Phil's Astronomy Blog

The Sun Today (Tin Hats On!!)

2012-01-23T18:25:00.002-06:00

The sun today. I took this shot after work when I heard on the radio about some strong solar activity that could have repercussions here on Earth. On Friday, the Sun threw out what's called a Coronary Mass Ejection (CME) which is hurtling towards Earth and should be in our neighborhood sometime on 1/24/2012. It's the largest such event since 2005. I head heard and read reports that some airlines were working to avoid flights in the polar regions to protect sensitive avionics equipment. Still, astronomers are saying that Mars may take most of the hit for us due to its current location. Spare a thought for the Martians!

More info here:

news.discovery.com/space/incoming-sun-blasts-another-cme-...

Observing Session Time Lapse

2012-01-21T22:26:00.000-06:00

My good friend, Jared, and I headed out to an observing session earlier in the week at a close-in dark sky site. He set up his DSLR and took a series of shots the used to produce the excellent timelapse movie below. If it had sound you would have heard me cursing at my gear, as my guide camera was simply not behaving!

Orion the Hunter

2012-01-19T09:24:00.005-06:00

Nikon D7000, Sigma 18-50mm F2.8, Celestron CGEM for tracking.
10 * 1 minute frames @ ISO640, F2.8.

Aiming for the Sun

2012-01-03T21:42:00.001-06:00

I scored a few Amazon.com gift cards over the holiday season and used them to buy an Orion solar filter for my 80mm ED refractor. It arrived today and I tried it out. I had a total blast! Visually, with my Panoptic 22mm the Sun looked terrific. Lots of sunspot activity and very nicely defined. I attached my DLSR and started shooting, as you do. The photo below is the best of the images that I took for the day. This is a neat new aspect of astronomy to get into and doesn't involve me staying up late or driving far from home.

2011-12-29T23:05:00.000-06:00

Quick moon snap!!!

How Many Moons Do You See?

2011-12-06T22:26:00.008-06:00

This composite image was taken on December 6, 2011. Jupiter was rather close to the moon, and the skies were gorgeously crisp and clear. The main image captures how visually stunning the sight was. At inset is a 100% crop of Jupiter and its four largest moons from one of the images used to put this composite together!

This photo is a composite of two images. Both images were shot at the same focal length/zoom range of 135mm, using a Sigma 70-200 F2.8 HSM lens:

Image 1: 1/500 second shot at F8 to capture a nice looking Moon.

Image 2: 1/1.5 second shot at F2.8 to capture Jupiter’s brilliance.

The two images were merged and the background was evened out using fill brush. The inset of Jupiter and its four larger moons is a 100% crop of the second image. At 135mm zoom with a stable tripod, that’s not half bad! Jupiter itself is very bright, so shooting at 1/1.5 seconds at F2.8 was used to bring out the four larger satellites around it. This overexposed the planet but brought the moons out nicely.

M37 Open Cluster in Auriga

2011-12-01T20:44:00.000-06:00

I love this cluster, and have spent a lot of time observing it visually. Captured it last night, using 5 5 minute exposures @ ISO500.

Sword of Orion Region (Test)

2011-11-29T00:26:00.002-06:00

First Sword of Orion Region shot for the winter season of 2011. I have big plans for this set of objects and this is a test shot taken tonight. Come January, I'll be working on using multiple exposures to make a better composite shot of this region... This image is about 25 minutes of 5 minute exposures at ISO500.

Moon, November 28, 2011

2011-11-29T00:01:00.002-06:00

Taken with my Nikon D7000 and AstroTelescopes 80mm ED refractor, while waiting for the moon to set on a gorgeous clear night.

Tips & Tricks for Basic Astrophotography

2011-11-20T20:16:00.013-06:00

Hi Folks,

I often get asked about how start out shooting stars with basic equipment, like the modern DLSR camera body and an 18-55mm stock lens. I get asked either through FLICKR or via my blog site. I thought I'd post my basic response below. If anyone has any amendments or recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Here is what I recommend to start off with – photos of various star regions and star trail shots. Both are pretty easily attainable and can get quick results with a little bit of care and patience. Admittedly, a lot of this is written with the Nikon D7000 camera in mind, which is what I use. Many modern DLSRs should have comparable features, though.

First, though, some general pointers!

Make sure you have a decent tripod. The D7000 is somewhat heavy, so you want to be sure you have a tripod that can support it safely for long periods of time and be able to position the camera smoothly and easily without moving out of position later on. Just make sure that you can support your camera safely for long periods of time without the chance of slow slippage out of position.
Get an infrared remote control. If you don’t already have one, you can get one off eBay for pretty cheap (Grey market units for US$5.00! for Nikon and Canon compatible remotes)
Get familiar with the stars. To know where to shoot, you need to have a good understanding of the stars. You can use a basic planisphere available at many bookstores. Or you can download some free star map software (try Stellarium, it’s excellent!). If you have a smart phone like an Android or iPhone, there are some star map applications that you can use, too. If you know where interesting things are in the sky, you can aim your camera at them and try to capture them.
Focusing. The D7000’s Live View mode is excellent for shooting stars. Many other DLSR camera models have this feature. Use manual focus mode, it gives you more control and you won't be cursing at the camera when it doesn't focus by itself. When you have set up your shot, turn on live view mode and zoom in as far as possible (on the camera, using the + button). Then focus the camera until the star is sharp. Turn off live view and proceed with shooting. If there are no bright stars in the area, find a bright star close to that area and use it, then point the camera back to where you want to shoot without knocking the lens out of focus.
Comfort. When shooting, be sure you’re comfortable. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re too warm or too cold, hungry, thirsty etc. so prepare accordingly.
Light Pollution. Try and get far away from city lights if it’s safe to do so. Pick out a spot that you’re familiar with or have access to before you go and shoot so that you’re not driving around in the dark getting lost instead of taking pictures! Or, try and find a SAFE spot that has you shooting at your desired target away from city light domes.
Charge Batteries! Nothing worse than starting to shoot when your batteries die. Batteries may die faster in colder weather! Make sure they’re fully charged before you head out.
Safety. I always stress this. Shoot somewhere safe. Tell someone where you'll be, or take someone along. Check in periodically if you're out for long periods of time.

Hopefully this makes sense. Some of it sounds basic but people can underestimate what it requires to shoot the stars. Now onto setting up and taking shots…

A. Star Regions.

Your set up should enable you to capture some cool shots of various star regions. One very good place to shoot is the center of our Milky Way galaxy. This is located in the Sagittarius region, which is just next to the tail of Scorpio. There is a lot of stellar dust, star clusters and smaller nebulas here which can show up nicely if the shot is done well.

To take this shot:

Set up camera at 18mm
Set camera to Manual focus mode
Set your focus. Turn on Live View, aim camera at a nearby bright star (try Antares, the red-colored star in Scorpius because it's nice and bright). When Antares is in view and centered on the live display, zoom in as far as you can go. Focus until the star is as sharp as possible.
Now, aim towards the center of the galaxy. This is located just next to the tail of Scorpius or right at the Sagitarrius region. (use your planisphere or free software to confirm!) Make sure the camera is locked into position and your shot is nicely framed.
Set camera to RAW shooting mode (to get more color and data)
Set aperture to F4
Set Exposure to 800 ISO, or 1600 ISO if you’re in really dark skies
Set shutter speed to 30 seconds.
Take a shot
Review the shot. Look good? Got stars? Any color? Too bright? Make adjustments to ISO and aperture and keep shooting until you get the shot you want. It's nice to get some star color and some hints of Milky Way dust lanes in there.
Feel free to take several shots of the same region so that you can stack them later to have a relatively noise-free image (see bottom of this write-up!)

