Copernicus

 Long time since I have updated my pages here. But the last few days, I have done some imaging of the Moon. It is really interesting object that is probably a bit forgotten by us astrophotographers. But I love it. It is dynamic, and there are so many details that are a challenge to image. Some because they are small. Some because they are only visible when the sunlight is at a certain angle. 

I have tried new methods for increasing resolution. Not just using a larger telescope, but also how I process the image. In the following image, I tried a wide view of the Copernicus crater. I have been observing this crater in detail using high magninfication, and the whole area is full of interesting smaller details. Like mountains and craters. As can be seen in this image. Although I only used a 6 inch RC, a lot of details are still visible.

In processing, I used the drizzle functionality in AS!3 this time, and it made it much easier to extract details later using the wavelet function in Registax. I spent some time trying out different settings for this image. And it is hard. Because the setting that produced the most detail in one area, would make another part look weird. So I settled on this version as a "compromise". I know I can extract more details, but not without making the image look weird. And if I make it more pleasing, much details are lost. So enjoy the compromise! Click on the image to see a full version.

Tch details : TPO 6" RC F/9. ASI178MM camera. Gain 250, 1ms exposures. 1040x1040 crop. Dyadic mode wavelets in Registax. Some levels enhancement in Gimp. 

Moon 3rd of April

This is a better version of the moon image from the 3rd. The last one was made from an ASI071MC. A good camera, but since it is a color camera, they have only one color per pixel. Meaning that the resolution is poorer than the ASI178MM. Even with using binning 2x2 on the 178. So here is my best effort try for the max resolution.

Growing moon

New image of the moon. This is at april 3rd. And I have used the ASI071MC Pro for this one. Two images combined. Gain 290, exposures 1000x4 ms. Processed in AS!3, wavelets in Registax.

Not april's fools

There has been a string of clear nights with the Moon this week. So I have used the opportunity to take some images of the moon. This evening (april 1st), I tried using my ASI071MC Pro. The advantage being that I could get the whole Moon inside the frame. So no mosaic. And it did come out pretty good. I used the same setup as before, except for the camera. No binning, gain 340 and exposure 4ms. No wavelets this time. Will maybe try later. The only downside, was the ginormous filesize. 32 GB for 1000 frames. Took a while to process. I did use my ASI178MM too, and will try the mosaic later. But for now, this is the image. 16 megapixels. Click on the image, then rightclick and choose View Image to see the picture in full resolution.

Moonlit

I haven't been too busy updating this blog with new photos. Not because I haven't been active atking any, but processing takes too much time. And I have been busy doing other stuff. But yesterday, I took a mosaic image of the Moon. It was high in the sky, and at a phase where you can see a lot of reliefs of craters and mountains. Casting shadows across the surface. I love that way better than a full moon. When it is full, the surface remains flat. Lifeless. But add a lot of shadows, and it is a completely different picture. Literally.
I made a composite of images, and stitched them together with Microsoft ICE. That is, ICE wasn't quite working the way it should this time. I don't know what threw it off, but for some reason, it refused to add one of the images, so I got a gap in the image. I had to add that in Gimp afterwards.
Tech data : William Optics 98FLT with 4x Televue Powermate. ASI178MC 2x2  binning. 1000 exposures of 4ms per image. 13 images in total. SharpCap for recording. AS!3 for stacking. Microsoft ICE for stiching. Registax for wavelets and Gimp for touchups. To view the full version, (4500 pixels tall) click on the image, then rightclick on the image and choose View Image. Then you can zoom in to see it all.

In addition, not far from the Moon, Venus was lighting up the skies. And I slewed the telescope to the planet. Using a ASI178MM (monochrome), no binning and 0.2mS exposures. 5000 of them. AS!3 picked 20% of the best, and I did a little wavelet sharpening. This was the result :

Total eclipse La Silla Observatory July 2nd 2019

I used an 8 bit cmos camera (the camera itself is 14 bit, but I only used 8...) this time to take photos of the eclipse. It was obvious when I was processing that I had limted range of values to work with. But after a few attempts, I managed to get this. Not my best image of an eclipse, but ok. I will attempt more later. Click on image for full size.

Tach details : ASI178MC camera, gain 100, exposures from 0.5ms to 2s. SkyWatcher Evoguide 50ED telescope on a SkyWatcher StarAdventurer. FireCapture for capture, Gimp 2.10 for processing.

Images from Namibia with short exposures.

 I had brought my new ASI071MC Pro cooled camera to take photos with, but I also brought an ASI178MC uncooled camera. Mostly to take photos of Jupiter, but I also wanted to try it out on deep sky. And I did dedicate one entire night for just deep sky photography with this camera using short exposures. And the images came out quite good. So maybe I will use the camera more on another occasion. All the images are through a Williams Optics 98FLT with a WO AFR-VI reducer-flattener. ASI178MC camera. All images about 1 hour total exposure. Stacked with DSS, processed in Gimp.

47 Tucana. A beautiful globular cluster.

 

Centaurus A galaxy with its characteristic dust band.

Central parts of the Eta Carina nebula.

Omega nebula

Trifid nebula

Omega Centaurus, the king of globular clusters.