Swansea Astronomical Society Blog
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Jupiter on Sep 29th
Jupiter was imaged through a DBK camera on an 11" SCT last night
The planet was imaged at two image scales through different Barlows:
1.5x Barlow:
2.5x Barlow:
The Great Red Spot and Red Spot Junior are visible in these images.
Keith Davies
Keith Davies
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sun and Moon on Sept 25
Yesterday, sunspots AR1108 and AR1109 were imaged in H-alpha light on the 25th in the morning before clouds brought an end to the imaging. The DMK21AS camera was fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow and a Merlin AZ mount was used to track the Sun.
AR1108
AR1109
A prominence was imaged with exposures to reveal the solar disk and the prominence separately. Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software was used to merge the images into a single image below:
Later in the afternoon the two active regions were imaged in Ca K-line light with the DMK21AS camera and a Ca K-line PST mounted on the Merlin AZ mount. The image has rotated because of the use of an AZ mount at different times of day:
AR1108
AR1109
During the evening the Moon was imaged and a bat was seen transiting the Moon.
Click ONCE to see the bat fly past the Moon
The Moon and a transit by a bat.
Using the DMK21AS camera at the prime focus of a 150mm Netwtonian at a focal length of 750mm, a mosaic of the Moon was constructed from 8 separate imaged areas.
Click on the image to obtain a very large view of the Mosaic.
This is a 17 day, 3 hour old Moon with 94% illumination
Lunation 1085
Steve Wainwright
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Afocal Lunar imaging with a 130mm f/5 Newtonian and a 12.1Mp compact camera
With an f/5, 130mm Newtonian I used 30mm, 15mm and 10mm eyepieces and handheld afocal projection with a Samsung ES19 12.1Mp compact camera: The Moon was 15days 4 hours old and was 97% full, Lunation 1085.
Click on an image to see a larger view
15mm
10mm
Click on an image to see a larger view
30mm
15mm
10mm
10mm
This demonstrates that a small scope and a simple compact camera can produce good Lunar images
Steve Wainwright
Friday, September 24, 2010
Solar activity in H-alpha light
A DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly of a x2 Barlow was used with the H-alpha Coronado PST to obtain these images. Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers program was used to combine an image of the disk with an image exposed for the prominence:
A large prominence:
AR1108
AR1109
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Jupiter from London Skies
Jupiter was imaged through a 120mm Apo Skywatcher refractor at three image scales using a DBK camera:
Prime focus
2.5x Barlow
3x Barlow
Keith Davies
Sunspots and Dumbbells
A Toucam was used to image this sunspot
The umbra and penumbra are clearly visible for each sunspot
This image of M27 is an LRGB image synthesised from separate images taken through red, green and blue filters and unfiltered luminance that provides much of the detail:
Anne Startup
The umbra and penumbra are clearly visible for each sunspot
This image of M27 is an LRGB image synthesised from separate images taken through red, green and blue filters and unfiltered luminance that provides much of the detail:
Anne Startup
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Seven Sisters
The Sony DSLR revealed M45, the Pleiades. A bright Moon coupled with light-pollution prevented Merope's nebula from being visible
Wayne Jones
Wayne Jones
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Orion's sword at two scales
The Sony DSLR produced these images of part of the Orion Constellation.
Click on an image to see a larger view.
The Belt and sword of Orion:
The sword of Orion:
M42/43 are clearly visible in this image
Wayne Jones
Click on an image to see a larger view.
The Belt and sword of Orion:
The sword of Orion:
M42/43 are clearly visible in this image
Wayne Jones
Friday, September 17, 2010
Deep Sky with the SDC-435 and the Moon with a DMK
Last night there was no wind and, despite there being a half Moon in the sky, conditions were favourable for imaging deep sky objects with the 10" f/4.8 Newtonian. The objects were imaged either at the prime focus of the scope or with a 0.5 focal reducer fitted to the Samsung SDC-435 with a light pollution filter fitted at the front of the assembly.
The Eastern Veil Nebula C33 with a focal reducer
Crescent Nebula C27 with a focal reducer
M13 (image data combined from Sept16 & Sept17)
M27
M57
The Eastern Veil Nebula C33 with a focal reducer
Crescent Nebula C27 with a focal reducer
M13 (image data combined from Sept16 & Sept17)
M27
M57
A Skymax127 Maksutov was mounted on the Merlin Mount and a DMK fitted with a red filter was used to image the Moon in daylight:
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Jupiter and Io with an 11" SCT and a DBK21AS camera
Last night the DBK21AS camera was placed at the prime focus of a Celestron 11" SCT.
This image of Jupiter and Io was obtained:
Keith Davies
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Long exposure images with a modified webcam
Last night, despite there being significant wind that ruined most exposures, I used a ToUcam modified for long exposures by the Portuguese firm Perseu. This camera was sent to me by the company in 2002/3 to test as it had come directly from research in my Imaging group QCUIAG. This camera is the forerunner of the Atik range of astronomical cameras generally recognised as being among the best.
I used the Astrovideo software developed at COAA in Portugal proposed and tested by myself specifically for imaging with video cameras and long exposure modified webcams. I managed to capture enough images unaffected by scope shake, to produce these two images:
This is the camera:
I used the Astrovideo software developed at COAA in Portugal proposed and tested by myself specifically for imaging with video cameras and long exposure modified webcams. I managed to capture enough images unaffected by scope shake, to produce these two images:
M13
This image was derived from the same capture but used the 32bit FITs files generated by Astrovideo:
M57
Steve Wainwright
Monday, September 13, 2010
Galaxy, Globular and Jupiter
The Sony DSLR was used with an apochromatic refractor to image M31/32 and M13: Click to see larger images.
Light pollution can be seen in the background making the sky glow red in colour.
M31/32
M13
Light pollution can be seen in the background making the sky glow red in colour.
Jupiter
Wayne Jones
Sunday, September 12, 2010
AR1106 in H-alpha and Ca K-line light
AR1106 was imaged with PST solar scopes and a DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow.
Blink image of AR1106 in H-alpha (red colouration) and Ca K-line (blue colouration) light:
A Prominence and considerable filament structure was present. Andrew Sprott's Solar layers software was used to combine an image exposed for the disk with a longer exposure exposed for the prominence. This image was combined in iMerge to produce a mosaic that shows the prominence and filaments on the solar disk:
Click to see a larger image
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Ring nebula and the ISS
I captured DVD data on M57 with the Samsung SDC-435 through an f/5, 150mm Newtonian. 
Steve Wainwright
This was the result:
It was interesting to see the ISS had appeared in a couple of the individual frames:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Jupiter with DMK & DBK and DSOs with a Nikon 700
The images of Jupiter were taken with the 11" SCT and a x2 Barlow.
This image was difficult as Ursa Major was low in the sky which was moonlit
With the DBK:
With the DMK
With the Nikon 700 and a 4" Skywatcher APO refractor
This image was difficult as Ursa Major was low in the sky which was moonlit
Keith Davies
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