Archive for December, 2010
Helix Nebula with Astrotac – New Mexico
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Deep sky objects, Wide Field and Telephoto on December 24, 2010
Date: 9/12/2010
The month of December is definitely not great for astronomy given the clouds / rain – so I am taking the occasion to process and post shots I took in September in New Mexico,
These two pictures from the Helix nebula were taken with respectively my Canon 200mm Teleobjective, and Takahashi FS-60C, both having very fine optics.
Both were done on my Astrotrac Travel system mount (unguided). Star were slightly elongated because of poor polar alignment, and I tried to fix it as much as possible using Photoshop and techniques described in the excellent book “The New Astro Zone System for Astro Imaging” by R.Wodaski and R.Croman.
Interesting to see the comparison there. Since shots were unguided I was limited to a short exposures especially with the FS-60C. The picture taken with the FS-60C is definitely more detailed – stars are “tight” but colors are not captured as nicely as with the Teleobjective open at f/d 3.5 because of the short sub-frame duration.
Even though more pictures were stacked with the FS60, still the short F/D ratio of the Canon Teleobjective makes the difference when capturing colors from green to yellow to red in this great planetary nebula.
Solar Spots with SV 90 Raptor and Baader Solar Film
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Sun on December 24, 2010
Date: 9/26/2010
Location: San Bruno, California
These pictures were taken with the Baader Solar Film and my DMK black and white camera.
Sun granules and faculae are featured in respectively the first and second pictures
The Stellarvue SV90 (3.5″) is a fine instrument for Sun white light Astrophotography.
It reaches temperature equilibrium quite fast – and with its great optical quality it can get as far as a 3.5″ aperture can possibly go…
In addition I used a Televue x5 Powermate. Since the SV90 has a relatively short focal ratio (f/d 7) the x5 powermate is necessary to get high resolution pictures.
Processing:
– Avistack
– Photoshop CS4
– Astraimage Wavelet filter
Running Man nebula with c9.25
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Deep sky objects on December 11, 2010
Location: San Bruno, CA – 11/14/2010
C9.25 with Focal Reducer on NJP-Z Mount
Combination of 7 exposures of 7 minutes
Camera: Qhy9 at 2×2 binning with astronomik CLS CCD filter
This is my first long exposure with my new Takahashi NJP-Z mount. I am planning to do long focal / high resolution astrophotography with it and I am still in the learning curve.
The set up I have with my C9.25 and guidescope is far from optimal – and I am working on improving the overall rigidity – since I realized I am not limited by the mount (which has an excellent tracking) but rather by tube flexture (guidescope).
The mount was controlled from a Toshiba Netbook.
Processing: Maxim DL, Photoshop CS4, Sharpener Pro 3.0, Noise Ninja
Jupiter SEB revival in November 2010
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Planets on December 4, 2010
Orion 180 Mak Cassegrain with DMK Camera on Takahashi NJP-Z mount.
Seeing: 4/10
I captured these pictures on a night of average seeing.
It is possible to notice a quite visible revival of the South Equatorial belt on this picture, that was not visible in pictures taken earlier in November.
Copernicus with Mak Cassegrain 180mm
11/16/2010 at San Bruno, CA
Orion Mak Cassegrain 180mm with Black and white DMK camera on Takahashi NJP-Z mount.
Seeing: 4/10 and Transparency 3/6
I wish my DMK camera sensor would be larger than its 1/4″ size. It is perfect for planetary imaging but the field of view is too small for the moon!
This is taken at approximatively f/d 25 (f/d 15 with barlow x1.5).
Processing: registax v5, Photoshop CS4, and Astra image wavelet processing.
Astrophotography in Urban Environment 