Lunar eclipse July 27th 2018

As usual, we had great weather for weeks, but the night of the lunar eclipse, there were clouds and haze on the horizon, so we saw nothing of the totality, but got to see the moon after totality. I was trying to take longer exposures to get the redness of the rest of the Moon, but due to the haze, the overexposed parts glowed over the red parts, so I had to give it up. I did take some photos before the clouds rolled in and obscured the Moon again.
I used a Williams Optics Star71 with a ZWO ASI178MC at different setting from first to last to get the colors and the exposure almost the same for the different images. Exposure from 5-10 ms and gain from 0 to 175. Firecapture for capturing, and AS!3 for stacking.

The Sun on June 23d.

It has been a while since the last time I posted a solar image here, so I thought it was about time. Especially since there were a few nice sunspots out this day. For the images white light images, I used an ASI178MM camera, attatched to a Williams Optics FLT98 telescope through a Lacerta Herschel Wedge. The exposure was 0.5 ms. For the closeups, I used a Televue Powermate 2.5. Processed with AS!3, Gimp and Irfanview.  For the H-alpha image, I used a Lunt LS35 telescope with the same camera. Some dust probably on the blocking filter, so it needs to be cleaned... Click on the images for higher resolution.

The Sun itself with two groups of sunspots

 

 

The groups, close up using Televuew Powermate 2.5

Moonstruck

I originally recorded this image late in the evening of May 5th this year. But I never got around to actually processing the images. I wanted to do a closeup, high resolution image of the moon, using my new ASI178MM camera attached to my 6" RC. I recorded 1000 images of 2ms each of each of the patches of the Moon.
Now I processed them, and stiched it all together. And the resolution was surprisingly good. This is probably the highest resolution image I have ever taken of the Moon. So even if it is a monochrome image only, I am quite satisfied with the result.

Click on the image for original version (>2500 pixels square). 

Technical details : ZWO ASI178MM camera, gain 174, bin 2x2, 2ms exposure. TPO 6" RC. Stacked in AS!3, sticked with Microsoft ICE, enhanced in Gimp 2.9.

After publishing the original image, I tried using wavelets in Registax to sharpen the image. This made a better version, I think. With sharper details and more contrast. And better shadows.

Clean Sun October 7th 2017

The weather hasn't been right for any astronomy so far this season. But today, the Sun was shining, so I had to give it a go. Obviously, it has been some time since the last time I did any solar imaging. The camera wasn't very square in the telescope. Hence the left side of the image is a bit out of focus. Not much going on on the surface, but a nice little proturberance.

Tech det : Lunt 35mm H-alpha telescope, ASI178 camera, Gain 0, exposure 1.5ms, FireCapture for imaging, AS!2 for processing and Registax for wavelet sharpening. Final touchup in Irfanview.

Totalitarianism

August 21st. Madras, Oregon. After a trip across the country, we were ready for the main reason for travelling to the US. The total solar eclipse. My 9th eclipse, and hopefully, the 8th I would actually see. The roads had been packed, and there was a few forest fires around the area. The smoke from these fires were threatening to throw a dark carpet across the skies.
Luckily, the skies where almost clear. There was a thin veil of clouds and smoke across the skies, but nothing that would hamper the view of the solar eclipse. All I had to do, was to increase the ISO of my camera to compensate for the slight decrease in light throughput.
On previous eclipses, I have done all of the exposure settings manually. Not only stressing during totality, but also error-prone and also leaving me with precious little time to enjoy the actual sight. So this time, for the first time, I decided to create an automatic system to control the camera. Since I am using Pentax, there is little or no software available. All available software supports Nikon and/or Canon. But I did find some open source program supporting Pentax. So I just modified that to handle a script I made. This way, I would get a series of exposures before totality and a series of different exposures of the corona during totality.

The following are some of the images taken, and a couple of animations of the eclipse. Both before and during totality.

A combo of 8 images from 1/4000th to 1/2 second

 

Here is a video made from the exposures before totality. The camera program took 3 images per minute at 1/4000th of a second.

And here is one video of the totality itself.

