IC410 - The Tadpoles Ha:OIII
18:11 23/3/2010 UTC
Not the best conditions for OIII imaging. Moon high up and random thin clouds hovering all over the sky. But I just had to take an OIII shot to make a some sort of color composite before summer. In color data background gradients by clouds can be easily managed. I just cut them away with levels and used my previous H-alfa image as luminance and red color information. I think this made a pretty nice image, altough this amount of OIII exposure at moonless clear night would have resulted more color information in the dimmer parts also. But as always, I had to play along with challenging Finnish weather.
#CAMERA#: Atik Instruments 4000LE | #TELESCOPE#: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | #MOUNT#: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | #FILTERS#: Baader H-alpha 7nm 2", Baader OIII 8.5nm 2" | #GUIDING#: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | #EXPOSURE#: Ha 12x900s (3h) unbinned, CCD @ -25° Ha 12x900s (3h) unbinned, CCD @ -25° 11x600s (1h50m) 2x2 binned, CCD @ -25° f6 | #SOFTWARE#: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | #LOCATION#: #KOIVULA#
IC410 - The Tadpoles in Ha
18:10 17/3/2010 UTC
Spring sky is pretty much void in emission nebulae, but this nice complex in Auriga is still well visible. I started shooting a tricolor narrowband project, beginning with H-alfa. Temperature was dropping quite fast and eventually my tracking went bad due to stiffness of the cables in cold. I managed to get 3h worth of 15min subs which is quite a satisfying result given the conditions. So here is part 1/3 of this project. Hope I can get a one good moonless night for OIII before summer nights.
#CAMERA#: Atik Instruments 4000LE | #TELESCOPE#: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | #MOUNT#: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | #FILTERS#: Baader H-alpha 7nm 2" | #GUIDING#: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | #EXPOSURE#: Ha 12x900s (3h) unbinned, CCD @ -25° f6 | #SOFTWARE#: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | #LOCATION#: #KOIVULA#
M81 Group and Integrated Flux Nebula
18:03 12/3/2010 UTC
Most of the Nebulae are illuminated by only one or just few stars. Integrated Flux Nebula is a large complex of dust in high galactic latitudes which is illuminanted by all the stars in our galaxy. This elusive nebula is very difficult target as its light is broad spectrum and needs to be shot with broadand filter like luminance. For that reason the darker the background sky the better the chances of success. I was in a star party in Artjärvi observatory where the sky is very dark. Luckily the sky was clear part of the night and I could collect three hours worth of data. IFN was barely there but I definitely caught it! This is a luminance only image, I will add color data later when I get my LRGB filter set.
#CAMERA#: Atik Instruments 4000LE | #TELESCOPE#: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | #MOUNT#: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | #FILTERS#: Baader IR/UV block | #GUIDING#: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | #EXPOSURE#: L 18x600s (3h) unbinned, CCD @ -25° f6 | #SOFTWARE#: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | #LOCATION#: #ART#
M42 - The Orion Nebula
17:32 7/3/2010 UTC
Long time no see - stars! It's been like four months since I've done imaging. Weather has been very effectively blocking all opportunities to do some astro work. So I don't have to mention I was completely lost with my gear this time. Success rate was 50% due to stumbling with new filter wheel, motor focuser, stiff cables and occasional trees blocking the view. This is a superquick processing of the small amount of good data.
#CAMERA#: Atik Instruments 4000LE | #TELESCOPE#: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | #MOUNT#: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | #FILTERS#: Baader H-alpha 7nm 2", Baader OIII 8.5nm 2" | #GUIDING#: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | #EXPOSURE#: Ha 3x600s (30m) unbinned, CCD @ -20° f6, OIII 4x600s (40m) unbinned, CCD @ -20° f6 | #SOFTWARE#: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | #LOCATION#: #KOIVULA#
Filter automation
21:06 12/2/2010 UTC
Long cloudy period usually means shopping instead of imaging... I've used manual filter pocket for a while now and saw some real andvantages using an automated solution. Changing filters manually practically ment I had to shoot long series with one filter at a time. Using filter wheel I can sequence one shot per filter and loop the sequence throughout the night. My choice was Starlight Xpress USB Filter Wheel. It is an USB powered very nice piece of hardware, which works like a charm. Filter change is quiet, fast and seems to be quite accurate. I have to confirm the accuracy after shooting some flats. Only downsides are a bit thin software support and a little thick construction (29mm). There's no ASCOM drivers nor Nebulosity support, at least yet. MAC OS has already a Nebulosity support in place, so I hope it's just a matter of time when we see Windows support also. Thinkness prevents me from using this wheel with Canon EF lenses. Wheel and camera together (29+18mm) is more than the back focus requirement of Canon lenses. Now if the skies would clear up - and without -20C temperatures please...