Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

Mount control by AstroDMx Capture for Windows and a Raspberry Pi running an INDI Server. 

Although this experiment was done with AstroDMx Capture for Windows, it all works exactly the same way with other operating systems.

Full details of the experiment plus all of the images can be seen HERE.

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 5:04 PM 0 Comments

Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs and M10 globular star cluster.  Settings were 1 minute exposure and ISO1600 using a 4000D DSLR Canon camera attached to a 102mm Skywatcher refractor telescope and an eq5 tracking mount.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 1:50 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with a Baader solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 138 images of the Sun. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop, registered, stacked and wavelet processed in Siril and post-processed in Siril and the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 12:30 PM 0 Comments

The Pelican nebula (IC 5070 and IC 5067) imaged on the evening of the 14th and morning of the 15th July 2022 using an Atik 320e OSC camera fitted with an Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter on an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor with a 0.8 x focal reducer, driven with an iOptron CEM26 mount and guided by PHD2 using an SvBony 165 finder scope using a QHY5L-II-M camera. Some 49 x 2 minute subs were taken which were stacked in DSS and processed in Adobe CS2. The two brightest stars are 56 & 57 Cygni (mag 5 at 133.6 ly & mag 4.8 @ 525 ly respectively). The nebula is around 2,000 ly away and is 30 ly across and glows in HII as the hot ionized gas meets colder gas. The nebula is rich with star stuff in this star forming region of the Milky Way - an impressive stellar nursery.

Click on an image to get a closer view

The Pelican Nebula

The Elephant Trunk nebula and star cluster (IC396) imaged on the morning of the 15th July 2022 using an Atik 320e OSC camera fitted with an Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter on an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor with a 0.8 x focal reducer, driven with an iOptron CEM26 mount and guided by PHD2 using an SvBony 165 finder scope using a QHY5L-II-M camera. Some 50 x 2 minute subs were taken which were stacked in DSS and processed in Adobe CS2. This star forming region of the Milky Way lies in Cepheus with the star cluster being around mag 3.5 which are hundreds of ly across and ~ 3,000 ly from Earth. The nebula contains many young stars born from this nebula that are making their way out into space. As they do so, their solar winds are blowing outwards as a massive blue star on the periphery ionizes the gas causing it to glow. From the angle I imaged this object I think it looks more like a horse being ridden by a jockey!

The Elephant Trunk nebula

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 10:26 AM 0 Comments

C/2117 K2 (Panstarrs). Located and centred on the sensor by AstroDMx Capture for Windows. Scope 80mm F=440mm ED refractor on an AVX mount with a Player-One Mars-C II (IMX662) OSC camera fitted with an IR/UV cut filter. Stack of 10 x 20s exposures (200s, during which time there was negligible movement of the comet against the background stars).

Click on the image to get a closer view

COMET C/2117 K2 (Panstarrs)

posted by astroimager  # 3:34 PM 0 Comments

Supermoon setting over Loughor estuary on 14th of July 2022,settings were 1/50s and  ISO200 at f/6.3 using a 75-300mm Canon zoom lens attached to 4000D DSLR Canon camera and a static tripod.

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 6:00 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with a Baader solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 181 images of the Sun. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola's AstroCrop, registered, the best 90% stacked and wavelet processed in Siril and post-processed in Siril and the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 5:47 PM 0 Comments

An experiment to control a Skywatcher Star Discovery mount with Nicola's AstroDMx Capture software was a success.

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posted by astroimager  # 1:56 PM 0 Comments

NGC4244 (The Silver Needle Galaxy) imaged in RGB on the evening of the 13th July 2022 before the supermoon got too bright. I used an Atik 320e OSC camera on an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor with a 0.8 x focal reducer, driven with an iOptron CEM26 mount and guided by PHD2 using an SvBony 165 finder scope using a QHY5L-II-M camera. Some 32 x 2 minute subs were taken which were stacked in DSS and processed in Adobe CS2.This is a mag 10.2 edge on spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici lying around 6.5 Mly away. The bright star at the bottom is Beta Cygni which is naked eye visible.

