Swansea Astronomical Society Blog
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunspot 1084 in green continuum light
Today Sunspot AR1084 remains a lone spot with nearby faculae. I used a 6" f/5 refractor fitted with a Baader solar filter and a DMK21AS camera fitted with a Baader UV/IR cut filter and a Baader green continuum filter.
AR1084
Steve Wainwright
AR1084
Steve Wainwright
M57 with the Modified Samsung SDC-435 frame accumulating video camera and a 10" f/4.8 Newtonian
Last night with a very bright Moon in the sky I used the Samsung SDC-435 frame accumulating camera to image M57. I had some unresolved periodic noise not seen before so the processing has taken a long time due to bad frame elimination. Nevertheless, the camera still performed well and I am testing it and the internal settings in daylight. I am getting the colour balance exactly right for daylight.
M57:
Steve Wainwright
M57:
Steve Wainwright
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Jupiter and Saturn
On Thursday evening I tried capturing Saturn just after the Sun had gone down, above is the resulting image. It was taken through my 11" Celestron, 2.5x barlow, an IR Blocking Filter and a DBK21 camera.
Last night I set the alarm for a 3am call and captured the above image of Jupiter. Using the 11" a 2.5x barlow and my DMK31 camera I captured 5,000 frames, post Registax this is the final image.
Unfortunately my colour camera (DBK21) was not being recognised by the software so I reverted to my monochrome camera. The seeing conditions were quite poor as well with a thin layer of fog. Even though the conditions were far from ideal I was impressed with the amount of detail the camera obtained. You can quite clearly see the Great Red Spot plus you will have noticed one of the bands has faded away.
Keith Davies
Sunspot 1084 in H-alpha and Ca K-line light
Yesterday a new sunspot emerged and today I imaged it in H-alpha and Ca K-line light with Coronado PSTs and a DMK 21AS camera fitted with a medium length nosepiece and the lens assembly from a Coronado Cemax x2 Barlow.
There were several other active regions on the Sun, not currently developing sunspots.
Steve Wainwright
Ca K-line image
H-alpha image
There were several other active regions on the Sun, not currently developing sunspots.
Steve Wainwright
Saturday, June 26, 2010
M57 with the Modified Samsung SDC-435 frame accumulating video camera and an 11" F/10 SCT
Last night, with a full Moon in the sky I tested the Samsung SDC-435 frame-accumulating video camera that I have tested previously and have now modified by removing the dichroic filter assembly that makes the normal camera insensitive to H-alpha light.
I fitted a light-pollution filter on the camera and mounted it at the prime focus of the 11"SCT.
15min of DVD (1 Vob file) were captured at high quality and a similar amount of dark-frame data were recorded.
The VOB Frame Extractor software coded by Ian Davies was used to extract BMP images from the DVD with no loss of quality.
Andrew Sprott's Dark Frame Scaler program was used to correctly scale the raw darkframe produced by Registax.
The BMPs were dark=frame corrected and stacked in Registax. The resulting image was aspect-ratio corrected and cropped.
This is the resulting image with absolutely no colour manipulation:
M57:
The modified camera is looking very promising.
Steve Wainwright
I fitted a light-pollution filter on the camera and mounted it at the prime focus of the 11"SCT.
15min of DVD (1 Vob file) were captured at high quality and a similar amount of dark-frame data were recorded.
The VOB Frame Extractor software coded by Ian Davies was used to extract BMP images from the DVD with no loss of quality.
Andrew Sprott's Dark Frame Scaler program was used to correctly scale the raw darkframe produced by Registax.
The BMPs were dark=frame corrected and stacked in Registax. The resulting image was aspect-ratio corrected and cropped.
This is the resulting image with absolutely no colour manipulation:
M57:
The modified camera is looking very promising.
Steve Wainwright
Friday, June 25, 2010
Active Region 1082 and another bright region
Yesterday evening I used the H-alpha Coronado PST and a DMK21AS camera fitted with a short nosepiece and the lens assembly from a x2 Coronado Cemax Barlow.
AR1082 is fading and will soon disappear around the western solar limb. Some small prominences are nearby.
AR1082 region
Near the eastern limb is a bright active area that could develop into a new sunspot:
Steve Wainwright
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Comet McNaught C2009/R1 with a Mintron and an 11" SCT at f/10
Last night Comet McNaught was above and to the west of Capella in the brightest part of the sky. I used the Omega colour Mintron to capture 15min of DVD at high quality plus dark-frame data. The Mintron was fitted with a light pollution filter. Andrew Sprott's Dark Frame Scaler was used to correct the darkframes.
Comet McNaught:
At this image scale the comet can be seen to have moved a long way in 15 minutes with respect to the background stars which can be seen as streaks of light. Considerable amounts of structure can be seen in the tail as well as some colour in the coma.
I then used the unmodified Samsung SDC-435 with exactly the same setup:
Much less structure was evident in the tail than in the Mintron image.
It will be interesting to see how well this camera performs when it has been modified.
I quickly gathered some image data on M13, Charles Messier's 13th object to be avoided when looking for comets:
M13:
Steve Wainwright
Comet McNaught:
At this image scale the comet can be seen to have moved a long way in 15 minutes with respect to the background stars which can be seen as streaks of light. Considerable amounts of structure can be seen in the tail as well as some colour in the coma.
