Having had a small accident lately with my 55-200mm tele lens, and being fed up with my old, much used, and too small photo bag, I decided to go out to a local shop which sells both used and new materials - got a new photo backpack, an used 55-250mm Canon tele lens (which turns out to be quite good value), and getting a bit crazy, I also got an used EOS 450D body to modify, i.e. to get the IR filter out and then use purely for astro pics. I'll ask F.S. whether he wants to participate in that operation… Link for the procedure: http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmod450d1.html.
Having more than enough of the instability of the RawTherapee version included with (K)Ubuntu 13.10, I configured the PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
and upgraded to RT 4.0.12 via that repo - wow! Huge difference in the presentation, with a better workflow, and infinitely more stable! Good work!
There's also the issue of 16bit color depth per channel in GIMP. While stable releases of GIMP are 2.8.*, that color depth is work in progress in the development branch 2.9.*, and will be ready for action in 3.* only. If you want to experiment with that, you can try installing a development version via PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp-edge sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gimp
If unsatisfied, and you want to return to the stable release:
sudo apt-get install ppa-purge sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp-edge
I finally completed my universal mobile phone holder, to fit to an eyepiece.
I had F.S. coming by to assist in astro-modding a Canon EOS 450D, i.e. removing the IR filter in front of the CMOS sensor, without replacement. This was done according to the excellent instructions from Gary Honis. More or less as a surprise, the patient survived the operation, first test pictures were rather obviously off-white-balanced towards the red. The entire operation took us almost 4h.
There are of course drawbacks, the IR filter is there for a reason: autofocus won't work any more, focus through a lens is different for IR from the one for visible light, i.e. you can now only use it with a reflector (such as a Newton telescope). The advantage is obviously that IR now reaches the sensor, so e.g. hydrogen-alpha clouds should more clearly appear on pictures.
First occasion to test the astro-modded 450D. Went for flame/horsehead nebulas and the great Orion nebula (M42), despite full moon and a certain amount of humidity (and clouds) in the air. Despite the bad conditions, horsehead was possible to identify on the resulting pictures. For M42, the individual pictures looked more or less like my end results for previous series. This is promising.
Despite less than optimal forecasts, the sky cleared mostly up and we were able to have a look at the supernova in the cigar galaxy. It was easily visible in my 2“ eyepiece. Besides pics there, went for flame/horsehead, christmas tree, rosetta nebulas. F.S. filmed Jupiter incl. red spot, and took shots of the flame/horsehead region (his first attempt there). With the passing clouds, freezing temperatures, humidity (everything fogged up and froze), we ended things there.
For a change, clear skies, no full moon. I went to the usual site near Limpach. Due to some wind, and my intended targets, I set up the FH80/400 on the EQ6, not the N200/1000 - and not a photo lens, as I'd have had a hard time properly lining up on the targets. Transparence wasn't optimal (milky way not obviously visible), I didn't notice much seeing.
I first went for the California nebula, which I never tried for before. I went from the easily identified Pleiades to the lowest “bright” stars from Perseus, up to the second one, and set up so I'd get that one on the bottom, middle end of the picture(s). I ended up doing some 27 minutes' worth of pictures, of 30s each, but had to throw some away due to trails (it was windy at times!), so in the end I had some 21 minutes total left over. I did fumble around with my programmable remote control, and finally got it set up correctly - which seriously eases taking series of pictures.
Then I went for the Rosette nebula. I started from Betelgeuse (Orion), going left on a line towards Procyon (Canis Minor), and just sort of “stumbled” on the cluster set in the middle of the Rosette nebula. I just centered that on the picture(s), and took half an hour's worth of pictures. Again, I had some with star trails, which left me with about 28 minutes' total.
I also took a few test shots in the region of the Virgo cluster, on some of which one could indeed recognize galaxies - I'll have to do that again “for good”. I packed up, as I was freezing cold - indeed, on the way back home, I had to deal with slippery roads.
Clear sky, sun all day - and still clear in the evening, time to get out there. Classic Limpach site, there was one hell of a lot of light pollution to the south, thankfully a bit less later in the evening. Along with the 1/4 moon and some humidity, it was actually pretty hard to locate even half-bright objects.
I finally settled on the Leo triplet, almost opposed to the moon, and took a series of pictures, prime focus on the N200/1000, EQ6, using my astro-modded EOS450D. The series is so far my longest, for a full hour's worth of exposure time (4*30+1 pics of 30s each, plus 10-12 dark frames).
