Moons Over Pittsburgh

Below are my latest shots of the moon.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion StarSeeker 80mm Goto Refractor
2. Orion Imaging Flip Mirror
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/27/10  10:00pm

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Clear

Weather:  Cool but comfortable

Exposure:  10 ms x 100 images

Experience:  Good, except my EZFinder was out of alignment and I didn't want to adjust it in the dark.

Notes:

1. I used the flip mirror, but I'm not convinced it's worth the convenience.  I think I'd rather use my dielectric diagonal which is supposed to prevent light loss and should yield a better images.  I have pictures of Jupiter but the images are washed out - all white.  I'd like to get more respectable images before posting.
2. I'm still having a little trouble stacking images.  Both softwares (PHD and RegiStax) are stacking, but the resulting images aren't as good as expected.  Maybe, I'm expecting too much.

Lessons Learned:

1. Patience, Willow, patience ...

Next Time:

1. Figure a way to reduce the glare as I'm imaging.

Enjoy!

Moon Shot 1

Moon Shot 2 - Reduced glare during processing

Solar Activity Post 3 of 3

The post contains 4 consecutive frames.  The second frame displays a large surface flare up - almost like a spray - at the top of the pic.  Watching the frames in motion, it looks like a big explosion.

Equipment Summary:

1. Meade Coronado Personal Solar Telescope (PST)
2. Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount
   
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/21/10  10:00am

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Mostly sunny, some cloudy periods

Weather:  Warm, Humid

Exposure:  10 ms x 50 images

Experience:  Very good

Notes:

1. This was my first time out using the Coronado PST and this mount.  I did not use any barlows, but next time I will.

Lessons Learned:

1. Sit in a chair for comfort.  I have a back ache from bending and kneeling.
2. Also, I'll wait for a completely sunny morning so I have less down time.
   

Next Time:

1. TBD

Enjoy!

Frame 42 - All's quiet on the sun ... relatively speaking.

Frame 43 - Look at the spray of gas over the entire top.

Frame 44 - Calming down, still a few sparks.

Frame 45 - Pretty much back to normal.

Solar Activity Post 2 of 3

The post contains 3 consecutive frames.  The middle frame displays a minor flare up.  It's a little hard to see.

Addendum after the post:  I think the top part of the middle frame may have been cut off.  I'm having difficulty keeping the top from getting cutoff, but will continue to try.  The top has a particularly bright spark.

Equipment Summary:

1. Meade Coronado Personal Solar Telescope (PST)
2. Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount
   
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/21/10  10:00am

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Mostly sunny, some cloudy periods

Weather:  Warm, Humid

Exposure:  10 ms x 50 images

Experience:  Very good

Notes:

1. This was my first time out using the Coronado PST and this mount.  I did not use any barlows, but next time I will.

Lessons Learned:

1. Sit in a chair for comfort.  I have a back ache from bending and kneeling.
2. Also, I'll wait for a completely sunny morning so I have less down time.
   

Next Time:

1. TBD

Enjoy!

 Frame 37 - Something is about to happen ... hang tight.

Frame 38 - Click on image to see minor flare up at the top.

 Frame 39 - Back to normal.

Solar Activity Post 1 of 3

The next three posts are pics of the sun.  The pic below is a nice shot showing surface undulations.  The next two posts show some nice solar activity frame by frame.

Equipment Summary:

1. Meade Coronado Personal Solar Telescope (PST)
2. Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/21/10  10:00am

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Mostly sunny, some cloudy periods

Weather:  Warm, Humid

Exposure:  10 ms x 50 images

Experience:  Very good

Notes:

1. This was my first time out using the Coronado PST and this mount.  I did not use any barlows, but next time I will.

Lessons Learned:

1. Sit in a chair for comfort.  I have a back ache from bending and kneeling.
2. Also, I'll wait for a completely sunny morning so I have less down time.

Next Time:

1. TBD

Enjoy!

Notice the undulating solar surface.

Better Moon Shots!

Below are my latest shots of the moon.  They show some nice details, but I have some other ideas to try out next time to get even better shots ... I hope.  There's always room for improvement.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion StarSeeker 80mm Goto Refractor
2. Orion Imaging Flip Mirror
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/20/10  10:00pm

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Clear

Weather:  Warm, Humid

Exposure:  10 ms x 50 images

Experience:  Very good with one hitch -- see notes below.

Notes:

1. I couldn't quite figure out the flip mirror which should allow you to have an eyepiece on top and the camera in the rear.  I sent an email to Orion customer support.

Lessons Learned:

1. For the moon, and for my setup at least, it's better to take many short duration images, and then stack (combine) them to create a single, sharper picture.  For each pic below, I stacked fifty 10 ms images.  Next time, I'll try stacking 100, 150, and 200 images to see if there's a difference in the final pic.

Next Time:

1. Sun with Meade Coronado PST.

Enjoy!

 Moon Shot 1 - Greater detail compared to pics in earlier posts

Moon Shot 1 - Similar to the above pic but without color

Venus on the 4th of July

I was over at a relative's house yesterday for the 4th of July.  I had given my wife's cousin my old dobsonian, and this was a good opportunity to give her a lesson on how to use her new scope.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion 6" Dobsonian - original Deep Space Explorer series
2. Diagonal - none
3. Barlow - none
4. Eyepieces used - 12.5mm and 10mm

Date/Time:  7/4/10  9:30pm

Location:  Backyard - Sarver, PA

Seeing:  Clear

Weather:  Hot and Humid

Experience:  Good.  I was glad I could spend some time to show my wife's cousin how to use the scope.

Recap:  I wanted to take a picture of Venus but could not get the image to display on my laptop via the StarShoot imager and PHD software.  But in terms of viewing, all was good.  Venus clearly looked like a gibbous moon (D shape) through the telescope.

The following link/steps will take you to a web page displaying several images of Venus.

1. Click on the following link -- K3 Home Page.
   
2. On the left hand side of the K3 Home Page, click on "Solar System".
3. Click on "Venus" to bring up several images of the planet.
4. The first image resembles what we saw last night but the image was much sharper.

While you're on the K3 website, do enjoy the many great pictures and astrophotography information.


Clear skies!!!

Alternate Sun Pics

This post includes sun pics from the previous post along with the re-processed images (using PHD Planetary software) showing additional details.  I have to admit, overall these pics are not that good.  Next time, to obtain better pics, I will shorten the exposure time and stack multiple images.

Image 1 - Original

 Image 1 - reprocessed, sunspots more visible

Image 2 - Original

Image 2 - reprocessed, sunspots more visible (slightly)

Image 3 - Original

Image 3 - reprocessed, click on image to see undulating solar surface