Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

90.8% Moon with AstroDMx Capture and a ZWO ZWO ASI 178MC with a 66mm, f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor. Click on the image to see it properly. Stack of the best 50% of a 2000-frame SER file.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 12:57 AM 0 Comments

Taking advantage of the light from an apogee moon being mostly obscured by the house, I managed to take some 2.4 hours of exposures of M45 as a 4 panel mosaic, using plate solving targeting in NINA. I also took a 90 minute exposure of part of the California nebula NGC1499 by using an occulting baffle close to the scope to try to shield the moon's glare. The Californian data were combined with those from a previous imaging session. The equipment used was an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor fitted with a 0.8 x FR using a one shot colour Atik320e camera driven by an iOptron CEM26 mount with multi star guiding done using PHD2 via an SVbony SV165 guider with a QHY5P-II guide camera. Stacking was done using APP with post processing done in Affinity Photo and Photoshop 2022.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 12:27 AM 0 Comments

The Flame nebula, taken with my Canon 4000D DSLR camera attached to a 102mm refractor, on a Skywatcher Synscan go two mount, settings were 1 minute exposure and ISO 800. 

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 5:54 PM 0 Comments

Using my 8 inch f/8 Richie Cretian telescope and ultra star camera as an electronic eyepiece.

Click on a sketch to get a closer view

Jim Startup

posted by astroimager  # 5:46 PM 0 Comments

 Imaged with my Atik 428 ccd and Altair 70EDT telescope on the CEM70 mount.

Stack comprised 4x900s Ha and 6x900s Oiii. I propose doing some Sii when it's clear again and probably some more of the Ha and Oiii too.

Stacked in APP, rest of processing in Pixinsight and colour tweaked in Photoshop CS3.

There are two versions.

Ha=R, Oiii and Ha mix=G, Oiii B which gives a more usual colourway, mostly red.

Ha=R, Oiii=G and Oiii and Ha mix=B which was the one I used selective colour with in Photoshop. It appears to make the tadpoles stand out more.

Click on an image to get a closer view

IC410, the Tadpole nebula.

posted by astroimager  # 5:40 PM 0 Comments

96% waning Moon with AstroDMx Capture and a ZWO ZWO ASI 178MC with a 66mm, f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor

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96% Moon

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 2:09 PM 0 Comments

99.9% Moon with AstroDMx Capture, an SV305M Pro and a William Optics Zenithstar 66mm,  f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor. Best 50% of each of 2 overlapping, 2000 frame SER files, stitched in Microsoft ICE, wavelet-processed in Registax 6 and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10.

Click on the image to get a closer view

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 1:29 PM 0 Comments

Full moon  over the Loughor estuary. Settings were 1/10s and ISO 200 at f/6.3, 76:300mm lens attached to a canon 4000D DSLR camera on a static tripod. 

Click on an image to get a closer view

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 1:24 PM 0 Comments

98.8% waxing Moon tonight with AstroDMx Capture and a ZWO ZWO ASI 178MC with a 66mm, f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor and an  iOptron Cube Pro AZ GOTO mount.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

Equipment used

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture saving a 5000-frame SER file

Stack of the best 80% of the frames in a 5000-frame SER file

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 5:06 PM 0 Comments

Full moon setting over Cefn Bryn taken this morning settings were 1/10s ISO200 at f/6.3 with a 75: 300mm canon lens, attached to a canon 4000D DSLR camera on a static tripod.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 2:06 PM 0 Comments

I imaged the Lobster Claw nebula with my Atik 428 mono ccd camera and Altair 70EDT refractor.

8x900s Ha, 14Sx900s Oiii and 12x900sSii over 4 nights with a second quarter moon.

Calibrated and stacked in Astropixelprocessor with a bad pixel map applied. Then processed entirely in Pixinsight making use of the Starnet+ star removing tool. Stars were then shrunk slightly in size and added into the starless nebula.