Here's an example of the Southern Cross region taken in Australia in mid-2011 (just 20*20 second exposures):

Use this method for any region in the sky. Experiment! There are some neat regions up there and you can try capturing entire constellations at a time.

B. Star Trails.

These shots are cool but take a while! You’re capturing the apparent movement of stars across the sky as the Earth spins on its axis. We’re going to cheat a bit here and use software to help with the shot.

Set the camera up at 18mm
Aim towards desired section of the sky. Try the south or north polar regions (depending on your location) so that you can capture some nice tight circles. You can also try composing the shot so that you can make it more interesting. For example, try and shoot with a big old tree or old building in the foreground.
Focus using live view. For star trail shots, some things being slightly out of focus gives you thicker star trails which can be more pleasing to view.
Set ISO to 400 for initial test.
Set aperture to lowest possible value, say F4
Set shutter speed to BULB
Take a two minute test shot.
Review the shot. Look good? Shot composed okay? Too dark? Too light? Make adjustments, take test shots until satisfied.
When you have set up your shot, now go ahead and take about 1.5 hrs worth of two-minute exposures. Make sure that there is not a time gap between taking the exposures. Take one right after the other. 1.5 hrs is a good starting point.
Then, go home and download some free software called “Startrails.exe”. This software will put all of your two-minute exposures together into a final photo, which should show the full 1.5 hours of star trails you would have captured!! You'll need to copy your two-minutes exposures into a special folder or directory on your PC, and point the Startrails software to that folder/directory. The software will collate and stack all of the images and create a final star trails shot!

Here's an example of some star trails that I took in central Texas last year (about 1.5 hrs of two-minute exposures):

Processing the images also takes some time. For the star regions shots where you have taken multiple exposures of the same region (in order to minimize noise in your shot) you must stack the individual shots into a final clean image. Download Deep Sky Stacker for free and point the software towards a directory or folder with your star region RAW shots, then let it stack the images to create a final image. With the star trail shots, you're using the aforementioned Startrails software to compile the image for you. You can make any star image look better with a bit of tweaking. You can use either Photoshop ($$$) or GIMP (free). I use GIMP. Things you can adjust to get better colors and appearance are: Levels, Curves, Saturation, Sharpening. Try it out!

Pointing Out Cassiopeia

2011-11-16T22:52:00.006-06:00

Another experimental shot.

This is five exposures, 10 seconds each at ISO1600, with my laser pointer, hand-held, pointing out each of the main stars in the Cassiopeia constellation. Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker. Light pollution aplenty!

Next time, I'll rig up a mount for the laser to keep it more steady during the exposures. A fun experiment, though.

Can you see M31 and the Double Cluster in there?

Yet Another Moon Snap!

2011-11-09T23:13:00.000-06:00

The moon was very inviting tonight. I placed my 80mm refractor on my flimsy photography mount and attached my D7000. I used live focus to get a sharp image but this could be sharper. Anyway, some nice detail here. I need to get a better tripod.

Nikon D7000
AstroTelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Cheap, unstable and awkward camera tripod
1/750 second exposure
ISO200
F7

A Dance of Light

2011-10-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

An experimental shot. There's room for improvement, but I have been imagining this shot for a while. There are a lot of light variables in this, so it's a tricky shot.

This is Austin's Pennybacker Bridge. It's a 1.5 hour total exposure, composed of 30 second individual exposures. I was glad to be able to capture some boat activity on the river. Heavy road traffic!

Compiled in Startrails.exe software, then applied mild HDR to bring out some color on the foreground. Finally, some mild curve and contrast adjustment in GIMP.

More Visual Fun and Games!

2011-10-22T00:25:00.000-05:00

Last week I spent some time in the front yard with my 6" Dob, checking out the Moon and Jupiter. This inspired me to dust off the old 12" Lightbridge and head out this evening. And dust it off I did! I had not used it in maybe 10 months or so. The poor thing had cobwebs in the lower tube assembly and was quite dusty. Anyway, after a quick dusting and de-webbing, I packed it up and took off to one of the more popular observing spots in Austin, Texas - the Mansfield Dam.

One other chap turned up, who had a nice 12" LX200. He was good company but I wondered what happened to everyone else I used to see out there. A good clear night used to attract quite a crowd. Oh well, maybe another time.

Anyway, after a very quick setup including collimation, I had a great few hours under the stars. It remained very clear and despite the Austin Clear Sky Chart indicating strong winds, it stayed relatively calm through the evening. The other chap swore he saw a few meteors here and there but they remained elusive for me.

Highlights of the night included:

Neptune! (Found it using the SkySafari iPhone app!)
Comet Garrard (faint at magnitude 7.8 but it looked great with my 22mm Panoptic)
The Double Cluster
M13 (Very nice tonight, tons of detail!)
Jupiter (All four moons visible, with the Great Red Spot visible as well)
Star Cloud in Sagitarrius
M57 Ring Nebula
A few other small open clusters

A great night out indeed. I need to more evenly split my time between visual and photographic astronomy and be sure to enjoy the simple pleasure of actually looking at the objects directly.

Cool Space London Science Museum Morsels!

2011-10-17T21:07:00.002-05:00

On a recent trip to London, UK, I took the kids to the London Science Museum. It's an excellent free museum with some superb exhibits related to different areas of science, ranging from astronomy to zoology. It's all free, and is a great place to spend a rainy afternoon.

There were a couple of neat exhibits related to space sciences. Firstly, they had the mirror belonging to the Great Rosse Telescope on display. While I just knew that I could sneak it out of the musem without issue, there would have been serious problems on the flight back home!

Additionally, they had the command module/capsule from the Apollo 17 flight on display. It was brilliant to see this, but the astronauts involved must have been midgets as this capsule was very small indeed!

In any case, the London Science Museum is one of the many, brilliant museums in London and I highly recommend it.

Spending Some Visual Downtime!

2011-10-10T22:57:00.001-05:00

Oh, the stress levels have been high lately! Work, family stuff, life. I spent an hour out in the front garden unwinding with my 6" Dobsonian tonight. It's really been a long time since I have enjoyed visual astronomy. With a big near-full moon out, there wasn't too much to see. I blinded myself (no Moon filter!) with the Moon for a good while, touring the full landscape using a 10mm Radian. Even though I did not collimate the scope (and haven't done for a year or so) I still got great, crisp views. I then moved onto Jupiter, which again I had not observed visually in over a year. Despite the unsteady seeing conditions, I got a nice, sharp view. Its two cloud bounds looked great, and all four of the larger moons could be seen. It really was an enjoyable hour. I need to get my poor 12" Lightbridge sometime later this month. I haven't had it out this year at all - too much astrophotography. Maybe stepping away from astrophotography for a while will do me some good.

Early October Moon

2011-10-01T23:49:00.005-05:00

Tonight was the first chance I've had to get out under the night sky in a long time! I took this shot of the Moon while waiting to image some DSOs. If any of those come out nicely, I'll post them to the blog soon.

Fireball!!!

2011-09-13T21:22:00.000-05:00

While I was driving home from the gas station tonight, I observed a very large firebill/bolide streak across the sky. Time was 9:06PM local (US CST) and it moved from north to northwest. Very large, very green~ish and it split into two before fading away. This was while driving, in the city, with a near full moon in the sky. It must have been pretty big! It was an amazing sight and quite a treat.

