These Images Represent 3 months of Imaging in 2007
POSTED 10-07-07
No great shakes here, but it was fun putting the DBK 21AF04.AS to the Mars test. Because of the worst seeing I can recall, the images are passable as first Mars-light attempts.
7:56 UT 10-07-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
15 fps for 2000 total frames
best 350 frames Registax 4
DBK 21AF04.AS Color Firewire camera
scaling: 125%
Target altitude: 42 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 3/5
8:10 UT 10-07-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
15 fps for 2000 total frames
best 350 frames Registax 4
DBK 21AF04.AS Color Firewire camera w/maxpower 1.6x lens
scaling: 75%
Target altitude: 42 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
Transparency at target: 3/5
Mars
8:47 UT 10-07-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
15 fps for 2000 total frames
best 350 frames Registax 4
DBK 21AF04.AS Color Firewire camera w/maxpower 1.6x lens
scaling: none
Target altitude: 43 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
Transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 9-26-07
The moon was so low in the sky and seeing was terrible to boot, so an attempt was made to do a full orb panorama. These wide angle views are about all that can be done when atmospheric conditions are poor. This particular one is a 9-image stitch.
Nearly Full Moon
______UT 9-24-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cas
9 streams of 30 fps for 500 total frames each
best 100 frames each stream Registax 4, Panorama Maker 3.0
DMK 31AF03.AS mono camera with IR longpass filter
scaling: none
Target altitude: 30 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 9-22-07
this rather poor image of Tycho and surrounding area is published here only because it represents a first light image with the new The Imaging Source DBK color 640x480 camera. I boosted the color saturation a bit.
1:33 UT 9-22-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cas
50 fps for 800 total frames
best 120 frames Registax 4
DBK 21AF04.AS color
scaling: none
Target altitude: 48 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 2/5
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POSTED 9-19-07
A better than average night for high resolution images. I only hope these clear nights occur in December when Mars is at oppostion. The DMK was used first and it appears that the sky was clearest at this time. I switched to the color Toucam toward dawn, but the sky became murky so the color shots aren't as clear as I hoped. The DMK was definitely helped with the IR pass filter. It's unfortunate that one-shot color cameras will always suffer from the inability to control the infrared separately from the rest of the spectrum. Someone please invent a one-shot color camera that matches tri-color quality without the need to do 3 image streams.
Mars
9:59 UT 9-18-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
30 fps for 1200 total frames
best 200 frames Registax 4
DMK 31AF03.AS w/1.6x Maxpower lens and IR longpass filter (F29)
scaling: 200% ROI
Target altitude: 48 degrees
Seeing: 6/10
transparency at target: 4/5
Mars
______UT 9-18-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
10 fps for 1200 total frames
best 300 frames Registax 4
Toucam 840k w/1.6x Maxpower lens
scaling: none
Target altitude: 58 degrees
Seeing: 6/10
transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 9-16-07
Continuing with the deepsky capabilites of the DMK 31AF03.AS, M42 presented itself in the early morning hours today. This rendition contains too few frames, but it was fun anyway. What a blast to see all the dark lanes and sworls in real time. I'm really looking forward to trying some HDR imaging of the moon.
M42 (Great Orion Nebula)
______UT 9-16-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cas
Approx. 90 frames at 16 seconds ea.
best 60 frames Registax 4
DMK 31AF03.AS mono w/Atik .5x
scaling: none
Target altitude: 37 degrees
Seeing: 4/10
transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 9-13-7
Finally clear skies! After some evening playing with the deepsky capabilities of the DMK 31AF03.AS, Mars imaging took priority in the early morning hours using the color Toucam. This image was made without barlow or eyepiece projection - straight F18.
