Observing Notes 17th July 2016 - New 3" Refractor

First light for the second-hand Vixen A80mf 3" refractor I bought for a good price on eBay this week.

Generally very pleased. Tripod not so good (as I knew it wouldn't be). Trying to remember how to work an undriven, non-GOTO GEM mount again, after having the luxury of more high-tech kit for the best part of two decades.

But I was very pleased with the first results through the scope itself. It was nearly a full moon, so my targets were limited. Well, really limited to one. But I had some beautiful crystal-clear "snap-to" lunar views. A tiny amount of green chromatic aberration around the lunar disc, but really I was looking for it, the scope is a cheapish achromat after all.

All in all, happy!

This scope is going to be my "grab'n'go scope" (as our American cousins call them), but it may well also be pressed into service as my daytime solar scope.

Next step, to mount it on the new Celestron AVX mount and see how we do then!

Observing Notes 7th June 2016 - Saturn and M29 Photography

Frustrating attempts at astrophotography again. I battled with my equipment and battled with intermittent high level cloud. Scope again was working a treat. Perhaps slew speed problems really are related to temperature? I think the low during last night's session was about 16C. Still needed the dew heater anyway.

Because I had nice views the previous night, I thought I'd have a go at imaging Saturn with the Nikon DSLR. No focal reducer, just diagonal and DSLR attached at the back-end via doubled x2 Barlows (so x4). I just had enormous problems getting Saturn to appear on the live view screen on the DSLR. I played with the focus back-and-forward, removed the whole setup and checked I hadn't left the plastic cover inside the first Barlow (as I have been known to do). Shone torch down the scope from the big end and that at least showed there were no major optical obstructions, the screen on the camera went very bright.

Finally figured out the solution. My plan was to take a short video of Saturn. To capture astro video on the DSLR I normally set the camera settings to manual video, so that I can override the shutter speed and take video at 1/60s when shooting at 25 FPS. But when trying to find Saturn in live view mode the camera is then set on 1/60s. Turned manual video mode off, set shutter speed to 5s and then Saturn appeared in the live screen. So, lesson to be learnt, when trying to get the planet to show in the screen on the back of the camera, forget the video settings to start with, set the shutter speed really slow 5s-10s and get the planet nicely centered in the camera screen. Once that is done, now start changing the camera settings to take live video.

Anyway, by that time I'd had enough mucking about with Saturn, so I just took a quick 2-minute video and moved on.

Had a go at imaging M29. I slewed to Deneb and tried to get the focus as good as I could by taking 5s exposures and adjusting the scope focus each time. I then slewed to M29.

But I had real problems getting the nice little cluster in the center of the DSLR image. This is not the first time I have had this problem, but I am new to DSO prime-focus photography. I was taking exposures but the cluster was half-off the FOV. I tried centering again and again in the finder, but I wasn't improving anything. Just getting half-decent images of half the cluster.

Cloud was increasing, so packed in for the night.

I have ordered a Vixen Flip Mirror Diagonal. We'll see if this helps me to get stuff in the center of the camera field of view.

Observing Notes 6th June 2016 - Saturn and M29

After two weeks of cloud we finally had a few hours of clear skies and I was able to get the scope out again.

Alignment etc. all went fine, no problems with slow slewing speeds or anything. We had some half-decent seeing, so like Bruce Springsteen at Wembley the night before I ditched my original plan and spent an hour viewing Saturn. Although it's quite low down in the SE sky, I actually had some decent views with the f6.3 focal reducer and the 9mm eyepiece (calculated magnification using the reducer x163). I could easily make out the Cassini division and with the eye of faith two belts on the planet itself. I also thought once or twice I could see the Encke Gap, but this may have been wishful thinking! Tried adding a x2 Barlow to the equation, but Saturn wouldn't take that much magnification.

I spent half an hour looking at the open cluster M29 in Cygnus. Had some beautiful views of pin point stars. The cluster reminds me of a mini "Big Dipper". Swapping to a higher power increased the contrast and I thought I could make out some nebulosity within the cluster. Cloud then shut down operations. But a satisfactory few hours. And at least it was warm and I wasn't freezing to death. Still needed dew heater on corrector though.

