Swansea Astronomical Society Blog
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Yesterday's Sun in H-alpha light
A DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was attached to a H-alpha PST. Overlapping areas of the Sun were captured and a mosaic of the whole disk was made:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
Two areas that had prominences on the limb were imaged for the disk and for the prominences. The resulting images were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
Steve Wainwright
Click on an image to get a larger view.
Two areas that had prominences on the limb were imaged for the disk and for the prominences. The resulting images were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
Steve Wainwright
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Constellations with a long exposure compact camera
A Samsung WB600 compact camera was mounted on a Merlin autotracking mount. It was set to ISO 200 and 16s exposure (the maximum for this camera). Several images were captured of the Plough and Patrick Moore's Summer Triangle. The images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker to de-rotate, register and stack:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
The Plough
The Summer triangle
If a compact camera is capable of extended exposures then this facility should be explored for astronomical imaging.
Steve Wainwright
Click on an image to get a larger view.
The Plough
The Summer triangle
If a compact camera is capable of extended exposures then this facility should be explored for astronomical imaging.
Steve Wainwright
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday's weak Noctilucent cloud display
At about 11pm some weak noctilucent clouds were visible in the north and northwest.
A Pentax Kx DSLR fitted with a light pollution filter and placed on a static tripod.
Two images were captured from two different viewpoints at Langrove:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
We are now in the noctilucent season and observers should look out every clear night after sunset to see if a display develops.
Steve Wainwright
A Nikon D50 captured the display:
Nikki Makin
A Pentax Kx DSLR fitted with a light pollution filter and placed on a static tripod.
Two images were captured from two different viewpoints at Langrove:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
We are now in the noctilucent season and observers should look out every clear night after sunset to see if a display develops.
Steve Wainwright
A Nikon D50 captured the display:
Nikki Makin
Monday, June 27, 2011
Saying au revoir to Saturn
Saturn is getting low in the sky and subject to commensurate poor seeing.
Saturn was captured with an 11" SCT, and a DBK camera with a x2 Barlow:
Keith Davies
Saturn was captured with an 11" SCT, and a DBK camera with a x2 Barlow:
Keith Davies
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Daytime Moon
This morning I used an 80mm refractor with a 2.5 x Barlow and a DMK21AS monochrome camera fitted with a red filter. The red filter removed the blue light from the sky and made it appear much darker, giving better contrast to the Moon. Overlapping AVIs were captured and a mosaic was made and resized to show this rare side of the Moon:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
Steve Wainwright
Click on the image to get a larger view.
Steve Wainwright
Filaments and a prominence on the Sun Today
The Sun is relatively quiet today but there was a flame-like prominence and two fine filaments.
A DMK21AS camera was fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow and attached to a H-alpha PST (Personal Solar Telescope by Coronado). AVIs were captured exposed for the disk and exposed for the prominences. The resulting images were combined in Andrew Sprott's "Solar Layers" software:
Steve Wainwright
A DMK21AS camera was fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow and attached to a H-alpha PST (Personal Solar Telescope by Coronado). AVIs were captured exposed for the disk and exposed for the prominences. The resulting images were combined in Andrew Sprott's "Solar Layers" software:
Steve Wainwright
Friday, June 24, 2011
Rare side of the Moon with a compact camera
The waning Moon presents a side that is often seen in the daytime sky but is rarely looked at.
A compact camera captured the Moon through thin clouds in the early morning sky.
A gap in the clouds revealed a wide crescent against a blue sky.
Steve Wainwright
A compact camera captured the Moon through thin clouds in the early morning sky.
A gap in the clouds revealed a wide crescent against a blue sky.
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Solar activity today
The Sun was imaged in H-alpha and Ca K-line light with PST solar scopes using a DMK21AS camera fitted with a short nosepiece and the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow.
A Mosiac was made of the whole solar disk in H-alpha.
Click on the image to get a larger view.