Testing my new ASI178MM

At this years European Astrofest in London, I bought a new camera for my planetary photos. A ZWO ASI178MM. The mono version. I had been looking at several cameras, and this seemed to be the one with the specs I wanted. Relatively large chip. Small pixels, and lots of them. 6 megapixels. Minute, and perfect for planetary photos with shorter focal lengths. Mono version so I could use it for guiding, and for some DSO's. I know it seems a bit weird using a non-cooled camera for DSO, but I had read some good reviews in that regard.
Venus is currently at its highest, but it is not very good either way. At least not from Oslo. But I figured I could use it to test my new camera. I set up my WO 98FLT with a Televue 4x powermate. Giving 2500mm focal length. The planet was literally dancing around in the disturbed air low on the horizon. I recorded 5 minutes, hoping that I would get at least some good frames.
Below is the result after stacking in AS2!. Not too bad. No details on the surface, but then again, Venus isn't known for its many features. Although I have seen others being able to extract some details in the clouds.

I also wanted to try out the capability for DSO. M42 was a natural target. Not very good from Oslo. Both because of the light pollution west of my position, but also because it never flies really high. But it is a forgiving target in that it is fearly bright and easy to capture. Since I hadn't bothered to polar alight the mount properly, I had to restrict the exposure to 10 seconds. I collected 60 frames and stacked them. Did a simple DDP and the image below was the result. Not terribly good, but for just 10 minutes exposure (bin 2x2), it was ok. (Click on image for a larger version).

First light

I have been looking/drooling at a telephotolens from Pentax for a long time. I have gone back and forth for ages. And a few weeks ago, I finally jumped in, and bought it. The Pentax DA* 300mm f/4 ED (IF) SDM. I have been waiting anxiously to test it out on heavenly bodies. The initial test on terrestial objects proved very promising. Very sharp. I have wanted it to bring to solar eclipses. I already have the William Optics excellent Star 71 quintiplet APO. But it weigh 2.4 kg. Far from heavy, but still. When setting up the scope on my Star Adventurer on Svalbard for the sun eclipse March 20th 2015, it was obviously far out of balance for the small mount. The 300mm telephoto lens only weighs in at just over 1 kg, and is far better balanced (with the camera body attached), so it would be easier to handle. And easier to carry in my luggage.
This weekend, while attending the monthly astromeet at Harestua Solar observatory, the skies cleared, and I got the chance to really try it out. I had set my mind on a few objects. Unfortunately, one of the objects, the California Nebula, was a dud due to the autoguiding totally freaking out after a few minutes (while I was asleep...). So I came out in the morning only to find all my exposures were just streaks. And just as well. I normally take a few test-exposures using ISO 12800 to frame the object. And ISO 640 for the actual images. But I had forgotten to reset the ISO-settings. So the images where totally burned out. That is, the red channel was. I had used a deep red filter to get he H-alpha out. And thus the red channel was blown, with streaks of stars across it...
But below are the two images I did get.
First the North America nebula in the same field as the Pelican nebula. I used the B+W 091 deep red filter. This isn't quite an H-alpha filter, but it does filter out most of the light, and with the built-in IR-filter in the camera, it creates a wideband deep red quasi-h-alpha filter. It does work quite well. I opted to try really deep exposures, and set my remote shutter controller for 20 minute integrations. I first tried a proportionally shorter exposure at ISO 12800 to get an idea of the histogram. And it looked decent. I had to throw out a couple of exposures due to the autoguider software going nuts and revving the DEC axis constantly. I had to restart the program to make it stop. I did some basic processing like stretching, curves and star shrinking to get the nebula to stand out better.

Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO 640, Pentax 300mm F/4, B+W 091 deep red filter, 14x20 min exposures. 20 flats. Guided with QHY5II and PHD2. Stacked in DSS, processed in FitsWork and PS. Click on the image for larger version.

The rest of the night, I tried and failed on the California nebula. The next night we had about half the night clear, and I pointed at the Andromeda Galaxy. A beloved and easy object for budding astrophotographers. Since the clouds were moving in, some of the images were too bright and where discarded. In the end, I managed to get 16 10-minute exposures that were passable. Also did some basic processing on this one too, since my main objective was to test the lens quality for astro work. Only DDP, star shrinking, and color enhancement.

Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO 640, Pentax 300mm F/4, 16x10 min exposures. Guided with QHY5II and PHD2. Stacked in DSS, processed in FitsWork, Irfanview and PS. Click on the image for larger version.

In conclusion : A very successful test! I am looking forward to using this lens more in the future. And to bring it to the 2017 total solar eclipse in the US! What I intended it for!