Wednesday 29 July 2009

28 July 2009 - Report - A new world

My Toucam arrived the other day. I was expecting it to be an SPC900CN but turned out to be a Toucam Pro 2 with the Sony CCD chip and mono mod so all is still fine.

I was able to get out last night and try my hand at how it works.

I was completely exhausted from several days of long distance driving so instead of setting up my 10" I went for the easy option and setup the 4" Refractor.

The conditons were poor too, with bad seeing and a lot of broken heavy cloud floating by quite often.

Well here is my first planet image if Jupiter. It consisted over 1200 frames and all stacked and processed in Registax.





Considering the conditions and the average optical quality of the scope for photography I am some what pleased with it. When looking between the two equatorial belts I seem to have captured the shadow of Io's transit!

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Wait, wait... Say cheese!

I bought myself an early birthday present last night. I went ahead and made a payment for a SPC900NC cam so I can dip my fingers into trying out some planetary and lunar imaging. I did, after all, buy the EQ6 Pro with some intentions on trying out some exposure photograhy so I am looking forward to it.
I only wish I had it already to try and capture the impact mark on Jupiter.

I got the cam from a nice chap over on the AstroChat forum.

It will probably be a week or two before I have anything to show, no doubt I will make a lot of beginner mistakes but as always with astronomy, patience is the key.

Monday 20 July 2009

19/20 July 2009 - Report

It was a day that didn't seem to hold much promise for a clear night. Windy wiht breaking cloud and the odd shower of drizzley rain but as the sun begun to set the clouds cleared away leaving a stunning looking sky with clear air.
Some cloud did being to form again but it mostly stayed towards the horizon with only small parts of cloud passing by fast.

Seeing = 4
Trans = 3

Equipment - EQ6 Pro and 10" Orion Optics Newt

Start time - 23:17

Albireo - It has felt like an age since I used my newt last and was blown away with the very sharp and crisp imagages I was getting. The colours of the pair were more striking that usual and much richer than that of the 4" Refractor views. The night is of to a might good start.

M13 - It wasn't all that dark yet but the view was great with a feast of stars resolving easily in the eyepiece at 155x

M29 - Looking very nice and I was able to count 18 stars around the cluster region.

M39 - A nice yet dispersed open cluster. It was best viewed in my 26mm 2" eye piece and a faint meteor also passed the FOV, which is always a pleaser.

NGC 6960 - The sky was still on the bright side but with the help of the OIII filter the view was exceptional. Long arching arms of nebulosity. Not my best view but still a fine sight.

52 Cyg - Staying in the same FOV I increased my magnification to 155x to try and split this stars' companion and at 155x it did so beautifully. The primary star itself a lovely topaz and the secondary, being very small, appearing to exhibit a darker shade, more orange than gold. A fine double.

M71 - Surprising to say but one of my best views of this cluster. Stars resolving nicely with AV in a plesantly rich starry porton of the sky.

M27 - My vest view all summer, with the bell structure bright and with good shape but no arching arms of nebulosity that I have observed in the past.
Observing under OIII showed faint lobs of nebula extending outward from the brighter part of the dumbell, lovely!

M56 - A fantastic globular. Small yet showing countless stars at 155x and set amongst the richness of the milky way. The view was more than just pleasing.

M11 - One of my best views. This cluster is ro rich it is nothing short than breath taking. A real corker for sure! And an emotional observation for me.

M10 - The best I have ever seen this globular. Countless stars resolving that I never saw before and so sharp thanks to the really good seeing.

M12 - A tricky glob and probably my best view of it. AV showing bags of detail. Direct vision makes you think that you are seeing an open cluster, a fun object for playing eye tricks.

M14 - The only disapointing view of the night so far. Apearing bright but fuzy with no stars resolving at any magnification. This is one to try again on a darker night.

NGC 6760 - Small and faint with not many stars to be seen but still a nice object to see.

M26 - A nice open cluster with varying magnitudes of stars and I also had some fun creating my own asterisms.

68 Ophi - A wide double star and both of a similar white colour.

70 Ophi - A beautiful golden pair, splitting perfectly at 274x and still looking good at 155x

67 Ophi - A wide pair with a white primary and, what seemed, a blueish white secondary.

M57 - I got stunning views at 274x with strong structure in the ring and the surrounding stars were easily seen but so sign or hint of the centeral star. It is my best view of the summer.

Elipsion Lyra - A fine sight tongiht, proving the good seeing condition as but double were split and very sharp looking at 274x

Jupiter - A stunning sight and one of my best views in years. So many bands and zones I lost count and with the good seeing the image was sharp and steady at 274x and when the seeing steadied out more it allowed the GRS to jump out at you and make itself obvious.
Shadow transit of Io started to become visible at 02:04 and coming nicely into view by 02:25.