The region of AR 1236 was imaged in Ca K-line light
and overlayed in an animation on the whole disk.
The Prominences in the region of AR 1236 were imaged and combined with disk data using Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software
Steve Wainwright
A Mosiac was made of the whole solar disk in H-alpha.
Click on the image to get a larger view.
The region of AR 1236 was imaged in Ca K-line light
and overlayed in an animation on the whole disk.
The Prominences in the region of AR 1236 were imaged and combined with disk data using Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software
Steve Wainwright
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Sunday's Sun
A DMK21AS camera with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was attached to a H-alpha PST. 2000 frames were captured as AVIs exposed for the disk and exposed for the prominences. The two resulting images were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
The hedgerow prominences had extensions reaching over to adjacent prominences over a substantial arc of the limb.
A Mosaic was made to show AR2136 in H-alpha light:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
The same camera setup was used to image AR2136 in Ca K-line light in the ultra violet:
An animation was made to compare and contrast the view of AR2136 in H-alpha and Ca K-line light:
The smaller inset part of the animation starts with H-alpha and finishes with Ca K-line
Steve Wainwright
The hedgerow prominences had extensions reaching over to adjacent prominences over a substantial arc of the limb.
A Mosaic was made to show AR2136 in H-alpha light:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
The same camera setup was used to image AR2136 in Ca K-line light in the ultra violet:
An animation was made to compare and contrast the view of AR2136 in H-alpha and Ca K-line light:
The smaller inset part of the animation starts with H-alpha and finishes with Ca K-line
Steve Wainwright
Monday, June 13, 2011
Capturing the Moon with Linux
A Philips SPC900NC camera was placed at the prime focus of an 80mm refractor mounted on an altazimuth mount. The camera was connected to a computer running Ubuntu Linux and wXAstrocapture as the capture software:
The slightly unfamiliar desktop to a Windows user, but very similar to use.
Two overlapping AVIs were captured and combined into a mosaic:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
This operating system is very capable for astronomical imaging.
Steve Wainwright
The slightly unfamiliar desktop to a Windows user, but very similar to use.
Two overlapping AVIs were captured and combined into a mosaic:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
This operating system is very capable for astronomical imaging.
Steve Wainwright
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Lunar imaging at Fairwood
We used the EQ3-2 mount at the Fairwood observatory and mounted at the prime focus of a 5", f/10 Maksutov telescope. AVIs were captured of overlapping areas of interest on the Moon using a DMK21AS camera. The individual images were stitched together into a mosaic of a sizeable portion of the Moon:
Click on the image to get a larger view.
Considerable fine detail is visible.
Two further, disconnected areas were imaged:
Can you see the cat on the Moon?
The Clavius-Tycho region
When it became darker an experiment was done with a very cheap 1.3Mp Dynex CMOS based Webcam at the prime focus of the Maksutov. The Frame rate was reduced to 10fps to try to obtain less compression of the images in the video stream. 4 x 1000 frame AVIs were captured and processed in Registax:
Unfortunately, although the image is quite pleasing, there is still evident compression remaining.
Gaynor Thomas and Steve Wainwright
Click on the image to get a larger view.
Considerable fine detail is visible.
Two further, disconnected areas were imaged:
Can you see the cat on the Moon?
The Clavius-Tycho region
When it became darker an experiment was done with a very cheap 1.3Mp Dynex CMOS based Webcam at the prime focus of the Maksutov. The Frame rate was reduced to 10fps to try to obtain less compression of the images in the video stream. 4 x 1000 frame AVIs were captured and processed in Registax:
Unfortunately, although the image is quite pleasing, there is still evident compression remaining.
Gaynor Thomas and Steve Wainwright
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Large solar prominence this morning
A DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was attached to a H-alpha PST mounted on a Merlin Mount. AVIs exposed for the prominence and exposed for the solar disk were captured an processed in Registax. The two images were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
Parts of the prominence were so bright that they were saturated whilst other parts were filamentous and faint. An active area and a filament are visible on the disk.
