20141027 Sun, another observation on AR2192!

From that prominence loop on 20141015, this is the 4th observation/imaging session on AR2192!  This monster has grown to the size from slightly bigger than our Earth to now bigger than Jupiter.

All time in GMT+8.

Prime focus, taken at 1428:-

5x, taken at 1430:-

5x, taken at 1433:-

Taken at 1436 to 1441 all with 2x barlows, 12 frames stitched together, I guess the focuser draw tube slips a bit so that the lower left corner has a gap:-

 2x close up of a long filament taken at 1442:-

2x close up of AR2192, taken at 1443:-

I will try to do mosaic later, but the Tmax and RichView must be more carefully adjusted.

20141020 AR2192

I've very limited time today, so I focus myself on AR2192.

First up is a prime focus shot taken at 1525 (GMT+8):-

And then two 5x shots taken at 1528 and 1529 (GMT+8) respectively, the second shot seems to contain more detail.

Seeing at 2/10, transparency 5/10.

I love this little mighty Nexstar mount, even at 2400mm, tracking is accurate enough for relatively long exposure.  Great for both indoor and out door purpose, I mean for high resolution imaging on planets, lunar and solar shots.

I just made another power source for my Nexstar, now it has 8x AA eneloop (9.6V) in its built-in battery compartment, and 3x 18650 Lithium battery (11.1V) connected via the external power socket.  Both works very nicely, and in case either one fail or exhausted, the other one will pick up seamlessly.

I've two sets (i.e. total six) unprotected 18650 batteries at home, so it's more than enough for a whole night of observation.

20141018 Sun

Seeing 4/10, transparency 4/10.


First up is the prime focus shot, a few filaments on the surface, with one or two extended out to form prominence.  AR2192 is giving another long prominence upward.  Taken at 1235 (GMT+8):-

Then, we have two 2x shots, taken at 1237, and 1238 (GMT+8):-

AR 2187:-

 

AR 2190, this should be the active region which gives a big prominence loop earlier this week:-

I didn't go for 5x, i.e. 2400mm for pretty long.  Here we go, taken at 1241 (GMT+8) centering on AR 2190 and 1243 (GMT+8) centering on AR 2187:-

Quite a good day... if I have more time, I will do a mosaic...

20141015 Sun

Seeing 3/10, transparency 3/10, foggy sky but low humidity, severe air pollution.

We have a large prominence loop which is the best feature of today.

Let's look at the prominence shots first:

First up is a prime focus shot, taken at 1336 (GMT+8):-

And then the following were taken with 2x barlows:-

1342 (GMT+8):-

An overexposed shot taken within the same minute to show the darker portion:-

Finally, 1337 (GMT+8), another one on the lower half of the solar disc:-

  

Let's focus on the surface detail, prime focus taken at 1337 (GMT+8):-

AR2188 (?) taken at 1339 (GMT+8):-

AR2187 taken at 1340 (GMT+8), from this shot, it seems like that prominence loop was not coming from AR2187 but another big active region seems just around the limb, let's see.  But I probably won't have time to capture it in the coming few days.

Very nice observation today.

Please pray for Hong Kong, we had a very bad time these days, probably among in my life.

20141011 Sun

Today, I used my Asus Eee 1005HA for image capturing since my Dell all-in-one PC was occupied by my wife.

My Eee has a new battery which allows over 7 hours of continuous usage.  Given it could be placed near to the telescope, focusing is far more accurate.  Drop frame is a must, but it's not a major issue either.

Seeing 5/10, transparency like 0-6/10.  We got quite a large amount of moving cloud, thick enough to block everything but we have some sizable cloud gaps.

First one was taken at 1233 (GMT+8), prime focus:-

Then, we have another one at 1235 (GMT+8), with 2x barlows:-

Finally, we have another one at 1241 (GMT+8), with 2x barlows, using drift and expand to allow bigger field of view:-

I'm being inconsistent in making these false colors obviously.

20141008 Total Lunar Eclipse

Equipment Line-up:-

• Mark-X with hand controller, 
• Canon 200mm lens with 2x tele-extender
• Eyepiece adapter, eyepiece, barlows, diagonal (not used finally)
• Camera, shutter release
• Canon 10x30 IS binoculars
• Gitzo G106 with 410 head

Location: Tsim Sha Tsui, Avenue of Stars

Met some old astronomy buddies:-

 My simple setup:-

Mostly cloudy, the only successful shot was taken at during a cloud break of around 8s, but the exposure itself took 4s, so only had a few seconds for centering the target and focus.

The only successful shot, 400mm at f/5.6, ISO 800, 4s exposure:-

Some less than successful shots:-

I was captured by TVB:-

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=751378074897355

Asus 1005HA, Stellarium, Celestron Nexstar

I have bought a new 9 cells battery for my old Asus 1005HA Eee PC, and it allows more than 8 hours of continuous operation in a single charge.