I used two colour combinations, HaOiiiS2 mapping to R,G and B and the Hubble palate which switches Ha and Sii. The blue and gold end colour is achieved by using SNCR to remove the green which dominates the image due to the abundance of Sii in the area.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Sii Ha Oiii

Anne Startup

posted by astroimager  # 5:44 PM 0 Comments

Using my 8 inch f/8 Richie Cretian and ultrastar camera as an electronic eyepiece.

Click on a sketch to get a closer view

Jim Startup

posted by astroimager  # 3:11 PM 0 Comments

A William Optics Zenithstar, 66mm, f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor was mounted on a Celestron AVX EQ GOTO mount. A 14bit ZWO ASI 178MC camera was placed at the focus. The ZWO camera was fitted with a dual narrowband Optalong L-eNhance filter that transmits light of H-alpha, Olll and H-beta, whilst cutting out other wavelengths, including much of the continuum light from the Moon and the sky glow.

A 50mm F=190mm guidescope was mounted on the 66mm refractor and an SVBONY 905C camera was used for ST4 multi-star auto-guiding with PHD2.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Equipment used

AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture 100 x 30s exposures and 15 x 60s exposures of the Orion nebula, with matching dark-frames.

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture saving Fits data on the Orion nebula

posted by astroimager  # 9:12 PM 0 Comments

92% waxing gibbous Moon, taken with my 150mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope attached to a Canon 4000D DSLR camera, and an EQ 5 tracking mount. Settings were 1/250s and ISO200. 

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 8:54 PM 0 Comments

The data were captured remotely during our regular SAS meeting using NINA under bright moonlight using a CLS filter on the Atik320e attached to a 0.8 x focal reducer on an Altair 60EDF driven by an iOptron CEM26 mount, with multi star guiding via PHD2 controlled by NINA. Stacking was done via DSS, with post processing done in Photoshop with a de-noise filter applied in Affinity Photo. Total exposure time was 2h 24m

Click on the image to get a closer view

M33

posted by astroimager  # 8:49 PM 0 Comments

Here are some images of the aurora that I captured from Llansamlet last night. The display was only seen in the camera and not to the naked eye. It lasted from 10:30 to 11:`15

Click on an image to get a closer view

IMAGES TAKEN WITH A NIKON D3200 

Howard Davies

posted by astroimager  # 8:44 PM 0 Comments

Celestron 9.25 SCT AVX, 2xTelevue Barlow, ZWO ASI120MC-S camera, 4000 images captured in Firecapture 2.5x64, 1600 stacked and aligned in AutoStakkert!3, wavelets in Registax 6, then edited in Adobe Elements 11

78 % waxing Moon

Aristillus, Autolycus, Archimedes, Sinus Lunicus, Montes Spitzbergen

Bullialdus

Goldschmidt, Anaxagorus, E_pigenes

Longomontus

Parry, Guericke

Plato

Valles Alpes &  Plato 

Wilhelm 

posted by astroimager  # 8:10 PM 0 Comments

A William Optics Zenithstar, 66mm, f/5.9, APO, ED doublet refractor was mounted on an iOptron Cube Pro AZ GOTO mount. A ZWO ASI 178MC camera was placed at the focus. 

AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture a 5000-frame SER file of the 85% waxing Moon.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture capturing a 5000-frame SER file of lunar data.

The best 80% of the frames in the SER file were stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in Registax 6 and post processed in the Gimp 2.10

85% Waxing, gibbous Moon Chroma enhanced

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 2:45 PM 0 Comments

I used my f/8, 8" Richie Cretion scope and an ultra star camera as an electronic eyepiece. 

Click on an image to get a closer view

Jim Startup

posted by astroimager  # 3:06 PM 0 Comments

A Coronado CaK, Calcium K-line scope was mounted on an iOptron Cube Pro AZ GOTO mount and a DMK 31AU03.AS camera was placed at the focus.

AstroDMx Capture was used to capture two overlapping SER files covering the entire solar disk.

The best 95% of frames in the SER files were stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in Registax 6, post processed in the Gimp 2.10 and stitched into a single image in Microsoft Ice.

Click on an image to see a closer view

The Equipment used

posted by astroimager  # 2:57 PM 0 Comments