Astronomy Articles Redux

2011-08-15T21:40:00.002-05:00

Two years ago, I wrote a series of articles regarding astronomy to try to help out with the International Year of Astronomy. The articles were very successful, each one being downloaded several hundred times by visitors from around the world. Anyway, they were sitting in a ZOHO web site, which did all sorts of bad stuff to their formatting. I spent several hours this evening updating the articles and converting them to more respectable-looking .PDF files. They are now available via Google Docs, accessed through the same links at the upper right of my blog.

To recap, here are the articles on offer:

I'm also working on some new articles which should appear soon, including how to choose a telescope, as well as astrophotography work flow. Stay tuned!

Additionally, I have done some work to make this site more accessible. This includes:

Making a mobile-device ready version of the blog which should mean less download time on your iWidget.
Posting to Twitter

Cheers,
Phil

Great Video on John Dobson

2011-08-14T22:38:00.002-05:00

John Dobson has been massively influential in popularizing astronomy. His invention of the Dobsonian telescope mount (the lazy susan, box style mount we see so much of today) has made larger scopes more economically accessible to the general public while also enabling the popularization of astronomy through the "sidewalk astronomy" phenomenon. This terrific video on YouTube gives a glimpe into the life of this eccentric and brilliant chap.

Enjoy!

M22 Globular Cluster

2011-08-03T00:41:00.002-05:00

Happy with this! This is a great globular cluster in the Sagittarius region. Easily viewable with even small scopes, but with larger scopes that have good resolving power, this object is quite a treat.

Image Details:

•Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
•Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
•Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
•Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
•Mount: Celestron CGEM
•Exposures: 4 * 4 minute lights, dark and bias frames
•ISO 800
•Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
•Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
•Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

Sometimes, ya know???

2011-08-02T10:45:00.000-05:00

Beautiful night last night! Very clear, very steady seeing. the Milky Way was quite noticeable where I decided to set up, kids in tow. The plan was for the kids to help me with some imaging. The target? M8. Easy enough, and the kids would see some rapid results as we shot the individual frames.We were going to have a good night out!

Then, I had issues aligning my CGEM. When it came to Polar Alignment, I was seeing an error message I hadn't noticed before. No worries, I just turned it off and turned it back on again. Alignment worked fine after that. I went to set up the guiding system with PHD, and for whatever reason, started seeing pulse guiding issues. Then I couldn't get an image from my DSI to the PHD software, so guiding was impossible. Finally, after about an hour, the PHD software and Meade DSI were talking to each other. But, after taking a few test shots, the images were streaking. No idea what caused the issue, and by this time I was too frustrated to dive into it further.

So, I took advantage of the clear skies and gave my kids a lesson in ancient astronomy! We picked out some constellations, talked about the mythology behind them as well as what the ancients used to think of the night skies way back then.

Despite being frustrated with my astrophotography issues under such lovely sky conditions, it was nice to hang out with the kids and connect under the stars.

Supernova 2011 DH in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

2011-07-05T23:11:00.001-05:00

This is my attempt at capturing the recent supernova (star explosion) in the M51 Whirlpool galaxy. It was first observed by French astronomers on June 2, 2011. Must have been a REALLY big explosion - this galaxy lies 25 million light years away!

Sorry for the poor image quality, it was shot in heavy light pollution so I couldn't get very long exposures, only about 7 minutes per exposure (stack of 8).

M20 Triffid Nebula

2011-07-03T08:56:00.001-05:00

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 6 * 7 minute light frames
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

Northern Cygnus Wide Field Test

2011-07-03T08:54:00.001-05:00

3 * 5 minute exposures of the Northern Cygnus region. Another wide field test with my Sigma 10-20mm HSM mounted on my Celestron CGEM. The upper right bled into some light pollution, so I created a background gaussian blur, subtracted it as a layer and this is the result. Very rough image, no flats, darks or bias frames taken which is a SIN with a DSLR in warm temperatures! A sin I say! Fun learning curve, though. Wide-field astro is very different to DSO astro imaging!

Milky Way Central Hub Test Shot

2011-07-03T08:50:00.004-05:00

Inspired by other contacts here on FLICKR, I set up my rig for wide field shooting. I haven't done it before. Anyway, this is a test shot of the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Way too much light pollution but I was just testing my rig, using a machined part that Dad made me to attach my camera to the counterweight arm of my Celestron CGEM mount.

Image Details:

Nikon D7000
Sigma 10-20mm HSM (set to 20mm)
ISO800
3 Minute Exposure

M27 Dumbbell Nebula

2011-07-01T11:21:00.001-05:00

This came out a little better than I anticipated, only because I had left my camera at ISO3200!!!! When I set up my shots, I usually take a 30 second exposure at ISO3200 to make sure the object is well-centered. I did that as usual, but then forgot to take the ISO down to my usual settings (800 or 640) for my light frame acquisition. So, it's a bit busier than normal and I seemed to have collected a lot of data (check out all those background stars!) AND it took forever to process as a result. Lesson learned! Anyway, it's my best M27 shot yet, I think. Nice color and shape to the object itself.

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 7 minute lights, dark and bias frames
ISO 3200! (oops)
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

Meteor Capture!

2011-06-25T23:42:00.003-05:00

When you're tired and jetlagged, you do stupid things like take your camera gear out to film star trails on a very windy night. I set up to take about an hour's worth of star trails, which came out rubbish, but noticed that I had caught a very bright meteor in one particular time frame. This shot is the image that captured it, which is a 30 second exposure at ISO1250, using my Sigma 10-20mm HSM at 10mm, F4. It's obvious where the meteor is. Maybe you can pick out the Big Dipper at upper left, too?

I guess doing silly things when jetlagged pays off sometimes. I have been trying to get a meteor shot like this for years.

Below is the actual star trail shot, ruined by the wind.

The Southern Cross Region

2011-06-25T01:35:00.001-05:00

I was given a very brief opportunity to image this region of the southern sky during my recent trip back home to Melbourne. The circumstances weren't brilliant. Moonlit sky, clouds rolling in, flimsy tripod for a big lens. Still, the result is okay.

Imaging Scope: Sigma 70-200mm HSM F2.8 EX Lens
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Mount: Crappy Velbon Tripod
Exposures: 20 * 20 second lights
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

Lunar Eclipse, Melbourne, June 16 2011

2011-06-15T15:31:00.002-05:00

What luck! During my annual trip back home to Melbourne, Australia, we were blessed with a total lunar eclipse! Dad and I got up early, about 4:30am, to watch the proceedings. By the time, the Moon was already about 50% eclipsed, and it really didn't take long to get to totality. The image above is probably the best shot I took, for a series of about 200 or so. The image below was taken about 15 minutes prior to totality. Some high level clouds rolled in and started to obscure our view, plus I was shooting with a dewed zoom lens to was working against the odds a little at the time this specific shot was taken. It was very dark so the image above doesn't really reflect how dark it actually looked in the Western sky. It was great fun to be able to see this, though!

Quick Report from Australia

2011-06-09T07:07:00.001-05:00

I am currently down in Melbourne, Australia, back home and visiting family. Tonight, we've had the first mostly clear night since we got here. Even though the moon was up, we took Dad's 10" dobsonian out into his back yard and did some sightseeing. Omega Centauri was still quite nice despite the moonlight - very bright and well resolved when using his 19mm panoptic. We also checked out the Jewel Box and Alpha Centauri as well, and both were brilliant.

