The Milky Way from Tenerife

This was taken on 11/09/2012 from the Parador Canadas del Teide, Tenerife at an altitude of 2150 metres, using a Canon EOS 600D with a Samyang 14mm. F2.8 very wide angle lens on a Polarie equatorial driven mount.

The exposure was a single shot of 49 secs. at ISO 1600. Enhanced with Photoshop Elements 10.

We arrived in the late evening very tired after the long journey and the difficult drive up the mountain through cloud and occasional drizzle. At the top it was so clear that I felt I must get some photographs taken in case this was the best night. I thought that this exposure had been spoiled as a solitary car came along the road with its headlights blazing. Fortunately, the final result was good, as the lights illuminated the Chapel and nearby hills briefly enough to get the foreground exposed correctly and not blurred by the movement of the mount.

Bill Hughes

 

 

19.9.12 - Wednesday

Although this is called the Photo Journal, there is no reason to make it exclusively so, so here is a text report on an activity taken by me, Peter Smith.

The sky was clear(ish) so joined Brian at Austerfield at about 9pm for an evening of just looking. I used Geraldine, the 14" Meade with the Meade 40mm SWA 2" eyepiece and the 26mm 1.25" eyepiece. 

First a quick check of Alberio to judge the seeing, good, with nice gold and blue shining high in the sky.

Then a  broad look around using the lists on the wall of the dome. 

Not necessarily the order in which I looked:

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy was beautiful – clear, bright and wide.

M57 The Ring Nebula -  nice blue doughnut.

N 6826 The Blinking Nebula, winked at me( in blue).

M76  and M27 The  two Dumbbell nebulae were quite visible, but difficult to make out the shapes clearly.

N6543 Cats eye nebula – I was definitely being looked at! Very clear.

N7662 The Blue Snowball – blue  but small.

N404 Mirach's Ghost faint but visible  - if you move Beta  Andromedae (Mirach) out of the eyepiece view (it's very close).

N7027 The Magic carpet nebulae – very small.

M52 a pretty cluster.

ET Cluster  (phone home!) - Beautiful

M29 a nice, small open cluster.

Neptune – very small but greeny blue.

M45 The Pleiades – although I need  binoculars – too big for Geraldine. 

At 11.30 we broke for Tea. When we returned it was still clear but clouds threatening.

Tried for Uranus – low and in haze so went for Jupiter.

Jupiter very nice, but as I was  sorting eyepieces and filters to play with, the cloud god appeared.

So, we called it a night and went home.

Peter.

The Double Cluster in Perseus - NGC 884 and 869

 

This was taken on the 7th of September 2012 from the Austerfield Observatory, as a test piece for a newly acquired Canon 550D, on the also newly acquired Takahashi FSQ106ED. The exposure was only 17x30sec, whereas my usual for this sort of subject would be an hour.

I used the camera's built-in feature for taking darks. The frames were acquired and pre-processed in Astroart, then finally processed in Photoshop. Colour had to be added for the blue stars and some of the red, but the large red ones had to be reduced in saturation. The focusing was done with the aid of Nebulosity and no sharpening was done in processing. Quite a mix of testing was done at the same time in this effort, and as is usual, there was more time spent on processing than on taking the frames. I'm reasonable pleased with the result, and particularly impressed with the tiny stars the combination seems to be able to produce.
Brian

The Sun

Taken on 8.9.12 during the first Austerfield Show, in the village of Austerfield about half a mile from the observatory.
It was a very hot day for all at the show. The Sun was on good behaviour for a change, visitors enjoyed looking through the Celestron 8" with a full diameter white light filter, which showed quite a few sun spots, but they were most impressed with the Coronado Solar Telescope, which showed a number of stunning prominences. This image was taken at 4:40pm with my Pentax digital camera placed at the Coronado's eye piece.
Sandra Crowther

The ISS

Inspired by Sandra’s printout of the ISS predictions, I saw the ISS on my way home from the meeting at 9:17 pm and set up my camera on its Polaris mount ready for the next pass at 10:52 pm. I used a Canon 600D with a 14mm. F 2.8 very wide angle lens. As it would take several minutes ( 139 secs. exp) to pass through the field of view, I could only use ISO 100 or the sky glow would over expose the photo. I have enhanced it with Photoshop and am pleased with the result apart from the reflection of the street lights and the trail looks broken on the computer screen. If you enlarge it you will see that it is OK and there are a surprising number of stars captured. The satellite is shown passing above Aquila. The trees are blurred as the camera was moving to track the stars. This report was made by Bill Hughes who took the photograph too.

IC5146 the Cocoon Nebula

A habit of astrophotographers is to keep fiddling, never know when to stop. So this is a reprocessing of the data. No major change but several little bits of fiddling with curves. Is it any better? A matter of personal opinion of course, but I think I prefer this to the others.

More frames taken of the Cocoon to make a total of 4 hours 50 mins. The second set wasn't as good as the first but serviceable. I'd lost 5 during the night, one to a lost guide star through cloud and 4 to haze and dawn.
I stacked all of the frames together in Astroart, and though it did the job well, I'd have had to crop and reduce the size of the photograph, so I processed them separately then stacked and did the rotating in Photoshop and retained the full size. Hopefully the difference is apparent.

Taken 23.7.12, on a good clear night when the Milky Way was easily seen right across the sky, from Austerfield.
This is in a part of Cygnus, full of stars, being in the middle of the Milky Way band. The nebula is known for the dark nebulosity, Barnard 168, flowing round it and westwards from it.
The how? SX M25C camera in a William 98FLT, guided by an SX H9C, both on an AP 900GTO mount. The exposure was 36x300sec. Acquisition and calibration with flats and biases in Astroart, with final processing in Photoshop.

M13

Taken on 18.7.12 with a Canon 500D through the WO 98FLT, on the AP 900GTO mount at Austerfield.
This is my first attempt with the 500D, and the night was reasonably clear if only for a short while, but a joy to be able to work on something other than the Sun.
There is quite a lot of local light pollution so I always use an IDAS filter and fitting one to the Canon caused some thought. But I obtained a filter holder from Gerd Neumann, connected it to a M42x1 thread to Canon adapter. I haven't an easy means of connecting my usual field flattener and you can see the result of doing without it. I'll have to sort something out for that.
I used the 500D's built-in capability to take darks rather than take them separately, as the clear sky wasn't there for long. No flats taken either as this was taken to test possibilities.
Stacked in Astroart and processed in Photoshop CS2. The exposure was 10x60sec set at ISO400.

Sunspot 1520

A group of sunspots taken yesterday 11 July a single exposure 1/100 sec canon 450d using a skywatcher 150mm and baader solar film.

The Sun on 5.7.12

This is a first venture into astrophotography by Bill Hughes, using a Canon 600D in a Sky-Watcher 127MC and a homemade white light filter made from Baader film. A single shot, the setting were 1/1000sec at ISO400. Processed in Photoshop Elements 10.
Lots of activity there.

Mega-Moon

Taken by Dave Hardware yesterday soon after 10pm, with a Canon DSLR through the murk on the horizon as it rose in the south east.