Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

Imaging through clouds, the electronic solar finder made from an Angeleyes solar finder, an old barlow minus the lens and an SV905C USBC camera. AstroDMx Capture was run in two instances on the imaging computer to locate the Sun in the imaging field of view.

The equipment

The Scope is a motor-focus adapted Skymax 127. The filter is a photographic grade Baader filter (not safe for visual work)

AstroDMx Capture was used to capture a 2000-frame SER file which was stacked in Siril and processed in Wavesharp, The Gimp 2.10 and Image Magick.

The test was a success. The image quality is low due to the fact that the image capture was done through moving clouds. The electronic solar finder was constructed as shown HERE where a number of camera options were explored.

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 5:03 PM 0 Comments

The North America Nebula 1 hours worth of 5 minute exposures, plus an hour's worth of 5 minute exposures on the Pelican nebula captured with AstroDMx Capture using a Stella Mira 66 ED APO refractor with a field flattener and Altair magnetic 2" filter holder with an Altair Quadband filter, using an SV405CC OSC 14 bit cooled. OSC CMOS camera. The two images were stitched with Microsoft ICE. 

Click on an image to get a closer view

The North America and Pelican nebulae

posted by astroimager  # 3:09 PM 0 Comments

Stack of 1 hours worth of 5 minute exposures captured with AstroDMx Capture, using a Stella Mira 66 ED APO refractor with a field flattener and Altair magnetic 2" filter holder with an Altair Quadband filter, using an SV405CC OSC 14 bit cooled. OSC CMOS camera.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 10:16 AM 0 Comments

The Western Veil Nebula and Pickering's Triangle. Stack of 1 hours worth of 5 minute exposures captured with AstroDMx Capture, plus an hour's worth of 5 minute exposures on the Eastern Veil nebula using a Stella Mira 66 ED APO refractor with a field flattener and Altair magnetic 2" filter holder with an Altair Quadband filter, using an SV405CC OSC 14 bit cooled. OSC CMOS camera. The two images were stitched with Microsoft ICE.

Click on the image to get a closer view

The Veil nebulae

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 11:56 PM 0 Comments

M31 the Andromeda Galaxy. Settings were 1min exposure,3200ISO at f/6.3 using my 18-200mm lens,at 200mm attached to a Canon 1300D DLSR Canon camera. The camera was attached to a Star Adventure 2i tracking mount. the image is a stack of 50 images stacked in DSS and processed in Gimp 2.10, PT Photo Editor and Free photo Noise Reduction.The image was taken at Falls Bay Rhossil, Gower under Bortle 3 skies. 

Click on the image to get a closer view

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 11:01 PM 0 Comments

M24 The Sagittarius star cloud. Settings were 1min exposure, 3200ISO at f/6.3 using my 18-200mm Tamaron lens at 200mm attached to a Canon 1300 DLSR camera. The camera was mounted on a Star Adventure 2i tracking mount. The image is a stack of 40 images stacked in DSS and processed in Gimp 2.10 and PT Photo Editor and Free Photo Noise. The image was taken at Falls Bay Rhossili Gower under Bortle 3 skies.

Click on the image for a closer view

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 4:29 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with an ICE ND100000 solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 206 images of the Sun on August 16. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being Stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in Image Magick and Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 1:23 PM 0 Comments

With a dark, clear and moonless night, several members ventured out to some of Gower's darkest areas to take advantage of the ideal conditions for viewing the continuing annual Perseid meteor shower. From Pwll Du to Rhossili members reported seeing several really bright meteors over the course of the night as they camped out under the stars. Some members took telescopes and binoculars to view and image several dark sky objects including the rich star fields of the Milky Way which was seen at its best at this time of year.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 12:30 PM 0 Comments

A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera fitted with an ICE ND100000 solar filter and mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 216 images of the Sun. The images were precisely cropped in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being Stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in Image Magick and Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view.

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 4:11 PM 0 Comments