M16
I imaged the Messier 16 and Messier 17 objects, the Eagle and the Swan Nebulae. My specific target was the Pillars of Creation region in the M16, a region best known due to the Hubble space telescope.
I set up my instruments – Canon 1100D mod @ 150/750 Newtonian with corrector on HEQ5, unguided – at Gyerőfidongó (Dângău Mare, CJ) on a field with decent sky. I took 30×60 sec of each object, ISO 1600 of M16 and ISO 3200 of M17.
Gamma Cygni region, 32×30 sec, ISO 3200
As a plan B, I imaged the γ Cygni region with my usual equipment, the Canon 200mm @ f/3.2 Canon 1100D mod 32×30 sec, ISO 3200, HEQ5 PRO. Plan B, because I forgot to bring the screws which set the altitude/latitude of the mount, thus effectively criplling the mount’s precision. With some non invasive, duct tape improvisation I managed to take surprisingly good 30 sec subs at 200 mm, the 150/750 newtonian being out of question. This is the result.
Carina Nebula, 21×3 min, ISO 800
To describe the Namibian sky, through the eyes of a European blinded by light pollution, I don’t dare. Nothing in Europe compares to that excellent dark sky, no matter how I try to get away from light pollution. The Milky Way and the sky as a whole show an inhuman beauty.
This is one of the first pictures I took in Namibia. I used a modded Canon 1100D, a Canon 200mm F/2.8lens at 4.5. Took 21×3 min ISO 800 with a HEQ5 PRO mount.
This is the short, English version of this article in Romanian.
(tovább…)
NGC 7000 North America Nebula
Tech: Motorized EQ3 mount, Canon 1100D mod, 20x110s, ISO 1600 200mm F/4.5. First light with the Baader filter. Image data acquired at Gyerőfidongó / Dângău Mare. Reprocessed the old data.
M27 Dumbbell Nebula – Súlyzó köd
Well, a first light is a first light. Even though I had my HEQ5 mount for three month, it has never been tested on the northern hemisphere and never with a telescope. Mainly due to the bad weather we are having. The issue is not that there are no clear skies for a few hours in a raw, but that almost no forecast can be trusted. And there are very few clear nights. So after more than an hour of „+!%!+//%=! because the sky got covered just after I set up, it got clear again in an hour (the forecast told 0% clouds a few hours back) and I could image the planetary nebula M27, ie the Dumbbell Nebula. N150/750 with coma corrector, 13×1 min + 15×1.5 min with Canon 1100D mod, ISO 1600. Coincidentally I found out that I live very near to one of Europe’s last decent (but not pristine) skies. But I trust my politicians that they will soon ruine it. For now, I guess I’m lucky. (tovább…)
On desktop I got tired of facebook always suggesting something. Whatever I clicked, commented or watched, there would come up some content asking for my attention. No! And all the people I could add as friends. No! And groups to join or create. No! And pages to like. No! And… Just no!
So I cooked up a userscript to address the issue. I use it with chrome with tampermonkey. Since privacy could be a concern, the script is self contained, does not go out of the DOM, does not send anything anywhere, does not call anything not on the page, so does not check for updates, nothing. Thus there is no way it could steal data.
Veil Nebula, about 6 hours of light
An idea occured to me while talking to others: it would be nice to have access to fellow amateur astronomers’ raw data sets, for various reasons. The idea and the initiative is not new, sometimes I do publicly share my raws, and others might do the same. How and why, one could ask. Let’s see some thoughts.
Taking the pictures themselves is a technical activity. It involves nothing more than the equipment itself and a good amount of luck. Processing them, on the other hand, while still a very technical activity, is more like art. Two very different fields.
One might note that the Hubble image archive is public, raws can be downloaded by anyone. One should also note the long road these raws take in the graphic artists’ workshop until they get released as >>Hubble pictures<<.
I’m a curious photographer and I’m amazed how my continually evolving skills make it possible to mine out better images from the same data sets each time I take out my old raws from the archives. I’m also curious what others might get using my raw data. Conversely, getting a fellow’s data set acquired with superior setup otherwise unavailable to me was an opportunity to me.
On the long run I can imagine the raws from the same technical setup being combined (200 mm lense, Heart and Soul nebulae, Canon 1100D) thus adding up to dozens of hours of raw data.
(tovább…)
Canon EOS 1100D @ Canon EF 200mm f2.8L II USM on motorized EQ3. After an alarming amount of frames showed trails I took the mount apart, cleaned it, regreased it, hope it’s better now.
M27 wide field
M27 crop
NGC 7000 North America, 35×90 sec, ISO 1600 F/4
Gamma CYgni region, 10×90 sec, ISO 1600 F/4
M20 Trifid and M8 Lagoon – ~100×30 sec, ISO 800, 200mm, F4
I used my EQ3 mount aligned with this and a Canon 1100D with a Canon EF 200mm F/2.8 L USM II to get some pictures. I used Magic-Lantern as an intervalometer and bulb timer, and DSS + GIMP for processing. I almost forgot: there was so little light pollution that I’ve seen the Milky Way cast a shadow. Just crazy :)
The look of the polar scope
So the polar scope in my mount is a rather basic one. It does have some constellations but they are more like drawings. The only point having been marked is a small circle where Polaris should go. And this is not enough for astrophotography – especially if the scope is not guided.
Of course one needs a few things for a good alignment, which basically boil down to knowing the geographical position of the scope and the (sidereal) time. These are things for a chart or a computer to know, not for a human, so I decided I wanted an elegant solution.
Therefore I came up with this (csillagtura.ro/polaris) script for smartphones. The script takes the user’s geo-position plus the date and time and shows the expected view plus some tech info. After adjusting the mount to show the expected view the only thing remaining is to get Polaris into the circle. I saved a shortcut on my phone’s desktop so when I tap on it, it shows me how to set up my scope.
The script has a few tweaks like the position of Polaris is J2015 instead of J2000, but I found it’s accuracy could be improved. However, it should be good enough for the next few years, and it’s made my hobby a bit easier. Needless to say, the script works for any polar scope (I have this rather basic one pictured above) in any mount (I have an EQ3) until the circle around the pole is the same and the image is inverted the same way.
If you don’t like using my site or are paranoid about it then feel free to copy the source and host it yourself – see the stuff in the grey rectangle.
