Astronomy Log

Decided to try and image the full harvest moon the other night. When the moon is so bright there is not much else you can image other than doing some Hydrogen Alpha imaging.

I decided to use my new Skywatcher 120ED DS Pro. It was taken with a William Optics 0.8 reducer, through an OIII filter and with my Atik 314L+ camera.

The moon was so bright I actually used a zero second exposure in Maxim DL. I took 20 frames and then stacked them in Maxim DL and then imported the image into FITS Liberator and performed a stretch. Then into Photoshop CS5 in order to manipulate the curves, levels and to add an Unsharp Mask.

I decided to try and push my Skywatcher ED80 Pro to it’s limit on the moon. I am really impressed with my Skywatcher ED80 Pro telescope, as it gives me some nice widefield views, and I also use a Williams Optics version 3 flattener 0.8 which gives me even more view.

The Skywatcher gives me nice views of the Sun, Moon and Deep Sky Objects. I think the only thing that an 80mm type scope is not good at is planetary imaging and small Deep Sky Objects, like the Ring Nebula or Eskimo Nebula.

I was a bit worried that my 80mm scope would not cope well at imaging the lunar surface close-up. But I was pleasantly surprised that I managed these images with the scope.

The setup included the 0.8 William Optics flattener/reducer together with my Televue 5x Powermate and the DMK21 CCD camera.

Focusing was tricky, as the moon looked liked it was underwater from the atmospheric turbulence. But once I had stacked the images using Registax (version 6 is now out) they looked a lot better.

This time I also took a flat image, by using my EL panel which I have encased between 2 A4 acrylic sheets. I took a 1 second snapshot in the IC Capture software in order to get the flat image. I then opened it up in Photoshop and checked the histogram, and it was about nearly dead centre.

For the first time I then used Registax to stack the frames of the AVI videos with a flat frame selected. The results were good, as my DMK21 camera seems to have lots of dust bunnies in it, but I think most DMK cameras must suffer from this problem.

I was up nice and early today in the freezing conditions, even with a really bad cold to try and capture the total lunar eclipse . I put on several layers and headed out with my new Canon 550d camera on a tripod with a remote cable attached and my 300mm lens and a very large lens hood to try and keep the dew off of the lens.

A few minutes later and I was at a clearing off of the main road, so I could get the full horizon. I started taking a few photos, and then went for the new feature of Full HD videos on the 550d, which when I came home I used Windows Live Movie Maker to make the movie up and put it on YouTube.

I could see the moon clearly to begin with but once it was at totality I never saw it again as the low clouds covered the moon up. I began shooting at about 7.20am and finished around 7.45am GMT but even that short time was enough.

I was not that happy with the images, as even with a 300mm lens the moon still really looks small, I think you need a 600mm lens or a 2.0x converter if just using an SLR, but ideally you really need an 80mm refractor joined to the SLR to get a good image. Unfortunately I don’t get a good view of the western horizon with my permanent set up, but then again with the moon being at about 5 degrees above the horizon the local houses would have also stopped me using my telescope.

View the Lunar Eclipse YouTube video here.

Whilst away on holiday in Menorca for the week, was the chance to see and image the daytime showing of the Moon and Venus close together.

I would not have known about this had it been for me reading Sky at Night magazine in the plane a few days earlier.

I did not take my DSLR with me, so took this photography with my Lumix TZ7 camera instead. It was taken on the 11th September 2010 at 16:30 GMT (Menorca time 17:30).

I don’t know how many people in the UK saw this, as it may have been cloudy here at the time.

What great weather we have been having lately, could it be anything to do with there being no planes flying at the moment due to the icelandic volcano erruptions? After spending the day listening to talks, looking at telescopes and viewing trade stands at Kelling Heath I decided to come home and do some imaging.

The moon has been looking amazing at the moment in the blue twilight sky, unfortunately for me at the moment my west viewpoint is obstructed by my own house, so I snuck around the side of the house and managed to get this image below of the moon and venus on the bottom right.

f/4.5 1/10sec -2 exposure on a Canon 450D

The same moon taken using my Canon 450D straight into an 80mm StarSky Refractor - 1/125 second exposure with a ISO400 setting.

Click on both images to enlarge them.

I managed to get out before the snow set in and the clouds appeared today (Sunday 21st Feb). I went out at about 4pm when it was still light, but the moon appeared directly above me.

I took this image with my cheap refractor but this time I also used my Televue 2x Barlow as well as my Canon 450D camera on ISO800 for about 1/50th exposure. I forgot to add that I also used my 1.25″ Baader Fringe Killer filter.

Click on it to enlarge it.

I sent my lunar eclipse images around the internet and managed to get the photo on the Sky News website within about 12 hours. The local CAA have also responded, and so have the SPA. The SPA have requested a high resolution version, hopefully for the quarterly magazine, but we’ll see.

Managed to get out tonight for a while around 7.30pm, I did not think the clouds would clear. Usually whenever there is something worth looking at it’s always cloudy! But eventually the clouds went and the moon was in full view, even though it was -1 degrees in the shed.

I took these images by attaching my Canon 450d to my cheap £100 guiding refractor telescope, I still think the photographs it produces are great for a £100 telescope. Images were taken mostly using an exposure time of 1/800th and an ISO400

I stayed out as long as possible to try and get the full story of the eclipse, all the way through from start to finish, but I did move my camera between the refractor and the lx200 so some later shots did get rotated as I did not put the camera back in the exactly same position.

The partial eclipse was not a great site to behold, but still something worth looking at.

I popped out last night with just my static tripod and camera to try and get some shots of the conjunction of the moon and pleiades.  I spent about 30 minutes outside in the wind, which was making the camera move.  So I ended up taking about 50 shots in total.

Unfortunately as the moon was so bright getting the faintness of the pleiades with the brightness of the moon was very difficult. I took all the shots at ISO800 on my Canon 300mm lens with varying exposure times.

Below is the best I got, which is pretty bad, I think I would have been better taking the photos of the pleiades  and the moon separately and then just putting the scene together in a photo editor program.

The only good thing to come out of the 30 minutes was this shot of just the moon. It’s quite amazing what a 300mm lens can do, and it shows you don’t need a telescope in order to take nice images of the moon.

I went to bed at 9pm on the 20th February and managed to get up at 2.30am in order to get some images of the lunar eclipse.  I knew it was going to be cloudy tonight, but I thought the bright moon would shine through any cloud, how wrong I was.

Luckily after setting up and letting the LX200 do it’s setup routine, I managed to somehow find focus on the moon and get a few images.  It was difficult to get focus on the moon when it was covered by cloud, but after the first 10 minutes or so the cloud came over and the moon disappeared for the rest of the night, I came in at about 4.30am.

I even had to pull my whole telescope by the leg and re-align it manually as the moon disappeared behind the ridge of my house roof, whilst I waited for a better view.

I think if I could do it all again I would have set up my telescope earlier and found perfect focus then left the telescope alone until the lunar eclipse began, rather than try and find focus when the moon was covered by cloud.

The image was taken at prime focus f/0 through the telescope using my Canon 400D with an exposure time of 5 seconds at ISO800.