We also tried out some photography. I taught Dad how to take some wide angle star trail shots using 30 second exposures and the freeware Startrails program. His first attempt was decent! I took several exposures of the Southern Cross, and will process them when I get home.

So, a bit of astro fun while down here on holiday. I'll try and get out agin if weather permits. Otherwise, just chilling and enjoying some old Aussie food and friends.

Moon Snap

2011-05-13T12:50:00.002-05:00

I couldn't resist shooting the moon last night. I have never imaged it through my 80mm ED refractor, so set up the CGEM and said scope in the front yard at about 9:30 or so. Interestingly, even after doing a very rough polar align (couldn't see Polaris due to a tree being in the way) and not bothering to level the scope, the scope slewed to the Moon just fine, placing it just outside of the field of view of my camera. After a small correction, it tracked perfectly. I live the CGEM!

Anyway, this shot is a 1/180 second exposure, ISO100. Some modifications done in GIMP, including levels, saturation and unsharp mask.

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

2011-05-04T17:33:00.005-05:00

A "meh" attempt. My focus had shifted between the time I actually achieved focus on a nearby star (Alkaid) and the my rig slewed to M51. Anyway, 6 minute exposures here because the site I was at had enough light pollution to produce unwanted artifacts during post-processing. Or I fork out some dosh for a light pollution filter, but having just bought a new Jeep, the financial officer may take issue with another personal purchase.

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 6 minute lights, 5 * 6 minute darks
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

First M13 for the Season

2011-05-04T08:20:00.004-05:00

M13 was still pretty low when I shot this last night, but I couldn't resist the urge to capture it. It's a great globular with terrific detail when viewed through large scopes.

The little smudge at bottom left is NGC6207, a spiral galaxy about 45 million light years away. (Shan't be visiting there anytime soon!)

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 7 * 7 minute lights, 5 * 7 minute darks
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage

The Leo Triplet

2011-04-29T01:04:00.003-05:00

I have been itching to image these galaxies since getting my Nikon D7000! We have succumbed to strong winds and clouds for the last two months, but tonight was clear and calm. I headed to a spot about 20 miles north of my home, set up and started shooting. Pretty chuffed with the result! I can maybe process out a bit more noise, but that might be light pollution.

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 7 * 7 minute lights, 5 * 7 minute darks
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage

Beehive Cluster

2011-04-27T23:32:00.002-05:00

Well, the skies cleared up tonight but I should have stayed home. Firstly, I left my jack for my PC power cord at home, so couldn't guide. Secondly, even if I could have guided, the wind maintained very strong gusts through the night. I didn't want to leave without imaging something, so decided to shoot the Beehive. It was pretty bright and didn't really need long exposures, so shot several two-minute frames to stack. Above is the resulting image. Not bad, considering. I am going to try for this weekend if the conditions get better. The wind here is nuts, though - so persistent.

Imaging Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 10 minute lights
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage

$*&#-ing Weather!!

2011-04-26T22:54:00.000-05:00

Wind, storms, wind, wind oh and some wind! It's been an eventful Spring here in Texas. My scopes sit in my closet, eagerly awaiting a clear, calm night...

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

2011-04-04T21:00:00.003-05:00

My new job took me to some meetings in Washington, D.C, last week. They were quite successful, and I booked an extra day to do some sightseeing. I spent an afternoon in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and it was simply brilliant. Highlights of the exhibits on display, for me, were the Space Ship One, X-29 and series of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which really surprised me. It's a great museum, a must-see for space and aviation fans world-wide!

Click on the picture above to see more in my FLICKR gallery.

Super Moon - Up Close!

2011-03-19T23:12:00.006-05:00

- Nikon D7000
- William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
- 400mm
- 1/45 sec exposure

Okay, enough moon photography. Else I will become a lunatic! ;-)

Super Moon!!!!

2011-03-19T21:34:00.003-05:00

Here's a shot of the Moon shortly after Moonrise on March 19, 2011. The Moon has not been this close to the Earth since 1993.

Nikon D7000, Sigma 70-200 F2.8.

Two exposures:

Moon - 1/30 sec @ F2.8
Landscape - 3s @ F2.8

Shooting La Luna

2011-03-17T22:14:00.004-05:00

A moon shot I took this evening while trying to unwind. Still a bit soft, focus-wise.

Nikon D7000
Sigma 70-200
1/500 sec exposure @ F4.8

A Night Out Under the Stars

2011-02-25T23:04:00.006-06:00

What a week! Finished my last class for my Master's program and got a new job! Brilliant stuff! Tonight was very clear and I took my 12" Lightbridge out to the local, popular observing spot for some visual fun, as well as to catch up with some old mates that I have not been able to see for a while. I got a lot of visual observing in, touring Auriga, Gemini, Orion and Cassiopeia. I also caught up with some old astrobuddies and made some new friends (including another Aussie transplant!).

I took the above shot while I observed. It's only about 30 minutes of star trails, taken with the Mansfield Dam in the foreground (this is where a lot of Austin astronomers meet on a regular basis). Taken with my Nikon D7000 and Sigma 10-20mm HSM lens.

Shout Out to iPhone App Developers!

2011-02-08T13:58:00.002-06:00

G'day there!

Two chaps got in touch with me over the last six weeks regarding the review of their iPhone applications. My email that is tied to this blog had issues, and I have lost both of your info. If you see this, would you please email me again at the link at top right of this blog page and I will go ahead and work on your apps!

Many apologies,
Phil!

Daughter's Solar System Project!

2011-02-07T20:20:00.001-06:00

My daughter had a solar system project to do. She knew her dad would get heavily involved, and here is the result! We're both pretty happy with it! I took the opportunity to teach her how to paint things and basically put a project like this together, in stages. She was very interested and it came out nicely. If she doesn't get an "A" then there will be grief! ;-)

M81"Bode's" & M82 "Cigar" Galaxies

2011-01-29T16:42:00.006-06:00

We had four hours of clear skies last night here in Central Texas, and after putting the kids to bed, and despite being very tired, I headed out to my new dark sky spot to catch some photons. I wanted to go for more Horsehead data but decided to shoot these two galaxies instead. I had the CGEM set up in about 25 minutes and got stuck into it. Again, the trend of improvement continues as this is a better shot than my attempt last year. The Nikon D7000's live view is really helping me with focus, and my drive was tracking away nicely.

I've stretched the image as much as I can without it becoming "fake-looking". The light pollution is still so-so, so maybe next weekend I can try this out at a much darker site, as well as the Horsehead. I'd also like to try and get the Rosette Nebula but that may be pushing it.

Click on the image above for the full view.

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 10 minute lights
ISO 640
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise Reduction in NeatImage

Horsehead & Flame Nebulas

2011-01-28T19:53:00.005-06:00

Here is my Horsehead shot from last night. It is nowhere near what I wanted but a big improvement from my last attempt last year. It's about 48 minutes of data but I was shooting for about two hours or so. The problem was that my guiding camera came into contact with my controller mount without me realizing it, and I couldn't figure out (for about 45 mins) why I was seeing error messages with my PHD guiding software. I thought it was software-based but realized too late that it wasn't! Oh well. I wanted to go out again tonight but there are some high level clouds loitering around the area.

