Chris Howard's Blog, page 25
November 14, 2020
The Orion Nebula in Hydrogen-alpha - I have to capture M42, M43,...
The Orion Nebula in Hydrogen-alpha - I have to capture M42, M43, NGC 1977, the Orion, De Mairan’s, and Running Man Nebulae at least once a year, and now through December is when the Constellation is high in the sky and still early enough be awake–I captured the 52 subs that went into this shot between 11:30 and 2am. This is just one filter’s worth. I have to go back and either take OIII and SII or Blue and Green, using this Ha capture for the Red channel in RGB.
Imaging session notes: 52 x 240 second subs + 50 x 10 second subs for the Trapezium, stacked in DSS, processed in PS 2021. SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount, William Optics GT81 Apochromatic Refractor 392mm at f/4.7, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro monochrome camera, Astronomik 6nm Ha filter, Controller: Raspberry Pi 4 4GB / 128GB running INDI/KStars/Ekos.
November 11, 2020
A Night in the Life of an Astrophotographer. New video up and...
A Night in the Life of an Astrophotographer. New video up and it’s short–a little over a minute. Check it out.
November 10, 2020
One from last night’s imaging run: California Nebula in...
One from last night’s imaging run: California Nebula in Hydrogen-alpha. The California Nebula (NGC 1499) in the Constellation Perseus is relatively close to us, about 1000 lightyears away in the Orion Arm of our galaxy (Milky Way), and it’s roughly a 100 lightyears in length, so what you see here, top to bottom, is about 600 trillion miles of ionized hydrogen. NGC 1499 is a good-sized emission nebula, about 2.5° in length from our view on Earth. To put that into perspective, a full moon is 1/2°, so the California Nebula is about 5 full moons long in the sky.
Imaging session notes: 50 x 240 second subs, stacked in DSS, processed in PS 2021. SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount, William Optics GT81 Apochromatic Refractor 392mm at f/4.7, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro monochrome camera, Astronomik 6nm Ha filter, Controller: Raspberry Pi 4 4GB / 128GB running INDI/KStars/Ekos.
Wow, we actually have a pretty decent view of the universe from...
Wow, we actually have a pretty decent view of the universe from our backyard. Notes: Nikon D750, Irix 14mm f/2.4, 30-second exposures. That’s Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, to the right of the scope, that upside down W in the tree branches is Cassiopeia, and that bright star between them, a little to the left of where the scope is pointing, is Polaris, the North Star.
November 9, 2020
I ran some tests night before last with the Pacman Nebula (NGC...
I ran some tests night before last with the Pacman Nebula (NGC 281), and only ended up with 7 sub-exposures and no calibration frames before the weather rolled in. Tonight I’m capturing 50 Hydrogen-alpha subs of NGC 1499, the California Nebula in Constellation Perseus. Gear notes: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount, William Optics GT81 Apochromatic Refractor 392mm at f/4.7, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro monochrome camera, Astronomik 6nm Ha filter, Controller: Raspberry Pi 4 4GB / 128GB running Stellarmate 1.54, INDI/KStars/Ekos.
This is just one exposure in the Ekos UI. Imagine how cool this is going to look with 50 of these stacked!
More on my site: https://SaltwaterWitch.com
Nice shot from the backyard #Wyze cam of a Red-tailed Hawk...
Nice shot from the backyard #Wyze cam of a Red-tailed Hawk visiting us this morning. You can see my new astro-imaging pier and set up in the lower right.
November 8, 2020
A shot of my larger astro mount and gear on the new pier in the...
A shot of my larger astro mount and gear on the new pier in the backyard. It’s cloudy, but there’s M45, the Pleiades on the left and Mars straight up from the William Optics GT81 Apo refractor + 50mm guide scope. I took this with the Nikon D750, Irix 15mm f/2.4
Testing out the new pier tonight. I don’t think it’s...
Testing out the new pier tonight. I don’t think it’s going to be clear enough for imaging, but we’ll see. I want to get polar alignment down.
October 27, 2020
Just posting a little Seaborn art for an ongoing project....
Just posting a little Seaborn art for an ongoing project. #SaltwaterWitch https://SaltwaterWitch.com
October 24, 2020
Weekend astronomy project: setting up a pier in the backyard...
Weekend astronomy project: setting up a pier in the backyard with some heavy treated lumber, lag bolts, and concrete. I just posted a new video on my channel. Check it out! #astrophotography #astronomy
