MARS

 

This was my first attempt at imaging Mars with the new setup.  I quickly encountered significant dew on the front corrector lens so I only got one shot at it with binning = 2.  I'm looking forward to correcting the dew problem and making more attempts, but this was a pretty good first try, I think.  

Photo Details

November 28, 2022
Celestron 7" Mak-Cas
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in Registax 6
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar from November

 

I hadn't imaged the Sun since mid-July so it was pretty fun to see it just as active as where I left it back then.

Photo Details

November 21, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

 

These were captured back in July and I tried some new post-processing techniques using ImPPG on these.  Rather than wavelet filtering in Registax it uses some deconvolution tools.  I think I get a smoother result.

Photo Details

July 17, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

M51 Revisit

 

I've been targeting a lot of single objects lately (Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Saturn), but finally got back to some data gathered in mid-June.  This is Messier 51 and contains roughly 100 billion stars.  It would be pretty amazing to investigate those star systems.

Photo Details

June 19, 2022

Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector

Skyglow filter

19 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 57 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

Solar from Mid-June

 

These images are from back in mid-June and show significant activity on the surface of the Sun.  Things have quieted down quite a bit since then, but still fairly active.

Photo Details

June 19, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Moon, Jupiter & Saturn

 

Another busy night imaging in our solar system.  The highlight was catching the Great Red Spot on Jupiter as it rotated into full view.  Though relatively small on the face of this gas giant, it would completely engulf our own planet as it's over 10,000 miles wide (Earth is a little under 8,000 miles wide).  The first recording of this enormous storm system was made in 1831 by an amateur German astronomer named Samuel Schwabe and has been continuously observed since 1878.

Photo Details

November 3, 2022

Celestron 700 mm Mak-Cas on CGEM II Mount - Upgraded Focuser

ZWO ASI178MM 

SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters (Saturn & Jupiter)

SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono (Moon)

Binning = 1 (Saturn & Moon)

Binning = 2 (Jupiter 1 and 3)

Binning = 3 (Jupiter 2)

Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax

Combine RGB in Photoshop
Final Adjustments in Photoshop