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 4 * 12 minute lights
ISO 400
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

M47

2011-01-28T17:37:00.004-06:00

Another cluster shot - this time of M47. It's a great cluster in a nice, rich part of the sky. With shots like these, I can see the need for a field flattener. Anyway, click on the image for the full size view.

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 3 * 5 minute lights
ISO 400
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

M46 & NGC2437

2011-01-28T01:21:00.003-06:00

First time at this, and I shot it within a bit of spare time tonight after trying to image the Horsehead nebula (more on that later!)

You can clearly see the NGC2437 planetary nebula here. Not too bad!

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 3 * 5 minute lights
ISO 400
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

A Great Day with Outreach Activities!

2011-01-27T21:57:00.001-06:00

It was science fair day at my kids' elementary school today. Additionally, the middle grades were concluding their Solar System studies. So, I thought I'd help out a little.

In the morning, I set up my Lightbridge dob on the school field and showed the Moon to my daughter's and son's classmates. The Moon was a bit pale given the blue morning sky, but we could still see plenty of detail. The kids loved the view, and had lots of interesting questions. They also enjoyed checking out the 12" mirror!

Then, in the evening, the school held it's science fair. I set up the Lightbridge again and waited until dark. A lot of folks were interested and at one point I wished I had asked some local mates for a bit of hand, but this was an impromptu thing and not well planned. Still, I cycled through the large number of kids, parents and teachers and showed them glorious Jupiter. Big "oohs" and "ahhs" emanated from nearly everyone. They really enjoyed it. I showed the Orion Nebula to a few folks as well and they found it fascinating.

It was a great day of outreach and, as always, very rewarding from a personal sense. I am now under a lovely clear sky trying to shoot the Horsehead Nebula. If it comes out well I'll post it this weekend.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Could You?

2011-01-12T10:53:00.003-06:00

As an Aussie ex-pat, it's been very hard to read some of the stories coming out of the Queensland flood crisis. No words can really express the feelings or emotions I am experiencing about the whole thing.

One story sticks out in particular. Read this article about 13 year old Jordan Rice, and ask yourself if you would have the strength, courage and composure to act in the way he did given his circumstances.

One of his family members had said that his story would go down without fanfare or remembrance - I beg to differ as do many others out there who are spreading his story. Acts like this, from people like this, can never be forgotten.

If you want to donate to help those affected, please do so here.

Been slacking Off...

2011-01-12T08:38:00.002-06:00

I am getting behind on my blog! Two folks have asked me to review their iPhone astronomy apps and I will get to them within the next week! Apologies!!!

In the meantime, this blog got some recognition by being in a list of top 50 astronomy/science blogs so that's not half bad!

Visual Astronomy? What's that?!

2011-01-02T09:34:00.002-06:00

It was a cold, clear but windy night last night. I decided to take the 12" Lightbridge out for a few hours of observing. I met Jared out there who was rigged for some serious imaging. The wind was annoying, because it was bitter cold and was knocking my scope around a fair bit. Even using my car as a windshield, the views were ruined by the wind. Still, I persisted and towards the end of my outing (between 8PM and 9PM) the wind did settle down enough to get some good views. I toured the various open clusters around Auriga, M42, M31, the Double Cluster and Jupiter. All were very nice to look at, and reminded me how much I had missed actually looking through a telescope. I hadn't used my Lightbridge once last year due to my astrophotography adventures, and need to get back into visual astronomy again just for the sheer delight of viewing objects with my own eyes and not through a camera's display screen. It was also nice to be at the helm of my LB again. There's something quite cool about moving a scope around manually, finding things without a computer and simply just enjoying them directly.

Happy New Year to all - hope 2011 brings heaps of clear skies!

Nikon D7000 Astrophotography Group on FLICKR

2010-12-29T19:47:00.004-06:00

Today, I created a new group on FLICKR for those wanting to share their astrophotography taken with the Nikon D7000 DSLR. As the camera is relatively new to the market, it would be good to create a community of like-minded folks to share their experiences and tips about using this specific camera.

If you want to join, click on the image above.

Revisiting the Geminids

2010-12-19T22:08:00.002-06:00

This picture is really what I was aiming for. I got impatient and moved my camera around, so couldn't finish off a more complete star trail. Anyway, this about 20 minutes or so of shooting the Orion region with my wide angle. I captured at least two of the brighter meteors that streaked across the region. There were lots more but too faint to capture, apparently.

Anyway, lunar eclipse tomorrow - totality at 2:00am local time the next morning. Can I stay up to shoot it????

Venus Rising

2010-12-14T09:18:00.005-06:00

I shot this while finishing up watching the Geminids this morning. Venus looked lovely and this shot does a nice job of capturing the moment.

Geminids!

2010-12-14T09:01:00.008-06:00

What a show! I woke up at 3am and drove to a dark sky site about 20 miles north of my home. As I was getting out of my car, I could already see very bright meteors (think fireballs!) dropping out of the sky. From 3:30am to 5:30am, I think there were around 40-50 meteors per hour of varying brightness, but they died off shortly thereafter. I saw some brilliant green ones which left short trails in the sky, as well as tons of quick, dimmer meteors that definitely radiated from the Gemini area. It really was quite a show. I set up my camera to try and capture some of the action but meteor photography is very hard. The shot below is of one piercing the Orion constellation. Not brilliant I know, this was a 30 second exposure. I did catch more but I am trying to figure out how to create a nice mosaic where you can actually see them. I'll post it later if it looks decent.

I hope some of you got to see the show this morning. It really was quite stunning.

Trying to Catch some Geminids

2010-12-12T10:14:00.010-06:00

I went out last night for a couple of hours to try a test run on some meteor catching. I managed to catch a single meteor using my D7000 and Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle lens. It's fairly faint in the photo, but it was REALLY bright visually. The Geminids peak this Tuesday morning, and I am planning to wake up very early and try to get some more images of this meteor shower. We'll see how it goes.

Review: Exoplanet App for the iPhone

2010-12-10T12:06:00.005-06:00

Exoplanet discovery is fascinating stuff. We've been at it for a while now using various techniques and instruments, and our perception of our stellar neighborhood in terms of planetary frequency, composition and the potential for life has shifted dramatically from, say, a decade or two ago. Keeping up with the rapid developments in this astronomical field can be tough, if this field indeed piques your interest.

Enter the "Exoplanet" application for the iPhone (and related devices) by Hanno Rein. This app is easy to use, visually pleasing and boasts some great features. Such features include a current and frequently updated database of all known exoplanets with related information (physical characteristics, parent star characteristics, orbital details, detection method), animations which depict the planet's orbit and size with respect to planets in our own Solar System, a plot map which depicts the location of all known exoplanets in our galaxy, a current news feed as well as some excellent information about exoplanet science (discovery, analysis of atmospheres etc.). The other nifty feature I like is the push notification you receive when a new planet is discovered. It makes you feel somehow more connected to the exoplanet hunter community. Nice touch.

Best of all (not that I am a cheapskate!) but it is FREE! What a great idea to make this type of application, and the inherent data within it, free. Very good show!

I spend a lot of time using this application, purely just out of interest. It's fascinating to go through each planet (currently standing at 505!) and review their details. Seeing the visual comparisons is sometimes staggering., especially when focusing on the super Jupiter type planets. How many moons will they have?!

Check it out - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Sword of Orion, D7000, Core Exposed (?)

2010-12-05T00:50:00.005-06:00

I wrestled with GIMP tonight and got a better view of the core in M42 in this image. This is coupled with a stack of 1 minute frames which I gathered for the core. It's better, and now that I have an idea of how to do this I'll start gathering more quantities of different exposures per object.