Observing Notes 9th May 2016 - Mercury Transit

What can I say?

Had telescope all ready to go, camera primed, filters made from Baader Astrosolar film for finder and main scope, ready and waiting...Total cloud cover, not just partial, for the entire day!

Ah well, that's astronomy in the UK.

Observing Notes 3rd May 2016 - Piggybacking and Neodymium Filter

I spent some time trying to improve the collimation on my scope and then turned it to Jupiter. The seeing was slightly better than that I've been experiencing lately and I could see a bit of detail visually in the x261 eyepiece. So I stuck the D3200 on and took 2 3-minute videos, one with a single Barlow and one with a double Barlow arrangement. Both videos were shot at 50 FPS; the double Barlow video was definitely dark (underexposed).

These were the results I got by stacking all 9000 frames from the single (x2) barlow video. I don't yet know what I'm doing with the Registax software:

After several fairly disastrous nights attempting prime focus photography, I decided to concentrate tonight on piggyback photography using my Nikon D3200 on the back of the Celestron 9.25" alt-az mount.

After retrieving the piggyback bracket from my accessories case, I went on a hunt for the appropriate screws to mount it in the 2 screw holes on the top of the rear mirror assembly. The holes had the 2 short screws in, I needed the slightly longer ones to attach the piggyback bracket.

NB If I take the bracket off again, I must remember to replace the two original short screws in the holes; the longer ones will screw in further without the bracket in place and could chip the primary mirror.

So the plan for tonight was to (1) try my hand again at DSLR piggyback photography on a driven mount (last time I did this was with a film camera) (2) practice my focussing technique and (3) experiment with the Hoya red intensifier (Neodymium) filter effects on the images produced with the 55m focal length lens on my Nikon D3200.

I decided to image (1) Cassiopeia and (2) Lyra as they're both fairly compact constellations and should both fit nicely in the field-of-view provided by the 55mm lens. I would also image each both with the Hoya red intensifier and without and compare the results.

Next to focussing. I made some progress on this. Rather than trying to adjust focus in the live view screen on the back of the camera (using the zoom-in magnification), I found the following technique much more successful. Set the camera lens on infinity. Take a 5-second exposure. Then view the image in live view and zoom-in and inspect the focus. Turn the lens focus ring a tiny anti-clockwise turn and repeat the process. Repeat until the focus for the 5-second image appears as good as you can get it. Now set the camera to the desired exposure time (e.g. 30 seconds, a minute, whatever) and start imaging in earnest.

I eyeballed the camera in place on the bracket on top of the scope and did a goto to Navi (SAO 11482), the central star sort-of in Cassiopeia. BTW, this star was renamed after Gus Grissom, the brave astronaut who died in the Apollo 1 fire. His first name was Ivan. I've been to his grave near the top of the hill at Arlington Cemetery (note to self, post photos I took on this blog). Using the goto to his star worked well, Cassiopeia filled the field of view nicely. Here's a stack of ten 15 second images using the Neodymium filter:

And the results from Lyra, same parameters but this without the Neodymium filter:

To summarise, the results were interesting. Basically, the filter appears to reduce the reddish-yellow skyglow, but at the expense of losing fainter stars. But the benefits were more apparent in objects closer to the horizon (where the skyglow is stronger). This is rather subjective, but I felt the images of Cassiopeia (close to the horizon in the north) were better WITH the filter, but the images of Lyra (much higher in the eastern sky) were better WITHOUT the filter.

You can remove a lot of the skyglow in post processing using Photoshop, so it's a bit of a toss-up whether to use the filter or not. I think my rule in future will be to use the Neodymium filter if the subject is close to (less than 30 degrees above) the horizon; otherwise, image without the filter and adjust any skyglow in Photoshop. You can do something about the skyglow in post-processing, but you can't invent stars that aren't there in the original image!

