Gassendi & Schiller from 12th Sept 2009

Clavius to Tycho mosaic - 12th Sept 2009

Big pan of North region of the Moon.

I've got up at 4:00 am this morning to do some Moon imaging, but the cloud was too thick. Luckily I woke at 6:00 as well and the clouds had cleared. So it was quick scramble to get some imaging before the Sun rose too high.
Here's the preliminary result that I've been working on all afternoon. I'm knackered ;-)

If you use the Google Chrome browser (which I do all the time) you can use the Ctrl + key to zoom in and out, in MS Windows that is.

Sinus Iridum 11th Sept 2009

Clavius & Plato 11th Sept 2009

Here's one from last night. The seeing was really good when I started :-) But the transparency deteriorated quickly later :-( So I had to push the camera and picked a load of grain in the process & processing ;-(

First image of session.
Plato; using 3 x TV barlow, with the good seeing.

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel 10th Sept 2009

Bird flight across the Moon.

I caught some birds flying across my field of view whilst imaging the Moon last night.

Gassendi 10th Sept 2009

Tycho 10th Sept 2009

4 image mosaic.

The Moon 10th Sept 2009

Taken with my Takahashi Sky-90 at Prime focus & SKYnyx 2-0M with red filter.

New refurbished Hubble images.

The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble.

Credit NASA, ESA & Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

OT: Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life [Video]

I love this.
Click on the credit link below for the video.
Credit Scitechbits.

Credit BBC

Full Moon Tycho 4th Sept 2009

Strange booklet.

I have this strange booklet that I bought from an old second-hand bookshop ages ago.
I always thought that it was from the 19th century, but on reflection I think it may be older, maybe 17th or 18th century.
There is no cover to it and no identifications to its date, it looks like the drawings from a books appendices that have been ripped out.
I like the Moon engraving.
I took out some of them and framed them for my study a while back, probably shouldn't have done that :-(

Full Moon 4th Sept 2009

Takahashi Sky-90, prime focus, Canon EOS 50D, single shot.

Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings 4th Sept 2009

Here is my 'Photoshopped' version of the event taken from CalSKY.
September 4th: Saturn’s Rings Do a Disappearing Trick.

Credit CalSKY.

Saturn 2006 to 2009

Here are my best Saturn's for the period of 2006 to 2009.

From an idea by Alan Friedman, and the Hubble space telescope.

Room for one more up top.

Small CGE mount problem.

I had a small problem on the CGE mount that I fixed with the help of the guys on Yahoo CGE forum.
When the mount was loaded and balanced, there was a very small rocking motion in declination. This was caused by backlash between the worm and worm wheel, because
worm was too far from the wheel.
I had to loosen the two bolts at the back of the DEC housing and nudge the worm closer to the wheel.
Works a treat now. Thanks Tom Krajci.

Seeing!

Here is an example of the seeing that we've been having recently!
Dunno about you, but I can't do too much with that.
SKYnyx and 2.5x TV Powermate.

Jupiter 17th & 19th August 2009

"Waving like a flag seeing".

SKYnyx first light.

This is the first time that I've used the SKYnyx for planetary imaging.
The seeing wasn't up to much, the camera software is easy to use but just different, so its going to take awhile to get my head around it!.
This image was taken with a 2.5x TV Powermate, the best 600 frames from 1800 ish. 55 seconds per channel including an IR ;-)

The Sun - 11th Aug 2009

Taken with Takahashi Sky-90, SKYnyx 2-0M, 2.5x TV Powermate and 5x Powermate.
Using Baader film, K-line filter and Ha filter.

New SKYnyx camera.

My new camera arrived today from the US. A SKYnyx 2-0M, which is a mono 640x480 type. It has a smaller pixel size than my DMK which cuts down the noise slightly. We shall see ;-)
It's a solid chunk of metal though, and seems very well built. All I need now is my license key to come through from Lucam Recorder.
I have the casual version, but it only allows you to save .jpg files rather than video. Still it's not a bad price, although the Pound against the Euro a present is almost on parity :-(
I bought from OPT.

That's a 'T' piece nosepiece.

Here's a couple of captures to compare the image size:-

DMK21AF04AS

SKYnyx

Meanwhile back on Mars.

Opportunity has spotted a possible meteorite on the surface. The rock is called "Block Island," and was discovered on July 18, 2009.
Here is a mosaic that I produced from the RAW image website.

And below is an RGB composition that I constructed from the RGB data at the Exploratorium RAW data website, (RGB process for correct colour balance).

Credit: Exploratorium
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.


You may have noticed that I've changed the close-up colour picture a few times. I'm still trying to find a definitive guide for processing colour Mars images.
This is the closest that I can get, using the histogram readings from the image calibration target.

Jupiter impact.

This is amazing, the Jupiter impact as viewed from the Mt. Wilson Observatory 60" telescope... through the eyepiece!

I wanna hook up my DMK!

Every cloud...

Found it!

Planetwarp.

After looking at LPOD I thought I'd have a go at this new piece of software called PlanetWarp.
It does a really good job of flattening Moon images to give an overhead view.
Here's a Mare Crisium before and after:-

Betelgeuse; she's gonna to explode captain!

Betelgeuse is already nearing the end of its life and is soon doomed to explode as a supernova. When it does, the supernova should be seen easily from Earth, even in broad daylight.

Credit Physorg.com

A giant anvil-shaped cloud hovering 75,000ft above Earth is photographed by Space Station astronauts

Credit NASA

Imaging M31 last night.

Hmmm... I don't think 18 minutes worth of 30 second subs really cuts it. Clouds stopped play :-(
Still the set-up worked. The Tak is quite 'bouncy' sitting on top of the C9.25. But the vibrations die down quickly enough.
I've ordered a 7lb Losmandy weight as well, which I'm assured will fit onto the CGE counterweight bar. Two 25lb weights work, but are a tad heavy for this combination.

Animated Jupiter impact.

Looking out of the ISS window.

I was watching NASA TV this afternoon, and the camera was panning around outside looking at the Earth.
I wondered exactly where they were, and found this handy little site.
It shows you a simulated view looking from the US Destiny's lab window.

Here's a view from the simulated window, and below it the actual view from the camera outside.