Chris Howard's Blog, page 34
November 3, 2019
M33 Triangulum Galaxy with the William Optics SpaceCat and #ZWO...
M33 Triangulum Galaxy with the William Optics SpaceCat and #ZWO ASI071 Cooled Camera and a really old Celestron UHC/LPR filter with longpass bands at 450-550 and 600-700–not the dual narrow band passes of a high-end color filter, but not terrible. This still brings out the OIII and Ha colors, which would be washed out in the fill mix of broadband with the IR/UV Cut filter.
The constellation Orion holds a special place in my...
The constellation Orion holds a special place in my astronomy-shaped heart, from Barnard’s Loop (Sh 2-276) to the Witch’s Head (IC 2118) across from Rigel, to the pair of stars at Orion’s shoulders, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, and of course, M42 the Orion Nebula, which we really should continue to call the “Great Orion Nebula” because, well, it’s great and arguably magnificent. Among all of Orion’s well studied and photographed nebulae is another favorite, the mysterious Messier 78 (M78), an almost violently colored and shaped reflection nebula coiled in dark clouds of interstellar dust that makes it look like it’s poised to attack Barnard’s Loop. (What is “astronomy-shaped” you ask? Probably something like a refractor telescope shape, or possibly like the stacks of money I have spent over the years on telescopes, cameras, mounts, and other equipment).
November 2, 2019
This was an especially busy week at work, a lot going on all...
This was an especially busy week at work, a lot going on all around, including my son with an especially bad cold that developed into pneumonia–he spent the week recovering, so it was nice to be able to relax on a Friday night with clear skies, and schedule a somewhat unplanned and wayward imaging run across the autumn night sky. One of the targets I focused on was M45, the Pleiades. I was trying out 8-minute exposures, and it turned out well. It’s always nice to have an early setting moon–or new moon where I can use my ZWO ASI071MC cooled color camera with a normal UV/IR cut filter, and not have to plan around our star’s light reflecting off our disproportionately large moon. I shot the following stacked and processed image with the William Optics SpaceCat 51 APO Refractor, ZWO ASI071MC camera, on an iOptron CEM25P mount, with 28 x 480 and 600 second subs for M45.
October 24, 2019
Looking through some of my old paintings and found a green...
Looking through some of my old paintings and found a green variant of one my own favorites–Kassandra with the sea demon Ephoros. https://SaltwaterWitch.com/
October 21, 2019
October 20, 2019
Color with the Cat - I set up the William Optics SpaceCat 51...
Color with the Cat - I set up the William Optics SpaceCat 51 with my color imaging train–ZWO ASI071MC, OAG, QHY guide cam–to test out focusing and test sequences in SGP, running through M31, M33, and M45 before the moon rose and washed out the sky. Seeing was not that great last night, but it was clear enough for testing. The Cat51 is such an easy scope to work with. I used the Frame and Focus panel in Sequence Generator Pro, and in a couple minutes had really sharp stars with a dialed in HFR. I went through the next five hours of imaging without adjusting focus. Notes: William Optics SpaceCat51 250mm FL, f/4.9, ZWO ASI071MC cooled color camera, Orion Thin Off-axis Guider, QHY 5iii178 guide camera, iOptron CEM25P mount.
October 16, 2019
We finally had a clear night. The only problem was the moon...
We finally had a clear night. The only problem was the moon rising around 8:30 pm. I still had an hour of darkness before that, and used it to run some tests with my new William Optics SpaceCat 51 APO Refractor (250mm FL, f/4.9). I was already impressed by the build quality and design characteristics of this extremely portable, wide-field scope. The edge-to-edge sharpness of the images I shot during some daylight testing astounded me. So I was not surprised that my first shots of nebulae with this small but versatile refractor were beautiful. William Yang and the team at William Optics continue to innovate, creating new and more capable telescopes, while advancing and adapting their existing product lines for new and more demanding uses (Have you seen the new Fluorostar 132? Holy Zeus doing jumping-jacks on Mount Olympus, that’s a beautiful refractor). The SpaceCat 51 (the limited edition space grey version of the RedCat 51) is my third William Optics scope–I started with a GT81, and I’m certain there will be more as time goes by.
Here’s a stack of 10 subs of NGC 7000, North America Nebula in Cygnus, with a bit of the surrounding region including the Pelican Nebula. This is 10 x 240 second exposures stacked in DSS–no calibration frames, shot with a William Optics SpaceCat 51, ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro mono camera, and Astronomik 6nm Hydrogen-alpha filter. I’m using an Orion Thin Off-axis Guider and ZWO ASI120M-mini with this train, and guiding was great. I didn’t crop or do anything crazy with this stack, just normal processing in Photoshop CC 2019.
October 13, 2019
I spent time this morning doing some focus testing with the...
I spent time this morning doing some focus testing with the color imaging train and the #WilliamOptics SpaceCat 51 refractor. Saltwater Witch Astronomy https://SaltwaterWitch.com
October 12, 2019
NGC 1499 “California Nebula” in hydrogen-alpha....
NGC 1499 “California Nebula” in hydrogen-alpha. #WilliamOptics GT81 APO refractor, #ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro mono camera, #Astronomik 6nm Ha filter.
This is from the September 26 imaging run, where I was mostly roaming the sky for targets while waiting for Orion to show up.
Saltwater Witch Astronomy: https://SaltwaterWitch.com
October 11, 2019
It’s here! William Optics SpaceCat 51 limited edition apo...
It’s here! William Optics SpaceCat 51 limited edition apo refractor, 250mm f/4.9