MARS
10:04 UT 9-13-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
1800 frames at 10fps
best 600 frames Registax 4
Toucam Pro 840K
scaling: 150%
Mars altitude: 59 degrees
Seeing: 5/10
transparency at target: 3/5
MARS
10:50 UT 9-13-07
16" f18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
2000 frames at 10fps
best 300 frames Registax 4
Toucam Pro 840K with 1.6X amplifier
scaling: none
Mars altitude: 58 degrees
Seeing: 5/10
transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 9-1-07
The DMK 31AF03.AS was coupled with the new focal reducer to produce this 2-image pano of the Moon:
Northern Terminator
7:28am UT 9-1-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cass
1000 frames each at 30fps
best 200 frames Registax 4
DMK 31AF03.AS camera w/.5x focal reducer
scaling: none
Moon altitude: 56 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 3/5
Crater Catharina
7:48 UT 9-1-07
16" F18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
1000 frame capture
best 150 frames Registax 4
DMK 31AF03.AS mono camera
scaling:none
Moon altitude: 57 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 3/5
Since the DMK camera does deepsky, I located Pluto and obtained this image which is a stack of 6 frame grabs. Each grab was a 45 second exposure. I was surprised how quickly I was able to home in on this faint target (solid arrow) by using shorter exposures to locate the star field, then a long exposure to reveal the planet.
Pluto (in Sagittarius)
4:35 UT 9-1-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cass
6 individual frame captures @ 45 seconds each
frames stacked in Registax 4, post processing in Nikon Capture NX
DMK 31AF03.AS mono camera with .5x focal reducer
scaling:none
Pluto altitude: 23 degrees
Seeing: 2/10
transparency at target: 2/5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POSTED 8-18-07
Summer haze and a low ecliptic make for challenging planetary photography here in Northern Virginia. Nevertheless, here is a Mars image from August 12.
Mars (2007 Apparition)
8:46 UT 8-12-07
16" F18 Royce Dall-Kirkham
120 seconds
best 200 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k color mode
scaling:133%
Mars altitude: 33 degrees
Seeing: 3/10
transparency at target: 2/5
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POSTED 7-14-07
Using a Thousand Oaks Solar Filter on the Starmax for the first time. Passing clouds hampered what could have been a very pleasing sunspot portrait. The umbra (darkest area) of the largest sunspot is approximately the diameter of the Earth!
Sunspot Grouping (#0963)
17:40 UT 7-14-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cass
100 seconds
best 150 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k color mode
scaling:140%
Sun altitude: 73 degrees
Seeing: 4/10
transparency at target: 2/5
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POSTED 7/8/07
The following images are from 7/7/07. Low altitude subjects and poor atmospheric conditions continue to be the major culprit. All of the images are 'soft'.
9:54 UT 7-7-07
16" Royce F18 Dall-Kirkham
5 images: 100 seconds/1000 frame each
best 200 frames from each image Registax 4 multipoint align
ToUcam Pro 840k b/w mode
scaling: none
Moon altitude: 52 degrees
Seeing: 3/10
transparency at target: 2/5
9:41UT 7-7-07
16" Royce F18 Dall-Kirkham
100 seconds/1000 frame each
best 200 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k b/w mode
scaling: none
Moon altitude: 52 degrees
Seeing: 3/10
transparency at target: 2/5
The following images were taken with the Orion Starmax 127mm Maksutov-Cassegrain and is the first time I have tried imaging with it.
10:42 UT 7-7-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cass
100 seconds/1000 frame each
best 200 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k b/w mode
scaling: none
Moon altitude: 51 degrees
Seeing: 3/10
transparency at target: 2/5
Copernicus and Eratosthenes
10:52 UT 7-7-07
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cass
100 seconds/1000 frame each
best 200 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k b/w mode
scaling: none
Moon altitude: 51 degrees
Seeing: 4/10
transparency at target: 3/5
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POSTED 7/6/07
This image is actually the first light image with the newly reconfigured mirrors. Classical Cassegrain is out and Dall-Kirkham is in. Unfortunately, transparency was terrible during the image acquisition so this isn't a very worthy attempt to see what the new optics can do. I am optimistic, though, because previous attempts to image Jupiter at less than 28 degrees altitude with the Classical Cassegrain mirrors yielded much worse images than this.
Jupiter
3:15 UT 7-3-07
16" Royce F18 Dall-Kirkham
120 seconds/1200 frame grab
best 300 frames Registax 4
ToUcam Pro 840k color mode
scaling: none
jupiter altitude: 27 degrees
Seeing: 4/10
transparency at target: 1/5