2020-07-01-2323Z
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
Jupiter 2020-06-29
2020-06-29-0023Z
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.
Szaturnusz 2020-06-27
HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher
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.
Jupiter 2020-05-18
Just an early morning Jupiter, with my usual planetary gear, HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher Acceptable seeing but poor transparency.
NGC 5746
NGC 5746
In today’s astrophotography world there is this tendency to make stuff „internet-beautiful”: nice(?) colors, but oversaturated, sharp, applying HDR three times too many and so on. However, I like the images with a feeling of retro, with that of the pioneers, when it wasn’t about checking out a google image and then pressing buttons with a gear worth a fortune. When there was a sense of new, exploration, experimentation, challenge. Having written a photo planning software is not the best approach perhaps, but the city sky, the balcony’s narrow field of view, and the lack of alignment gave enough challenges for this one.
HEQ5, N250/1200, UHC, ASI 178MM