Sword of Orion with D7000

2010-12-04T09:44:00.007-06:00

Despite my better judgment, I did some imaging late last night in gusting winds. To be honest, my CGEM mount handled things quite well until the winds really picked up. Anyway, I love imaging the Sword of Orion region and have been patiently waiting for it to rise high enough so I can try imaging it with the D7000. The result is very nice. I need to learn how to layer shorter exposures so that the core isn't as burnt out. I'll start researching that soon - it's probably really simple. The megapixal size of the D7000 allows me to produce nice, clean, larger images than my D40.

Image Details

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 4 * 5 minute lights
ISO 500
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

What NASA Told Us...

2010-12-02T22:11:00.002-06:00

So, before the actual NASA press conference, word got out about the research paper that was published which detailed the existence of bacteria which used arsenic in its basic metabolism and genes. This bacteria was found on Earth, in California's Mono Lake. The interesting thing about this is that up until this discovery, it was thought that life needed hydrogen, carbon, phosphorous, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur to survive and thrive. Arsenic, a very poisonous substance, was considered detrimental to the existence of life. Now, our basic understanding of the requirements for life to exist has fundamentally changed.

I think a lot of people were greatly disappointed in today's announcement. Many were probably anticipating the receipt of an alien radio signal, or the observance or detection of an alien life form somewhere, maybe on Mars or Titan, even in the form of microbiological life. Many news websites had posted bold questions on their main sections to the effect of "What will NASA Announce?" coupled with pictures of E.T. or "gray" alien faces. No wonder folks got excited!

I think this is still a very valuable discovery. It shows that life is versatile and resilient, and can exist in many places we previously would not even begin to think to search. As we discover more and more exoplanets and take a closer look at the planets and moons within our own Solar System, we are now faced with the prospect, however daunting, that if bacteria can survive in an environment previously considered hostile to life itself, that life can exist in a multitude of environments that we had not yet considered.

While it makes the search for extraterrestrial life harder because we now have to rethink how we view life itself, it vastly increases the potential for the existence of alien life, in whatever form, throughout the universe.

Nikon D7000 for Astrophotography

2010-12-02T08:40:00.004-06:00

Folks familiar with trying to use Nikon DSLRs are probably aware of the so-called "Star Eater" effect that afflicts the cameras. This is where Nikon applies a form of median filtering against its RAW files, which has a tendency to remove finer details in astro images. Personally, I couldn't detect this in my Nikon D40 but maybe that's just me. The trick that "Nikonians" would use to get around this was the so-called "Mode 3" trick: take the image, then when the camera starts its noise reduction routine, you turn the camera off and it saves a pure RAW file.

Anyway, some analysis has been done on the Nikon D7000, and it looks great. Check this post on the DPREVIEW.COM forums which shows a comparison between the D7000's image processing algorithm and the algorithm used in other Nikon models prior to the D7000. It shows that the 'star eater" phenomenon is no longer an issue! The simulated star in the image remains intact, whereas in the previous algorithm sample image it does not. This bodes very well for those folks interested in using this camera for astrophotography. I am already very impressed with the quality of the astronomical images I have taken using this camera, and now have a little extra confidence that I am not losing any real detail.

To see what I have been able to achieve using the D7000, look here.

What is NASA Going to Tell Us?

2010-12-01T16:03:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow (Thursday), NASA will announce something about an "astrobiological finding". Many news agencies are posting reports like this one that are talking about the buzz on the web about the upcoming announcement. I wonder what it will be. The discovery of an alien life form? The discovery of evidence of life (no matter what scale) on Mars? Maybe even a new theory on life formation that might broaden our search overall? Who knows. 1PM U.S. Eastern Standard Time is when it will be announced. No matter what it is, I am looking forward to it!

M33 "Pinwheel" Galaxy

2010-11-28T22:08:00.007-06:00

I spent a nice Thanksgiving weekend in Arkansas this past weekend. My wife's father owns a goat farm up there. Lots of great food, and it was nice to see my wife and children reconnect with him and his his wife. Other than splitting wood, chasing goats and engaging in some interesting political discussion, he let me use his land to set up my imaging rig while we visited. Friday night was cold (around 33F), still and crystal clear. I set up my rig at sunset and shot for a while, M33 being my primary target for the evening. I had never imaged it before and was keen to do so given its high altitude. I got about just over an hour's worth of data before tiredness and coldness kicked in. I was also having issues with PHD Guiding. Not sure what the deal was, but it wasn't doing a brilliant job and kept losing its guide star (I think the "Auto Guide Star Select" option sometimes picks hot pixels on the guide camera as opposed to actual stars). I also had battery issues and had to switch to the car battery half way through my session. Ah, fun and games. Anyway, pretty chuffed with the result! You can see some nice color and spiral action going on there. My only reservation is the "blueness" of it. Not sure if that is something going on in my saturation processing... I may rework this later in the week.

Image Details

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 10 * 7 minute lights, 4 * 7 minute darks, 30 1/2000 second bias frames
ISO 1250
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

Astronomy Course Complete!

2010-11-19T10:31:00.004-06:00

Phew and thank the Maker!!! My graduate-level astronomy class is finished. I finished my exam and final research paper last night. While I am still waiting my grade for the class, I now get to relax for a month before taking the last course required for my Masters program in January. The astronomy class was quite good, but my not-so-stellar math skills proved to be a hindrance. Still, it armed with a much greater knowledge of the solar system, including formation theories, solar system mechanics, exploration options and so on. The course involved several lab experiments from the folks at CLEA Labs, which I highly recommend. The included studying the four large moons of Jupiter to ascertain Jupiter's mass, a simulated radar ping of Mercury to determine Mercury's rotational speed and an exercise in the astrometry of asteroids. (These courses are FREE and really interesting, and do a decent job of walking you through the math that is required). We also studied advances in optical instruments, the role of women in astronomy, the feasibility of space elevators and other similar, interesting subjects.

Now I can sound about half as smart as most people think I am at star parties!

Quick Moon Shot

2010-11-17T21:43:00.003-06:00

Spent a nice 30 minute period in my front garden shooting the moon tonight. This was taken with my Nikon D7000 and 66mm William Optics Petzval.

D7000 Dark Frames

2010-11-09T22:06:00.006-06:00

Below are some sample dark frames from the D7000. All were shot at a room temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Pretty good results!

5 mins @ ISO 200:

5 mins @ ISO 400:

5 mins @ ISO 800:

5 mins @ ISO 1600:

D7000 ISO 1600 5 Minute Dark Frame

2010-11-09T10:50:00.001-06:00

Double Cluster

2010-11-06T02:50:00.007-05:00

Here is a 50% reduced size shot of the Double Cluster taken earlier this evening. This is really just a test of the focusing on the D7000 but I'm very pleased with the result. The stars are perfectly round here, and the colors of the stars are decent, too.

Be sure to click on the image for a nice view.

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 12 * 2 minute lights, 6 * 2 minute darks
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

M45 - Pleiades

2010-11-06T02:35:00.008-05:00

Okay, so I have never really shot this cluster before. I'm quite happy with the result! The reflection nebula is clearly evident, and the stars within it are nicely focused. I could have done with a flat frame but will get one next time. As I said in my earlier post, the D7000 lets me focus very tightly now, and I think I can see the difference in the way that the detailed nebulosity has come out here.