Steve Wainwright
Experiments with a cheap 1.3Mp Dynex Webcam
A Dynex 1.3Mp CMOS webcam was placed at the prime focus of a 5", f/10 Maksutov. The resolution was set to 640 x 480 and the frame-rate was set to 30fps. This frame-rate caused too much compression, however, acceptable first light images were obtained:
Future experiments will use a lower frame rate to obtain lower compression rates
Steve Wainwright
Future experiments will use a lower frame rate to obtain lower compression rates
Steve Wainwright
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Sun today in H-alpha light
A H-alpha PST was mounted on a Merlin mount and a DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was used to capture Overlapping AVIs of the Solar Disk from which a mosaic of the whole disk was assembled.
Click on an image to get a larger view.
A prominence was also imaged and combined with the appropriate segment using Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
Steve Wainwright
Click on an image to get a larger view.
A prominence was also imaged and combined with the appropriate segment using Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers software:
Steve Wainwright
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Astronomy Art in Swansea
The Welsh artist Chris Williams has an exhibition in Swansea in the Cafe Nisse on Wind Street
If you are in Swansea, why not pop in for a cup of coffee and take a look at some of the works of art:
Click on an image to get a larger view
Chris Williams is a sculptor as well as working with other fine arts. He has a wooden sculpture called Orrery in the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath.
Steve Wainwright
If you are in Swansea, why not pop in for a cup of coffee and take a look at some of the works of art:
Click on an image to get a larger view
Chris Williams is a sculptor as well as working with other fine arts. He has a wooden sculpture called Orrery in the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath.
Steve Wainwright
Monday, June 6, 2011
A large solar prominence imaged with a Virtual Box
VirtualBox was installed under Windows 7 and Windows XP was installed inside it. Then a ToUCam Pro (which can not run under Win 7) was used to image the Sun through a H-alpha PST. The lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was used.
The image exposed for the disk and that exposed for the prominence were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers program.
Steve Wainwright
The image exposed for the disk and that exposed for the prominence were combined in Andrew Sprott's Solar Layers program.
Steve Wainwright
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Friday Saturn and Sun
Saturn was imaged with a DBK camera and an 11" SCT.
An 80mm refractor fitted with a Baader solar filter was used to capture this image at prime focus:
A 3x Barlow produced this image
A Trust webcam was used at the prime focus of the H-alpha PST to produce this full disk image:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
Keith Davies
An 80mm refractor fitted with a Baader solar filter was used to capture this image at prime focus:
A 3x Barlow produced this image
A Trust webcam was used at the prime focus of the H-alpha PST to produce this full disk image:
Click on an image to get a larger view.
Keith Davies
Friday, June 3, 2011
Solar Prominences in H-alpha light with Ubuntu Linux
A Sweex WC067 HD Webcam Crystal fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was used with wxAstrocapture and a H-alpha PST to capture AVIs exposed for the disk and for prominences. The capturing was done under Ubuntu Linux and the AVIs were processed by Linux running under Wine, a Windows compatability layer under Linux:
A large arching prominence and a smaller pointed prominence.
Steve Wainwright
Thursday Sun in H-alpha and Ca K-line light
A DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow was attached to H-alpha and Ca K-line PSTs. AVIs were captured of Overlapping areas of the solar disk and were processed with Registax The resulting images were merged into mosaics of the Solar disk.
Click on an image to get a larger view.
H-alpha image
Ca K-line image
The chromospheric network shows the areas of high magnetic activity.
Below is an animation of an active area cycling through H-alpha (red), Ca K-line (blue) and a blend of the two (mauve):
Steve Wainwright
Click on an image to get a larger view.
H-alpha image
Ca K-line image
The chromospheric network shows the areas of high magnetic activity.
Below is an animation of an active area cycling through H-alpha (red), Ca K-line (blue) and a blend of the two (mauve):
Steve Wainwright
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