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Hawksmoor

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Everything posted by Hawksmoor

  1. From the album: Saturn

    Comparative images from 2017 (top) and 2023 (bottom) showing how our view of Saturn and in particular our view of the rings, has changed over the last five years. Images taken with a Meade 127mm Apo refractor and a Televue x3 Barlow. Two different generations of QHY planetary cameras were used.
  2. You have seen the quality of my 'gung-ho' wiring skills before? Thanks for your comment much appreciated! George with sunlight streaming in the window in Lowestoft |Suffolk's lost town below the waves.
  3. Hi Jim Yes I guess I could have used a lamp with known output wavelength(s) for calibration. Didn't think of that at the time but Mrs H willing I might rerun the experiment using a lamp. I did make it clear I am a bit rubbish! As for Paul he was a bit of a character, could be difficult but always made me laugh! Thanks for taking the time to comment all help and advice is very welcome! George in rainy Lowestoft next the sea.
  4. From the album: Other Peoples Photons

    Narrow band data from the telescope.org COAST telescope up Mount Teide. As I had James Ritson's latest macros for Affinity Photo 2, I thought I would have a go at processing narrow band data. HSO palette.
  5. I am just about recovering from my second bout with the Covid virus so I thought I would do something vaguely astronomical which wasn't cloud dependant. We have had a lot of clouds in Lowestoft recently. I discovered a nearly completed low resolution transmission spectrometer with fixed slit in the shed which I was building some time ago for obtaining the spectrum of extended objects. Sounds very technical but as per my norm, very Valerie Singleton and Chad Valley. Anyway somewhere in the past I read that it was possible to obtain a spectrum of sunlight by connecting a fibre optic cable to a spectrometer/camera set up and retiring immediately. No collimating and focussing lenses involved! Now I may have imagined this, probably the drugs! So being bored I finished off the spectrometer, fixed an audio fibre optic cable to the front end and my modded Canon 200d to the other end. When I pointed the end of the fibre optic cable at the sun I was able to snap away and collect some data which I promptly stacked. I then set about reducing the data to create a spectrum profile. This is probably where I went wrong. First, how was I going to calibrate the profile which was all very lowercase squiggles? Well as the image encompassed the zero, first and second orders, I could approximately identify one point 0 on the x axis. I then remembered that the temperature of the Sun roughly obeys Wien's law and as the internet could provide the visible wavelength at which the Sun delivers max flux I could obtain a second calibration point on the x axis for the highest y axis point on the flux curve. A linear calibration could then be performed. As I knew our Sun is a G2V star, I used this profile to correct my image profile for camera response. All very well but am I fooling myself? I remember being set an exercise by the legendary lighting Engineer, Joe Lines. It was 1969 and I was living a bohemian student life in Manchester. We had to create a lighting scheme and provide all the relevant calculations. I set about the task with much enthusiasm, a little knowledge and even less talent. A week later, project completed, I handed in my weighty treatise and awaited assessment by Joe. A further week later my flat mate Paul collected his and my now 'marked' submissions and left mine on my desk in my squalid room. Written on the bottom in red ink was "7/10 Stop fooling yourself Roberts". This came as something of a shock because Joe Lines was an extremely patient and kind man! What could this possibly mean? What I only found out months afterwards, was that my friend Paul had added all the words after "7/10". I believe from that day onwards, I have suffered from what they now call 'imposters syndrome'. I attach photos as supportive evidence of how wrong you can be! George 'coughing' in an overcast Lowestoft
  6. Excellent work and well deserved recognition! Congratulations!
  7. Hawksmoor

    Chrissy M3 AB

    From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    My smart son, prof Chrissy H, did something clever with an AI set up that brought forth more better shaped stars and colour with an old crop of M3 data that I captured long ago. Currently feet up with Covid for the second time in 2 years, so a bit fed up, bored and feeling sorry for myself.
  8. From the album: Saturn

    Messing about with lots of unused clips. New planetary camera has smaller pixels than previous one so slightly changed my processing. Also have just acquired some new spectacles from Vision Express which have had an impact. Not sure whether for better or worse only time will tell.
  9. Hawksmoor

    DumbellAB5crop3

    From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    Messier 27. Pleased to have picked up the white dwarf at its centre. Preferred blue rather than green for the ionised oxygen. Meade127mm Apo and Canon 600d DSLR.
  10. Hawksmoor

    Messier87abs5

    From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    Read about StarFixer AI software on the excellent 'Professor Morison's Astronomy Digest' so gave it ago on this widefield data in which many of the stars were very poor. It did make a significant improvement and probably works a lot better on good data with better stars to start with. Will certainly use this software again. I do like Virgo - so much going on! Stack of subs taken with my Canon 600d DSLR, on a Star Adventurer EQ mount, at ISO800 and f=35mm.
  11. From the album: Out and About

