March 12, 2016
August 2015
One evening....
Monday, April 4, 2016
19. Jupiter at Last
March 29, 2016 - 11:25 PM
It was a cold but clear night. I packed up my big telescope (Celestron SCT) and equipment and drove to “The Hill” to try to image Jupiter. I have been waiting for the Planets to become visible at a reasonable hour since i got the telescope last July 2015. The skies have been so cloudy so far this year but I finally got my chance March 29th.
I arrived on site and had a lot of trouble mounting my guidescope and red-dot guider. The bracket that holds the guiders on the telescope does not seem to be lined up and I didn’t have enough adjustment in either of the guide scopes to be able to align them. I finally got the guide scope and telescope eyepiece to center on the cell tower blinking light located on Leon/Cherry Creek hill.
Imaging Planets is different that imaging DSO’s (Deep Sky Objects.) For DSO’s I take several single frame long exposures. To image Jupiter, I needed to take a short video using a program called Backyard EOS. The program works with my Canon Camera to take short avi videos. Then, I used Registax to stack the individual frames in the video. Registax also has tools to sharpen the image.
Here is my first attempt at Planetary Imaging. I should be able to get better results when “seeing” conditions are better. As I began imaging Jupiter, I noticed a layer of frost all over my equipment cases and my car! I think I imaged through a frosty-fog! It was 27 degrees and a very damp cold night. Even with hand warmers, in each mitten, I just about froze my hands when I had to take the mittens off. haha.
18. The Pleiades
February 28, 2016
I had been waiting for skies to clear to image the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). Beautiful!
The Pleiades (aka Seven Sisters, M45) is an open star cluster containing hot B-type stars. (giant and super giant very luminous and blue.) Dust around the stars causes the reflection nebulosity. It is one of the closest star clusters to Earth and can be seen with the naked eye. The Pleiades is located near the constellation Orion. (Draw a line through the sword of Orion to the right. Follow to a V-shape pattern of stars with one bright star (Aldebaran.) That’s the face of Taurus The Bull. A little past Aldebaran you will find The Pleiades. As Orion sinks low in the Western Sky in springtime, so does The Pleiades but it is still visible into the month of April.
The Greek myth: The Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas. Several of the male Olympian gods had affairs with the seven heavenly sisters. After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.
* This picture was produced using six three minute exposures at ISO1600. (five “Darks” were used.) Processed using Nebulosity.
17. Five Planet Line-up
February 2, 2016
Finally, a clear morning to see five planets. Last night, Jupiter was the first to appear in the east at 8:45PM. Then Mars at about 1:15AM. Saturn at about 3:45AM. Venus about 5:45AM. Finally Mercury appeared about 6:00AM.
I could not fit Jupiter into the frame so the picture shows 4 of the 5 planets.
16. The SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope)
January 30, 2016
The weather this month has been cold and snowy. There were no clear nights. It’s been a good time of the year to hunker-down and try to keep warm.
I continued to study Astro-Imaging and what I will need to do to get good pictures. There are Two kinds of Astro-Imaging: 1. Planetary and 2. Deep-Sky. I intend to become proficient in both!
Planetary Imaging
Using computers and digital cameras, Amateur Astronomers are now able to capture and produce some excellent images of the planets. A good technique is to take avi video and then “Stack” the individual frames.
I plan to start out imaging Jupiter using my Canon 1100d DSLR and a program called: Backyard EOS. This program simplifies the process. You basically open Backyard EOS, connect the camera, set the exposure and number of frames you want to capture and the program uses the camera’s live-view to create an avi video.
Then you stack the images. I plan to use a program called Registax for stacking my avi.
I will be using my new Celestron Edge HD Telescope with Canon DSLR attached. The large aperture (9.25” or 235mm) and long focal length (2350mm) will provide the narrow Field of View and excellent light gathering ability for looking at and imaging the planets.
15. De Maaran's Nebula
February 22, 2016
Finally got a clear night again. I decided to take the SCT out and wanted to look at The Pleiades. I will try to image it next time with the 80mm Refractor. I decided to focus on M43 in the Constellation Orion. I had already imaged M42 and figured I better give it a try before it sinks too low in the west during March.
M43 is part of the Orion Nebula complex and is seperated from M42 by a dust lane. I took 12 time exposures and 6 Darks to get this composite photo. M43 was named The De Mairan's Nebula after the Frenchman who discovered it in 1731. In 1771, Charles Messier added it to his list and today it is know as M43.
14. The Moon with Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT)
September 22, 2015
I forgot to add these pictures to the blog so this post is out of order.
I snapped a couple pictures of the moon with the new Celestron Edge 9.25 SCT. It’s pretty tricky to focus this telescope. To get a good fine focus, I had to play with the focus knob quite a bit but the result is spectacular, I think. The long focal length of the SCT allows for great close-up views with the Prime Focus set-up and Panasonic GH2 DSLR.
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