View allAll Photos Tagged SharpCap
I embarked on a mammoth lunar imaging session on 10th February so I could produce an animation showing the sunrise over some prominent craters. I've already shared the video I created with the data but am now sharing the still images. If you didn't see the animation you can watch it here:
I was imaging from15:45 UT until 22:30 UT and during that time the Moon changed its illumination from 69% to 72%.
Taken from Oxfordshire with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC camera through a Celestron 3x Barlow. A 2,000 frame video was shot with SharpCap and depending on the quality graph I stacked either 50 or 25% of the frames using Autostakkert! 3. Processing with Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.
This morning I attached my new astronomy camera (ASI1600MM-Cool) to my 110mm refractor to test the drivers and new computer capture software (SharpCap) to make sure I could download an image. I took 50 test frames (no cooling, no barlow, no nothing except for the camera). I have a lot to learn about the new camera and software and was a bit surprised I got any kind of image at all. There is a lot to complain about this image, but thought I would keep it to remember 1st light on the new camera. I promise to get better. Moon on September 23, 2016 when 22 days past New Moon and phase at 52% of Full Moon.
A powerful solar flare measuring X3.9 erupted from active region 3664 at 06:54 UTC on May 10, 2024. The event started at 06:27 and ended at 07:06 UTC.
Imaged at 07:03:40 UTC - 100 best frames from 10,000.
Gear: APM107/700, Quark Chromosphere, Baader ERF, Player One Apollo-M Max; captured with SharpCap and processed in AutoStakkert4, ImPPG, PixInsight (Solar Toolbox) and Photoshop.
Major X3.9 solar flare erupts from AR 3664 — the 10th X-class flare in just 7 days
Captured on December 1st, 2019.
**Equipment:**
* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
* Moonlite Autofocuser
**Acquisition:** (Camera at Unity Gain, -20°C)
* Astronomik Red filter used to combat atmospheric seeing
* Exposure- 0.874ms
* 5000 frame capture
**Capture Software:**
* Captured using Sharpcap and [N.I.N.A.](nighttime-imaging.eu/) for filterwheel and focuser control
**Processing:**
* Best 15% of frames stacked in Autostakkert with 3X Drizzle
* Registax Wavelets for sharpening
* In PixInsight:
* DynamicCrop to 16:9 aspect ratio
* Curve stretch
* LocalHistogramEqualization
* HistogramTransformation to reduce black point
* Another CurveTransformation (slight S curve)
* Fastrotation
* Annotation
Object Details: The attached shows Saturn as it appeared through one of our scopes using Luminance, Infrared & Methane filters one evening last week. Being in upstate, NY it only reached a maximum of 33 degrees above our southern horizon when the last of the images were taken and thus suffers from the associated atmospheric turbulence ( & in this case also the 'far from desirable' transparency that evening).
On the evening the images were taken Saturn had just passed opposition (it's closest approach to Earth for the year) and thus the shadow of the planet on the ring system is fairly centered.
Image Details: Take by Jay Edwards on the evening of September 1, 2023 at the HomCav Observatory using a 3X Televue barlow with set of specialized planetary filters on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with an ASI290MC' planetary camera / autoguider'. Like other planetary images posted previously, the scope was mounted on and tracked with a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system.
As presented here, the individual shots have been resized down to approximately 75% of their original size and were processed using a combination of Registax, PixInsight & Paint Shop Pro.
Similar composites of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars & the Sun can be found in the albums at the following links:
Saturn:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Jupiter:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Mars:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760573...
Wishing clear, dark and calm skies to all !
Solar activity and prominence today.
Imaged on May 8th 2020.
Tech details:
500 frames of Sun, 0% gain, 14.9ms exposure
500 frames of Prominence , 70% gain, 80ms exposure
Equipment:
Scope: Coronado PST
Mount: NEQ6
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI130MM
Software: SharpCap 3.2, AutoStakkert, Registax, Lightroom, Photoshop
Object Details: With thunderstorms still plaguing our area and clear skies not predicted for the next several days I thought I'd take a first look at a few solar images I took back in May. Although the seeing and transparency were fairly poor at the time, the attached is a composite showing the relatively large sunspots / active regions: AR2824 (left) as it had just begun to rotate onto the Sun's visible side, and AR2822 (right) as it was just departing. In addition to the large dark central cores (known as an 'umbra' - in these cases both are larger than the entire Earth), a fair deal of faculae is also visible (i.e. the brighter and hotter areas surrounding the groups which are more easily detectable when an active region is near the limb and are quite apparent around both of these particular groups).
