Copernicus central peak - LROC data.

My image below; the above peak is on the right of the central peaks.

LROC data now on-line.

If you're a Moon nut like me, or just like like looking at rocks, go to the LROC map below. Where there is 10 Terabytes (that is 10 million Megabytes!) of camera data to sift through. The first formal release of orbiter data.
That got me thinking, I've got over 4 Terabytes of data myself from the stuff I've been doing over the years!!

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) map site.

Below is an extract from image: EDR: LRO-L-LROC-2-EDR-V1.0/M111661378RE CDR: LRO-L-LROC-3-CDR-V1.0/M111661378RC, (just rolls off the tongue) showing one of the slopes of Tycho's central peak.

Tips on using the image browser; Click 'Toggle Layers' (blue panel) and select 'LROC NACs' selection boxes.Select 'Lunar Orbiter Mosaic' radio button then 'Update Layers' button.

Select on right-hand pane the 'Recenter & Zoom' radio button.

When you zoom in enough, you will see red rectangle boxes. Click inside one of the boxes to select the area. An image thumbnail will appear below. Click on the thunbnail and zoom away!

Simples... apart from the fact that you need a high speed internet link, which I have - 50Mb - hehe

M81 & M82 - 7th & 15th March data combined.

Zoomed in on the main characters.

M106 and others from 15th March 2010.

Wide-field of the galaxy M106 in constellation Canes Venatici.
It's interesting to see how many other galaxies there are in this region.

Below is a CGI image taken from "THE SKY6 PRO" of the same area, minus the stars to show the galaxies. Every dot/smudge BTW is a galaxy.

Avatar

We went to see Avatar the other week, great film. If you're going, make sure you see it in 3D though. The 3D effect is not a gimmick and is really rather good.

There's a scene where they land in the jungle and explore the area, the fauna and animals are so well done. You don't know what's real and what isn't. I like the insects and flies, they seemed to be buzzing around right in front of your eyes. It's like the cinema has an infestation.

Quick... sunspot.

K-line filter, SKYnyx and Takahashi.

Lets talk about SIZE.

M31 re-processed from October.

Learning to process all the time, some people say that it's 25% imaging and 75% processing with deepsky stuff, I think that's about right. I'm learning how to do things different all the time!

This has 3Hours and 40mins worth of data.
Takahashi Sky-90, Takahashi F/4.5 Reducer, Canon EOS 50D, DSS, CS4, Noels tools and a Star removing action.

Here's the comparison.

And below is a "Starless" version (minus the stars from our own galaxy).

OT: 'nuff said! (click the 1 million dot below)

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Amazing Mars video.

This is an animation flying over southwest Candor Chasma on Mars. It was created from NASA's HiRISE DTM and image data by Adrian Lark.

Credit: Adrian Lark

M81 & M82 7th March 2010

Widefield view taken with my Takahashi. NGC 2976 & NGC 3077 are also in the frame, bottom and top right.

Yet another version below of M81 taken the other night (prime focus C9.25), with better gradient removal.
Tip; the background black should never be 0 in ANY of the RGB channels in Phototshop or whatever you use. See below.

RGB Info box.

First Saturn of 2010

M81

Been messing with M81 tonight, here's a couple of version, 1hour 20mins worth @ ISO800 using the C9.25.


... and another version.

Regulus and Leo 1

This is a tricky one to shoot and process, Leo 1 can be seen as the light grey splodge just to the left of Regulus the middle star. You almost have to use some averted vision :-)
It needed another hour or so of data... but it was really cold last night!

Thanks to Greg Parker for the idea.

Below is a single shot that I didn't use due to the obvious. As you can see there is not a hint of Leo 1.

Mars 2nd March 2010

Mars is shrinking!
Misty tonight, not very good seeing either.
This is an IR, synth green, blue RGB, if you can figure that one out!

Moon Halo

Mars is also in the image, about 8:00 o'clock.

Moon Earthshine version 2 - 20th Feb 2010

Another version of the Earthshine Moon, using a technique from Malcolm Park :-)

Mars 20th Feb 2010

Here's an IR, RGB from last night.

And some orographic clouds earlier. (taken with RGB, 16bit ser mode)
Seems to have a nicer tonal value than the image above that makes it look like a globe.

Vesta - minor planet

Vesta in supposed to be in this image somewhere... but I'm not sure where!
Should be about 2 o'clock to Algieba, Mag 6.1.

Celestron's The Sky.

Nothing in the blink comparator... I must be doing something wrong!

Close-up of the area.

The Moon 20th Feb 2010

Taken with Takahashi Sky-90, Flatenner and Canon EOS 50D.

Our Neighbor Andromeda from WISE... and me.

This is nice, from the WISE telescope. With the same area imaged by me last year.


NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.

Avebury stones 2.

Been messing with my Avebury stone pics in CS4.
CS4 mist, Moon and a bit of 'content-aware scaling'.

Here's the original image.

Valentines day globe.

Y My wife bought me a nice globe of the world for Valentines day Y

Mars 11th Feb 2010

The seeing was not as good as last night, and it's just clouded over, Doh!

Mars 10th Feb

Here's one from slightly earlier in the evening using IR, RGB technique.

Mars 10th Feb 2010 - Fair seeing.

Fairly good seeing tonight, although clouds stopped play soon after this last image.
C9.25, RGB filters, 5x TV Powermate, SKYnyx 2-0M.
I used the red again as the Lum channel.


Below is an IR synth Green, Blue image.

Mars 9th Feb 2010

The seeing was very hit and miss again last night, very difficult to focus.
I think it's because of the cold coming down from the North.

Copernicus from 26th Jan 2010

Here's Copernicus from a the other week, I've just got around to processing it.

Above was processed with Registax and below Avistack.

Mars 31st Jan 2010

Too many clouds tonight, just one quick Mars image.

Mare Crisium.

Mars 30th Jan 2010

Very cold again last night but clear throughout. The seeing was quite strange, very high frequency shimmering is the only way I can explain it.
I also cleaned my corrector plate before the session, that was fun in the freezing cold, trouble is I've got some stuff on the other-side of the glass as well. So I'll have to dismantle it completely and deal with that at a later date.
I checked the collimation as well, but since the seeing wasn't that great it's very difficult to tell.
This image was taken at the end of the session, I used my usual 5x Powermate with the filter wheel on the end of it, I also used a barlow extension tube to give it a bit more mag.

Here's a short video showing the type of seeing, 5x Powermate through IR filter, SKYnyx 2-0M.

As you can see Registax does an amazing job.