Swansea Astronomical Society Blog
Saturday, May 11, 2024
16.5% crescent Moon
A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 129 images of the 16.5% crescent Moon at ISO 100 and 1/160s exposure. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
Click on the image to get a closer view
16.5% crescent Moon
Steve Wainwright
The Sun in white light
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 138 images of the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1600s. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being sum stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
Click on the image to get a closer view
Steve Wainwright
The Sun, the Moon and the Aurora Borealis
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 130 images of the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1600s. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being sum stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
Click on an image to get a closer view
The Sun May 10th
A Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ72, 60x optical zoom bridge camera mounted on a static tripod was used to capture 99 images of the 9% crescent Moon at ISO 100 and 1/160s exposure. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
9%, waxing, crescent Moon
Aurora Borealis from the Afan valley
Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin
Thursday, May 9, 2024
The Sun in Ca K-line and H-alpha light
The Sun in Ca K-line using a Skymax 127 with a Photographic grade Baader solar filter and a Ca K-line filter with an SVBONY SC432M fan cooled solar camera; and H-alpha light with a Coronado Solarmax II 60 BF15 H-alpha scope with a x3 Barlow and an SVBONY SC432M fan cooled solar camera. Data captured by AstroDMx Capture.
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Ca K-line
H-alpha
Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin
The Sun with the huge sunspot groups AR3664 and AR3668
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 120 images of the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1000s. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being sum stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
Click on the image to get a closer view
AR3664 and AR3668 combine to form a huge naked eye (with appropriate filter protection) sunspot.
Steve Wainwright
The Sun with a huge sunspot
The Sun taken at 8:00 am on 9/5/24 through hazy clear skies using a Sony E-10 camera with 350 mm lens and Baader OD5 filter. One enormous sunspot group immediately stood out which is already hurling CME's in our direction which may bring aurora in the next few days. The image is an 80% stack of 46 x ARW's stacked in Autostakkert!4 and processed in Registax/PS 2024.
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Chris Bowden
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Remotely controlling an imaging setup using a mini format computer
Last night I was able to test out a new configuration for my telescope using a mini PC piggy-backed on my Altair 60EDF which was remotely operated by a laptop from inside the house using remote desktop software to direct the scope to target and image the Leo triplet of galaxies. Due to weather the test was limited to just 25 mins until the mist descended making further capture impossible. Following calibration and guiding tuning of the new setup a total of 24 x 60s subs were taken of LRGB & Ha data. The equipment performed well; essentially turning the scope into a radio controlled instrument. The data captured were then integrated and processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop in both wide field and cropped images. A couple of mobile phone images were also taken to show the equipment in operation. The wide field image was uploaded to Astrometry.net to annotate the image to show many more galaxies captured in the field of view.
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Chris Bowden
Monday, May 6, 2024
The Sun with a bridge camera
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 130 images of the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1300s. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being sum stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
Click on the image to get a closer view
Steve Wainwright
The Leo triplet and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex
Through somewhat hazy conditions I took 1.6 hours of LRGB data of the Leo triplet of galaxies with my EDF60 doublet refractor fitted with a 0.8 x FR using an ASI 533MM Pro camera shooting 4 min subs. Data was integrated and processed in Pixinsight with final refinements done in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop 2024.
Using the same equipment I got a further 2 hours of data on the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex area of the Milky Way again imaged through haze and partial cloud cover, shooting LRGB and HO 4 minute subs. Data was integrated and processed in Pixinsight with final refinements done in Adobe Photoshop 2024.
During the capture session I used a Sony E-10 Vlogging camera to take 30s time lapse images of the region of sky I was imaging over a period of 50 minutes using an MSM tracker to follow the movement of Scorpio as it skirted the SE horizon. This showed the sky conditions were not ideal! The camera was fitted with a 23mm F1.4 Sigma prime lens stopped down to F2.8 set to ISO 1000. The 101 frames were made into a gif using Adobe Photoshop 2024
Chris Bowden
Sunday, May 5, 2024
The Lost galaxy of Copeland NGC 4535
A group of galaxies in Virgo were imaged with AstroDMx Capture, through an Altair Starwave 60 ED refractor with an 0.8 reducer/flattener and 2" magnetic filter holder with a SkyTech LPRO MAX 2" broadband filter, using an SV605CC cooled, 14 bit OSC CMOS camera. The scope was fitted with a Pegasus FocusCube v2 controlled by AstroDMx Capture via INDI. The scope was mounted on an AVX GOTO mount which was controlled by AstroDMx Capture via an INDI server running on the imaging computer indoors. One of these galaxies was NGC 4535 the lost galaxy of Copeland.
To hours worth of 5 minute exposures were capture with AstroDMx Capture. Also, dark frames, Flat fields, Dark Flats and Bias images were captured. The data were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and post processed in graXpert, Neat image, and the Gimp 2.10.
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Virgo galaxies including NGC 4535
Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin
M81 with a Seestar S50
Three hours worth of 10s exposures captured on two nights with a Seestar S50. The image was processed in GraXpert, Neat Image and Gimp 2.10.
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M81
Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin
The Sun with different systems
The Sun with a Seestar S50. A 2 minute RAW AVI was captured and satcked in ASIVideoStack. The resulting image was wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp 2.10.
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The Sun with a Seestar S50
The Sun with a bridge camera. 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 135 images of the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1300s. The images were precisely cropped/registered in Nicola Mackin's AstroCrop before being sum stacked in Siril, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp.
The Sun with a Bridge camera
The Sun with a Coronado Solarmax II, 60, BF15 H-alpha scope with a x2 barlow and an SVBONY SC432M monochrome, fan cooled solar camera. A 1000-frame SER file was captured in AstroDM Capture, stacked in Autostakkert! , wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp 2.10.
The solar disk in H-alpha light
Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin
The Sun in H-alpha light
Here's an image I took yesterday afternoon, 4 May 2024 using the Altairastro Hypercam 178M, Lunt 50 on my CEM60 mount. Best 35% of 2000 frames using Sharpcap Pro. Stacked in Autostakkert, sharpened in IMPPG and finished in Photoshop CS3. I used a synthetic flat to remove uneven illumination and a few small dust specs.
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H-alpha Sun
Anne startup
The North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula.
The North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula. Taken last night while I was down at Falls Bay Gower. Taken using my Rokinon 135mm prime lens at f/2.8. The lens was mounted on a 1300D DSLR Canon camera and my Star Adventurer 2i pro tracking mount. Settings were 45s and 800ISO. 200 images, 60 flat frames and 35 dark frames all stacked in DSS and processed in Siril and Gimp 2.10. I used an intervalometer to control the camera and a Bahtinov mask to focus on a bright star. The image was taken under Bortle 3 skies.
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North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula
Chris Playle
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