Post-processing has shown pretty interesting results for the three galaxies, but I have a hard time getting rid of the vignetting effect.
I also did try a few pics towards the virgo cluster, but tiredness didn't exactly help find the proper spot.
With the good weather, I turned my FH 80/400 on EQ1 to the sun, even took some pictures. As usual, focusing has been difficult, but I have a couple of pics which look pretty good. Of course, with the field of view of the FH80/400, the actual sun is smallish on the picture, more so for the sunspots.
Good weather allowed for another observation session. Good is relative though - the moon was very present (more than 3/4), with lots of humidity/dust in the atmosphere. Add in the usual light pollution, and you have quite a bright sky. It was less bad than one of the previous sessions though, I didn't have that hard a time to identify some of the classics. I finally settled on a test shoot of IC 405 and IC 410 in Auriga, planned for 30 minutes each, but ended up with 40 minutes on IC 405. As conditions worsened during the evening, I have a half-bad result with IC 405, but hardly more than “there is something there” for IC 410. I also took a few individual shots of the moon, maybe I'll run them through registax, to see whether the end result there might be better than these individual pictures.
During the weekend, I've practiced some GIMP techniques to improve my post-processing. Especially, I tried using the colors/levels not only globally, but for the individual color channels. To alleviate pixellization artifacts, I applied some selective gaussian blur around the finishing line. I also tried some gradient removal techniques (on the recent picture of the Leo triplet), but haven't been overly impressed - I'll have to finish that flattener (light box) one of these days and start using it.
Mostly clear skies, another occasion to go observing at Limpach. Due to some wind, I used the FH80/400 - which was good, as I later saw with F.S. (whose Newton got pretty wobbly) and another couple of guys that turned up at the same place. One of those two guys had brought a C8 Edge HD on an EQ5 - quite impressive Schmitt-Cassegrin Scope, but I was astounded at how skinny the EQ5 looks compared to the EQ6 - which does make it much more transportable, though. As there was no moon, good transparency (at start), if much less good seeing, I “attacked” some deep sky objects. Soon after sunset, I went for the Great Orion nebula region, later tried the region of the witch's head nebula. When it got as dark as it would get, I targetted IC405 in Auriga, this time for a full hour (pics of 30s each). Afterwards, I tried for the Pinwheel galaxy (pics of 1 min. each). When done, I “just for kicks” tried first a single picture towards M106 (CVe), then the general region of the Virgo Cluster. As I got a galaxy clearly visible on that one 1-minute shot around Virgo, I just added a few more pictures for that one. After that, it definitely was time to pack up and get home. Turned out I also had M106 with NGC 4217 and 4220 on that one picture - which is of course pretty much unusable alone. It also turned out I had mis-targeted IC405, centering on the region between M38 and IC410 - that's pretty much due to the differences between the finder scopes of my Newton vs. the FH.
Mostly clear skies, clearer than on 20th, practically no wind - Newton time! F.S. and the same guy from 20th (A.) were present too. I went for the Pinwheel galaxy, 45 minutes total - with a First, i.e. first try at shooting flat frames using my own, as yet incomplete, light box. It was pretty humid, and freezing cold as well - noticeable e.g. on the surface of the star atlas. I then went for a few pics in the region of the Virgo cluster, around M98, M99, NGC4298/NGC4302 and on. As the equipment misted over a lot, I finally gave up for that night.
F.S. went for the crab nebula, while A. tried his brand-new Astrotrac travel mount.
Clear sky, slightly windy. I met up with F.S. at Limpach, starting out with the Newton depite the wind - to have a go at Jupiter and Mars, with filming tests using the Samsung Galaxy Note. Exposure settings are simply no-go with the standard camera app at least, results are extremely disappointing. On the up side, Mars has been very interesting visually - ok, it's in opposition, i.e. as close to Earth as it gets. At 200x, a bright spot looking like a polar cap was clearly visible, a darker region just underneath, with bright red regions to both sides - and opposite the bright spot, another one.
F.S. tried his latest tunings on his EQ6 - new Losmandy-style rail for his Newton, enhanced stabilization of the tripod, fine-tuning of the RA axis. Guess I'll also go for the enhanced stabilization of the tripod, even if I've not really felt the need so far - except maybe for windy weather, which probably won't be helped by this.
