Cassini @ Home

Just something I've thrown together out of the continued boredom of this interminable cloud and ever brightening moon. After seeing the following image, which frankly blew my mind (if only I could et such resolution from here!), I looked for Cassini raw data, and found a haul of treats, some of which I threw together to make this video of Enceladus' jets.

Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute

 This photo of Saturn's North Polar Vortex was taken on November 27th 2012 by Cassini.

After a long summer....

Well the long days and bright nights seemed to last forever this year, but I have finally been able to get my 'scope back online and have taken a couple of wee piccies! Finally!

I've also been able to do a little processing, after a good tutorial (http://flintstonestargazing.com/2009/06/26/my-quick-deepskystacker-tutorial/). The author explains everything nice and plainly, so I actually got some half decent results whereas before I was getting nothing!

So....

Here's M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Just 5 subs at 2 mins each, ISO 800. Processed in Deep Sky Stacker.

M42, the Orion Nebula. 27 subs, 2 mins. ISO 1800. Processed in DSS.

I was originally unhappy with both of these, until I read a great tutorial (http://flintstonestargazing.com/2009/06/26/my-quick-deepskystacker-tutorial/) and had another attempt at the processing. I was eventually really pleased with the results! Not quite Hubble, I know, but certainly an improvement on my early attempts!

I'm pleased to have been able to get the accompanying Running Man nebula in the image of M42.It hadn't been discernible in the raw images, so I was delighted when it popped out whilst tinkering with the luminance!

And I'm surprised to have got as much detail for M31, for so few frames, but it's encoraging to see that it can be done with my kit!

Well, things are still on hold after the 'fried-motor-drive' incident, but in a miniscule gap in the clouds, I have been able to snap an OK shot of the sun. Thought I might as well post! It's just a single frame shot as ISO 100 at 1/1000th of a second. Sharpened twice with an unsharp mask and a quick colour tweak!

So this week has been pretty unsuccessful, to say the least.

It began with an attempt to photograph the sun in preparation, or rather as a practice run, for the Transit of Venus.

Well, let me regress first by saying how I'd previously used the variable PSU for my 6v motor drives on my 12v sound system. I forgot to reset the PSU to 6v and used it once again on my motor drives. Looking through the eyepiece, I noticed no movement, or rather, that the sun apppeared to be moving through the field of view. Most odd. I looked at the controller for the motor drives, which had smoke emanating from the 'on/off' switch!


This picture shows the melted transistors that I'm now going to have to replace. It's been about 13 years since I last wielded a soldering iron, and I don't have a multimeter, so I don't even have much of a way of telling which transistors need replacing! Ho hum.

Well, not to be put off, I did some practice shots of the moon, and decided that I'd have to stay with single, untracked shots for the transit. So, all equipment ready, camera settings decided upon and just the sun and an obliging planet to wait for, I was ready for Wednesday.

Of course, being Wales, 5 o'clock dawned, and it was wall to wall cloud. Back to bed and to wait another 105 years then....

Getting closer!

So I finally think I have something that I can call an Astroimage.

It's not the best, granted, but I'm happy with it from a beginners point of view!

It's M13 again, of course - I wanted to at least get something right-ish before moving onto somethng new.

12 subs of 30 seconds at ISO 800, processed in Registax with one 30s dark.

Here's the (cropped) result!

 It's a little dim and lacking in vibrance, but I'm fairly pleased. I'm sure I can improve it with time, but for a beginner, it could be worse. Mix in the fact that there was a blooming great moon this evening, and it don't look too bad! Talking of the moon, I also gave the moon a quick stab. This is around 10 frames, 1/20s exposure on I can't remember what ISO. Stacked in Registax.

 And cropped / enlarged in Photoshop CS5

I can just about discern the 'violet limb' that is expected from my scope, but I think I just about get away with it. Could do with better focus though....

Well - I've had a modicum of success tonight! Whilst I'm still somewhat short of a viable Astropic, I'm certainly getting closer.

Tried out my Bhatinov mask first. It's now in the bin - a complete waste of time. Whilst I can see how it might be beneficial on a larger scope, with the tiny aperture of my Zenithstar, there was just nothing visible with the mask in place and the camera viewfinder leeching all the light away.

So instead I tried out the star trail focussing method - and I like it! I need a bit more refinement to get the focus just right (mainly because I forgot exactly where the sweet spot was!) but basically - I've proven the principle to myself - and here are some preliminary results!

I love this photo - despite it being little more than a curiosity, I think it's a beautiful demonstration of the rotation of the Earth. In case you don't know what's happening here, I have set my camera for a long exposure and intermittently covered and uncovered the objective lens of the scope. This causes the gaps in the star trails, which are in turn caused by the apparent motion of the stars (the main one is Vega) as the Earth spins on its axis. The apparent change in size is due to slight adjustments to the focus (1mm away or towards each time), with the thinnest line showing the finest focus.