A close examination of AR2824 seems to also show somewhat of a light bridge intruding into & beginning to split, the upper left portion of the penumbra (the 'grayish' area surrounding the darker umbra), and whether coincidentally or not, that day AR2824 released a C1.1 class solar flare. I was also fortunate to catch AR2824 the following day, a composite of which can be found at the link attached here:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51194703565/
As can be seen by comparing the attached with the shots from the following day, both sunspots here appear somewhat fore-shortened due to solar rotation. First noticed by Scottish astronomer
Alexander Wilson in 1769 during solar cycle 2, this observation of foreshortening as groups were near the limb proved that sunspots were actually features on the solar surface.
Interestingly AR2824 survived a complete rotation around the Sun and returned again to the visible side (and is traditional was renumbered - in this case to AR2833). A screen shot from June 17th in a composite showing it in comparison with the above can be found here:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51260443645/
Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory at my home here in upstate, NY on May 18, 2021. The top images were taken with a lum filter, while those at the bottom used an ultraviolet (UV) filter (all in addition to an over-the-aperture' off-axis home-made Baader material white light solar filter).
The full disk image, utilized a Canon 700D controlled by APT & a full aperture Kendricks light light filter on an ED80T CF (i.e. an Orion 80mm, f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor), and a 0.8X Televue field flattener / focal reducer, is meant merely as a reference for location and it is a single frame shot at 1/4000 and ISO 100. For additional reference a sample image of the Earth was added to show size comparison to the 8-inch shots.
The 'closeup' 8-inch shots were taken using an ASI290MC 'planetary camera / auto-guider' controlled by SharpCap Pro on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with the above mentioned homemade, off-axis Baader white-light solar filter. Taken as video clips, each is a stack of best several hundred frames out of several thousand thousand taken for each clip.
Both of these scopes are mounted on and tracked by a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and the images were processed using a combination of Registax & PaintShopPro. As presented here the entire composite has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.
As I write this it is two months to the day since the attached images, and the Sun had been releasing several backside CMEs. It is theorized that these may be related to a rather active region which, if still present, should be rotating onto the visible side over the next week.
For those interested in solar and any possible associated geomagnetic activity, close monitoring of solar weather over the next couple weeks may be beneficial (of course here in upstate, NY we are expecting at least another three consecutive days of thunderstorms & I apologize to all those in the Northeast US if the weather is a result of the new astro. things I purchased recently ;) ).
Wishing clear, dark & calm skies to all !
Similar composites can be found at the links attached here:
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50815383151/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50657578913/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51027134346/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51295865404/
Saturn:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51316298333/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50347485511/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50088602376/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51007634042/
Jupiter:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50303645602/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50052655691/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50123276377/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50185470067/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50993968018/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51090643939/
Mars:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50425593297/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50594729106/
First attempt at this beautiful object and quite pleased with the result!
The Eastern Veil Nebula is a large supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus.It lies around 1,470 light years away.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm Zenithstar II Doublet
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO Duo Band filter
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auutoguider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)
- Light Frames: 18*6 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 18*6 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, Photmatix Pro HDR and Topaz Denoise AI
Taken using Skywatcher Skymax 90mm Maksutov telescope and ZWO ASI 178MC camera with focal reducer. Approx 9 minutes of images "live stacked" using Sharpcap. Mount was Skywatcher AZGTi in Alt/Az mode
01.09.18 00.45BST Moon (Waning Gibbous 72% illuminated)
Altair Astro 72EDF f/6
Altair Astro Hypercam IMX183C PRO TEC
SkyWatcher AZ-GTI mount
SharpCap 3.2 Pro
Best 100 frames stacked with AutoStakkert 3
Post processed with Photoshop CC2018
3 x 2min derotated
Transparency (3/5)
Seeing (2/5)
C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Object Details: The attached composite shows the Sun as it appeared on November 8, 2020 through two of the scopes in our observatory at my home here in upstate, NY. Although it's been snowing & cloudy for months and one of the 'origami-style' outriggers of our RoR observatory remains locked in a two foot thick block of ice & snow, early last November we had a highly unusual streak of 7
days containing at least some time when the sun was visible.
As luck would have it, during that time at huge active region / sunspot group was transiting the
visible surface. Although the seeing was horrible this particular day I was fortunate to have enough of time to utilize all wavelengths I've been using lately. Therefore taking advantage of the fact that it is now raining, I'd thought I'd check them out and try some quick processing.
