ISS Transit 4/16/16

There were 3 cameras connected to my mount, 2 of the cameras were connected to telescopes and 1 was riding piggyback. Fortunately or unfortunately only 1 recorded the ISS transit. Elliot Sevren's photo shows the setup. There were 56 images (layers) of the ISS combined in Photoshop to make the composite.

                                      

The Moon: Canon T3i vs. QHY-5L-II-M

I took series of videos of the moon using my Orion ED80 f/7.5 refractor on 4/20/16.  I first took the videos with the Canon T3i controlled with Backyard EOS and then switched to the QHY-5L-II-M Planetary Imager in an effort to see which gave better results.  I processed the images roughly the same through Registax and Photoshop.  The results are as follows:

Canon T3i Images: 

Image 1-Prime Focus 2-in (1/2500s, 400-ISO, 1000 frames)

Image 2 - Prime Focus 2-in BYE 5x (1/2500s, 400-ISO, 1000 frames)

Crator: Plato - center top
Maria; Sea of Rains - center

Image 3 - Prime Focus 1.25-in 3x Barlow (1/640s, 400-ISO, 1000 frames)

Crator: Tycho - center bottom with striations radiating outward

Image 4 - Prime Focus 1.25-in 3x Barlow BYE 5x (1/800s, 400-ISO, 1000 frames)

Crator: Plato - center left

QHY-5L_II_M Images:

Image 1 - Prime Focus 1.25-in (500 frames)

Crators: Copernicus - center, Plato - center right, Grimaldi - top left

Image 2 - Prime Focus 1.25-in 3x Barlow (500 frames)

Image 3 - Prime Focus 1.25-in 3x Barlow (500 frames)

Image 4 - Prime Focus 1.25-in 3x Barlow (500 frames)

Crator: Plato - center 

Both cameras did well and they are close.  However, I think the QHY-5L-II-M gave slightly better results especially with the closeup views.  None of these images were cropped, only the brightness, contrast, exposure was adjusted in Photoshop. The QHY-5L-II-M Image 4 showing the crater Plato was rotated so it matched T3i Image 3.

Image 5 - Prime Focus 1.25-in (1000 frames)

Image 5 was taken on April 16, the night of the ISS Transit through the Orion 80 mm Short Tube refractor.  I had this recording but it shut off right before the transit occurred. Fortunately I got with the Canon T3i mounted on the Orion ED80.  For a comparison of ED80 vs. the ST80 look at Image 1.

Imaging Jupiter with and ED80 (80 mm)

I have been trying to get a higher quality image of Jupiter with my Orion ED80 80 mm refractor for quite a while now.  I have tried various setups this past year which I will describe but I believe I have found the optimal configuration (Figure 1).

The main difference between this image and other images I took with the ED80 over the past year was using an Explore Scientific 3X Barlow which is why I requested it for a Christmas present.  Another difference was recording in 5X Planetary mode in Backyard EOS (BYE) although I have other images with just that mode and they are not nearly as good.

For comparison, I have added some the other configurations that I took previously with the ED80.

Figure 1 - Barlow, BYE 5X, Rebel T3i

Jupiter
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 4/13/16 8:54 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 5X Planetary Mode
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: Explore 3X
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 1000 x 1/100s (jpeg/avi)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: PIPP, Registax, Photoshop, Lightroom


Figure 2 - BYE 5X, Rebel T3i

Jupiter
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 4/10/16 9:00 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 5X Planetary Mode
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow none
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 1000 x 1/100s (jpeg/avi)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: PIPP, Registax, Photoshop, Lightroom

Figure 3 - BYE 5X, Rebel T3i

Jupiter
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 6/6/15
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 5X Planetary Mode
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow none
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: NA
ISO: 800
Post Processing: Registax, Photoshop


Figure 4 - Orion StarShoot USB

Jupiter
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 4/18/15
Camera: Orion StarShoot USB
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow none
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: NA
ISO: NA
Post Processing: Registax, Picasa3

First Shot of Jupiter from the BMAS Observatory

This was the first shot of Jupiter from the rebuilt Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society (BMAS) 16-inch reflector. It was sky not ideal for planetary imaging as there was lots of atmospheric disturbance, also Jupiter was not overhead so images are not as clear as they could be.  I published an image a couple weeks ago based on 1000 stacked frames.  However, another BMAS member, Elliott Severn, informed me that I could could combine all three 1000 frame video clips in Registax if I convert them to single frames. Since I use Backyard EOS (BYE) and BYE already creates single frame jpeg's along with the video clip it was easy to bring them into Registax.  Another program I used prior to Registax was Planetary Imaging PreProcessor (PIPP) which among other things, can cut down the size of the file Registax has to work with. So here is the newly reprocessed image.

Image 1 - Reprocessed (1950/3000 frames)

Image 2 - Reprocessed, Cropped to the same Size as the Original Image (1950/3000 frames)

Image 3 - Original Image (650/1000 frames)

The moon, Saturn, and Venus visiting Scorpio

Luckily the sky cleared a bit on Tuesday morning (3/29) in order to get conjunction. The Dog was a big help too as it was during her morning walk.

Canon EOS REBEL T3i
f/4
3.2 sec.
ISO-400
24 mm

Also shown is a photo that of the Moon that Spencer Beddington took with his iphone through the Orion 90mm Mak-Cass telescope during class on that same day. There are two pictures because I cropped the image and cleaned the edges in Photoshop.

The Molecules are Back!

My room is overtaken with molecules again.  This is the time of year when the students learn about and apply all they know about bonding and molecular shapes, hopefully something!  I only had three chemistry classes this year so it is a bit less.  

M44, a.k.a. the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe

This cluster does not look much like a beehive to me, but it is pleasant to look at especially with binoculars.  It is an open cluster approximately 577 ly in the constellation Cancer and is visible to the naked eye in dark locations.  This represents the 22nd Messier object on my quest to image all 110 Messier Objects with the Orion ED80.  I was finally able to get PHD2 autoguiding to work by changing some of the settings such as the pixel size to match my QHY-5L-II-M guide camera.  I went through a tutorial PHD Basics Part #1 by Matthew Dixon on You Tube to get the settings which work for my setup.  I highly recommend this video for getting started with PHD2 autoguiding!  As a side note, I would have been able to get more images but the dithering function was on in PHD2.  I have never used dithering before and am sure what it does exactly so I will try to turn it of next time as it adds time between imaging.  Also, I learned that the Sirius EQ Mount tracks at least a half hour after crossing the meridian and on that same note, when it does the meridian flip, the camera must be rotated 180 degrees in order to keep the image in the same orientation as it was prior to the flip.

Image 1 - M44_Master_LR3

Image 2 - M44_Master_LR3_PS_crop_LR

M44
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 3/11/16 10:17 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Filter: none
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm
Exposure: 40-90s(1 hr)

ISO: 800
Post Processing: Photoshop, Lightroom, DSS, Backyard EOS