    Yesterday evening, Mrs H and I shared an hour in the local graveyard, which strangely provides our best unobstructed view of the horizon. We were keen to see comet Nishimura before it set but try as we might with our trusty binoculars the sky brightness defeated us. More by desperation than design I captured a number of images using my DSLR, a stock zoom lens at f=55mm and ISO400. I'm pretty certain the bright star is Denebola in Leo Major and the smaller and fainter dot higher and to its left may be Comet Nishimura.
  12. From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    09_09_2023 night was a bit misty but cloud free decided to image the Square of Pegasus using my modded Canon 200d DSLR and a Sigma EX wide zoom lens at f=18mm. The image was processed and cropped using Affinity Photo2, GraXpert, Starnet GUI, ImagesPlus 6.5, GradientXterminator and Topaz Denoise AI. Along the way I managed to image the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Triangulum Galaxy M33.
  13. From the album: Other Peoples Photons

    Found some old data from the PIRATE telescope on mount Teide Cannot remember whether it was courtesy of the Bradford Robotic telescope or it had moved on to the Open University and telescope.org by then. Anyway I decided to give the data the Starnet GUI treatment with added infra red from the WISE space telescope plus some other AI software treatment to reduce stars and noise and increase definition in the nebulosity. My advice 'Young Skywalker' is to never throw away any data. Software moves on and improves what may be achieved inexorably!
  14. From the album: Saturn

    Saturn and four moons Huge stack of frames from 127mm Meade Apo refractor, x3 Televue Barlow and new QHY5III462 colour planetary camera.
  15. Hawksmoor

    Saturn AB

    From the album: Saturn

    Best 10% from a 5 minute AVI clip with my new new QHY5III462 colour planetary camera on my 127mm refractor.
  16. From the album: Saturn

    After the jet stream departed from over Lowestoft, the night sky has been subject to mist and a blanket of wispy high level cloud. As Saturn is just about accessible, over the top of my olive tree with my 127mm Apo Meade refractor, I decided to have a go at imaging it with a Televue x3 Barlow and my new QHY5III462 planetary camera. The image is a bit soft but I managed to sharpen it a little and dig four moons out of the mist. Processed with PIPP, AS!3, Registax6, Affinity Photo2,.Astrosharp, Fitswork4 and Topaz DenoiseAI.
  17. From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    The Double Cluster in Perseus always looks stunning through an eyepiece but I have struggled to image it well. So I added some infra-red from the WISE space telescope and although it didn't work as well as my recent go at Messier35 it did improve an otherwise, (no pun intended), dull stack.
  18. From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    I have had several goes at processing some widefield data of Messier35 that I collected with my Canon 600d DSLR and a zoom lens at f=50mm. The results have made for a pretty dull image. Then I thought why not try adding some freely available infra red data from the venerable WISE space telescope (Credit NASA). With a bit of Affinity Photo 'jiggery pokery' a dull photo was improved. (Big increase in the dynamic range of the image) Reduced number and improved star shape using StarFixer and new JR version15 macros for AFF02.
  19. Very pleased that one of my granddaughter's Jasmine, has shown an interest in astronomy and astro-imaging.  She managed to use her iphone and eyepiece projection with a Celestron 70 mm refractor on a wobbly plastic tripod to image the Blue Moon. She also took a nice landscape image of the moonlight illuminating the mist over Blythburgh Mere which I have uploaded to my Flikr account and blog.

    Full Moon 03.png

    1. orion25

      orion25

      That's beautiful!

  20. From the album: The Moon

    Pretty combination of the full Moon and Saturn last night. All a bit misty and autumnal. Tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR with zoom lens at approximately f=300mm. Stack of 30 RAW images. at ISO 200
  21. From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    Combined quite a lot of data from several nights and different setups to create this image of the Pleiades. This was he first star cluster I viewed through a telescope back in 1960 when I was eleven years old. Still love to view it through my big 11x80 binoculars!
  22. Hawksmoor

    NGC7000 abcomb02

    From the album: Backyard Astronomy

    Cygnus around Deneb and Sadr. NGC7000, the Pelican etc.
  23. From the album: Out and About

    Went to the beach today. Very warm and windy. Two tower roosts have been placed in the sea off shore to provide breeding havens for the endangered local kittiwake colony. I imaged one with a impromptu iphone 8x40 binoculars combination. I thought this would make a great foreground for my recent MilkyWay image. "All a bit of a cheat" to quote Mrs H but it wiled away an hour or so whilst my grandson monopolised the TV with Grand Theft Auto gaming.
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