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tibbs1972

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Blog Entries posted by tibbs1972

  1. tibbs1972
    I took 66 x 30 sec exposures at ISO 1600 last night, looking at Ursa Major.
    I then stacked them with 3 dark exposures using Deep Sky Stacker.
    I also made a short video of the images and uploaded them to you tube.
    http://youtu.be/5b8aO-LkGQU
  2. tibbs1972

    14th December Meteors

    By tibbs1972,

    Now I can say I am officially chuffed.
    I've seen seven Meteors in half hour, thats broke my record.
    Thanks 3200 Phaethon
    Its a shame I have to put my head down, I have to be on the road at 6am.
    I hope its this good during Star Gazing Live 2 in January.
  3. tibbs1972

    14th December Meteors

    By tibbs1972,

    I wasn't planning to observe tonight, but I just opened the front upstairs window as its clear tonight. Facing south, I just spotted three amazingly bright meteors falling over Rutland, UK within a couple of minutes. One was across Orion.
    Pretty chuffed not to have to wait around for hours on end for these spectacles. I have to say, I feel really priveleged to observe these meteors this evening.
  5. tibbs1972
    I've never had much succes Photographing Jupiter, so tonight, I took the traditional approach of sketching my observation before the clouds rolled in.
    I suppose this sketech would be a good start for a log book, as the only record I have of my observations is this blog and various folders on my computer.
  8. tibbs1972
    Thought I'd have a go at making a video from DSLR images, rather than a webcam.
    I took some shots of Orion early this morning, so I'm using these, only 24 shots for a first attempt, which I shrunk down to 25% of the origional size to reduce the file size.
    A stacked image can be seen below.
    Next I found a Freeware tool called ImageToAVI 1.0.0.5, which I used to stitch the images into an AVI file at 4 frames per second.
    I then used a program to convert these to MPEG II format.
    I've uploaded the file to the Youtube link below.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4qpdYioTs
    My only problem is with light pollution, but if I stacked each frame with dark images, maybe I could get rid of it.
  9. tibbs1972

    Observing Pleiades

    By tibbs1972,

    Had a look at Pleiades, managed to get 25 shots directly from my 18-55mm Camera lens on full zoom at F5.6, ISO 400.
    Not sure yet how I'm going to take similiar shots with the telescope as it zooms in too close using the prime focus method.
  10. tibbs1972
    I Started out well tonight, the third night in a row, a great weekend for observing, and then The Moon started to rise. Gradually, most of the stars faded out.
    I managed to stack 16 x 60sec exposures at ISO 400, F4.5.
    I was going to try for 100, better luck next time. At least there's a better chance of observing, now the nights are longer.
  11. tibbs1972
    I popped my head out the back door tonight to see if it was clear.
    To my surprise, it was clear and the moon was rising over the village.
    I had an amazing view of The Moon chasing Jupiter. I thought to take a quick shot.
    It's a shame the moon has so much glare, the shot below doesn't justify the true view.
  12. tibbs1972
    It's a clear night tonight over Rutland.
    I've had another crack at Andromeda. Now I know roughly where to aim the scope, its much easier.
    I managed about 15 x 25sec shots with my 130mm scope.
    I managed to stack the image below.
    It's my best image of a deep sky object so far. Amazing to think its 2.5 million light years away and still visible. It certainly puts a different light on my life, when I imagine the scope of such things. It's a shame I won't be around when it gets close to the Milky Way. It certainly would be a sight worth seeing.
    I also managed to get a snap shot of the star Capella in Auriga a bit later on.
    Neil
  13. tibbs1972
    I've been out this morning observing Orion and mars.
    I'm really pleased I made the effort as It's the first time I've seen Mars.
    It was also an added bonus to have Mars, Orion and Jupiter visible together in one session.
    The background shots were taken with my DSLR using the 18-55mm lens.
    The closeups were taken with the camera connected to my telescope. I found the nebula much more difficult to focus than the planets, as it's not visible with the live view function, so a lot of guess work is required with the focus.
  15. tibbs1972
    Something I've been trying to do for a while now.
    Thanks to two really clear nights this weekend, I finally managed to find Andromeda in the scope. Just a smudge, but it still feels like an achievement, as its the first Galaxy I've spotted through my scope.
    I realise I also need to be quick off the mark adjusting the focus for my camera, once i've spotted something with my 20mm lens.
    I've now marked the focuser with felt pen, which speeds up camera focusing immensly.
    Neil
  17. tibbs1972