As it was windy, I switched from the Newton to the FH, first targeting something pretty much opposite from the almost-full moon which was just coming up - i.e. IC405 in Auriga, possibly with IC410 along. As the moon rose, the sky got brighter, quite possibly messing up the later parts of my picture series (I'll see during post-processing). According to F.S., seeing got better though, and he proceeded with filming Mars at rather high magnification (I think he was at 400x, which I'd tried but wasn't happy with it). I also for the first time took flats through the FH.
I went for a small series of the M98/99 region, the part of the Virgo Cluster towards Leo.
Finally, before packing up, I took a few shots of the moon and clouds around - maybe I'll do a hybrid / HDR thereof.
AAL observation meeting, with a lot of attendence - 15 'scopes total! The sky was pretty clear, suboptimal seeing. Moon's small to the west, but still lights up the sky. No details for Mars, Jupiter is better. I looked for the M105/M95/M96/NGC3384 group in Leo, (unsuccessfully) tried a series there (30min total). Then I went for the M100 region of the Virgo Cluster, for a total of 15min. Next try, region of Markarian's chain in Virgo Cluster, 10 pics (5min). Finally, I went for the Sombrero galaxy M104, 15min. I had to hunt for a bit before having it in a decent place on the pics.
Good weather for a change, clear skies announced, no moon - Ielwen time again, with F.S. While setting up, there were still some clouds, but it did clear up all right. It did take a while to get real dark though. F.S. experimented with my SynGuider, while I did with the new coma corrector on the N200/1000 and my “new” (used) 50mm lens. Visually, I first checked on Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Then, photographically, I started with markarian's chain in the Virgo Cluster (yet another try at finding it, it really was still too bright when I started looking for it), followed by M104 (Sombrero galaxy) and the Ring Nebula. I then switched to the 50mm lens (Camera alone on the EQ6), and took a number of pictures around the milky way and virgo cluster. It turns out using such f values is quite revealing, seas of stars! It really gets hard to find the brighter stars and recognize the constellations when they hide in such overwhelming numbers of stars. Later it got very humid, we broke camp around 01:40.
The sky was somewhat clouded, with the half moon present at start but with halo. Planets Jupiter, Mars, Saturn became visible next, there was much seeing. Thin cloud bands continued passing throughout the evening, ruining some pictures. Later, it got somewhat clearer and darker, as the moon got lower, but those clouds remained.
I took a few shots of my equipment in action, plus of Cygnus/Lyra, 30s was too much though without tracking. Using the EQ + Newton, I first went for M13, then tried to find the planetary nebula NGC6210 - this one is small, I may actually have it on a pic but cannot identify it as PN. I tried for M4 (globular cluster in Scorpius), but clouds messed up that series. Antares itself comes off pretty nice even through thin clouds. I tried for M80 (also a globular cluster in Scorpius), before moving over to the Elephant's Trunk nebula (IC1396) near the base of Cepheus - the Newton may not be the right instrument for that object though (should've used the FH or even a photo lens). I did try to find the planetary nebula NGC 7008 without success. Next was a classic, the Whirlpool galaxy M51. I took a single shot of M71 in Sagitta before taking on the Dumbbell nebula (M27 in Vulpecula), here again clouds came in the way. I tried for the western part of the Veil nebula NGC6960 in Cygnus, before taking a single shot of the still-very-low Andromeda galaxy. Finally, a very bright satellite came by (again?), which may have been the ISS - I tried some pics at 1/200s, but this seems to have been too slow still, as I only got a bright blob on the pics.
Targets: M101, ring nebula, veil nebula.
Good sky, no moon - time for Ielwen again, and pretty good conditions there were! I went especially for the eagle nebula M16, which I exposed some 45 minutes total. The other usual suspects got little time, but I just had to take a few shots of the swan, trifid and lagoon nebulas plus the wild duck cluster. To finish things off, I went for Andromeda using the FH 80/400. Besides this, I did some testing using the simple foto tripod, no tracking, to see what could be done that way - which is pretty little, really. What works is short individual exposures towards a dark part of the sky, no horizon involved. The final result of the eagle nebula picture is pretty much my best so far - the first one I'd consider “print quality”. I did proceed to print it on A3 and put it up on the wall at the office. The Baader MPCC coma corrector and the long exposures, plus proper polar alignment, darks, flats, and better expertise at post-processing are finally getting useful results.