As can been seen, at this time AR2781 consisted of a huge single spot, larger in diameter than the Earth, trailing down through smaller active regions to end in two additional large spots. Comparing it quickly to a shots taken a few days earlier, although the seeing was much worse this day, it appears the group may be elongating, with the two larger spots near the bottom also separating in the horizontal direction and the core of the largest spot at the top seems to be developing a 'bulls-eye like' appearance. The latter being most evident in the color version of the Infrared image, I'm assuming this is related to, or a result of, the light-bridges mentioned in the shots taken two days earlier, a link to which is attached here:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50657578913/
Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory at my home here in upstate, NY on November 8, 2020. The top images were taken with a lum filter, while those at the bottom used infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV) and methane (CH4) filters (all in addition to an over-the-aperture' off-axis home-made Baader material white light solar filter).
The full disk image, utilizing a Canon 700D controlled by APT & a full aperture Kendricks light light filter on an ED80T CF (i.e. an Orion 80mm, f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor), and a 0.8X Televue field flattener / focal reducer, is meant merely as a reference for location and it is a single frame shot at 1/4000 and ISO 100.
The 'closeup' 8-inch shots were taken using an ASI290MC 'planetary camera / auto-guider' controlled by SharpCap Pro on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with the above mentioned homemade, off-axis Baader white-light solar filter. Taken as video clips, each is a stack of best several hundred frames out of a few thousand taken for each clip.
Both of these scopes are mounted on and tracked by a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and the images were processed using a combination of AS3, Registax & PSP. The UV, IR & CH4 images have also been duplicated and having then had their luminance channels extracted, are placed next to their corresponding 'one-shot-color' images.
Processed in a combination of Astrostakkert, Registax, PixInsight & PaintShopPro, as presented here the composite has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.
As some folks may know I have been practicing astrophotography and microscopy at one point or another though-out most of my entire life. I was also extremely fortunate to have had a 35 year long career as a scientist for IBM, et. al. where a large portion of my work was in the development and implementation of microscopic imaging systems for our analysis labs. Starting with the earliest
'frame grabbers / digitizers' that began to appear in the 1980's connected to analog video cameras on our microscopes. Having the rare benefit of combining my passions in life with a life-long career in science I was also applying these same digitization techniques to planetary, lunar, and solar imaging at the time. Over the intervening decades I built an observatory at my home (currently on it's third incarnation shown here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/49507532468/ ) and began to indulge in astrophotography while my fascination with the microscopic world never faded. As such, having accumulated a variety of cameras and lenses, some of which were purchased for just a few dollars at swap tables like Stellafane and taking an 'early' retirement a few years ago, I rekindled my interest in microscopic imaging. Encouraged by some early tests using one of my DSLRs,
(linked here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215769327... ) I've begun to construct a prototype system in my home with a camera originally purchased for use with our telescopes. The attached is a 3 minute slideshow of the initial tests of this prototype microscopic imaging system.
Utilizing a ZWO ASI290MC "planetary camera / autoguider", which is normally used to guide the lager telescope mount in our observatory, connected via an adapter to a surplus industrial zoom inspection lens, it produces fields of view which when measured horizontally range from approximately 0.32 inch (8.1 mm) on it's lowest setting down to 0.048 inch (1.2 mm) on it's highest. These estimates were made using a Baush & Lomb microscope slide which has been etched with a scale (i.e. 'a stage micrometer'). Although I prefer to speak in FOV, as opposed to magnification, when speaking of images; since I've found that 'What mag. is that?' is a question often received by folks into astrophotography & microscopy, using a table I found from Palomar College, I estimated that this lens / camera combination produces a range of 22X to 150X at it's full 1936 x 1096 resolution.
Using two small wildflowers, inner and outer Blue Mud Dauber Wasp wings, and a poisonous Death Cap Mushroom as quick test samples, the images are a result of using this setup at various zoom settings with different illumination techniques, and in some cases just to see what it would look like, specialized filters (e.g. IR, UV, etc.). Shot as video clips using SharpCap Pro that were then stacked in AutoStakkert with the resulting images sent to Registax for wavelets (akin to the 'lucky imaging method' often employed in planetary astrophotography), with PaintShopPro used for final touches, annotation & compositing. As presented here, the images are uncropped and due to the fov's available, the wasp wings are actually mosaics of multiple frames at the system's lowest power / widest field of view. Due to my quick compositing resulting in a fairly imprecise alignment, the area covered by these low power individual frames used in the mosaics is fairly noticeable. As a comparison to a single frame at the system's highest power, the image showing 'blue loops' is the edge of one of the wasp wings. Due to the extremely narrow depth of field resulting from such small FOVs, I'm looking forward to trying to apply focus stacking in the future (as was done in the 'macro shot' of the female Micrathena sagittata spider linked here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/46215534584/in/al... ). Since this was simply a test of the system, I did not spend much time processing the individual images nor optimizing the parameters during their capture, some are fairly noisy with a less than optimal SNR. I hope to improve this with the application of noise reduction processing routines we often employ in astrophotography, and some limited hardware upgrades to the crude lighting used for these tests. I'm anticipating the latter may also enable me to being to image protozoa (i.e. 'single-celled microscopic animals'). Given the camera's relatively fast capture rate of 170 frames per second and the control software's ability to create sequences and employ ROIs, I'm hoping to utilize these capabilities for the production of high-speed and /or time-lapse videos at various FOVs.