    Widefield Shot

    By tibbs1972,

    I took about 20 shots of Andromeda last night and used deep sky stacker again.
    This is the best shot I've had so far with Andromeda in it.
    I havn't had much luck with Andromeda and my Telescope so far, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end.
  18. tibbs1972

    Arcturus

    By tibbs1972,

    I took some more shots of Arcturus last night. So far, last night was the clearest I've ever seen the night sky, not a cloud in sight.
    Setting up is getting a bit easier, the worst problem is getting the speed correct on the single axis drive, once I'm polar aligned.
    In April, I took a shot, but wasn't sure about stacking, so there was a lot of light pollution.
    I stacked and cleaned up last nights shot using deep sky stacker and some darks and flats I took at the same time.
    I'm pretty pleased with the result.
  19. tibbs1972
    Hi,
    I've now stacked 20 and 45 images using deep sky stacker, which was really simple to use. I also used gimp to adjust the curves, I think.
    Luckily I had 5 darks on file, so I managed to remove some pollution as well.
    Seem to be a much clearer, crisper image now.
    I think I still need a lot of experience stacking and adjusting curves, but its a start.
  20. tibbs1972
    Pretty chuffed tonight.
    I saw Jupoter in the east this morning, and also saw Andromeda for the first time with my Camera on a 20sec exposure, which you can see in the bottom RH corner of the second image. I'm pretty pleased about finding Andromeda, as it's the firsy galaxy I've ever spotted.
  22. tibbs1972
    WOW !
    Just caught the ISS going over the UK.
    Wasn't expecting it tonight, but saw it as I was just now watering the garden.
    I ran upstairs and leaned out of the window with my Minocular.
    As it's been such a beautiful clear day, I could see a bright shiny centre, and I believe I could make out the solar panels.
    Another amazing sighting for me.
    It lasted about 3 minutes. :)
    No clouds tonight, looking forward to the best couple of hours observing this month, I hope.
  23. tibbs1972

    Collimating

    By tibbs1972,

    I've had a natural fear of collimating and thus far upto now have not tried.
    Tonight I watched a few videos on youtube and took a crack at it, one of which I've linked below.

    It's quite tricky holding the secondary mirror trying to align it with the focuser.
    The other problem on the secondary mirror, is that celestron have somehow cross-threaded one of the adjustment screws. This caused me no end of trouble.
    I pricked a hole in a black lens cap, which I then used to collimate.
    The main mirror was eaiser to adjust, but I got a bit confused for a start, as on the Celestron Powerseeker, the locking screws are exactly the same as the mirror adjustment screws. This made things more difficult as neither are labelled.
    After about an hour, I managed to get both mirrors dead centre.
    This is one of lifes little tasks that I won't look forward to in the future, as its pretty frustrating adjusting the secondary mirror.
    At least I won't be diving in without a clue in the future.
    Neil
  24. tibbs1972
    Saturn is giving me some problems.
    For the last week, I've tried imaging with my DSLR camera to no avail. All I get is a white blob on the image.
    I know the telescope is ok, as through the 20mm and 15mm lenses I get a crystal clear image.
    I've tried every exposure time and ISO setting I can think off, but the prime focus direct mount method just doesn't work with planets.
    I decided to grab my old £30 webcam and tape it to the Cannon T-ring adapter.
    After finding some free webcam software, to my surprise, I managed to get an outline of Saturn.
    I have to say I am pretty chuffed to even manage an image of this resolution and feel like I've succeeded in my goal, even though the image isn't that clear.
    I have seen some threads on this site stating that webcams and CCD cameras are better than DSLR cameras for imaging planets. I am starting to believe these statements are correct.
    Anyway, heres the image I managed to get with the cheap webcam. I think I may have to invest in a CCD camera in the future.
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