I then used the unmodified Samsung SDC-435 with exactly the same setup:
Much less structure was evident in the tail than in the Mintron image.
It will be interesting to see how well this camera performs when it has been modified.
I quickly gathered some image data on M13, Charles Messier's 13th object to be avoided when looking for comets:
M13:
Steve Wainwright
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sun, spots, plage and planes
Today I imaged the Sun in H-alpha light through a H-alpha PST with a DMK21AS.
Steve Wainwright
Sometimes unexpected things happen:
The H-alpha image I was in the process of capturing:
The same region in Ca K-line light:
In white light with an 8" SCT with a Baader Solar filter
Last Night's Images
A few images from last night and this morning's Solar shots. The image of Saturn was taken around 11pm, unfortunately it is fast approaching the Sun. Using my 11" Celestron and a DBK21 camera this was the best I could achieve.
With the Moon images I used the same telescope but this time my DMK31 camera, all are at prime focus. Solar images of Sunspot 1082 were taken this morning using my Skywatcher 80mm refractor, baader filter and a DMK31 camera.
Keith Davies
Gower Golf Club
Last Thursday evening we had a very nice evening at Gower Golf Club. A buffet supper was held to mark the end of the club's year. Many thanks to Derek for organising it for us!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Comet McNaught C2009/R1 with a Mintron
An 80mm f/5 refractor was mounted on a Merlin alt-azimuth autotracking mount with a 1/2" chip monochrome Mintron fitted with a light pollution filter and an IR/UV cut filter. Video was recorded to DVD in high quality for 15 minutes as well as dark-frame data. The dark frames were scaled using Andrew Sprott's Dark Frame Scaler software and registax was used to stack the frames. The comet can be seen against the rotating sky:
Comet McNaught C2009/R1
Comet McNaught C2009/R1
When Deep-Sky Stacker was used to centre on the stars, the comet is streaked laterally. It is interesting to see the comet from the two different perspectives:
Using 30 min of data, the comet streaks among the stars but the tail is spread very faint.
If only 36 frames are stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, the comet has moved very little in the 3 minute period and a more satisfactory image is produced
Animation of 30 min movement of the comet against the star background:
Blink comparator view of the comet't movement over a 30 min period:Steve Wainwright
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
M57 with Mono and Colour Mintrons and an 11" SCT
Last night I used a Monochrome MTV-22S85HC-EX 1/2" chip Mintron and a MTV-72S85H-EX-SW 1/2" chip modified colour Mintron with the 11" f/10 SCT at prime focus.
Monochrome Image:
Colour Image:
Combined Mono and colour images:
Combined Mono and colour images:
Steve Wainwright
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Don't underestimate a low cost compact digital camera
Last night, notwithstanding clouds and light pollution we were able to use an Agfa DC-2030p compact digital camera (currently about £50 from Tesco Extra) to image constellations on a static tripod. This camera, like many in its class is able to do extended exposures of up to 15s, with ISO settings of up to 3200 at 3Mp resolution and 6400 at VGA resolution (binning is obviously involved here). The camera was set to ISO 3200 and 15s:
Cassiopeia:
The Plough:
Such a camera will be able to capture nice constellation images and afocal images of the Sun and Moon. Most of us have a camera like this. I would like to encourage experimentation with such cameras. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Steve Wainwright
M57 with the Samsung SDC-435 frame accumulating video camera and an 11" F/10 SCT
I recently inherited the 11" SCT that was Fred Whittle's and before that belonged to Ray Picton.
I mounted it on an HEQ5 Synscan equatorial mount and placed the Samsung SDC-435 at the prime focus and collected 30min of video data to DVD. Conditions were somewhat windy, but nevertheless an image was obtained. Andrew Sprott's dark-frame scaler program was used to correctly scale a darkframe to correct the image.
M57
Steve Wainwright
AR1080, AR1081 and a prominence on June 11th
Yesterday I imaged the active regions 1080 and 1081 in Ca K-line light and H-alpha light using a DMK21AS camera with Coronado PST scopes mounted on a Merlin AZ autotracking mount:
Ca K-line light:
Ca K-line light:
H-alpha light:
Prominence with detached segment:
Steve Wainwright
Friday, June 4, 2010
Little change in AR1076 as it approaches the solar limb
This morning I imaged AR1076 in white light with a 6" refractor and a DMK21AS fitted with an IR/UV cut filter and the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow.
The sunspot has changed little in the past 24 hours:
Steve Wainwright
The sunspot has changed little in the past 24 hours:
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Active Region 1076 in White light, Ca K-Line light and H-alpha light
Today I imaged the Sun in White light through a 6" refractor with a Photographic grade Baader filter and a DMK21AS camera:
The camera 'sees' ultra violet as blue
Steve Wainwright
I used a Ca K-line PST scope to image the same area:
The pale chromospheric network regions of high magnetic activity are evident
I also used a H-alpha PST to look at this area and also filament activity in the northern hemisphere of the Sun:
AR1076 showed bright plage in H-alpha light:
I also used a ToUCam webcam and a Win2000 laptop to image the Sun in H-alpha and Ca K-line light. This colour camera does a good job with colour and resolution:
Using exposures for the disk and for the prominences an image showing both was rendered using Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
AR1076 in H-alpha light
The same region with AR1076 in Ca K-line light
The camera 'sees' ultra violet as blue
Steve Wainwright
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