My astrophotography 2021

CCD vs Film? Lots of time vs no patience? Alright, this is your place to discuss all the astrophotography what's and what's not. You can discuss about techniques, accessories, cameras, whatever....just make sure you also post some nice photos here too!
Post Reply
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

Beginning of 2021 came lasting rainy and cloudy days.

My first try -- just to check if the stars are still there -- hah!

Image
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

Clear skies finally came upon the prayer and I enjoyed a few hours on a rooftop, busy testing new gears. Oh the ever-increasing light pollution in the town!

Nevertheless, I tried to shoot a number of objects.

1st target was the double cluster. Stars are less affected by the brightened skies than those deep-sky objects.
Image


M42. My best shot of nebula ever. First shot with the L-eNhance filter.

Image


NGC2467. The Skull and Crossbones Nebula. Only managed to capture the core. Too many stars in the mikly way.

Image


M35 and its distant neighbor. 6 frames of 2min each only -- meant to check if a larger scope could detect the faint stars in the neighbor.

Image

M41. Just to snap a picture of this forgotten gem.

Image

Was trying to shoot some nebuli but a view of test subexposures simply ditched the idea -- calling for a much faster lens (small f-ratio than the current slow F7), true dark skies, or both.
Last edited by hhzhang on Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

But my true targets are minor planets today.

{624) Hektor

Image

Much fun seeing the motion of these celestial bodies.

(2938) Hopi. A small yet remarkable body for its title of Most highly inclined (41.436deg) known main-belt asteroid --- until some new discovery took the title on September 20, 2000.

Image


(52) Europa is the 6-th largest asteroid. Shinning at 10mag today.

Image

It is intriguing that a small telescope like this can clearly reveal in a short time frame the motion of ~18km/sec at a distance of 1.8AU.

With that, I concluded my first astrophotography session (data collection part only) for 2021.
sgkho249249
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:34 pm
Favourite scope: Nope

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by sgkho249249 »

nice...may i know when will your coming astrophotography be. Would you mind i tag along as i want to learn.

Thanks
Clear sky
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

sgkho249249 wrote: Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:45 pm nice...may i know when will your coming astrophotography be. Would you mind i tag along as i want to learn.

Thanks
Clear sky
I am also a beginner observer and learner.

It all depends on the weather. The current forecast points to post 20th Jan for chances of clear night skies .My current plan for late Jan till mid-Feb includes

a) building a portable system around a super-light-weight goto EQ mount
b) observing and capturing some remarkable celestial events (wish for clear skies!)
-- 21-Jan-2021 Uranus, Mars and Moon conjunction -- -- will be nicely framed with ~300mm FL + APSC-size camera
-- 2021-Feb-6 (Sat) morning, bet Sco occultation by the moon (I have never observed bright-star occultation events before. So I am quite excited.)
-- 2021-Feb-8 (Mon) morning, Moon transit M8, -- will be nicely framed with a 300mm FL or slightly longer (hope my small APO will be back from service by then!)
c) shooting various deep sky objects and star fields, learning new techniques
d) observing (shooting) motions of a few interesting asteroids, and continuing my variable stars astrometry

For non-deep sky targets, I will be most likely observing from an HDB block's rooftop in Punggol near my home. For deep sky targets, I may choose among some sites at Changi, East Coast Park, or Kranji.
sgkho249249
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:34 pm
Favourite scope: Nope

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by sgkho249249 »

Yes...its the weather hopefully its clear nite sky on 20th. If you plan to astrophotography kindly let me know....

Thanks ...btw im a novice
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

First time doing astrophotography at Kranji. Relatively better for western skies than other obs sites in Singapore.

This session was actually meant for examining the site and testing the equipment.

I made many mistakes, though. I foremost I forgot to bring the lens adapter for the Nikon lens.

Unfortunately, the clear skies were short-lived. But I managed to collect 90mins of data on the target IC434.

F7 was quite slow for such targets, so 90mins of integration a great deal of noises

Image
Last edited by hhzhang on Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:01 pm, edited 4 times in total.
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

Retouched above.
sgkho249249
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:34 pm
Favourite scope: Nope

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by sgkho249249 »

wow...nice
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: My astrophotography 2021

Post by hhzhang »

sgkho249249 wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:50 am wow...nice
Haven't got time to fine-tune the data processing procedure. But this data quality is probably not worth it. Plan to revisit this target only when I can shoot from a truly dark site and with a focal reducer (or better still, with something like a Hyperstar -- hah hah ).
Post Reply