Langrenus to Petavius 3rd Dec 2009

Long Plato shadows.

From the 25th Nov 2009 session.

Mars 5th Dec 2009

It's early (in the morning), it's clear (in between the clouds)... and it's Mars!

5 x TV Powermate, RGB, SKYnyx 2-0M, C9.25.

The transparency along with the seeing was not very good, with gusty winds.

Below; enlarged 150% and colour tweaked.
You can just make out Elysium Mons the white smudge on the right close to the terminator.

Below is a CalSky ref.

5 minutes after taking this image, it started to rain... that's unusual!!

Clavius & Tycho - 25th Nov 2009

Rush.

Lucam Recorder test with SKYnyx 2-0M

Thought I'd try some different settings on the s/w that I use to control my SKYnyx 2-0M.
See the results below.
As you can see high gain and low exposure seem to offer the best image detail.




Not a very scientific test. I took around 1000 frames and processed each in Registax to the same wavelets. With a single 128 align box in the centre of the crater.

Basic rule now - whoop the gain up.

M42 re-processed for last year.

This hobby can be really dangerous.

Credit Cloudy Nights forum.

M33 from 16th Oct 2009

Scrapping the barrel here... here's M33 from last month, 9 minutes worth of data. Rain stop play!
Takahashi SKY-90 with flattener, Canon 50D, 30sec subs, darks & bias applied.

One of these days the rains gonna stop!

Exploring the Apollo 17 Site.

This is great, some really hi-res images of the Apollo 17 landing site from the LROC, which is now at its correct 50-kilometer mapping orbit.
Click on the link below.
LROC News System.

Above; view from the LRV TV camera after lift off.

ALSJ

Here's my best view.

A Moonwalker Views His Old Stomping Grounds

Clavius, Scheiner & Copernicus 28th Oct 2009

Just a very quick imaging session tonight. The seeing wasn't up to much... and I'm recovering from a bad cold, so I didn't want to be sitting in the cold for too long :-)

SKYnyx 2-0M with IR filter, 3 x TV barlow. Processed in Registax and CS4.

Space junk... wow!

Credit

Rant: People with lights on all night...

... in their back gardens, don't you just luv'em. What's that all about?
Sending my skyglow up another notch!

Another work in progress.

Here's a sneak preview of something that I've been working on the last few weeks.
I just need to re-stack some frames to get them to match.

NB; Blogspot has reduced the image size.

M31 - 3 Hour 40 Minutes of subs.

A bit more data from the other night :-)

Full size version here.
Only about 20 hours to go!

LPOD 12th Oct 2009.

These are always really nice to get; Lunar picture of the day.
Makes it all worth while :-)

Clavius.
Stay tuned for Chuck Wood’s “Exploring the Moon” column in the January 2010 issue of Sky and Telescope

M31 with more data.

I was out again last night to capture some more data for M31. This image a 2hour 34min in total, taken from 30sec subs. Darks, flats and bias applied.
Still not sure about the colour, looks a bit monochromatic green to me.

Since my scope was reaching the edge of the shed imaging M31... and everything comes to an abrupt end. I thought I'd finish off the night with an easy target.
The double cluster in Perseus, NGC 869 and NGC 884.

There's so many stars in this region :-o

M31 12th Oct 2009

Still plugging away at M31, trying different techniques. Here's 1hr 27mins from last night.

Aw gawd! I'm off again, re-processing already... I find M31 so tricky to process. My sky pollution is quite high and it obscures the nebulosity of the galaxy, so you have to make nasty compromises with the levels etc. in PS.

LCROSS Crater Cabeus taken with the Palomar Observatory's 200-inch (5-meter) Hale Telescope 10 secs after impact.

Well, if this telescope didn't catch anything, what hope did we have? ;-)
Nice image though.

Credit Caltech
Here's my image taken last month.

... and others from last year.

LCROSS impact point.

The LCROSS spacecraft is going to impact at crater Cabeus on the 8th/9th of this month.
Here are some images of the area that I've taken over the years, and a map to find it... it's tricky.
Although we won't see it from the UK, well, maybe a dust cloud later ;-)

LCROSS

Enhanced colour Moon - 1st Oct 2009

Below; 12 image mosaic taken with SKYnyx, IR filter and C9.25 prime focus.

Someone's trying to copy me...

Mercury and Venus from the Messenger probe.

Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

Jupiter, Moon and the Moon 29th Sept 2009

Shot with Canon 200mm lens.

You'll need a big monitor to get it all in. If you use Google Chrome use the Ctrl + & - to re-size.

Waxing gibbous Moon 29th Sept 2009

M31 & M45 27th Sept 2009

Managed to get out last night with my Takahashi, first time for ages :-)
Thought I'd try some easy targets M31 & M45, although not so easy to process.
I imaged M31 for 2 hours and M45 for 1 before calling it a day(night) at 3:00 in the morning... zzzzz.
When I finished, my C9.25 (which was piggy backing the Tak) corrector plate was covered in ice!
I realised that after moving to M45, that the scope wasn't quite in sharp focus, so some of these stars are a bit bloated.

Larger wide field view... processed another way.

ESA Mars rover.

Just found this on the BBC news website about the ESA Mars rover camera tests... using a couple of DMK's, neat.

Credit BBC

Jupiter 25th Sept 2009

Poor seeing... and then it clouded over... ho hum!

Jupiter 21st Sept 2009

Almost an hour later. Red filter.

Jupiter LRGB - 21st Sept 2009

Jupiter & Io - 21st Sept 2009

4 x imagemate, Red filter and Skynyx 2-0M camera.

Warning; CGE mount tripod leg screws.

Just a word of warning for anyone using a CGE mount.
I was messing about in my observatory today and found that the screws that fix the legs to the tripod head were quite loose. I presume this is because they are supposed to be flexible for when you move the legs. But there was a fair amount of play in them, so I tightened them up for good measure (since it isn't moving anywhere soon).
They're the hex screws at the bottom of the pic, two per leg.
When you consider how much weight is sitting on top of that tripod, you don't want any movement at all ;-)

Going around the bend! - 3Dfication.

Here's another one of those image manipulation programs. This one is by Niels Noordhoek.
This is an image of the full Moon that I took last year.

3D Moon, red & blue glasses needed.

NB. I always find the best thing to do is to move closer to the image whilst viewing, then the 3D pops into your head.
Niels Noordhoek site.