Image Details:

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 12 * 3 minute lights, 5 * 3 minute darks
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

Ahh, Gear!

2010-11-06T01:10:00.005-05:00

Wonderful evening, tonight! Clear skies, cold temperatures, scope gear, a good mate and a bottle of Guinness! It doesn't get too much better than that. I took my astrophotography rig out tonight to test out the new D7000 body. I met my friend, Scott, out at an alternative dark sky site we'd found on the outskirts of Austin. I spent several hours out there, messing with the D7000 and taking some test shots. I'll post them on the blog here if they come out decently. For now, here's a shot of my new "office"! The D7000 on my 80mm ED refractor, with my Meade DSI guide camera on my William Optics 66mm refractor - all atop my Celestron CGEM which, as usual, behaved admirably tonight through PHD Guiding. Ahh, bliss!

The nifty thing about the D7000 for astro use is the live view with zoom. When I GOTO an object that I want to image, I can turn on "live view" mode, and then zoom into a star that exists in the field of view. Then, I can achieve very sharp, tight focus in preparation for light frame collection. It's wonderful, much better than trial and error!

While I am still processing the images, I can already see some nice, sharp images coming through...

Star Trails

2010-10-30T00:21:00.007-05:00

Rather than study all night as originally planned, I decided to make use of the lovely clear skies and take a break. A hell~ish week at work and 20 pages of research paper writing effort steered me towards taking an hour and a half time out. This was a test shot for star trails at 2 minute exposures which actually turned out better than expected. I shot this about 15 miles north, where the skies are dramatically darker. If I could have, I would have recorded the sounds of the large pack of coyotes which seemed to be relatively close to me throughout my imaging session!

Image Details

Nikon D7000
Sigma 10-20mm @ 11mm
ISO400
F4.2
28*2 minute exposures
Processed in StarTrails.exe software

An interesting attempt at Jupiter

2010-10-24T22:18:00.006-05:00

This was just an experiment but it turned out be pretty interesting! I manually moved my refractor (which I mounted on a pretty cheap camera tripod, which doesn't allow for fine adjustments at all) over to Jupiter. Once centered, I used the live view on the D7000 to zoom way in on Jupiter. I focused the scope until the moons looked pretty sharp, and then took several shots. The above shot is the best result. I don't think it's too bad, really. This live view and zoom feature is really going to have an impact on the quality of my astro snaps moving forward...

Image Details:

Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/8 second

The Moon with the Nikon D7000

2010-10-24T22:04:00.005-05:00

Clear skies tonight, and the full moon hung in the low East sky. I thought I'd try out the new D7000 on it and shot it through my William Optics 66mm Petzval. The result is lovely. Near-full moons are hard to achieve focus on all around. I love the live view option on the D7000. I can turn it on, focus on the telescope until I get what appears to be the sharpest image possible, and shoot. This will be excellent for my DSO photography!

(Otherwise, for regular photos, the D7000 is stunning. I'll post some images on my Photo blog soon.)

Image Details:

Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
ISO: 160
Shutter Speed: 1/250 seconds

New Camera on the Way! Nikon D7000

2010-10-18T13:39:00.005-05:00

For quite some time I have been contemplating a new DSLR. I love my D40 - a LOT! It has been a great camera. Lightweight, fairly versatile for an entry-level DSLR, and overall, it has taken phenomenal photographs. It wasn't really designed for astrophotography, I just decided to try it on for size. I can't afford a dedicated CCD imager so I have to settle for dual-use technologies instead. The D40 has done just fine. Yes, it's noisy but there have been ways to work around that.

Anyway, I had been examining either the D90 or D300s. Not for astrophotography but for more serious uses that I won't go into here. Then, Nikon announces a new camera - the D7000. The camera's price is right in between the two models I was considering, and has amazing capabilities. 16.9 megapixels, auto-bracketing, live view, artificial horizon, two SD card slots, more advanced focusing mechanism, HD video etc. All the details can be found here. All good stuff and I couldn't resist it.

From an astrophotography perspective, I am not sure if it will be an improvement over the D40. I say this because, perhaps, I just want to keep my expectation levels low. However, it boasts 16.9 megapixels (excellent for cropping on wide field shots), claims a much better noise handling system at higher ISOs, and the Live View will certainly assist with focusing. It also has a built-in self-timer which could also come in handy. Again, I don't want to get too excited about this camera from an astro viewpoint, but will definitely be trying it out when it gets here from the store.

On the noise handling improvements, check out this website with some examples. Again, I don't want to get too excited but the apparent lack of noise at high ISOs in these examples is rather staggering.

Stay tuned!

Update: See what I have been able to achieve with the D7000 here.

Astronomy Course Update

2010-10-17T11:33:00.003-05:00

I am now just past the half-way point of my elective astronomy course, taken as part of my Masters program. How is it going? REALLY difficult!!! The course itself is titled "Solar System and Planetary Studies" and I admittedly thought it would be a leisurely, educational tour of the planets. Nope. I have never had to deal with so much mathematics in all my life. Considering I was literally thrown out of Year 10 maths in high school, this has been like a nightmare!

It's interesting stuff, for sure. We've studied subjects like the birth of the solar system via the nebular theory, Kepler's laws, all sorts of observational measurement systems using simulated optical and radio telescope platforms. We've also been studying advanced telescope systems like adaptive optics (now THAT is cool stuff! Hopefully miniaturization will enable that technology to be sued on measly 10" or 12" scopes some day!) It's really been pretty cool in that regard and I have definitely learned a lot.

The mathematics behind it, though, is staggering. And I am sure this is the easy-peasy stuff that astronomers recite in their sleep while multitask dreaming of dark matter and the ingredients of the primordial soup. Still, it's a tough challenge. I'm hovering around 90% right now and would be happy if I stayed there (which would take a lot of luck). I must say that while the math is indeed tricky, there are those golden, "Eureka!" type moments when it does all come together. It's almost like you've discovered something on your own that nobody else has. It's a neat feeling.

We've had an interesting set of assignments, including how to calculate Jupiter's mass by observing and analyzing the rotation of its four largest moons (Kepler's third law), and how to determine the radial velocity of Mercury by analyzing the echoes of a radio telescope ping to the planet. I'd post the papers here but fear they will be used by cheats.

We're currently studying planetary atmospheres, which is also interesting as I've been keeping an eye on the ongoing exoplanet discoveries and have been able to relate what we're reviewing and some of the more complex articles I've been reading online.

So, soldiering on at this point. The next assignment is about the detection of asteroids using plate solving technology. Should be fun, as long as there's no ultra-tricky math involved! :-)

Revisiting Comet Hartley 2

2010-10-10T13:06:00.005-05:00

Another attempt at comet Hartley. It was at magnitude 6.3 when I imaged this. This is 10*2 minute exposures, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker using the "comet mode".

Below is an attempt at making a movie of it as it moved across the sky over a 30 minute period. If you squint your eyes, maybe you'll actually see the comet. :-(

M20 Triffid Nebula

2010-10-10T12:11:00.005-05:00

Again, sticking around Sagittarius, I aimed for M20. It's an object that has eluded me based on both the lack of ability to get out and shoot it and the rubbish results that have occurred when I have been able to shoot it! I may be pushing it when shooting smaller objects with an 80mm scope, but this is my best M20 yet.