 So here we are - the first legible apparition of M13 on my setup! I don't really count it as a proper Astropic yet as it is a single badly taken frame, but it's definitely improving. It's a 3 minute exposure with a hint of exposure added in Photoshop, but other than that it's raw. A bit more fine focus and a slight decrease in exposure (to take out the bulbous middle and reduce trailing), and I should be able to stack a few frames together and get something useable!

Same again but with a 5 min exposure.

All in all, much more encouraging tonight - I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. But of course, as is the sky's wont - the moon is brigtening and I'll be all washed out for DSO's for the next couple of weeks, so it's back to the armchair astronomy for now!

Focussing, focussing...

So after an encouraging first night, things got a little frustrating with my second attempt.

I decided that M13 (a globular cluster containing several hundred thousand stars for those of you who don't know!) would be a good target. It's bright and easy to find, and it's well in the range of my equipment.

However, focussing became a real problem. It's my own fault really - I ignored people's warnings of 'you can't focus well through the camera's viewfinder', thinking I knew better.

Of course, all I got was blobs! The difficulty stems from the fact that even quite unfocussed images can look alright, when they're dimmed down by the glass in the viewfinder. So now I know...

Anyway, a quick entry into astrojargon.com  and a snip or two with some scissors, and I've a nice homemade Bhatinov mask. Will test it ASAIOOTMLPM (As Soon As I'm Out Of The Massively Light Polluted Midlands.)

<a href="http://www.hypersmash.com">HyperSmash</a>

Well, as expected, didn't get a fat lot to show people out of last night.

Mainly experimented with exposure times, practiced polar alignment etc.

What is clear is that stacking images is going to be essential, because at the moment, it's hard to see anything but stars in the pictures I have taken. In one picture though, with a little processing, you can just about see a little more....

Near the centre, and again halfway across the right of the image, there are two faint little smudges that are just discernible as galaxies! Wahey!

I believe they are a part of Markarian's chain, a beautiful sprawl of galaxies that trickles down between Leo and Virgo.

Other than that I learned that my maximum exposure times, for now will be about 3 minutes, 5 if I'm really well aligned.

I also had trouble with my guidance system, hence why my exposure times are so short. I couldn't actually pick up any stars with the guider, although in fairness, I did only try while the sky was fairly bright, so the sensor may have been being washed out.

On the positive side though, I did find out that even on long exposures, I wasn't getting "sensor glow" - a frustrating disease with older DSLR's where heat from the working sensor causes a big orange smear across the top of your images. That's always nice to know!

Right, so for my first night out, I'm not expecting a fat lot. In fact, I'm not sure if I'm even going to take any exposures. First come the joys of polar alignment, focus practice and seeing if there's any merit to my cobbled together guide scope!

I may inadvertently take a photo of one of my cats - they tend to climb up my leg when I'm out there in the dark, and I wouldn;t put it past one of them to ascend my tripod!

The sky is clear, night is on the way, so out I go!!

Hi, I'm Badgerchap. I've been doing visual Amateur Astronomy for some time now, but of late, I've been getting a little bored of faint fuzzies and rapidly moving planets that zip straight out of the field of view. Whilst there really is something truly awe inspiring about having photons arrive in your eyes that have taken millions of years to get there, I fancy a bit of colour - and some evidence to prove what I've been doing, outside and alone in the dark all these long nights!

So I've bought some very modest kit - actually, I should be honest, my girlfriend bought me the telescope, I bought the rest - and I'm ready to try my hand at a bit of Astrophotography!

So first, the kit....

The telescope is a small semi-apochromatic refracting telescope. To look at it's a lovely thing. Manufactured by William Optics, I am assured by other astronomers that it's a lovely little scope, so hopefully it should be nice to look through as well!

Next, there's the EQ5 mount. Now I've been advised that this reall is the smallest I can get away with. Lucky I have a small set up then! It's on a wooden tripod, which, whilst it looks a bit old-school, is actually lovely to use and should actually result in less vibration on breezy nights!

Then I have a Canon EOS 10D, which could prove to be a bit of a weak link. It's certainly not the finest DSLR available for Astrophotography, but I'll make do.

I also have a homemade guide scope / electronic finder scope. At the moment, any guiding I do will be manual through this, but I do intend to make it all 'Autoguiding' in the future.

And this is my location - the Dyfi Estuary in Gwynedd, Wales. I'm so very lucky - you could have a much worse view in the evenings!

So I'm inexperienced, lacking in knowledge, save for what I've gleaned from the excellent fellows at Stargazer's Lounge and Cloudy Nights.

This blog is going to document how I get on in this wonderful, inspiring and mind-boggling hobby!

So here I am, all set - now I'm off for exhaustive testing and a lot of failure! Rock on...