Another pretty dark sky, but not as good as on 21st - there were thin clouds passing through. Anyway, I got 45 minutes worth of the trifid nebula, plus some test shots (unfortunately improperly focused) of the veil nebula.
Despite a short previous night and a long day, the perspective of a last clear sky for at least a week had me off to Limpach - especially as I wanted to test the newly arrived SkyWatcher Star Adventurer. I used the N200/1000 on the veil nebula, which I exposed for a total of 1h. Besides this, I set up the Star Adventurer on my new tripod, onto the 3-way head (not the polar wedge, as I had omitted the necessary gear to get the 3-way head off. The polar alignment was a bit tricky, as the 3-way-head is not as easy to move a very small way as is the EQ6. I then set my ball-head onto the Star Adventurer and on there my EOS 500D with the old 55-200mm lens, which I first pointed to the veil nebula. First test shots looked good enough, so I did a series there for 1/4h, followed by another one in the region of the elephant's trunk nebula. Finally, I did a few test shots with different exposures on the Andromeda galaxy, despite it still being rather low over the horizon, and pretty much in Luxembourg town's light pollution cone. These tests did show alignment not to be optimal, owing possibly to the 3-way-head, possibly to the lesser stability while handling the DSLR on that setup. The next tests will be done with the polar wedge. To finish the evening, I took a few shots of the ring nebula. While Sagittarius and friends were discernible, I skipped it a target: too little time, too little sleep anyway, too much light pollution that way.
Next try with the Star Adventurer, this time using the polar wedge - this is much easier to fine-tune than with the conventional 3-way-head. Post-processing of resulting (very) wide-field pictures remains something to be explored. I also tried my new self-made mount arrangement for the two scopes parallel to the EQ6's main head. For some reason as yet unexplained, this didn't turn out well. For one thing, at some point the Newton came loose, thankfully I was ready to catch it. My series of the Veil nebula also turned out pretty bad, as most pictures had trails. Following that, I went back to my standard setup (Newton direct on the EQ6), and proceeded to take a couple of short series (15 minutes) of the swan nebula and the dumbbell nebula.
First occasion in a while with a clear sky announced… ok, with bad seeing and transparency with added humidity, but still. Well, they didn't kid with the humidity, which was very present in the sky - which was thus pretty filled with light pollution, only the zenith was halfway clear, when no clouds were present (which were around!). I wondered whether to even set up my gear, but ended up doing so. I confirmed my dislike of visual observation on some targets, moving to photography despite the bad conditions. The few resulting shots were pretty sucky, so I ended up packing up quite soon. Good thing though, I got to test the Telrad's new position right next to the finder scope, which is indeed better than having it on the other side of then focuser.
Again, first occasion in a long while to have a look at the sky. It cleared up after 21h, with some small clouds still passing by (rather quickly). Due to circumstances plus weather, I decided on simply setting up the Star Adventurer in my back yard, shooting some pictures with the DSLR and foto lenses. It was the occasion for a first test with my father's old Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 M42 lens - I took a few short series of Orion, Auriga and Rosetta nebula regions, stopped off to f/4. The results were rather ok, but having taken the pictures with the unmodded 500D and only rather short series, it's not something to show off. I did use the modded 450D with the Canon 50mm f/1.8 stopped to f/4, series which also suffered from too short total exposure time and from too much light pollution (Luxembourg town, after all). Some way-too-short series were also taken using the Sigma 400mm f/5.6 lens, not stopped off as that doesn't work with the DSLR, with the expected rather bad results - much flaring around stars off-center, also the focus didn't quite work out. There's some other M42 lenses awaiting testing.
It will be interesting to use the 135mm or 50mm from a darker site, with longer series.
Come morning, the sky was back to cloudy…
At last, clear sky. 7timer announced good transparency, not good seeing, some wind and half-moon. Due to road conditions (snow and ice), I opted not to get out of the city, and set up the FH80/400 in the back yard. I went for the region of IC405, tried to find the Rosetta nebula (no luck with the finder I have on the FH), and went for the Pleiades and California nebula after a few shots at the usual suspects in Orion. In parallel, I used the Star Adventurer with the 135mm lens resp. my old tele-zoom, with suboptimal focusing.
It turned out the sky was pretty bright, mostly thanks to both the half-moon and light pollution.