Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

I captured an image of the Andromeda galaxy using my Rokinon 135mm prime lens at f/2, mounted on a Canon 1300D DSLR camera with a Star Adventurer 2i pro tracking mount. The settings were 45 seconds at ISO 400. I took 50 light frames, 50 flat frames, and 25 dark frames, all stacked in Sequator and edited in Siril and GIMP 2.10. Additionally, I used an intervalometer for camera control and a Bahtinov mask for focusing on a bright star. The image was taken under Bortle 3 skies at Pitton Cross Campsite.

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The Andromeda Galaxy

posted by astroimager  # 6:13 PM 0 Comments

The Sun in White Light: A 20,000 frame SER was taken with Astro DMx Capture using an Altair 60EDF fitted with an Altair Herschel Wedge. 15% of the data was stacked in Autostackert!4, wavelet processed in Wavesharp and processed in Pixinsight and Adobe 2024

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The Sun in White light

The Sun in Ha Light: A 7,900 frame Ha SER was taken with Astro DMx Capture using a PST. 15% of the data

NGC7000: The Cygnus Wall imaged with a William Optics ZS71 using a Field Flattener with an ASI 533MM Pro camera. Three hours of LRGB/SHO. Data acquired with NINA, integrated and processed in Pixinsight and completed in Adobe Photoshop 2024

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 3:15 PM 0 Comments

 The equipment used

Both the main scope and the 'guide/finder' scope were fitted with PET Coated file solar filters that give a pleasant light yellow hue to the Sun. The main imaging scope was an 80mm ED Ekinox refractor. The "guide/finder" scope was a 50mm F=190mm scope with rings, enabling it to be perfectly co-aligned with the main scope

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posted by astroimager  # 11:00 PM 0 Comments

Two 3 minute RAW AVIs were captured of the Sun with a Seestar S50. One through the supplied solar filter and the other through a Baader solar filter. The best 40% of the frames in each  AVI were debayered and stacked in Autostakkert!4 with 1.5 Drizzle, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed with the Gimp 2.10 to give as similar colour renderings as possible and ACDSee. There is little difference, but the one taken through the Baader filter shows marginally sharper detail.

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Baader OD 5.0 solar filter

Baader solar filter Image

Supplied solar filter image

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 8:42 PM 0 Comments

 Two overlapping 1500-frame RAW SER files were captured by AstroDMx Capture of the Sun through an 80 mm ED Ekinox refractor fitted with a PET Coated Film Solar filter that gives a pleasant light yellow hue to the Sun. The camera used was a Touptek GPCMOS01200KPF OSC camera.

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The solar filter is very well made and was purchased on Ebay UK. It is mirror-like in reflectivity on both sides.

posted by astroimager  # 11:08 PM 0 Comments

The Sun in Ha: A Player One Apollo-M Mini camera was fitted with a x2 Barlow lens and attached to a Coronado PST. Astro DMx Capture was then used to take a 7,800 frame SER Ha file. Some 10% of the frames were stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet sharpened in Registax and post processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop 2024.

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Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 9:02 PM 0 Comments

I managed some solar imaging this afternoon using the Quark, my Altair 60EDF mounted on the IEQ30pro. I captured 9 ser files of different parts of the Sun with the best 40% or each stacked. I used Autostakkert4 for the first time using batch stacking which worked really well. I then put all images into Pixinsight and use the Solartoolbox for all files with exactly the same settings.

Finally I assembled a couple of mosaics using Affinity Photo's new panorama function which worked really well. It would have been better if I'd decided to do a mosaic earlier in the process as I failed to capture all the areas I needed of the sun.

posted by astroimager  # 6:43 PM 0 Comments

We would like to thank SAS member John Beer for 3D printing a diffuser screen holder for capturing solar flats. It works perfectly, fitting over mt Baader OD 3.8 photographic grade solar filter cell. I used AstroDMx Capture to capture a 1000 frame AVI through a Baader continuum filter, a 5x barlow lens alone and an Ekinox 80mm ED refractor and an SC432M solar camera.

The data were debayered and stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp 2.10

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Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 7:45 PM 0 Comments

Capturing forked lightning and the Aurora over Loughor Estuary last Sunday night, I used my Tamron 18-200 zoom lens on a Canon 1300D DSLR camera, secured on a static tripod. The settings were 10 seconds at ISO 3200 for the lightning, and 15 seconds at ISO 1600 for the Aurora.

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Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 7:29 PM 0 Comments

Two images captured the auroral display last night (August 12th, 23:20-23:45 BST). Although it was a brief show, it was quite spectacular nonetheless.

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Howard Davies

posted by astroimager  # 6:48 PM 0 Comments

While attempting to photograph the Perseids meteor shower, I managed to capture an image of one in the Cassiopeia region. The settings used were 10s at ISO 3200 with my 24mm Canon prime lens at f/2.8. This lens was mounted on my Canon 1300D DSLR camera, which was set up on a static tripod. All images were single shots and edited in PhotoScape X.

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posted by astroimager  # 6:38 PM 0 Comments

A 3 minute-frame RAW AVI of the Sun captured with a Seestar S50 through a Baader OD 5.0 solar filter. The best 50% of the frames were stacked and debayered in Autostakkert!4 with 1.5 Drizzle, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in Gimp 2.10

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Seestar S50 with a Baader solar filter

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 11:15 PM 0 Comments

The Sun in Ha: A Player One Apollo-M Mini camera was fitted with a x2 Barlow lens and inserted into a PST telescope which was mounted on an iOptron CEM26 mount set to track the Sun. Astro DMx Capture was then used to take a 20,000 frame SER Ha file. Some 10% of the frames were stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet sharpened in Registax and post processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop 2024.

The Sun in White Light: A Player One Apollo-M Mini camera was fitted with a x2 Barlow lens and inserted into a Herschel Wedge which was fitted to a W.O ZS71 doublet refractor  mounted on an iOptron CEM26 mount set to track the Sun. Using Astro DMx Capture a 20,000 frame SER was taken and some 10% of the frames were then stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet sharpened in Registax and post processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop 2024.

Montage: WL and Ha views showing the equipment used during imaging and some close up details of active regions in the different wavelengths 

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 11:05 PM 0 Comments

I used my Lunt50 solar telescope to image the sun this afternoon. This is the best image from the selection that I took between the clouds. Each capture was 500 frames as my laptop isn't particularly quick. I've used Autostakker3 to stack 3 ser files, using 20% of 2 files and 70% of the third. I then processed all 3 images in Pixinsight using the Solartools method. Then I opened each image in Affinity Photo and created a stack of all three.

I've also tried to rotate the final image to match the correct orientation of the Sun today according to Spaceweather.

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Anne Startup

posted by astroimager  # 11:00 PM 0 Comments

After clouds cleared two 3 minute RAW AVIs were captured of the Sun; one through the standard supplied solar filter, the other through a double stacked Ca K-line filter behind an OD 3.8 Baader solar filter.

The best 50% of the frames foe each filter were debayered and Stacked in Autostakket!4 with 1.5 drizzle, wavelet processed in waveSharp and post processed in the Gimp 2.10.

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The Sun in white light

The Sun in Ca K-line light

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 9:06 PM 0 Comments

 Clouds only allowed about half an hour for acquiring the object and gathering data. I adjusted the centering of the nebula and made it worse. Nevertheless we captured 37 minutes worth of 10s exposures. The best 28.5 minutes worth of data were debayered, stacked and  partly processed in PixInsight, and post processed in GraXpert and Gimp 2.10.

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Pacman nebula HOO

Pacman nebula RGB

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 2:05 PM 0 Comments