Or to put it more simply, use Mk 1 eyeball. If the sky looks reddish-yellow where your imaging target is, use a Neodymium filter. Otherwise leave it off and adjust in post-processing.

I had a go at imaging Delphinus, taking ten 15 second exposures without the filter. It was very low down in the sky and the camera lens had started to dew by now, but here's the result:

To finish off the evening I had some lovely views of M57 in Lyra and the double cluster in Perseus, both with the focal reducer in. I'm thinking that, if it wasn't for the focussing problems I experience when photographing, I would leave the focal reducer in all the time.

Observing Notes 2nd May 2016 - Focus Experiments With Barlow and Focal Reducer

Had a look at Eta Cas, beautiful double in x72 eyepiece. Also Alphard (Alpha Hya), a bit too bright to be used for collimation!

Next I wanted to test the various focussing possibilities of my prime focus astrophotography setup as I was getting confused about what worked and didn't.

I have a Celestron 9.25" GPS SCT, using in alt-azimuth mode. Into this I like to screw in first a Celestron f6.3 focal reducer, then a 1.25" visual back, then a standard 1.25" mirror diagonal, and then eyepieces or photo gear.

On the camera side, I have a Nikon D3200 DSLR connected using a Celestron x2 1.25" Barlow and a T-Ring Adaptor for the camera. I also have a second x2 Barlow tube.

So, the results (when I say Barlow I mean Barlow and tube) are:

Visual back - diagonal - Barlow x2 - camera: focus OK
Visual back - diagonal - double Barlow x2 + x2 - camera: focus OK
Focal reducer - diagonal - Barlow x2 - camera: focus OK
Focal reducer - diagonal - Barlow tube only (no lens) - not enough back focus. Even removing the 1"-ish steel ring from the Barlow tube doesn't help, the focal plane of the camera still needs to be closer to the scope.

So basically I can't get enough back-focus to focus the camera with the focal reducer AND diagonal in place without a Barlow lens in the chain. So with the focal reducer I'm increasing the field of view, but with the Barlow lens I'm then reducing it again, which is not what I want for DSOs. The only way with my current setup to take pictures with the focal reducer in place without a Barlow lens is to remove the diagonal to reduce the length of the chain. It's then hard to see what I'm doing without lying on the ground!

Took some stills with one x2 Barlow and the focal reducer in place. Did at least get an image, focussing could have been improved:

Imaged the area around 16 Cyg; I was hoping to get some decent Milky Way stars in here. Single 30s exposure, again need to work on focussing:

I had another go at imaging M94 without success.

I tried imaging the double cluster in Perseus. This is one of the most beautiful sights in the sky, but both clusters are too much for the field of view with the DSLR attached via a tube (no Barlow lens) and without the focal reducer. So I tried to image the two clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 separately. The results were mixed. Again focussing is the big problem.

NB Deep Sky Stacker wouldn't stack the frames unless I resized them from the original 4512 x 3000 pixels to 3008 x 2000 pixels in Photoshop first (use batch resizing option and create maximum quality JPG files). Do not set star detection threshold below 5% in DSS, you get loads of spurious noise.

Anyway, focussing was so out (and I had mucked about with collimation earlier) that all the stars look like footballs, so I won't include any images here.

Observing Notes 29th April 2016 - Baader Moon/Skyglow Filter & DSOs

I thought I'd do some DSO photography. I removed the focal reducer and set up with diagonal and Barlow tube without the x2 lens. Instead I attached my Baader Moon/Skyglow filter at the screw-threaded end of the Barlow tube. Attempted 10x30 second exposures of M94, M51 and NGC7203 (the Iris Nebula).

Results once I got back inside were awful, even when the exposures were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker. There simply weren't many stars in the exposures. The filter was robbing me of stars. Don't use this filter for stellar DSOs! Try it on nebulae?

Also, I realised my focussing left a lot to be desired.

P.S. I've just been reading a review of this filter on the Cloudy Nights website, and the reviewer suggests to just try holding the filter in front of the eyepiece (when observing visually), so that you can swap in-and-out and see the difference. Good idea, must try this.