My astrophotography 2021

[hhzhang]

The young crescent moon.

[hhzhang]

It has been frustrating these days that the exposures of seemly clear skies always meet with high thin clouds. Apparently, there is always a layer of the elusive foggy thing high up there, day and night.

Spent a few hours at ECP this morning -- only managed to collect 9 minutes worth of data. The rest was met with low rolling clouds.

First attempt at the Crux -- Centaur field. Plenty of bright and dark DSOs in the image despite the poor conditions.



Wish for truly clear skies.

[hhzhang]

2021-2-15

The anticipated clear night. Hours spent on a rooftop at Changi V.

Very windy! After mid-night it abided, though.

The first target was the crescent moon. HDR edit.

[hhzhang]

Before the main targets of today rose to certain height, there was no novel interesting targets within reach. So I decided to shoot my old friend M46.

[hhzhang]

Main targets were the galaxies in Leo. However, the results were disappointing. Signal to noise ratio was nowhere much useful.

How I wish for border reopen soon so can access true dark sites.

M95, M96 and more

[hhzhang]

Leo triplet

[hhzhang]

I realised that it would be unwise to shoot galaxies and expect something beautiful out of it under the current situation. Since the Carina nebula is near its highest point, I installed the L-ehance and pointed the telescope to the nebula.

[hhzhang]

Notable travelers in the solar system.

(10) Hygiea. The 4th largest asteroid. Together with Ceres, Vesta and Pallas, it makes the big four, albeit the smallest. It is the one in the outer main belt -- averaging 3.1415AU from the sun.

Yes, the magical number pi (3.1415) is easy and fun to remember!

(15) Eunomia. The 10th largest asteroid in diameter. The largest s-type asteroi ( consist mainly of iron- and magnesium-silicates).


(16) Psyche. The most massive of the metal-rich M-type asteroids -- meaning a huge potential for asteroids mining. Hundreds of media articles and youtube videos about it. NASA is going to send a spacecraft to orbit and study it this decade.

[celeron787]

Leo triplet

This is pretty good, can see some details in the galaxies. How long was ur integration time and individual subs? I was imaging M45 last night too but kinda failed.

[hhzhang]

Leo triplet

This is pretty good, can see some details in the galaxies. How long was ur integration time and individual subs? I was imaging M45 last night too but kinda failed.

If I had bothered to use dithering and flat frames (oh I was so tired and sleepy then), I might have uncovered a little bit more detail. Total 30x120s subs. Other than the above, it could go better if I would wait for the target to rise to a higher altitude (less glow), or get the guiding more accurate. Due to the winds, the guiding error was quite terrible.

I am not so sure about the seeing condition or the transparency of the atmosphere. But at the same location, I could not see mag 4+ stars yesterday that I was able to on some nights late last year.