Almach - What can I say. My favourite double star and on a steady night at high magnification it blew my socks off - not literally no.

Eta Cas - My best view yet of this gorgeous double, with the colours showing best and most striking at 155x

Finish time - 02:37

17/18th July 2009 - Report

The day was mostly cloudy with breezy winds and as the evening drew nearer the clouds begun to break leaving a night that was partly cloudy with average skis but as the night progressed the skies really improved and less cloud was around.

Seeing = 2
Trans = 2

Equipment - EQ6 Pro and 4" Refractor.

Start time - 22:45

I started my night of by looking out for a -1 iridium flare at 22:45 and flaring in cygnus, according to Heavens Above but the skies were too bright to see anything visually and the camera didn't capture anything in a time exposure.

I soon afterwards saw an ISS pass at 22:53. I forgot my remote commander so I had to take my captures by pressing the button manually which resulted in the start of all my shots having a wobbly ISS.

I then moved onto observing with my scope and my night was as follows:

Albireo - Lovely as always, with its rich colours, a nice way to start the night.

Theta Sagittae - A nice pair with the primary a diamond white and the secondary a blueish white.

Delta Sagittae - A wide pair, and similar in colour to Theta.

STF 2634 - This stars secondary was very hard to see under the poor seeing conditions but during moments of improved seeing it could be seen.

M29 - Oddly it as fairly easy to see under medium power in a not so dark sky. All the main stars could be seen but there was no other details and not even a hint of the milky way surrounding it.

Jupiter - I observed this for a long time - 25 minutes I think. The seeing was dreadful and the heat of my town was probably to blame for most of it but during good moments the bands and zones on the planet showed up nicely but seeing was never good enough to permit me to see the GRS.

Almach - Stunning! Felt like an age since I saw this last and the eye smacking rich colours were a joy to see again.

M11 - An exceptionally good view for the conditions. The sky had improved a bit more and was at its darkest. The cluster really stood out and was resolving nicely.

M10 - Not a bad view considering... A fair amount of stars to be seen in the FOV.

M12 - I could barely see a thing, even with AV, very dissapointing.

M57 - An average view, well defined but next to no detail or fainter structure.

I finished my night of with another look at Jupiter and the seeing had improved a bit. Good detail could be seen in the clouds but the GRS had moved out of view by this time so was out of luck.

Finished - 01:35

Monday 13 July 2009

Fun packed night - Report

The 12th of July was turning out to be a fun filled night - and I am not talking about twelfth of July band parades either.
With three ISS passes, two Iridium flares, shuttle Endeavour launch and a shadow transit and the red spot visible on Jupiter I had every reason to feel excited.

The evening started of with the first of three passed of the ISS at 22:27. The sky was rather bright but it could be easily seen. My mother was first to see it and gloated a bit about seeing it before me, right she is too :D

After that I begun to set up my camera to try and capture Iridium 34 which was to flare at -6 at 23:06.44. It was right on time, flaring beautifully and got a great capture in my camera.
There was a strong NLC display so I tried my hand at taking a few shots.

After feeling pleased of taking a good shot I set up my EQ6 Pro and 4" Refractor for an observing session of Jupiter later and while waiting for the shuttle launch.
I decided to turn on my laptop and check for any news updates on the launching on Space.com and sadly the launch was called off due to bad lightning storms around and near the launch site.

I then got my camera set up for the second passing of the ISS at 00:02. I managed to get three attempts at capturing this as it, again, stayed in the sky for almost 4 minutes but with hazy cloud it made the images come out very blue.

My disappointment increased as the cloud began to thicken, drowning out my view of Jupiter - just as it was coming into position for viewing in the scope. I started to pack up at that point but did so slowing in the hope that the clouds would break. Luckily my patience rewarded me but the seeing was disastrous. Some bands and zones could be seen but with image being so turbulent there was no hope of me seeing the red spot or the shadow of Io.
Even more annoying was during this whole time my neighbour decided this would be a great time to turn on the back yard flood light while he took a shower or something in the bathroom. I was very tempted to go banging on his door but with the conditions so poor I just decided to call it a night.

All in all not a bad night, even though spoiled by the usual nasty weather.

Here are a few of the images I took.

Evening sky:
Iridium 34 - Unedited
Iridium 34 - Croped:
NLC Display:

ISS Pass

Let there be light.

I reached the decision to give this a go. I can see it becoming a useful addition for me to keep a record of my notes but if I find I don't use it that often I may not bother but for now I am going to give it a chance and try to add my reports as I come back from a night of observing.

Friday 10 July 2009

Is it the begining or the end?

Shall I start to use this to keep a record of my observing sessions? I don't know yet. You can't beat pen to paper for keeping notes and records but having it in digital form is nice too, easier to look up and search for particular bits of info etc.

Time and a bit of thinking will decide on whether or not I do use this as an added alternative.