HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
weather
weather
Gas giants in UV
HEQ5, N250/1200, ASI 178MM (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher, Baader Venus U filter
Due to the very few light, exposure times needed to be at around >100ms and gain pushed to > 3/4 of the slider to get meaningful results.
Jupiter in UV, Baader Venus U
Saturn in UV, Baader Venus U
Mars 2020-07-22
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled) for the color, and ASI 178MM (cooled) through IR-pass 650 for the luminance, home observatory, mountpusher
first processing
another processing
Jupiter, Io, Callisto, after opposition 2020-07-18
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
7 Iris, 16 Sgr – 2020-07-09-10
I observed the asteroid 7 Iris’ close approach (though not the closest point) to 16 Sgr. These are some of my recordings. The autoguiding was done through a photo tele lens, as the main camera was exposing for seconds at a time. HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC and ASI 178MM(cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
Jupiter and Io 2020-07-02
2020-07-01-2323Z
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
Jupiter 2020-06-27
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
From 2020-06-26-2323Z to 2020-06-26-2346Z, 1:28 frames.
My Filterwheel Automation
Quite some time has passed since I automated my manual filter wheel, so now I write the article. I built this one mainly for fun, I could afford the (overpriced) automated version.
The specifications behind the whole idea
- automate the manual filterwheel — without modifying the wheel itself, revert the changes should I get bored or if anything goes south
- make it fail gracefully: the DC motor can be driven by anything outputting around 5V, a manual H-bridge and a couple of AAA batteries for example. Experience: the first version with the encoder failed due to the intense sunlight — hence duct tape and a paper cover of the window were added. Failing gracefully meant disconnecting the logic and connecting the manual H-bridge. No observation wasted.
- make it compatible with my existing gear (the soapbox and the noszogtató)
The Sun in CaK
I put together a rather modest setup: the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM telephoto lens with an ASI 120 MM camera, and the CaK filter that has given me so much joy while observing Venus, all mounted on the EQ3. The goal wasn’t to image something never seen before, but just to blow the dust off my astronomy gear. I am lazy so I don’t like moving the dovetails around, and I had a piece of hard wood — a dovetail it became.