Image Details

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 3 minute lights, 4 * 3 minute darks, 20 bias frames
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise reduction in Neat Image

Wide Field View:

M22 Globular Cluster

2010-10-10T11:53:00.007-05:00

This is not too shabby! I wanted to image some objects around the Sagittarius region before it set for the year. I've had very few opportunities to do this, sadly, as family, work and study commitments have kept me away from the night skies over the Summer.

Image Details

Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Exposures: 8 * 3 minute lights, 4 * 3 minute darks
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise reduction in Neat Image

Cropped at 100% of original image:

The Moon and Venus Dance in a Texan Sunset

2010-10-10T11:45:00.003-05:00

AWESOME night last night! I went out to the Austin Astronomy Society's dark sky site in Burnet, Texas, and stayed from about 6PM to midnight. The sunset view, as evidenced in the photo above, was a great indicator of the night ahead. The Moon and Venus looked great after the sun went down, with the beautiful color banding along the horizon.

The night turned out to be a good one indeed. The Milky Way hung over our heads at zenith through most of the night, and the it was bright and showed lots of detail. M31 could be seen naked eye. I could not see Comet Hartley 2 naked eye but found it with binoculars easily enough. The temperature was just perfect, hovering around the mid-to-low 60s. The Draconids meteor shower actually put on a decent display, and I counted (when I wasn't working on my laptop or scope setup) maybe 5-6 bright, short-lifespan fireballs an hour. Very nice indeed!

I shot several objects through the night and will post images here when I am happy with them.

Sword of Orion - HDR

2010-10-04T21:00:00.002-05:00

Instead of working on a research paper last night, I was going through some old astronomy images and tried running them through some HDR software that I have (Dynamic-Photo HDR, about US$50). I had seen some folks use HDR software to help bring their astronomy photos to life so was curious about whether or not it really worked. I have been experimenting with HDR and regular photography for a while now, and you can see some nifty examples here, here and here. Without much tweaking, some images looked pretty useless, where the color was horribly over-saturated. I found an image of the Sword of Orion region which I took as a test shot for my new scope back in February of this year. After running it through the HDR software, it came out fairly decently! More detail could be seen around the outer "rim" of the Orion Nebula itself, and the Running Man Nebula really came to life.

It's possible, I suppose, that you could take a serious of shots at different exposure times, say a set of 10 minute exposures, a set of 5 minute exposures and a set of 1 minute exposures, and merge them using HDR software. Looks like others use this technique with terrific success.

M31 Andromeda

2010-10-03T15:15:00.005-05:00

Here is my M31 "best of" image. I went through several iterations of processing on the set of images I acquired this past Friday night. While these were long~ish exposures (five minutes), I still really had to bend the curves and settings to get the image to look like this, and it really brought out some noise. I now think I need to take 10-minute exposures to get decent RAW images to stack and work from without inducing the noise and graininess seen in the resulting image. It IS better than my last attempt, for sure.

Image Details

Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor

Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
Guiding Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
Exposures: 19 * 5 minute lights, 4 * 5 minute darks
ISO 800
Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
Noise Removal in Neat Image

I am going to try this again in a few days' time. My M51 shot from a few months ago came out nicely at ISO400 with 10 minute exposures. That may be the ticket for this...

Comet Hartley 2

2010-10-02T01:55:00.002-05:00

Great night tonight, got a few hours of imaging in. While my main target was M31, I decided to try and shoot this small comet currently in Cassiopeia. It's a small period comet, orbiting every 6.5 years or so, and was discovered by an Aussie astronomer in 1986. Current magnitude is 7.5. This shot is the result of six three-minute captures in my 80mm refractor, guided on my CGEM through a 66mm refractor.

Wide Field:

Close-Up:

M27 Dumbell Nebula

2010-09-06T00:42:00.007-05:00

Not a bad night, tonight! Very clear, but it was a bit hazy. Still, I decided to go out and shoot some nebulas. M27 was actually a last minute decision as a mate of mine was observing it through his LX200 and it looked pretty bright, as well as being close to the zenith. Anyway, not a bad result and it's better than what I shot two years ago! I'll keep working on the post-processing and see if I can get a better result.

It's very cool that I can now shoot 5 minute light frames with guiding. Excellent stuff! Need to get out to a real dark sky site to get some better photons...

Image Details

* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
* Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
* Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
* Exposures: 4 * 5 minute lights, 4 * 5 minute darks
* ISO 800
* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
* Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

Cropped @ 100%:

M8 Lagoon - So-So Attempt

2010-08-10T09:54:00.006-05:00

I need more light for this object, but this is a step in the right direction. If I increase the exposures to 6 minutes and maybe aim to get 15+ frames to assist with noise reducion, I should be in good shape. My guiding is looking decent though. It's still a tad noisy, even at ISO400.

Image details:

* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
* Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
* Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
* Exposures: 6 * 4 minute lights, 4 * 2 minute darks
* ISO 400
* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
* Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
* Noise reduction in Neat Image

M17 Swan Nebula - First Attempt

2010-08-03T22:00:00.005-05:00

Oh wow! What are these little lights in the sky above us?????

The heavens have opened up! No clouds anywhere last night, and a very still, clear sky hung overhead. I packed the car with my astrophotography gear and headed out to a quiet little observing spot towards the east. I don't go there too often, but it's a lot darker than the place I usually go to where I meet other astrobuddies.

Anyway, I imaged two objects last night, and M17 was one of them. I have never imaged this before, and took the opportunity to do a test run of it. The image above is just five two-minute exposures at ISO800 through my 80mm ED. Not too bad. You can see the primary shape of the nebula and some detail within. I need to go for longer exposures to bring out more of the extensive nebulosity found within this object. Be sure to click on it for the full size image.

Image details:

* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
* Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
* Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
* Exposures: 5 * 2 minute lights, 4 * 2 minute darks
* ISO 800
* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
* Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
* Noise reduction in Neat Image

Astronomy Class

2010-07-26T12:46:00.003-05:00

Well, the clouds persist here. I went out last Friday night (as did quite a lot of other local astronomers) to our close-in site, due to the fact that the SkyClock looked decent but iffy. Well, the high-level clouds rolled and stayed. I was able to observe some bright star clusters available to me in the TOUR functionality of my CGEM mount, as well as the moon, Mars and Saturn. But, that was about all I could achieve. I am really hoping that the next few weeks will bring clear skies and some more photo opportunities. I'd really like to revisit M8 and M20 with my new gear!

In the meantime, I have enrolled into an astronomy class as an elective subject as part of my Masters program. Entitled "Planetary and Solar System Studies", it looks rather interesting and the text (The Cosmic Perspective, 6th Edition) looks like a great read. This will be my first graduate-level astronomy class so we'll see how it goes. It could be really tricky if there's a lot of mathematics involved but it will be fun to study nonetheless.

So, hopefully next month I'll have some new images and perhaps an elightened view of our solar system...

Hope the skies are clear where you are!

Kinda Quiet Around Here...

2010-07-12T14:38:00.004-05:00

Actually, I should relabel the title to "Kinda cloudy around here!"

Seriously, it has been extremely cloudy so far this year. Each and every new moon time frame, we have been blanketed with high and/or low-level clouds. There have been no real opportunities to get out there and observe.

I even went to the Southern Hemisphere (Australia) and it was cloudy every night I was there, too. However at one point the skies cleared momentarily to give me a nice view of the Southern Cross. Still, what bad luck!

At this point I feel that I have forgotten how to use my astrophotography gear because it really has been a long time since I was out under the stars.

Hopefully next month will be clearer and I'll have something to post, image-wise.