Jupiter with new DKF 21AU04.AS CCD Camera
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Planets on August 11, 2009
I tried my new CCD camera from Imaging source – DKF 21AU04.AS with a RGB color wheel. It gave great results compared to the Orion solar system Imager III. I used an Orion astrophotograhy flip mirror. The field view is very narrow – and a flip mirror and an eyepiece is very useful to search and keep the planetary objects in focus. Also the CCD wheel is mandatory to move quickly from one filtered view to another – given the fast rotation of Jupiter… The three digital movies have to be done within 3 to 4 minutes max to avoid any loss of details due to the planet rotation.
The seeing was very average – 3-4 / 10 on ALPO scale.
Telescope: Orion Maksutov Cassegrain 7″ with Atlas Mount Picture was taken at focal plane (f/15).
Jupiter on 8/9/2009 at 3.22am PDT
Stack of 965 frames processed with Registax, Maxim DSLR, and Paintshop Pro
New Jupiter pictures – July 2009
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Planets on July 18, 2009
Jupiter picture taken with my Maksutov-Cassegrain. Camera: Orion Solar System Imager III. No filter.
Pictures are at focal plane – f/15.
7/18/2009 – 45 frames – 4.12am PDT
This picture was shot with my previous camera – check my new planetary photography set up and picture of Mars here and my best planetary shots.
Jupiter with Maksutov-Cassegrain 180mm – June 2009
First pictures of Jupiter taken with my new Orion Makstukov-Cassegrain 180mm (7″) – at focal plane (F/15) – on 6/28/2009 – San Bruno, California.
(Note: this were my first planetary shots – I have much better high resolution planetary images here – most are done with the 180mm Mak Cassegrain)
This one was taken at 5:43 AM PDT.
Orion Solar System Imager III – stack of 157 images – processed with Registax 5
Seeing: Mild / Moderate turbulence – can be seen at 150x.
Here are four images taken in a one hour interval – showing Jupiter’s rotation.
The last image was taken almost in full daylight.
Astrophotos with Orion 72ED Onyx – Winter 2008
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Deep sky objects, Wide Field and Telephoto on May 24, 2009
I bought the Orion 72ED on the 2008 black Friday at Orion, at a bargain price. Overall I would recommend this scope for its portability and overall quality/price ratio.
These pictures were taken without auto guiding, relying on the Mount polar alignment. I used a Celestron focus reducer for the M31 shot. Images have to be cropped – to hide coma on the edge.
DSLR: Non modified Canon XTi Rebel. Images processed with Max DSLR and Paintshop pro.
M33 – 5 exposures of 2 minutes each – 11/29/2008 – San Bruno – Orion 72ED
Pleiades – 11/30/2008 – 7 exposures of 2 min
M42 – 12 exposures of 2 min – 11/30/2008
Spring sky – 2009
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Deep sky objects on May 24, 2009
Some pictures taken for San Bruno, CA – highly polluted site close from the SFO airport.
Telescope: Orion 102ED, with Canon XTi Digital Rebel, and Orion auto guider.
I used a Bahtinov Mask to focus the DSLR, and an Orion Skyglow anti-pollution filter. Pictures were processed with MaxDSLR and Painshop Pro.
M13 – 5/17/2009 – Stack of 8 images – 90 sec. exposure
m104 (Sombrero Galaxy) – 5/16/2009 – Stack of 8 images – 2.20 min exposure
m64 – Black eye’s galaxy – 5/17/2009 – Stack of 7 images – 2.20 min exposure
Solar System: Saturn in March/April 2009
I took this picture of Saturn on 3/30/2009 with my Celestron CST 9″1/4 OTA. The rings are at about 3 degrees of inclination. This picture is a stack of 45 frames processed with Registax V5. Turbulence was noticeable at 150x. The scope was roughly collimated using “Bob’s knobs”.
I took this picture of Saturn on 4/4/2009 with the same configuration. This picture is a stack of 90 frames processed with Registax V5. Turbulence was noticeable at 150x. The cassini’s division can be guessed – even though it does not appear clearly. The scope was roughly collimated using “Bob’s knobs”.
Deep sky object imaging – focusing using a Bahtinov mask
Posted by jmeriaux in Articles, Do it yourself on April 11, 2009
I tried different techniques to bring in focus my Canon XTi,
Even by taken series of short exposures and using the preview / zoom functionality of the DSLR camera I found issues and results were not completely satisfactory.
I found mention of the Bahtinov mask on different blog post – and decided to give it a try.
The Bahtinov mask was built in-house for my orion 102ED using Bahtinov’s mask free templates posted on this web site
The materials used for building the mask can be found in stores such as Office depot,
I used a black plastic portfolio. Use a portfolio not too thick, that can be easily cut using a paper cutter – but rigid enough to be used as a mask. Using adhesive, the template (printed from my computer on Letter format) was glued on the portfolio plastic sheet. I used a DVD plastic box as a cover to secure the mask on the 102ED optical tube.
The way to bring the camera in focus is simple. The basic principle is the same as without the mask – doing an approximate in-focus first using the view finder – then tweak the in-focus by using short exposure and the preview mode of the camera – with the Bahtinov mask in front of the optical tube.
Below are pictures from Betelgeuse. The left picture is a 3 sec. exposure and shows Betelgeuse out of focus. The right picture is in focus. When in focus, the diffraction spikes are symmetrical with a easy to recognize pattern.
Betelgeuse – 3 sec. exposure – out of focus (left) and in focus (right)
Here are some pictures taken using the mask for focusing. The picture was shot in San Bruno, CA in a very light polluted sky – using the Orion SkyGlow anti-pollution filter and a Canon Digital Rebel XTi DSR Camera. Focus on M1 was made using approximately 6 shots on 3 sec. each on Betelgeuse. In this astrophoto session on 3/27, Focus was not changed during 2h where a total of 5 deep sky objects were shot using multiple short time exposures.
Picture of M1 – 3/27/2009
Astrophotography in Urban Environment 