Click on an image to get a closer view

NGC4244, The Silver Needle Galaxy

NGC6888  (The Crescent Nebula) imaged on the morning of the 14th July 2022 using an Atik 320e OSC camera fitted with an Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter on an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor with a 0.8 x focal reducer, driven with an iOptron CEM26 mount and guided by PHD2 using an SvBony 165 finder scope using a QHY5L-II-M camera. Some 70 x 2 minute subs were taken which were stacked in DSS and processed in Adobe CS2. This mag 7.4 emission nebula lies deep in the Cygnus arm of the Milky Way and is around 4,700 ly away. It is formed by a star shedding its outer layers (a so called Wolf Rayet star known as WR 136). The halo is unevenly illuminated with a myriad of Milky Way stars shining through it, including a keystone shape of 7th to 10th magnitude stars. The stars gas is ionised by the solar wind colliding with a slower jet of gas coming from the star after it became a red giant. The shell of gas is around 25 ly across and contains two shells – one moving out and one moving in towards the star glowing brightly in the X-Ray band at colossal temperatures.

NGC6888, The Crescent Nebula

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 12:45 PM 0 Comments

A Solarmax II 60, BF15 H-alpha scope was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. Four overlapping Panes of the Sun were captured as 1500-frame SER files with AstroDMx Capture and an SV305M Pro mono  camera. The SER files were stacked in Autostakkert, Stitched in ICE, wavelet processed in Registax 5.1 and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view 

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 5:09 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with a Baader solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 138 images of the Sun. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola's AstroCrop, registered, stacked and wavelet processed in Siril and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 12:11 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with a Baader solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 150 images of the Sun. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola's AstroCrop, registered, stacked and wavelet processed in Siril and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 8:23 PM 0 Comments

I was taking 10 second SER files with the QHY5P-IIC colour camera through the PST in the new version of AstroDMx Capture (ver 1.5.0.0) which gave only 35 frames (as its a very slow frame rate camera). I processed the images in Autostakkert! wavelet processed them in Registax, with final processing done in Adobe CS2.

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 12:11 AM 0 Comments

1. A full disc using my Lunt 50 with an Altair Hypercam fan cooled 178 cmos camera. Best 20% of 2000 frames using Firecapture.

Click on an image to get a closer view

2. Details of the solar surface using a Quark and an Altairastro 80mm F7 telescope.

I used Photoshop CS3 to create 3 mosaics as the active areas were too large for the Quark's field of view. The camera was an Altair Hypercam fan cooled 174 CMOS camera which has 5.86 micron pixels.

Anne Startup

posted by astroimager  # 8:33 PM 0 Comments

M20 the Trifid nebula imaged on the morning of the 10th July 2022 using an Atik 320e OSC camera fitted with an Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter. The camera was attached to an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor with a 0.8 x focal reducer, driven with an iOptron CEM26 mount and guided by PHD2 using an SVBONY 165 finder scope using a QHY5L-II-M camera. Some 60 x 2 minute subs were taken with the scope positioned on a balcony so as to maximise the vantage point of this low level object. The images were stacked in DSS and processed in Adobe CS2.

Click on the image to get a closer view

M20

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 8:24 PM 0 Comments

M27 the Dumbbell nebula. Settings were 2 minutes exposure and 800ISO using a 4000D DSLR Canon camera attached to a 102mm Skywatcher refractor telescope and an eq5 tracking mount. 

Click on an image to get a closer view

M27

Waxing gibbous Moon. Settings were 1/500s ISO400 using a Panasonic z82 Lumix Bridge camera, attached to a Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i tracking mount. 

Waxing, gibbous Moon

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 1:08 PM 0 Comments

 Here are some images I took on the night of 7th/8th July 2022 with my 8 inch SCT at F 6.3. They are the 7day old Moon,M10 and Comet Panstarrs.

Click on an image for a closer view

7 day old Moon

M10 globular cluster

Comet Panstarrs

Howard Davies

posted by astroimager  # 12:56 PM 0 Comments