M13

DMK in B&W.
Bottom image, re-processed using Deepsky Stacker.

Mars... my first shot of the red planet this year. In B&W.

DMK, no filters.

Jupiter 29th July 2007

Using red filter in B&W. 1000 frames.

GRS bang in the middle. You can't even make out the spot when observing!

Using the new DMK.

Here's first light with the DMK.
Please Note; Jupiter is not very good to view or image from the UK this year :-(

M57; a collection of 33, 8 second exposures taken with the DMK, really easy to do using the IC Capture s/w that came with the camera and processed later in Registax.

Here's a lovely Hubble view.

Off topic: UK floods.

We've had some amazing weather in the UK of late. We nearly got flooded out the other day, here's a couple of pics. My house is past those parked cars over the bridge.

Below is the scene facing the other way :-0

THE-MOON WIKI

THE-MOON WIKI.
This is a great resource for anything to do with the Moon.

Here's an example of Schröter's Valley, Apollo 15 image AS15-88-12002, processed by Stefan Lammel.

Fancy being in a spacecraft going around the Moon and seeing this outside your window.

Astronomik filter test... that's better, no tweaking required.

Here's a colour test using the Astronomik filters below.
This isn't a very scientific test, the DMK is just shoved in the end of a 200mm Tamron telephoto lens and balanced on a table in my observatory, so there's quite a bit of movement and the images didn't register too well. But it works, and the colours seem a bit more truthful compared to the Canon DSLR image below.

Astronomik L-RGB filters.

Recieved my Astronomik L-RGB filter set today from Telescope House, (brilliant company, really good to do business with, stuff's always in stock and with you the next day. I bought a 5x Powermate from them and couldn't get on with it, and they swapped it for a 2.5x Powermate, no problem).

The filters have a weird mirrored surface.

Here they are installed in the Astro Engineering 'Imagers filter wheel'... now where's Mars?!

Opportunity :: Navigation Camera :: Sol 1211

I love this image... look at the layering.

Credit NASA

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo... how about you,you,you.

Here's a new game to play when you've got nothing else to do... beware though it's tricky ;-)

As reported by the BBC

DMK Colour test.

Here's a test of my DMK using some Celestron filters that came with my eyepiece set.

Not bad considering they're not the right type of filters.

Red No.25, Blue No.80A, Green No.56 and Baader UV/IR for Luminance.

Below is the same scene taken with my Canon 400D.

Cassini image of spokes in Saturn's rings.

Just had to post this great image from Cassini.

My first DMK capture files processed with Registax.

This is so clear compared to the Toucam Pro, the noise is really small, although these were shot under optimum lighting conditions.

Yes that is a cotton bud below ;-)
















Region of interest (ROI) below, this will be a very handy feature later on.



The software that comes with the camera is brilliant.

The DMK... it works.

Here's an image untouched straight out of the IC Capture.AS software, that comes with the camera.
The lens that came with the camera is a really good macro lens.

DMK 21AF04.AS Camera.

Got my DMK camera today. With free C/CS to 1.25" Adaptor and free Varifocal 6.0-15mm Lens from Opticstar. £265 all in postage included.
I need to dash out and buy the longest Firewire cable that I can find now, I think 4m is the maximum length... stay tuned.

Opticstar

Cassiopeia.

30sec exposure, Canon 400D.

Sky tonight.

Here is the sky taken with my new Canon EOS 400D... brilliant camera
:-)

New Camera!!

I bought a new camera today. Canon EOS-400D 17-85 IS Kit, 10.1 Mega pixel CMOS, 9 Point AF, DIGIC II, Self Cleaning sensor, 3 Frames/sec, 0.2 sec startup, EF/EFS lenses, Image stabilizer, 2.5" LCD, for astro photography and general snaps.
Now all I have to do is learn how to use it, although it's not dissimilar in usage to my Canon Powershot A620... stay tuned.

The macro is good, this plant from my garden is about 20mm across.

Also coming soon... a DMK CCD camera... you ain't seen nothing yet!

Hubble Catches Jupiter Changing Its Stripes.

Massive Jupiter is undergoing dramatic atmospheric changes that have never been seen before with the keen "eye" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit

Astronomy Picture of the Day... amazing

ISS captured from ground based telescope.

Cassini-Huygens; Saturns rings.

Saturn Cassini-Huygens spacecraft image taken on June 25, 2007 and received on Earth June 26, 2007. The camera was pointing toward PROMETHEUS at approximately 1,551,357 kilometers away.

Credit

Here's looking at you kid.

What does Earth look like when viewed from Mars? At 13:00 GMT on 8 May 2003, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) had an opportunity to find out.

Credit

Liquid mirror lunar telescope.

Here's a good idea!
Scientists may have found a way to make a new telescope that is more powerful than current space telescopes by a factor of a thousand. The secret to the design? A liquid mirror.

Jupiter & Moons 18th June 2007

I think that Jupiter is rather low to image from the UK at present ;-) ... well for me anyway.

Space Shuttle Atlantis smoke plumes.

The drifting smoke plumes from the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis (out of frame) swirl above the Vehicle Assembly Building near sunset.

Text & image credit NASA.

Venus 10th June 2007

Using 4x Imagemate.

New HiRISE image site.

Venus 6th June 2007

Using 2.5x TV Powermate and Toucam Pro with stacked #58 Green and #80A Medium Blue filter.

Moon from 25th May 2007

Haven't done much imaging recently, so here's one from last month that I didn't process... until now.

Sunset 4th June 2007

New Observatory roof!

My old roof had gone a bit warped last year in the sun, so I spent the other day re-making a new roof. This time with anti-reflecting materials... i.e., some hardboard that was laminated white from Wicks ;-)
My old roof was just the painted perspex, and it used to let a lot of heat in. Now the temperature has dropped by about 15-20 degrees :-)
I got the work done just in time, the other week we had a whole day of rain and the roof worked super.

Below is a picture of the scope in action.

I like this roof, I can have a section open at a time, depending on what I'm doing, therefore it's much more snug.

The Cardoon's getting big!