Session Data Taken over three nights between 21 and 34 of June. Scope: Altair 250mm RC f/5.3 Camera: ZWO ASI 183MM Pro, Baader 35nm Ha, Dark subtracted and Flat fielded. Total of 160 x 120 sec subs. Session Notes: Conditions over these three nights were not perfect with transparency ranging from poor to average. This was really a more long term test of the ASI 183MM PRO camera and to see how the non guided…
I have a new observatory
Observatory roofs seem to be my Achilles heel. By 2023 the third iteration of the roof was beginning to get difficult to open again. Rusty trolley wheel axles being the primary culprit. I was also unhappy with the amount of moisture getting into the observatory. We live at 220 metres and regularly are enveloped in low cloud and winds that will drive rain vertically up through the smallest of gaps. Most of this wet…
IC1396
Well it’s been a very long while since I did any astrophotography. The guys in the club have been very active this year and their enthusiasm started to rub of on me. I knew I had some data taken during one of the Covid lockdowns in 2020, so I updated Pixinsight and went to find the files. The subs were many more than I thought. I did loose a few to cloud, but in…
Observing/Imaging Session 4, June
It looks like completion of the new observatory happened at just the right time. While I’m writing this in July – and the weather at the moment has been awful by the way – first light took place in early June, where like the Spring of 2020, we had a run of about six weeks of clear sky nights. This run was so consistent that you didn’t really need to look at a weather…
September Solar Observations
Here are my Solar sunspot counts for September. Not as many days as I did in August, but my first month using the same instrument setup and where I feel I have settled on a more consistent method in my observing workflow. A full 30 day solar cycle at 60 Solar Hours a sec rate The following are the drawings made at the eyepiece and are displayed with the Zenith up with the second…
3D Printed Solar Filter
My 3D printed solar filter is complete. Designed in Fusion 360 and printed in PLA on a Flashforge Adventurer 4 I decided to make it in two parts, so the Baader film is clamped between the inner L ring and the outer frame that slides over the dew shield on the scope. Rather than just relying on the clamping effect of the two halves to hold the baader film, I also applied a thin…