Since I set up a little early tonight, I decided to try to find Venus. It was a little tricky to focus, and I ended up super over-exposing it. It’s okay, not a terribly exciting planet, anyways. Continue Reading... "Venus"
The Waterbug and friends
I had a great frame on the Waterbug Galaxy and his neighbor, NGC 5005. These galaxies lay 64 and 81 million light years away, respectively. Photobombers include the galaxy smudges NGC 5002, near the top center, and NGC 5014, in the top right corner. These galaxies are markedly smaller and… Continue Reading... "The Waterbug and friends"
NGC 2903
Conditions were pretty good tonight! NINA is now my favorite software, with everything working perfectly in it, including the focusing routine. I’ve never had such good focus before. And refocusing half way through the imaging plan is a huge benefit to the quality of my finished image. I did very… Continue Reading... "NGC 2903"
NGC 2403 again
This is my first multi-night project, extending NGC 2403. Over three nights, I exposed for almost 12 hours. The focus was a little inconsistent, as I am still learning to use the autofocus routines in my software and also trying to pinpoint the backlash values in my focuser. The noise… Continue Reading... "NGC 2403 again"
Combining sequences in Siril
I started my first multi-night project in Siril. It was a little unintuitive on how to do this. First, you’ll want to create sequences for the data from each night, and then preprocess the files. Make sure these sequences have the same name. However, you want to index the files… Continue Reading... "Combining sequences in Siril"
M53
A full moon limited my targets for the night, so I went with an easy target, the globular cluster M53. I was trying new software, NINA, and I was having a few problems learning it. My equipment was also giving me some hiccups throughout the night. I was only able… Continue Reading... "M53"
96% Moon
My focusing has definitely improved with my ZWO EAF focus motor, and I’m trying out NINA tonight. The focusing routine in it is definitely much better than in APT. A little deconvolution and some wavelet manipulation created a decently sharp image! For fun, I cranked up the saturation and applied… Continue Reading... "96% Moon"
Dither or Die
You hear this advice everywhere you look when it comes to astro imaging. It’s pretty much true. Dithering is an event that occurs between exposures, where the mount is moved a little bit in a random way to point a few pixels away from where it just was. This is… Continue Reading... "Dither or Die"
Conquering M51
My first try at M51 last year was mind blowing at the time. And it is mindblowing yet again. Guiding was about as good as I could ever hope for all night. The meridian flip halted due to plate solving failing. It got a little confused on the super bright… Continue Reading... "Conquering M51"
NGC 2403
NGC 2403, a circumpolar galaxy a bit west of M81 and M82, has been an ongoing target. The first night I tried it, focus was not quite right, and the weather made everything else a struggle. I scrapped that data. I tried it again last night with much better focus,… Continue Reading... "NGC 2403"