Installed Stellarium into it, but I have to use the mesa version since the OpenGL support was too weak due to ancient hardware.  The frame rate is very low at less than 2 fps, but it's definitely useable.

That mainland made cable from taobao works very well, and the telescope control is trivial.  However, I don't really think I will want to use a PC outside, for the Nexstar hand control is good enough.

20141006 Sun

Transparency 5/10, seeing 3/10.

1247-1251 (GMT+8), four frames stitched together, with 2x barlows.

I guess I did something very wrong, the prime focus shot and the 5x barlows shots were very strange and has to be thrown away.

20140922 Sun

The mount was fixed, the sky was cleared, so it's time to take image again.  It's a bit late so that the sun was partially blocked from inside my home, so I've just taken a single prime focus shot:

1625 (GMT+8), showing AR2172 far left, 2171 and 2173 with 2169, 2170 on the middle.

Nexstar+ fixed

To follow up the issue of “Bootloader invalid package 0002”, and actually, it could be 0080 or something else.

In short, you will need to re-flash the firmware and you will need a serial cable.  I found the cheapest one here:

Taobao

And it's just RMB 17!  The quality is excellent, way better than the ebay autostar serial cable I got a few years back, and it's much cheaper as well.  I got it on the following day and it is from Shanghai to Hong Kong!

And then you will need a serial port, i.e. RS-232, but then it's really hard.  I searched through all the PC that I could access but none of them got a serial port.  So, I took the plunge to buy a USB serial adapter.  I have experience on that with my Autostar before, so I got this one:

And it comes with a long USB cable too!  This cable will work with my Lumenera 075M, too.

From that taobao site, I realized that Chinese firmware is available, so why not?

http://www.celestron.com.cn/DriveList.aspx

And we still have English with this firmware.

It's just quick and easy!  I might want to use a bluetooth serial module from ebay some days later so that I can control the Nexstar with my mobile phone remotely!

Nexstar SE failed in mid-autumn festival

Last night, we went out for watching the moon and playing.  I only brought my Ukulele without a telescope since the weather was no good actually.  But to our surprise, the moon came out from behind the cloud.

Anyway, I still got my mobile phone.

Arriving home, the moon was about in the right place from imaging, I pulled out my Nexstar SE mount in the hope to use it with my C5 plus my DSLR to shoot a big moon.  But then the Nexstar Plus hand controller refused to boot up with the following error message:

“Bootloader invalid package 0002 ”
 

Apparently, the firmware was corrupted and a quick google exercise confirmed that.  Ordering a cable from US results in a heavy shipping charge and long shipping time.  Checking from Chinese site taobao gives a cheaper and faster option.  Finally, I managed to find a OEM or better say DIY cable at very low cost!  I expect to have it on hand on Thursday.  So, I can still use the mount on the planned local trip on Saturday.

--

We have plenty of sunshine today, but my Mark-X does not allow me to point at the sun due to its position from inside my playing room.  Got to wait until the Nexstar SE is fixed soon hopefully.

20140905 Moon

After work and jogging, I saw the moon hanging high outside, so why not?  Moving cloud means poor seeing, I'd rate it as 4/10, transparency rather high at 7-8/10.

Prime focus first:

2329 (GMT+8), Gassendi:-

2333 (GMT+8), Clavius:-

With 2x barlows, 2336 (GMT+8), Clavius:-

2341 (GMT+8), Gassendi:-

At the end, I pulled out my 4mm TMB to enjoy some visual observations!

Focusing at high power requires some patience for this smaller Nexstar SE mount.

20140901 Moon

The moon was rather low, seeing sucks but why not?

Just for fun and I believe I could fine tune the collimation soon.

Prime focus:-

 With 2x barlows:-

All taken with my C5.

20140901 Sun

This morning, I replaced the tap of my toilet... this is a long outstanding issue, but it's finally fixed.  So here we go for solar imaging again!

Seeing 3/10, transparency 7/10 with so many cloud around, so I couldn't do mosaic... I really want to do a big sun again soon!

First up is a near full disc at 1347 (GMT+8), the monster filament is the eye catcher!   Here are the active regions from the left to the right: AR2152, 2153, 2151 with 2149 close to the left limb.

So the next step is to capture a close up of the monster filament with a 2x barlows, the camera was rotated to align with the diagonal of the CCD chip, taken at 1349 (GMT+8):-

Going up to 5x for some more close up, at 2400mm with a small 1/3" CCD, poor seeing reveals no fine detail, taken at 1355 (GMT+8):-

AR2151 at 1358 (GMT+8):-

AR2152 at 1402 (GMT+8):-

AR2149 at 1404 (GMT+8):-

Finally, a three frames mosaic of the monster filament at 2400mm from 1359-1401 (GMT+8):-

Moving cloud renders uneven illuminations.