With the onset of winter here in upstate, NY just around the corner (as clearly evident by this week's back-to-back snowfalls), at some point over the next few months I'm expecting our observatory to be locked in it's annual block of ice & snow. During these times I hope to be able to produce a variety of microscopic images, some of which may cross that thin line between surreal and simply bizarre ;) .
No dust?! yes!
Transparency (4/5)
Seeing (3/5)
C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Tránsito de Mercurio
Telescopio: Skywatcher Refractor AP 120/900 f7.5 EvoStar ED
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: iOptron CEM40
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 0.9, T=12.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-11-11
Hora: 12:46 T.U. (Tiempo universal)
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 10 segundos
Resolución: 800 x 600
Gain: 72
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 1012
Frames apilados: 24%
FPS: 100.66
The Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina craters, captured using a QHY5-III 290C attached to an Altair Wave 115ED with a Televue 2x Powermate. The final image is the result of 1000 frames, captured using SharpCap, sorted in PIPP, stacked in AutoStakkert 2, sharpened using Lucy Richardson Deconvolution in Astra Image Plus and finally processed in PhotoShop CS6
Object Details: On Wednesday evening November 2, 2022 Jupiter's moons Ganymede and Europa as well as both of their shadows transited across the Earth facing side of the planet. Fortunately it was clear here at the time enabling me to catch these events using one of the longer focal-length scopes.
The attached shows three sequences in three different wavelengths. As noted on the image key at bottom left
at the start of the sequences both Ganymede and Europa themselves were framed against the planet's cloud tops near the right limb, while Europa's shadow has just rotated on at left. The image key at lower right shows the position of Europa, Ganymede and their shadows during the relatively brief time that both shadows were transiting (coincidentally another of Jupiter's Galilean moons, Io, can be seen at far left).
At 3,122 kms (1,940 mi) in diameter, Europa is the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons; while having a diameter of 5,268 km (3,274 mi.) Ganymede is the largest (and is actually bigger than the plant Mercury at 4,879 km (3,032 mi) ! ). Looking closely at images one can see the huge shadow of Ganymede appears elongated, lower-left to upper-right, as it falls upon the curved cloud tops of Jupiter's sphere.
As is often the case, the infrared images shows additional detail in the planet's cloud tops given that filter's ability to reduce the detrimental effects of poor seeing to some degree. As such many Jovian atmospheric phenomena such as festoons, barges, 'smaller' storms, etc. become more apparent in that wavelength. As can be seen by comparing the images taken at different times, the seeing varied quite a bit throughout the event. Being a methane blocking filter, Jupiter's moons, which contain little to no Methane, appear much brighter relative to the planet itself in that filter's images.
Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards over the course of approximately three hours on the evening of November 2, 2022 and morning of the 3rd from the observatory I built at my home here in upstate NY; the data making up the attached composite was acquired using a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a 3X Televue barlow connected to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / autoguider. As is often the case here the camera was controlled by SharpCap Pro & the scope was mounted and tracked using a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system.
Each image is a stack of several hundred frames selected from video clips which were kept fairly short due to Jupiter's fast rate of rotation. Since humans tend to see detail in an image via it's contrast and brightness, as opposed to it's color, I have extracted the lightness channel from each image and placed them in the second row. As shown here the data have been processed using a combination of Registax & Paint Shop Pro, and the entire composite has been resized down to 50% of it's original size (but is still rather large at 6881 x 3838).
Wishing clear, calm & dark skies to all !
Similar planetary & solar composites can be found in the albums at the attached links:
Jupiter:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Saturn:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Mars:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760573...
10 hours reduced to 42 seconds of last night's storm, lightning popping off, meteors, Mars, and some constellations before sunrise.
1 image per minute x 635 minutes. ASI224MC + 2.1mm lens (133 degree FOV). Captured from my DIY weather proof box with SharpCap on Auto.
I wanted to make this comparison to highlight that the supermoon isn't really that much larger than normal. Personally I think the xupermoon is overhyped for what it is, and that it's hard to tell visually that the moon is larger or smaller, unless you do a direct comparison like this.
I had originally photographed the supermoon [back in March](www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/b3sdga/full_mo...), but it wasn't until recently that I could get a micromoon to go along with it. My supermoon photo isn't as sharp as my micromoon photo. Looking at the timestamps from when I photographed it, the supermoon was only 10 degrees high in the sky, which intorduced a **lot** of atmospheric distortion. I also captured/stacked more frames for the micromoon, which helped increase its sharpness.
The angular diameters and distances were taken from a planetarium program called Stellarium. I compared the pixel measurements of my photos to the values calculated by Stellarium, and the discrepancy was only 0.22%.
Another thing to note is that the moon has "wobbled" slightly between the two photos. This effect is known as [libration](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration), and can be seen pretty well in [some of my](www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/9rkrwz/4_night...) previous [lunar time lapses](www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/c64x7o/11_nigh...), as well as [this time lapse by /u/ajamesmccarthy](www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/bqllnq/i_took_a_few_shots...). I'm currently processing a 10 night time lapse I took starting September 7th which should also show the libration effect.
**Equipment:**
* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
* Moonlite Autofocuser
**Acquisition:** (Camera at Unity Gain, -20°C for supermoon, -10°C for micromoon)
* Astronomik Red filter used to combat atmospheric seeing
* Exposure- 0.213ms for supermoon, 1.115ms for micromoon
* 1000 frame capture for supermoon
* 2000 frame capture for micromoon
**Capture Software:**
* Captured using Sharpcap and [N.I.N.A.](nighttime-imaging.eu/) for filterwheel and focuser control
**Processing:**
* Supermoon: Best 10% of frames stacked in Autostakkert!3
* Micromoon: Best 25% of frames stacked
* Registax Wavelets for sharpening on both images
* Level and curve adjustments in Photoshop
* Images combined and annotated in Photoshop
Jupiter with average seeing accompanied by its moon Europa. Gear setup: Celestron HD 11 XLT @ 6500mm focal length, iOptron GEM 45, Televue 2.5x, ZWO UV/IR cut, ZWO ADC, ZWO 224MC. Captured by Sharpcap pro, 3 videos stacked in Autostakkart! and derotated in Winjups. Processed in Registax and finalised in PS.
Foto Izquierda - Sol medio completo
Telescopio: Skywatcher Refractor AP 120/900 f7.5 EvoStar ED
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 0.9, T=12.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-23
Hora: 15:46 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 3096 x 2080
Gain: 19
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 1795
Frames apilados: 11%
FPS: 14.9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foto Central
Telescopio: Skywatcher Refractor AP 120/900 f7.5 EvoStar ED
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 0.9, T=12.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-23
Hora: 15:35 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 1024 x 768
Gain: 24
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 12108
Frames apilados: 6%
FPS: 100.7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foto derecha - detalle manchas
Telescopio: Skywatcher Refractor AP 120/900 f7.5 EvoStar ED
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 0.9, T=12.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: - Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
- TeleVue Lente de Barlow 2,5x Powermate 1,25"
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-23
Hora: 15:54 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 1280 x 1024
Gain: 162
Exposure: 0,00006
Frames: 7897
Frames apilados: 5%
FPS: 65.8
Taken from Oxfordshire UK with a Coronado PST H-alpha solar telescope, Celestron 3x Barlow and ASI120MC camera. A 1,000 frame video was captured with SharpCap and the best 50% of the frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 4. Processing was done with Focus Magic, Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. In step one of the processing I removed all of the colour, processed the image in monochrome then added false colour back in at the end using Photoshop CS2.
Taken at 01.31 am BST on April 6th 2018, with Celestron NexStar 6se SCT with NexImage 5mp Camera. Video was captured in SharpCap and processed in Registax 6, with 1756 frames of 0.027 secs, and gain of 30. Touched-up in PS.
Europa is to the right (but not correct colour, also the image is back to front).
FLT98 @ native f/6.3, ASI294MC Pro @ -10C, 400gain, 15x30sec - OPT triad with white balance adjusted live inside capture software (Sharpcap)
Object Details: The attached composite shows the huge sunspot group AR3038 as it was just rotating off the disk June 24th. As can been seen by the reference image of the Earth, it had a core (umbra) larger than our entire planet and was also accompanied by a larger amount of faculae (i.e. brighter, hotter regions surrounding the sunspots), the latter is especially evident in the UV image.
Image Details: The images making up this composite were taken by Jay Edwards on early afternoon of June 24, 2022 under average transparency & above average seeing from the RoR observatory I built at my home here in upstate, NY using:
At left: A vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with a home-made Baader (visual grade material) off-axis solar filter and an unmodded Canon 700D DSLR at prime focus controlled by APT, meant simply as a reference it is a stack of seven frames taken at ISO 100 and with a 1/100 second exposure;
At right and below: The same 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a home-made Baader off-axis solar filter but in these cases with a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider and a set of specialized planetary filters. They are stacks of several hundred frames, at various exposures ranging from 4.73 to 13 milli-seconds and gain settings of 110 and 300, selected from short video clips consisting of several thousand.
The ASI290MC was placed at prime focus and was controlled by SharpCap Pro and the scope was tracked using a Losmandy G-11 goto mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The images also utilized a set of specialized planetary filters (Infrared, Ultraviolet & Methane) in addition to the over-the-aperture solar filter. As shown here the entire composite has been resized down to two X HD (i.e. 3840 x 2160 - approx. two-thirds of it's original resolution) and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.
Similar composites or various solar system objects, many using additional wavelengths, can be found at the links attached below:
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/52056574582/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51992208177/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51948806640/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51747214403/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50815383151/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50657578913/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51027134346/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51295865404/
Saturn:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51489515877/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51345118465/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51007634042/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51316298333/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50347485511/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50088602376/
Jupiter:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51405393195/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51679394534/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51307264271/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50303645602/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50052655691/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50123276377/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50185470067/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50993968018/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51090643939/
Mars:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50425593297/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50594729106/
Altair 102ED-R, SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro, Altair Hypercam 183C, Captured with SharpCap Pro. 75 Frames. Very cloudy and buggered up my flats! Processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert!3, Registax. Finished in Adobe CC.
Apennine Mountains, taken with 512 images filtered sharpcap over 30 minutes.
ASI178 binning 2x2, BAADER CCD green, UV/IR, powermate 2.5, Celestron C11 edgehd
IC801 Heart Nebula. Scope: TSAPO65Q with TV NPR-1073 0.8x Reducer. Mount: SkyWatcher EQM-35 Pro. Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Guide: SkyWatcher EvoGuide 50mm with Altair GPCAM v2 130. 26x5 Mins captured in SharpCap pro. Processed in APP. Finished in Adobe CC.
Hedgerow prom, Preston, UK, 15/04/20.
Scope- ES ED80 APO Triplet
Mount- SW NEQ6 Pro
Camera- Zwo ASI290MM
Daystar Combo Chromo Quark
Tele-Vue 4x Powermate
Astronomik UV/IR cut filter
Captured in Sharpcap
Stacked in Autostakkert
Wavelets in Registax
Processed further in PS
Equipment
Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Orion Apex 90mm
Imaging Cameras
Point Grey Grasshopper3 GS3-U3-23S6M-C
Filters
Meade Red 1.25"
Software
Adobe Photoshop · AstroSharp Ltd SharpCap · Emil Kraaikamp AutoStakkert!
Acquisition details
Date: Oct. 9, 2022
Frames: 200
FPS: 15
Focal length: 700
Resolution: 2981x3579
File size: 2.7 MB
Data source: Backyard
84x300 second subframes, -30degrees, gain 10.
Total integration 7 hours.
Imaging:
William Optics ZenithStar II 80 ED,
QHY163C 50% SFs with Astronomik CLS filter, 50% unfiltered (2 nights, forgot the filter first night!)
Guiding:
Skywatcher Star Travel 120,
Orion SSAG.
All on
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Captured using SharpCap, Cartes du Ciel and EQMOD.
Stacked and processed in DSS, Fitswork and Gimp
6th and 7th January 2018
Cambridge, UK
Celestron Edge HD 8, ZWO ASI 071MC-C camera, Celestron .7 focal reducer, Orion Atlas Pro mount. Sharpcap used for capture. Orion 50mm guide scope, Lodestar guide camera. PHD2 for guiding. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC. 43x3 minutes exposures = 2 hours 9 minutes. Darks, flats, and biases frames used.
Seeing 3/5
Transparency 3/5
Slightly cloudy conditions
C9.25 EDGEHD
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Capture of the Eastern Veil Nebula early this morning 5 Oct 2019, first time attempting Guiding but allowed for 5 minute subs which clearly makes a difference. Still a bit of challenge on getting exact focus with manual focussing but did so using SharpCap Pro focus assistant.
Explore Scientific ED102 FCD100 with focal reducer and ZWO ASI294MC Pro for capture and ASI224MC on an OAG.
SharpCap Pro for capture.
Using the UHC filter, captured:
7 x 300s @ 120 gain
3 x 152s @ 130 gain
2 x 152s @ 120 gain
Processed in Pixinsight with slight adjustments in Photoshop.
The north polar region of the Moon as it was on the night of the 6th-7th August. Originally this shot was going to be part of a mosaic of the terminator as it was on that night with the waning Moon 88% illuminated. However, not all the shots came out as well as we hoped and what remained wasn't enough to create a mosaic with. So, this and a handful of other shots will have to suffice as individual photos. In this image you can see Crater Plato in the bottom left corner surrounded by Mare Frigoris. In the middle of the image are craters Anaxagoras, Goldschmidt, and Barrow with Crater Scoresby to the right.
Captured with SharpCap
Processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert and Registax
Post-processed in Photoshop
2,002 stacked video frames at 30 fps
Gain - 50%
Exposure - 0.002969 seconds
Total integration - 5.94 seconds
Equipment:
Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Sky-Watcher EQ5 Mount
ZWO ASI120 MC camera
x2 Barlow with extension tube (equivalent to x3.3)
Philips Toucam Pro II 2 minutes video > SharpCap > PIPP > AutoStakkert > Registax 6 > Photoshop. Sky-Watcher 150P Explorer Newtonian, 2x Barlow, Baader Neodymium filter.
Telescopio: Skywatcher Refractor AP 120/900 f7.5 EvoStar ED
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: Astronomik ProPlanet 742 IR-pass filter
Accesorio:
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-14
Hora: 21:54 T.U.
Fase lunar: 55% - 7.8 días Creciente
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 3 minutos
Resolución:1400 x 1900
Gain: 100
Exposure: 0,013281
Frames: 6299
Frames apilados: 6%
FPS: 35
A very cold crisp autumn morning and a beautiful waning crescent Moon 🌘 25% illuminated in the clear southern sky.
Processed one to show a more natural blue/grey morning sky colour and the other more balanced contrast with a dark sky.
Altair Astro Lightwave 72 f/6 ED-R
Altair Astro IMX178 colour Hypercam
Sharpcap 3.0
Best 20% of 2000 frames stacked with AutoStakkert
Post processed in Photoshop CC2018
Messier 45, Diamonds in the Skies. A Closeup of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) Star Cluster. M45 is an open star cluster among the closest to the earth. See the other M45 image in this Flickr collection for more details on the overall structure of the star cluster.
The image above was taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, in the USA on a New Moon night. Telescope:TPO Ritchey-Chretien 6 inch. Guiding was with an Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI183MC for the guide camera with PHD2 auto-guiding software. Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro. Main imaging camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro at the prime focus. Exposures: 5 x 120s with Gain 120 and Bin 2 x 2. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.
Philips Toucam Pro II 12x 60s video @ 10fps > SharpCap > AviStack 2 (stacking) > Photoshop (stitching) > Registax 6 (wavelets) > Photoshop . Sky-Watcher 150P Explorer Newtonian, Baader Neodymium filter. Colour blend layer from separate DSLR shot. Fair seeing. Much less clipping along terminator (adjusted the gain and exposure). Odd horizontal banding artefact in places removed largely by a 3 pixel motion blur at 90° to the banding.
NGC7000 7nm Ha. Scope: TSAPO65Q with TeleVue NPR-1073 0.8x Reducer + Baader 7nm Ha. Mount: SkyWatcher EQM-35 Pro. Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Guide: SkyWatcher 50mm EvoGuide with Altair 130M. 11x3 Mins in SharpCap Pro. Processed in Ha with APP. Finished in Adobe CC.
6/8/2024 09:25am From my garden in Hawkinge Kent UK.
Very large Sunspots (3780)
Just come around the East limb of the sun
Altair 3X barlow lens
Altair starwave ascent 80ED refractor telescope.
Lunt White Light Herschel Solar Wedge
Altair Astro GPCam2.
Captured in SharpCap
Stasked in autostakkert
Process in Regestax.
Finished in Photoshop CS6.
9 images - de-rotated
Seeing 2.5/5
Transparency 3/5
Collimation slightly off
C9.25 EDGEHD
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Cloudy conditions
Transparency (2.5/5)
Seeing (2/5)
C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST, Celestron 3x Barlow and ASI120MC camera on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier. Videos captured with SharpCap.
2,000 frame video shot, the best 75% stacked with Autostakkert! 3. Image was de-saturated then processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone, then false colour added back in using Photoshop CS2.
First light again! My TIS DMK23 U274 has arrived. Sometimes this unit shows up in flashy futuristic outfit and prefers to be called Celestron Skyris 274m.
Unlike its astronomical sibling, DMK23 comes without cable and nosepiece. I have taken a C-threaded tube that comes with QHY5L-II - fits nicely. USB3.0 cable was a big surprise - very rigid and heavy, it can easily rip out the flimsy camera's USB socket. I was forced to loop it and to attach the loop's base to the telescope's body with Velcro tape. Not elegant at all :(
Once again, PST demonstrated that it was designed as scope for visual observing - the camera reaches the focus when the focus knob runs into its limit, so I'm not sure that it's really a focus position. The image looks satisfactory in this case anyway, so this is disturbing but acceptable.
With the Barlow lens the camera CAN'T reach the focus. I'm using THAT Meade 2x lens :) So I screw out the optical part and just dropped it into the PST's eyepiece port. Focus is now achievable somewhere near the middle of focusing knob travel distance. Unfortunately, it requires 3 panels to capture the full solar disk.
But all above mentioned are minor things compared to the primary benefit: NO! NEWTON'S! RINGS!! :D
Software?
SharpCap finds the camera easily but didn't support 12 bit ADC mode. Discarded. FireCapture detected the camera but failed to launch the main screen - new model, nuff said. I had high hopes for this program since it produce 16-bit .ser files that are "edible" for Autostakkert!2. Finally, TIS's own software, IC Capture... Not particualry convinient to use, important functions and dialogues are to be accesed through the main menu, but it's so very fast and "solidly built" - very nice. And when I had stepped on another rake. The data is saved in 16-bit form as "Y16" .avi. The version of AS!2 I was using was unable to open such files. Very bad! With fingers crossed I have opened the file in ImageJ... Yes! ImageJ opened it as a stack of 16-bit frames. I re-saved it as a bunch of TIFFs and AS!2 processed them nicely and properly. But it wasn't very appealing to do such a conversion, especially given the need to process three panels.
Fortunately it appears that while stable release of AS!2 can't do that, the current alpha 2.3.0.21 already supports Y16 encoding. So the middleman was removed.
Today there were too few very weak proms, so the open question remains - what about them? That's a subject for next sunny morning :)
Does anyone have pills against logorhea?
WARNING! Sun is dangerous, use proper filters for observing and imaging!
Aquisition time (start of the session) : JD 2456897.804387 (11:18:19 MSK).
Image orientation: scrambled;
Equipment:
TIS DMK23 U274 via partially disassembled Meade 2x Barlow lens on Coronado PST riding on Celestron CG-4 motorised mount set over Vixen SX half-pier over Vixen SX tabletop tripod on a windowsill.
Aperture 40 mm
Scope's native focal length 400 mm
Effective focal length 800 mm
Tv = 1/4000 s (WOW!)
ISO NA
Gain: --- (something like 19 dB in IC Capture's terms)
Capturing software: TIS IC Caoture;
Exposures: 3x598 (50% used in stacking);
Processing:
1) stacking in AS!2 2.3.0.21alpha;
6) stiching in Microsoft ICE;
7) deconvolution in AstraImage 3 PRO (Richardson-Lucy algorithm, Cauchy type PSF, size 2,1 units, 6 iteartions);
8) high-pass filtering, contrast and brightness adjustment and 0,68x downsampling (bicubic sharper) in Photoshop.
When I looked at the Sun visually during my imaging session on 14th January, while I was testing my new mount, I could visually see an incredibly bright spot on the NW limb. It turned out to be a C1.1 class flare from an active region that hadn't yet been given a name because it was just rotating into view. The flare designation is gev_20220114_1236. The flare began at 12:36 UT and this video was taken at 12:38 UT.
This was taken with a Coronado PST and ASI120MC camera with a 2x Barlow in place. This is an aggressive crop of the region. I also imaged this with the 3x Barlow but the altitude of the Sun plus the very wobbly atmosphere meant that this image turned out better.
1,000 frame video shot with SharpCap, then the best 30% stacked. Colour was removed from the data before processing, then false colour added back in. My camera wasn't quite rotated in the right way for N to be up.