CCD imaging activity as it happens
Although I was generally pleased with the bicolour image of the Crescent Nebula, it just highlights how much exposure you need when working with narrowband filters. I've recently acquired an SII filter with the intention of creating images using the Hubble Palette (SII:Ha:OIII). Over the last couple of weeks I've managed three hours' worth of SII data. The weather hasn't exactly been friendly in this regard! Nevertheless, then next step will be to add some OIII data. I also plan to experiment with slightly longer subframes. I routinely image with 10 minute subs, but it's certainly worth trying 20 minute ones to see how it goes. This should improve the signal to noise ratio and the smoothness of the image. More to follow when I manage the OIII data!
Well it has been a good couple of months since my last blog post. Lots happening, especially on the Tolcarn Observatory development front. We had a successful open weekend for the Perseids meteor shower earlier this month, and obtained a couple of promising images with the new Takahashi TSA-120 and SBIG STT 8300. As the days start to draw in, I'm sure there'll be more to follow. This week I managed a couple of hour's worth of hydrogen alpha data on the region surrounding the star Gamma Cygni 'Sadr'. Unfortunately my dark frames collected on subsequent evenings weren't great so I had a lot of image clear-up to do. Despite this, everything else worked well and the guiding was spot on. After calibrating and combining the images I used the NewAstro Zone System technique to process the image. I was pleased with the final result.
I've been fortunate to acquire a copy of Ron Wodaski's book 'The New Astro Zone System for Astroimaging'. My plan is to work through the processing principles and techniques and spend some time redoing older images. My first go was a re-process of the Rosette Nebula in H-alpha. I was really impressed with the result, which I believe to be a significant improvement over my original image. I've saved the image in a new folder called 'Zone System Processing'. More to follow.....
Another clear night and the opportunity to image the trio of planets low in the western sky. I managed to capture the image on the way back from a friends barbeque after finding a spot with a clear horizon. Had to be quick as wife and kids in the car obviously wanting to get back home to warm up!
Tonight was a fantastic opportunity to hunt down Jupiter, Venus and Mercury in the western sky after sunset. These three planets will form a tight triangle tomorrow on the 26th May so I'll try this all over again! The planets were low in the sky and starting to disappear into the cloud but a nice image was still possible. I also snapped a couple of images of the moon on my way back home.