Our Observatory is CLOSED tonight
The first decent picture taken from Kevin Brown’s DIY observatory. A very pleasing result after the build this summer, which was helped so much by CADSAS member Terry.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy plus M32 and M110. This is a stacked, colour adjusted composite image from .jpg lights (yes, mistake, should have been raw format).
Captured using Canon 1000D camera and Skywatcher ED80 refractor.
Sun Image 7/7/14 by Graham Caller (click for larger)
Image of the Sun captured on 7th July 2014 by our member Graham Caller. Comprising 80 frames at 1/4000 sec exposure, stacked in Registax software.
Albireo imaged with Alan Young Telescope 06062014 (click for larger version)
An image of double star Albireo in constellation Cygnus, imaged with the Alan Young Telescope.
Albireo consists of an orange giant of magnitude 3, together with the blue/green magnitude 5 companion.
It is good to see that our work on improving the Alan Young Telescope is now producing results, in the form of better quality astro-images.
Image of Jupiter captured by our member Brian Bennewith.
Brian comments..
This picture was captured on my Orion Starshoot Imager, with a run of 1 minute taking 600 frames and then aligning and stacking using “Registak” software.
In the same frame “Io” is peeking out from behind the planet, (just on the edge), at about 8 o’clock and about one jupiter diameter away is “Ganymede” on the same side. On the version I have sent you, Ganymede is dificult to see, but on the original it is clearer
Image of M52 made by stacking 10 x 30 secs shots through a Skywatcher 150mm f/8 refracting telescope on 20 August 2013, taken at Brickfield Observatory by Ivan Walton and Ted Pearson.
M52 20 Aug 13 (stacked image)
Image captured by our member Brian Bennewith.
He comments:
On Monday 4th June at about 12:40am, I managed to capture this attached picture of Saturn. I was using a Meade Lunar, Planitary Imager, (LPI), coupled to my Skywatcher 5.7 inch reflector telescope. The software is Meade Autostar Suite and the image is a composite of 10 separate images of better that 95% quality.
Comet Panstarrs captured 30th April by G Caller
Image of comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) captured by our member Graham Caller on 30th April 2013.
Graham comments:
I captured Panstarrs on 30th April as it was just above Cassiopeia. A tricky one to find.
This image comprises 6 x 6 min lights that have been stacked in DSS using the very useful ‘comet stacking’ option.
Comet Halle-Boppe image taken 1997 by B Bennewith
Taken by our member, Brian Bennewith.
This Halle-Boppe picture was taken in Spring 1997 on a Zenith 35mm camera with a 5x zoom lens
20 sec on 200 ISO.
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy by Graham Caller
Another lovely astroimage from member Graham Caller. This is the interacting galaxies which make up M51, the “Whirlpool Galaxy” (as first listed by Charles Messier).
M51A and the smaller object M51B are interacting. You can even see this galaxy combination with decent binoculars (but not quite as clearly as in this image!).
Graham comments:
“One M51 finished image attached.
Out of 18 images I got 10 usable that didn’t have noticable trailing. I suspect the defective shots were the result of periodic error in the mount tracking.
The 10 images stacked had flats and bias frames added but no darks as I haven’t taken 5 mins exposure darks before. That’s something to do on the cold and cloudy nights which we have no shortage of 🙂 “
Image of M81 and M82 (above) captured by our member Graham Caller using a Canon Dslr.
Graham comments:
“Amazing what a bit of accurate polar alignment does for the shots. I’d been having trouble with star trails appearing after 60 sec exposures.
A bit of research later, lots of learning how to polar align accurately without plugging into a computer or mastering drift aligning and voila 150 secs exposures. (I should have pushed 180 but that’s another night)
It was cold and late when I finished but imagine what another hour of data could show. Good to see less noise with longer exposures. Attached also (below) is my first attempt on 2nd Feb.”
