View allAll Photos Tagged SharpCap
Jupiter with two of its moons: Europa on the left hand side, Ganymed on the right hand side
Date: 17.05.2018, 22:05 UTC (inverted view)
compare: www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-content/observing-tools/jupite...
Technical details:
- Celestron C8
- Advanced VX GoTo Gear
- Focal Reducer F/6.3
- ZWO ASI 120 MC
- 400 from 2038 frames
- Software: SharpCap, PIPP, RegiStax 6, Affinity Photo
I have now purchased a QHY5L-II Mono camera. New challenges come with this:
1. Bloody dirt on the sensor!! Apparantly you would be lucky to buy new camera without dirt. Now I did try to clean it with an aircan but it all it did was split them into little pieces, still its better than the big blotches.
2. Newtonian rings. This is caused by the light diffraction on the glass protection cover over the CMOS sensor. Effect is horrible.
So to overcome the above two problems, I allow my image capture to drift a little bit. Then, without changing the gain/exposure settings I unfocus the PST on the middle of the sun surface until all dirt and newton rings show up against a completely white unfocussed background. Autostakkert 2 can then use this as a Master Flat and eliminate the rings and dirt very effectively. And so for my first complete proccessed image, I obtained this image. Of course, I am in early stages of learning to image with this camera but I am very happy with the vast improvement in detail that it captures compared to my DSLR which I was using up until now.
Date: 1st July 2014
Camera: QHY5L-II Mono
Image duration: 30 secs
Prime Focal (2.5X TV Powermate )
Frames per sec: 29
OTA: Coronado PST
Mount: Nexstar Alt-Az Goto
Filters: Coronado PST
Seeing:
Wind:
Light Pollution:
Capture software: Sharpcap 2
Post processing: Stacking 50% best frames using Autostakker 2
levels, smart sharpen and colour filter in PS5
Pre-shoot prep:
Location: Living room window of my house in Peckham,. London
Target: NGC 1333
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NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula located in the northern constellation Perseus, positioned next to the southern constellation border with Taurus and Aries.[3] It was first discovered by German astronomer Eduard Schönfeld in 1855.[4] The nebula is visible as a hazy patch in a small telescope, while a larger aperture will show a pair of dark nebulae designated Barnard 1 and Barnard 2.[5] It is associated with a dark cloud L1450 (Barnard 205). Estimates of the distance to this nebula range from 980–1,140 ly (300–350 pc).[4]
From Wikipedia
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Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/2p9x8i/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/colorado_astro/
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Gear:
Imaging Camera: ASI533MC-Pro
Filters: None
Main Scope: Orion 8" f/4 Newt @ 800mm FL
Guidescope: Williams Optics 50mm Uniguide
Guidecam: ASI120MM mini
Mount: SW EQ6R-Pro
ZWO EAF
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Image details:
396x120s, RGB, Gain 100, -10c, bin 1x1
13.2 hrs total integration
Location: Parker, CO, USA
Bortle 5 sky
Moon phase: new moon
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Acquisition/Edits:
SharpCap, NINA, PHD2, Stellarium, Pixinsight, Photoshop CC
Messier 8 (M8):
300x5 sec stacked with sharpcap (gain 300).
ZWO ASI 224MC & Leica-R Apo-Telyt 180mm f3.4 @f4
Optolong L-Enhance Dual Narrowband Filter.
Object Details: The attached composite shows images of the large sunspot AR2978 in various wavelengths and has been annotated with a sample NASA shot of the Earth for size comparison.
Consisting of a huge core larger than our entire planet, in spite of it's immense size, it's been fairly quiet; however it's size did enable the prediction of it's arrival on the southeastern limb back on March 25th as seen by Nasa's helioseismic far-side imaging.
Indications of a short 'light-bridge' like structure can be seen at the top of the spot, and like the faculae, tends to be more readily visible in the UV image. Although AR2978 has rotated off the visible surface today, helioseismic far-side imaging is once again indicating the presence of a huge back-side active region. In this case the current theory is that it may be the previous sunspot AR2975.
If this is indeed the case, assuming it survives a complete rotation around the solar disk we may be in for a treat since, as mentioned in the text accompanying the link below,
'... AR2975 released several solar flares this week as it traversed the disk; including an M9.4 and a X1.3 class. These resulted in 'cannibalistic' coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and a geomagnetic storm with aurora visible in the northern tier states of the US ...'
I was fortunate to catch AR2975 just prior to it rotating off the limb on April 4th as shown here:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51979576887/
Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards on the afternoon of April 5, 2022 from the RoR observatory I built at my home here in upstate, NY using -
at upper left: An Orion ED80T CF (i.e. an 80MM, f/6 triplet, carbon-fiber refractor) with a 0.8x Televue field flattener / focal reducer, Kendrick film solar filter and an unmodded Canon 700D DSLR controlled by APT, it is a stack of 32 frames taken at ISO 100 and with a 1/4000 second exposure;
at top center: A Celestron 'short-tube' 80MM, f/5 refractor with a Thousand-Oaks glass solar filter and an ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider controlled by SharpCap Pro, this is a stack of several hundred frames selected from several thousands shot at 0.768 milliseconds, and
At upper right & below, a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with a home-made Baader (visual grade material) off-axis solar filter and the aforementioned ASI290MC. As with the 80MM Celestron shot, they are stacks of several hundred frames, in this case at various exposures, selected from short video clips consisting of several thousand.
In both cases the ASI290MC was placed at prime focus and was controlled by SharpCap Pro and all scopes were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 goto mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The images at bottom 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 HD (one-third of it's original resolution).
Hoping the next week or so brings AR2975 back into view and brings with it some wonderful auroral activity - stay tuned !
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/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/
Photo taken from Eskilstuna - Sweden. 2023 April 22
Equipment used:
Telescope: Lunt LS50THa single stack, Camera: Apollo-M Mini, Mount: Sky-Watcher Solarquest
Software used:
SharpCap 4.0, AutoStackert3, imPPG, AffinityPhoto 2
Sunspots AR2955 AR2954
Acquisition: TS Photoline 130mm, Daystar Quark Chromosphere, QHY163M @ -2degrees C, Sharpcap 4.0, ZWO IR/UV cut 2", EQ8.
Editing: PIPP, ImPPG, Autoskakkert 3.0, Registax 6, Photoshop 6
PS 2022-02-23-0129_2-2022-02-23-0129_1__pipp_lapl5_ap709_conv
Gear:
Imaging Camera: ASI294MM- Pro
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" 3nm Ha, OIII
Main Scope: Meade 70mm APO f/5 @ 350mm fl
Guidescope: Williams Optics 50mm Uniguide
Guidecam: ASI120MM mini
Mount: SW EQ35 Pro
ZWO EAF, EFW
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Image details:
102x300s, Ha, Gain 200, -10c, bin 2x2, 2x drizzle
59x300s, OIII, Gain 200, -10c, bin 2x2, 2x drizzle
65x300s, SII, Gain 200, -10c, bin 2x2, 2x drizzle
20 darks, flats, darkflats
18.8 hrs total integration
Bortle 5/6 sky
Astrobin link- www.astrobin.com/1zidm7/
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Acquisition/Edits:
SharpCap, NINA, PHD2, Stellarium, Pixinsight, Photoshop
Giove del 3-07-2022
Queste sono le mie prime immagini di quest'anno del gigante gassoso, il più grande dei pianeti e il quinto in ordine di distanza dal Sole.
A causa della presenza di nubi e velature non è stato facile ma, grazie a una sufficiente calma atmosferica, sono riuscito comunque a riprendere il pianeta e a ottenere un risultato accettabile.
Dati:
- Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newtoniano
- Montatura Eq2 con motore AR con pulsantiera
- Camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C
- Filtro UV-Ir cut
- Barlow 2x Celestron Omni
-Sharpcap per acquisire un video da 90 secondi
- Autostakkert!3 e Registax 6 per elaborare circa il 50% dei fotogrammi
- Luogo: Cabras, Sardegna, Italia
- Data e ora: 3 luglio 2022 alle 3:04 UTC
First attempt at this. I may need longer exposures, and I think my framing could be moved to get more interesting stuff. There's a bit of noise too, and I think that may be from high-level clouds. Will try again.
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm ZenithStar APO
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO Duo band filter
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 31mm Uniguide
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Light Frames: 25*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -10C
- Dark Frames: 10*4 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise
Test shot of Whirlpool galaxy using ZWO ASI224 MC Camera, connected to Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope. Video was captured in SharpCap, processed in Registax 6. It was touched up in Lightroom and Photoshop (PS).
Decided to go after Venus super fast before astro dark. Unfortunately clouds rolled in right as I started my deep sky images, but I at least got a good planetary pic. Although this was the night Venus was in the Pleiades cluster, my focal length/FOV and lack of tracking on my ETX meant that I couldn't get the rest of the cluster. Captured on April 3rd, 2020.
**If you want to see more of my photos check out my:**
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**[Equipment:](i.imgur.com/BYyK1wu.jpg)**
* Meade ETX-125EC (1900mm, F/15)
* AW 71" Camera Tripod
* ZWO ASI-120MC
* Meade #64 adapter
**Acquisition:** Sharpcap for camera control. Telescope was hand tracked.
* Captured 3000 frames at ~53fps (ROI crop)
**Processing:**
* Stacked the best 10% of frames in Autostakkert with 3X drizzle
* RGB alignment in Registax
* Annotation in PixInsight
(I opted not to do any sharpening, as this only make the bayer matrix highly visible)
3 X 5 min de-rotate.
Transparency (4/5)
Seeing (3/5)
C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Captured on September 6th, 2019 about 1 hour before sunset.
**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, -10°C)
* Astronomik Red filter used to combat atmospheric seeing
* Exposure- 1.5ms
* 2000 frame capture
**Capture Software:**
* Captured using Sharpcap and [N.I.N.A.](nighttime-imaging.eu/) for filterwheel and focuser control
**Processing:**
* Best 25% of frames stacked in Autostakkert with 1.5X Drizzle
* Registax Wavelets for sharpening
* In PixInsight:
* DynamicCrop
* CurvesTransformation (curves stretch)
* HistogramTransformation (reduce black point)
* LocalhistogramEqualization
* Another CurveTransformation (slight S curve)
* Crop to 16:9 aspect ratio 1440p resolution
* Annotation
First time attempting this. I used the 61mm refractor, but the 8" SCT would be better. Still, kinda cool.
The Koi Fish Galaxy, officially known as NGC 4559 or Caldwell 36, is an intermediate spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices, approximately 29-30 million light-years from Earth. It's dubbed the "Koi Fish Galaxy" by some due to its appearance in astrophotographs, where its extensive spiral arms, featuring bright blue star-forming regions and intricate dust lanes, can evoke the patterned scales of a koi fish. This galaxy is an active site of star formation and has hosted at least one recorded supernova.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm ZenithStar APO
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with IR Cut filter
- Guiding Equipment: Celestron Starsense Autoguider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: Celestron
- Light Frames: 20*5 mins @ 50 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 10*5 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise
Waxing Gibbous Moon. 62% illuminated.
Altair StarWave 102 ED f/7
AA IMX183C PROTEC
SW AZ-EQ6
Best 20% stacked with AS3! from 1000 frames captured with SharpCap Pro 3.2
Post processing with Photoshop
Reflector SW 250/1200 y 200/1200, Eq6, barlow x3 y cámara ASI 120mc.
Captura con Sharpcap, procesado con Autostakkert y Astroart.
Reflector SW 200/1200, Eq6, barlow x3, cámara ASI 120mc y DSI pro III (Mercurio).
Mercurio: captura con Envisage y procesado con Astroart ; resto: captura con Sharpcap, procesado con Autostakkert y Astroart.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST H-alpha solar telescope + ASI120MC fitted with a 2x Barlow.
1,000 frame video shot with SharpCap, the best 50% of the frames were stacked with Autostakkert! 3. Stacked images were processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. The colour was removed during processing then false colour added back in using Photoshop CS2.
There was a lot of activity on the Sun that day! I decided to try to create a prominence animation for the first time. This short video covers the period from 10:51 to 12:19 UT. I shot a video every 10 minutes and after stacking I manually aligned each stacked image in Lightroom then created the video with Movie Maker.
There are small needle prominences that come and go and the large prominence changes morphology. I also noticed that there changes to the filaments that were present on the disc as well. There is a small active region - AR12971 - which is visible on the disk of the Sun and the filaments around this area were also changing a lot during this 90 minute period. The video repeats a few times so you can watch different regions changing.
Object Details: As Saturn approaches opposition on August 2nd this year it has begun to show what is known as the Seeliger effect - the brightening of rough objects, or objects made of many particles (e.g. Saturn rings), when they are illuminated from directly behind the observer. Combining the effects of coherent backscattering and shadow hiding, this results in an apparent brightening of the rings with respect to the planet itself. This effect peaks at the time of opposition and can be readily apparent for several weeks prior and following that date.
Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards on July 27, 2021 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 75% of their original size and processed using a combination of Registax & Paint Shop Pro.
With Saturn reaching only 29 degrees above our southern horizon, and this particular evening being bathed in wildfire smoke, I was pleasantly surprised at the results and am hoping the weather permits imaging it during this year's opposition.
Similar planetary & solar composites can be found at the attached links:
Saturn:
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/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/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50069773341/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50223682613/
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50815383151/
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50657578913/
Composite image made by combining two separate output from different exposure videos.
Taken on 8 September 2020, at 23.00 UTC (overexposed) & 23.12 UTC (normal exposure), with Celestron NexStar 6 SE SCT and ZWO asi224mc Camera. Video captured in SharpCap, stacked in Registax 6, then processed in PSP8. The moons were copied from the overexposed image & pasted onto the enlarged normal exposure image, & tidied.
Jupiter with Europa at left and Io at right.
I know Jupiter is small but there was a lot of turbulence and I have only 244 frames, so it is little number but still happy with this first attempt.
Celestron C9.25" at F/10 on NEQ-6 Pro.
Camera ASI120MM. (mono)
SharpCap, RegiStax 6, Ps3.
Québec, 21 nov. 2013.
90 sec - de-rotated Jupiter with Winjupos.
Seeing 3/5
Transparency 4/5
C9.25 EDGEHD
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
Sol Región Activa 2738
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: 2019-04-12
Hora: 16:44 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 1040 x 1040
Gain: 3
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 9284
Frames apilados: 6%
FPS: 77.31
Philips Toucam Pro II 2 minutes video > SharpCap > PIPP > AutoStakkert > Registax 6 > Photoshop. Sky-Watcher 150P Explorer Newtonian, 2x Barlow, Baader Neodymium filter.
Sol Región Activa 2740
Lástima el viento que movía un poco la montura.
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, Pipp, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-05-04
Hora: 14:26 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 800 x 600
Gain: 0
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 21260
Frames apilados: 6.6%
FPS: 176.99
Object Details: Getting a break late Monday night / early Tuesday morning from the thunderstorms that have been plaguing our part of upstate, NY for many weeks I decided to try some planetary imaging.
While getting one of our longer focal length scopes configured for 'higher magnification' shots, I noticed the Moon just starting to rise - and due to the smoke from the wildfires thousands of miles to our west - it appeared blood red, as if in a deep mid-eclipse. Having not seen Saturn nor Jupiter yet this year I proceeded to shoot both (although I have yet to examine or process those video clips a quick screen shot I grabbed showing single frames during the imaging session can be found the the link attached here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51339199976/
As Jupiter transited about 3 AM EDT I noticed that the moon, 18 days old, 88% illuminated and now 37 degrees above the horizon was enveloped in an incredibly colored yellowish / brownish halo. With many lunar features being relatively large in apparent size, although I would normally not image the moon at such a 'high mag' as the scope was set up for at that time (i.e. the FOV was only about 3 x 2 arc minutes), I figured given the situation I'd give it a shot.
Being just past full, the terminator was somewhat smallish at the time, but as I scanned along it with the scope two craters in particular stood out. Therefore, the attached composite shows the craters Atlas (left) and Hercules (right). Imaged with a one-shot-color camera, the left hand image shows (what I assume) was the result of the wildfire smoke colorizing the entire scene in a strange hue, while the right side shows an extraction of the luminance channel from this image. Since I mainly shoot for reasons of 'pure art', although I often balance & adjust the color (e.g. hue, saturation etc.) in most astronomical images I produce for an end result that I find visually pleasing, in this case I did not modify it at all, and only applied wavelets & an unsharp mask for sharpening. As such the color shown in the left hand shot is 'right out of the camera'.
I've run across this type of 'wildfire smoke induced colorization' of the moon previously, in the summer of 2019 as my friend and I were imaging - a link to which is attached here
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48324332996/in/al...
as well as when we had just returned from the above mentioned 2017 TSE. Fortunately we were able to avoid the smoke while in Idaho for the eclipse, but two weeks later after returning to upstate, NY, like this past Tuesday night, I found the rising moon also deep red from the wildfire smoke - an image of which can be found at the link attached here -
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/36866168426/in/al...
With a lava flooded floor which buries the central peak, the crater Hercules is 69 km (43 mi.) in diameter with a very prominent 14 km (9 mi) diameter crater (Hercules G) super imposed on it at upper left of center. Atlas is 87 km (54 mi) in diameter with a fractured floor. In spite of the wildlfire smoke, I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of detail in this fracturing that was visible once the images were stacked and processed. It is still somewhat controversial as to whether this fracturing was a result of geologic faulting of the rebounded surface, or volcanism, both following the initial impact. Although certainly not water related, it reminded my friend and I of either river channels, or collapsed lava tubes that we walked thru in Hawaii and Idaho while on vacations chasing the Total Solar Eclipses (in 1991 & 2017 respectively).
Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at 04:03 EDT on July 27, 2021 at the HomCav Observatory, since I was setup for Saturn & Jupiter that evening this image was also taken using a (vintage 1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector with a 3X Televue barlow and an ASI290MC 'planetary camera / autoguider'. As usual, the scope was mounted on and tracked with a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and the camera was controlled by SharpCap Pro.
Since humans tend to see detail in images via the brightness & contrast, as opposed to the color (and to eliminate the colorization I assume was induced by the wildfires), I have included a version of the 'one-shot-color' image which shows just the lightness channel, which has been separated from the Hue & Saturation.
As presented here, the shots have been processed using a combination of Registax & PaintShopPro and the entire composite has been resized down to HD resolution.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the shots of Jupiter and Saturn I took that evening appear once they are stacked & processed.
Wishing clear, calm & dark skies to all !
3.5 hours of data collected on this. Nothing short of frustrations along the way with software problems, calibration frame issues, laptop not wanting to keep up.
First galaxy imaged with the 269c. I'm really impressed how it's turned out considering I'm bortle 5, no filter used and the fact its millions of light years away!!
Stacked in APP and processed in Photoshop
37x180s
26x240s guided plus darks and flats
Skywatcher 72ED, HEQ5 Pro, Altair hypercam 269c pro TEC, Altair 0.8 reducer/flattener (Sharpcap)
Starwave 50mm, 290c (PhD2)
Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.
Taken with my Skywacher 200p, , Philips webcam, Tal barlow and a Skywatcher barlow with the lens removed to act as an extender.
Sharpcap settings
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=640x480
Frame Rate (fps)=15.00
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure=-4
Brightness=60
Contrast=52
Saturation=54
Gamma=11
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=28
Foto Izquierda - Sol completo
Telescopio: Refractor Bresser Messier Acro 102/460 f4.5
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 1.8, T=1.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-22
Hora: 16:02 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 3096 x 2080
Gain: 133
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 1873
Frames apilados: 12%
FPS: 15.6
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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 1.8, T=1.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-22
Hora: 15:36 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 3096 x 2080
Gain: 193
Exposure: 0,000043
Frames: 1722
Frames apilados: 10%
FPS: 14.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 1.8, T=1.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (540nm)
Accesorio: Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2019-03-22
Hora: 15:27 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 2 minutos
Resolución: 1024 x 768
Gain: 192
Exposure: 0,000032
Frames: 13081
Frames apilados: 13%
FPS: 108.7
Europa, JÚPITER, Ío, Calisto y Ganímedes
Telescopio: Celestron C6-A XLT 150/1500 f10
Cámara: ZWO ASI120MM
Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto
Filtros: Baader RGB CCD-Filterset
Software: SharpCap, PIPP, AutoStakkert, Registax, WinJUPOS y Fitswork
Fecha: 2018-07-03
Hora: 22:22 T.U.
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 1'30" + 1'49" + 2' (5' 19" en total)
Resolución: 960 x 960
Gain: 50
Exposure: 0,027385 + 0,006943 + 0,006943
Frames: 2184 + 2634 + 2896
Frames apilados: 40% + 50% + 50%
FPS: 24
Taken on 10 October 2018 at 18.25 am BST, with Celestron NexStar 6SE SCT and NexImage 5MP Camera. AVI video captured in SharpCap and processed in Autostakkert 2. Touched-up in Lightroom.
Having long passed its opposition on Earth's mid northern summer, it is now much smaller, but some surface details can still be seen. The global sandstorm has now settled completely.
I need to find a way to take better flat frames, this image was subject to a wretched double gradient which made processing rather awkward. I'm pretty sure the origin of this was in the flat frame (actually i should analyse the master flat to test this out...)
I had been having issues with a definite banding across the centre of the image, but after much headscratching and trial and error experimentation I managed to work out that that was introduced by some poor bias frames.
What a minefield astrophotography can be! Still the result is ok, though I should have used longer subs.
90x120 second subframes, total integration 3 hours.
Imaging:
Skywatcher Evostar 150,
QHY163C with Astronomik CLS filter.
Guiding:
190mm focal length finder-guider,
Orion SSAG.
All on
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Captured using SharpCap. Guided with PHD2.
Stacked and processed in DSS, Fitswork and Gimp
24th August 2017
Cambridge, UK
Uranus shot using a Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter and TeleVue 2.5x Powermate. 3 minute capture in SharpCap processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then finished in Lightroom.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST and ASI120MC camera fitted with a 2x Barlow.
A 2,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap then the best 50% were stacked using Autostakkert! 3. Processing in Lightroom, Photoshop CS2, Focus Magic and Fast Stone Image Viewer,
SharpCap Live Stack
Resized for CN
RC6 f/9 1370 FL IDAS D1
[ZWO ASI294MC Pro]
Debayer Preview=On
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=FITS files (*.fits)
Binning=1
Capture Area=4144x2822
Colour Space=RAW16
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=60
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=300
Exposure=60
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=50
White Bal (R)=50
Brightness=4
Temperature=-14.1
Cooler Power=38
Target Temperature=-15
Cooler=On
Auto Exp Max Gain=285
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=110
Mono Bin=Off
Banding Threshold=10
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=E:\SharpCap Captures\2019-04-15\FLAT-364-300g-MONO-BIAS\flats\21_16_25_offset=0.144%.fits
Subtract Dark=E:\SharpCap Captures\darks\ZWO ASI294MC Pro\RAW16@4144x2822\60.0s\gain_300\dark_20_frames_-14.8C_2019-01-26T05_02_54.fits
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0.252927097148541
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.350386244540297
#White Point
Display White Point=0.998046875
TimeStamp=2019-04-16T10:15:35.2164095Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.5986.0
Object Details: On September 21, 2022, the last day of summer in the northern hemisphere, mother nature had a parting gift for those of us who are solar aficionado's as two massive sunspot groups began to rotate onto the Earth facing side.
Shown in the images in the attached composite seething with activity & with cores larger than the entire Earth, AR3105 (right) & AR3107 (left) are accompanied by huge amount of faculae (brighter & hotter regions surrounding the groups themselves).
Having survive a complete rotation around the Sun, AR3105 is actually the return of a previous group (then known as AR3089, as it is traditional to renumber active regions upon their return for a another pass of the Earth facing side of the solar disk). As of today these groups are rotating off the Earth facing side while another larger active region is rotating on.
Should flaring occur and release any Earth directed Coronal Mass Ejections & weather and other conditions are permitting, we may experience a wonderful display of the Northern Lights. However aurora aficionados will be quick to note that even should there not be solar flares & their associated CMEs in the offing, during the first weeks of autumn, cracks form in Earth's magnetic field (known as the "Russell-McPherron effect") and at these times even the slightest solar wind may result in geomagnetic activity - it's aurora season !!! :)
Image Details: The images making up this composite were taken by Jay Edwards on early afternoon of Sept. 21, 2022 through high clouds with average seeing and below average transparency 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 seventeen frames taken at ISO 100 and with a 1/125 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 at prime focus and a set of specialized planetary filters. They are stacks of several hundred frames, at various exposures ranging from 1.2 to 24 milli-seconds and gain settings of 110 and 300, selected from short video clips consisting of several thousand.
The DLSR was controlled by AstroPhotographyTool (APT), the ASI290MC 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 ASI290MC images are at their original resolution while the DSLR shot has been resized down, and the entire composite is shown at three X HD (i.e. 5760 x 3240) and the bit depth for the DSLR shot has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my
('U.S. Blues', 'Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel', June 27, 1974)
Wishing clear, calm & dark skies to all !
Similar solar & planetary composites can be found in the albums at the attached links:
Solar:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760573...
Jupiter:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Saturn:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
Mars:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...
2025/7/25-7/30
I realized that the universe is expanding. With the SAMYANG 135mm F2 + ASI 662MC, the supernova SN 2025rbs that occurred in NGC 7331 was only faintly visible. The resolution was insufficient.
Nearby was Stephan's Quintet of Galaxies. According to Wikipedia, four of the five galaxies—NGC 7317, 7318A, 7318B, and 7319—have a redshift of approximately 6,600 km/s, placing them about 290 million light-years from Earth.
On the other hand, the bluish NGC 7320 has a very small redshift (approximately 790 km/s) and is relatively close to Earth, at approximately 39 million light-years away.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stephen's_Quintet.jpg
The wavelength shift difference caused by redshift is approximately 12 nm when using 550 nm green as a reference, which is sufficient to explain the noticeable color difference. The Stephan Quintet may serve as an excellent example to visually demonstrate the expansion of the universe.
SAMYANG 135mmF2
ASI662MC
UV/IR blocking filter
AZ-GTi alt-azi mode
sharpcap as platesolver
stacked by Siril 1.2 x2 drizzle
Imaging telescopes or lenses:Sky Watcher 200/1000 Newt, Celestron C11 Edge HD, Explore Scientific FCD100 ED127
Imaging cameras:Qsi 683-wsg, ZWO ASI 1600MM PRO -Cooled
Mount:Explore Scientific G11 with PMC-8
Guiding camera:Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Auto Guiding Camera
Focal reducers:C11 Edge .7 Reducer, CCD47 - 0.67x focal reducer, Hotech 2 Flattener
Software:SGPRO, PHD2. PixInsight, Photoshop,SharpCap
Filters:Astrodon 3nm Ha 31mm, Astrodon Gen II Blue 31mm, Astrodon Gen II Green 31mm, Astrodon Gen II Red 31mm, Astrodon Gen II Luminance 31mm
Accessory:Zwo Off axis guider
Resolution: 4370x3335
Dates:June 15, 2018, June 16, 2018, June 17, 2018, May 31, 2019, June 1, 2019
Frames:
Astrodon 3nm Ha 31mm: 50x300" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 3nm Ha 31mm: 10x1200" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Gen II Blue 31mm: 100x180" (gain: 76.00) -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Gen II Green 31mm: 100x180" (gain: 76.00) -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Gen II Luminance 31mm: 100x120" (gain: 76.00) -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Gen II Luminance 31mm: 30x1200" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Gen II Red 31mm: 100x180" (gain: 76.00) -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 35.8 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~10
Flat darks: ~10
Bias: ~150
Date Imaged: April 22 2015
Location: Bethalto, IL
Exposures: Best 25% of 750
Captured: SharpCap
Stacked: AutoStakkert2
Processed: Photoshop
Scope: Orion ST80
Reducer: GSO .5
Camera: ASI174MM
Mount: CG5
Filters: Quark Chromosphere
I would love to try this with an apo rather than an achromat, but I currently figure the extra detail afforded by the Evostar makes up for the halos round the bright stars. I'm even starting to get accustomed to the pearl effect of once the image has been stretched!
35x120 second subframes, total integration 1 hour 10 minutes.
Imaging:
Skywatcher Evostar 150,
QHY163C with Astronomik CLS filter.
Guiding:
190mm focal length finder-guider,
Orion SSAG.
All on
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Captured using SharpCap. Guided with PHD2.
Stacked and processed in DSS, Fitswork and Gimp.
20th and 27th July 2017
Cambridge, UK
This image is a combination of image data taken a few nights last week, with image data that I had collected last year.
I don't use a stacking program for images taken though my telescope. Instead, I push the brightness and contrast of every image, and carefully align them by hand, and stack them as layers in Paint Shop Pro. I save them in stacks of 10, and then stack the 10s the same way.
I also don't use dark frames or flat frames or any other frames other than the images themselves.
When it comes to guiding, I do that by hand too. I stick a QHY camera down an off-axis guider tube and run that video into a laptop. Then I bring up either Sharpcap or NINA, and put a bullseye overlay over the video. Then I watch which way the guide star drifts, and push buttons on my hand controller. So now i can take longer exposures, and it seems to work just fine, as all of my 200 second images had nice round stars.
Data - 24/04/2021
Hora - 20:54 ~ 21:45 local (-3 UTC)
Lat - 7,13S
Log - 34,83W
Local - João Pessoa, PB - Brasil
Bortle - Class 8
Câmera - ZWO ASI 120MC-S
Telescópio - SW 150mm F8
Montagem - EQ5
Motorização - OnStep Brasil
Light - filme de 2000 frames (empilhados 50%)
Software Captura - SharpCap
Softwares Processamento - PS/Registax
Update: July 10, 2021 - With several days of intense thunderstorms here this past week, one of which caused a 36 hour blackout at my home, I used some of the time to drain my laptop's battery to process a quick image of the globular cluster M56 which I shot on the evening of July 4th hours after the solar images attached here. Therefore, please find attached below a link to the results of that data. With power now restored, I hope to be able to open my observatory again and continue imaging as soon as the weather allows.
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51301556862/
Object Details: On Sunday July 4th I was fortunate to catch the massive sunspot AR 2835 as it was beginning to rotate off the Sun's visible surface. I was also able to image this group on July 2nd but have yet to examine that data - a screenshot of which is attached here:
www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51285875171/
One of the reasons I processed the attached 'out of chronologic order' was that, as luck would have it, at the time of the attached it's gigantic dark core (umbra) was splitting into two. The attached composite shows how it appeared in various wavelengths using both short and longer lengths scopes.
When processing the images the 'light-bridge' bisecting the core is readily apparent and due to it's relative brightness was the first thing I happen to notice when examining the infrared shot. The ultraviolet image displays the large amount of plage & faculae in the surround area quite well (i.e. the brighter, hotter regions associated with the active region). As can be seen in the attached, this active area is much larger than the Earth, and it will be interesting to see if it can survive a complete solar rotation.
Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory at my home here in upstate, NY on May 19, 2021. 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. 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. Shot as video clips, each is a stack of best several hundred frames out of a total of tens of thousands of frames recorded that afternoon.
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 & PaintShopPro, as presented here the composite has been resized down to 2X HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.
Composite image made by combining two separate output from different exposure videos.
Taken on 29 November 2019, at 23.23 UTC (overexposed) & 23.17 UTC (normal exposure), with Celestron NexStar 6 SE SCT and ZWO asi224mc Camera. Video captured in SharpCap, stacked in AutoStakkert, then processed in PSP8, Registax 6 and LR. The moons were copied from the overexposed image & pasted onto the enlarged normal exposure image, & tidied.
Uranus has 27 known satellites, but only 5 are large enough to be relatively easily captured with a backyard amateur telescope. The names of these satellites are chosen from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope
The Uranian satellite system is the least massive among those of the giant planets & have relatively low albedos; ranging from 0.20 for Umbriel to 0.35 for Ariel (in green light). The moons are ice–rock conglomerates composed of roughly 50% ice and 50% rock. The ice may include ammonia and carbon dioxide.
Source: Wikipedia