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: