HDD warning.

I bought one of these a few months ago for data backup. I usually use 500GB drives which I have a few of. But I thought, lets go for something bigger. Bad Move!!!
It went pop the other day with a shed load of data from this year. I couldn't even recover it because the drive wasn't even spinning up! so that was a lesson learned. don't put all yours eggs... blah blah.
I'll be steering clear of these in the future.

Western Digital Caviar 1TB SATAII 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Green Internal Hard Drive OEM

M13 through Takahashi Sky-90

I just bought a new T-piece coupler for my Tak. I had been using the incorrect nose-piece connected to the EP holder before now, see below.

So here is a full frame of M13 as my first test image.

48min, bias, flats and darks. No guiding 45sec subs.

50% reduced:-

Cropped 70% :-


Here are the bits:-
This is the correct configuration, which gives the correct FR distance.

and this is the old setup:-

The rings fitted together:-

The separate pieces:-

These items were obtained from Green-witch.
CA35 Camera Coupling No 30 - Ref. TAK-TKA35201
Wide T-Mount No 33 - Ref. TMW0004 (not available in Europe, but made up by Green-Witch)
I know that this all looks a bit mundane, but it taken me ages to sort this out without resorting to buying something from the states.

Shuttle Launch Replay Video from every angle.

Credit NASA and Motherboard.
I'd advise you to click on the video for the bigger picture.

Plato & Alpine valley - 21st & 22nd May 2010

One of my favourite areas... as if you haven't guessed by now!

The Sun in Baader K-Line Filter 24th May 2010

... and that sunspot. Using a 5x TV Powermate and Baader H-alpha Pass Filter (656nm) that should really be used for deepsky imaging.

2.5x TV Powermate.

And the nice plage region from the top left.

The Sun 24th May 2010 - White light

Baader Astrosolar filter, Takahashi Sky-90 @ prime focus, Canon EOS 50D.

Mare Crisium 22nd May 2010

High sun angle Mare Crisium.

And a "flying over the Moon" version below:-

Albategnius 22nd May 2010

Albategnius; four image mosaic, 3x TV Barlow, C9.25, IR filter.

Venus & Saturn 22nd May 2010

A few B&W's from this afternoon/night.
The IR is a bit blown out, but it shows the cloud detail better, I'll work on it.

Posidonius 22nd May 2010

The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.

My favourite telescope, from Palomar skies.

OT: Joke time... Conan O’Brien Visits Google

I don't normally put stuff like this on my blog, but this is really funny.

Here's the web address for the big picture.

M92 with 1 hour of data.

I also had a quick look at M92 before turning in a 3:00am.
M92 is a lovely globular cluster in the same area as M13, Hercules constellation.

Links credit Wikipedia.

M13 - 2 hours 15 mins

Nice and clear last night, so I managed to get some more data for M13. 3 Minute subs at 800ISO.

Softer version below.

Joke.

Credit; The Register

OT: Tree trunk.

A tree was chopped down near where I live today. Nice Mandelbrot type rings.

M13 from 27th April 2010

50 Minutes of M13 with an almost full Moon present :-0

Full size version here.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8

I have this DVD. Here is a snippet commented by Mark Gray. 500 frames per second!

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

Copernicus from 26th April 2010.

2.5 x TV Powermate, IR filter, SKYnyx 2-0M, C9.25. Seeing was average with very light clouds.

Saturn 25th April 2010

3 x TV barlow, IR and RGB filters.

Below; 5 x TV Powermate RGB.

Rima Hyginus & Ariadaeus Rille 22nd April 2010

The Apennine mountains - 22nd April 2010

10 image mosaic, 2.5 TV Powermate, red filter, SKYnyx 2-0M, C9.25.
Larger version here.

Another blue sky Moon - 22nd April 2010

Shot at 16:25 BST.

Isn't it great to have the planes back? :-(

The Moon in a blue sky 20th April 2010

C9.25 and f/6.3 FR. Processed in DPP.

M101 re-worked.

Here's a couple of re-worked version with darks.
The subs were 5 minutes.

Cropped central region below. There's a lot going on in this galaxy!

M101 17th April 2010.

Thought I'd try something different tonight.
Here is 2 Hours 40 Minutes of M101.
It's really big! fills the whole image frame. But It's really dim, mag 7.5 compared to M51 which is mag 8.4, doesn't sound a lot but it is when you're imaging.
This is a very quick process minus darks... because I'm still creating them!
5 Minute subs, prime focus C9.25, PHD guiding, works a treat :-) even when the guide scope is crashing into the side of the shed!!! :-0

Earthshine 17th April 2010.

The Moon, Venus and the Pleiades... & Mercury.

and the Moon, Venus & Mercury below.

and a quick M13 with 42 Minutes of data.

M51 - 15th & 16th April 2010 data.

M51 - 11th & 15th April 2010 data.

1 Hour 3 minutes of data. 3 Minutes subs, darks, bias and flats applied.
Current scope setup at the bottom.

Below is 3 Hours 27 Minutes; 8th, 11th and 15th April data combined.

M51 - 11th April 2010

I went out the other night to collect some more data for M51. The only problem was that it clouded over after only six frames worth. Although I did use longer exposures than earlier and increased the time from 2 to 3 minutes.
I thought I'd process the six frames anyway... and here it is. 18 minutes worth, looks promising. (I also realised that one of the custom settings was turned on by mistake the other day).
As I had everything setup it wasn't a total waste because I did produce 30 dark frames, whilst it was cloudy.
Good seeing as well :-/