my Canon 10x30 IS and my 18x50 IS for quick scanning.

I looked at a couple of open clusters.

We looked at the Jupiter, and the Mars.

Later I pulled out my green laser pointer, to show them around the night sky.

It was not exactly dark, but that certainly brings a lot of joy.

A pure visual session with Canon 18x50 IS

Transparency low with moon hanging up high.

Even Orion was not apparent, M45 was not detectable with naked eyes.

Scanning around and found M42, and then I could make out the Orion.

And then scanning in the direction of M45, done.

So many low earth orbit satallites, I could even see two of them at the same field of view.

With high magnification of IS binoculars, detail on the moon is great.  Mars is quite close to the moon, making a very nice view.

A new solar season

By new season, I mean the sun goes up high enough to clear the trees.

With reducer:

With 2x barlows:

At prime focus, two frames merged:

This is my new setup, actually, it was an old setup which left unused for quite sometime.  The new solar finder is effective, the mount could hold the setup rather easily despite the very windy condition.

Love this one, except somehow I want a hand controller for faster slewing.

First image taken with my Canon EF 50mm f1.8

 Just a random shot to try out wider field of view, no idea ahout image processing:

Processed by Siril

First M45

 Processed by Siril, 20 frames stacked, 300s exposure:

Maybe stretched a bit too much.  Anyway, I do not enjoy image processing afterall.

Making my iOptron more table

I have a permanent pier setup, but it was not made for the iOptron. 

A small adapter is required but it becomes the weakest link.

The problem is the stub but since it was made by aluminium so I guess it could be removed.  I took the plunge to do it this morning, it's not difficult.

I was tempted to buy another better adapter so that I don't have to do this irreversible change, but then there is no guarantee that it would fit.  And I hate to spend money, especially when it might not even work.

This is now a perfect fit!

20250117 Jupiter again

Spent more than half an hour to fine tune the collimation, found something strange on the out of focus pattern.  

That irregularity on the 6 O' Clock location.

I captured 60s worth of frames this time, instead of 1000 frames. 

30% frames stacked:

60% frames stacked:

20250115 Planet exercise

It's very windy, so no good image is possible, so it's just for fun.

The bigger CMOS is simple to use, with the flip mirror everything is quick and simple.

Jupiter first, it's higher in the sky.

And then mars, it's lower and as always, the effect of atmospheric dispersion is much apparent.

Just for fun.

Stacked and processed two more shots:

Family stargazing

Randomly asked my kids to see if they are interested in stargazing, and to my surprise they both said yes.

Forecast told that it's going to be cloudy, and cloud started rolling when we observe.

Before it was totally covered, we watched M45, M42, Betelgeuse, Mars (to see the colors) and finally Jupiter with the Galilean satellites.

2024 and 2025 Exercise Time

Local folks shared that the number of clear nights were much reduced in 2024, and I got the same feeling as well.  

With a new permant pillar in the back garden, I did imaging or observation whenever the sky was clear, with a few exceptions only.  I'm still trying out and doing some exercise.

I've been trying out the Canon 200mm f2.8L with a new tiny guidescope and the result is nice.  With the small CMOS chip, this lens performs exceptionally well wide open.

 

Next up is the Unbranded semi-APO 85mm with 500mm focal length scope, the chromatic abberation was quite well controlled.  The Canon 200mm f2.8L was used as a guidescope.

Snow was an issue, I switched to use home electricity for more stable power.  But then I was fearing about the wet from the snow or condensation in the cold weather.  So far there were no problem but it does not mean it's safe.

Packing stuff inside was another issue.  The very cold equipment from outside was attracting condensations when moved inside.  I used a small fan to dry them but I need better solution.

Image processing software would be the next stuff, but then I really hate to spend time doing processing, not just about money.

Anyway, I have two consective clear nights in the beginning of 2025.  

Happy new year to you all.

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: