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!
The weather at the beginning of the year looked to copy that of 2021. But much to my delight, the evening saw a brief moment when the bright evening stars shone through the cloud gaps. Last year it was not until Jan 5 when I had the first sights of the stars in the morning twilight -- Venus and Centauri A and B. It is getting better, year on year!
The west-southern sky was clearing but I could never get a clear view of the comet from my vantage point in Punggol.
Later I figured out the thin string of persistent clouds was something to do with the Malaysia heavy industry plants across the strait to the north. It was well past 8PM but I decided to try my luck by heading for a site due west. Nope, there I found the west-southern sky there was a bit cloudy, too. Only near the horizon there was a gap for me to catch the setting moon.
I also spent some time to polar align my tracker, semi-systematically. The result gave me virtually non-DEC-drifting 1-min subs at 600mm FL+4.5um pixel. With only two such subs in hand, the image turns out quite noisy -- remember this is non-astro-modified camera.
Finally a proper night of astrophotography! It was not planned. But around 7PM I figured out that the western sky might get clear for the comet to become visible. So I headed down the Seletar reservior.
Oh no! Why every time the clouds gathered in the direction of the comet! I kept waiting for a chance of cloud gap. Only much later when the comet reached a fairly low altitude <10deg, I caught its image in 30s prevew. Far from ideal, but better than nothing. I started the capturing sequence. But soon I found out the images came out with drifting stars --- after a while I realized it was nothing but the CW shaft hit the tripod leg and stalled the RA motion. I adjusted it and then had to locate the comet again. Precious minutes had passed. The comet had already sunk behind thin clouds again.
I made a failed attempt to capture the JWST. It should have moved ~75 to 80" across my 60s subs in a time frame of 18mins. In hindsight, it was a bad choice to use the color cam instead of my more sensitive mono cam. I was a little lazy and too optimistic.
After midnight, the naughty clouds crept in and obscured my M42. But no far due south, the sky was a bit clearer. And I chose to shoot M41. Unfortunately, it turned quite windy and I could hardly get steady 60s subs. After 1hr+, I only managed 18x60s of ok quality images.
LookingForScope wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:41 am
Wow that M42 looks good!!!
Aha. I needed to give it another try in post-processing. After removing a few thin-clouds-corrupted subs, I was able to dig deep into the dim gaseous features.
Quite happy with the result, considering the light pollution, non-filter, a pretty small scope, and no auto-guiding!
Winter hexagon, I finally got a shot to capture the entire hexagon asterism.
The lens looks superb in optical quality, ready to serve my Milkyway and nightscape astro trips under planning. May the border open soon to free and leisure travelers!
Got up early to catch the sunrise -- and hoped for a glimpse of Venus -- which just moved to the western side of the sun (merely 1deg in RA, and ~5deg in declination difference). The weather was nice but the clouds formed up over the horizon around the sunrise, completed obscured the target.
Was able to take a shot of Mars -- my first since it became a morning star. It shines together with Antares -- some people argue that Antares literally means anti-Ares (Ares the Greek word for Mars). So here you go the Mars and Anti-Mars.
Back home, I picked up another photo but of the evening planets. Mercury has been gaining elevation in the dusk, while Jupiter and Saturn are inching closer to sun, evening after evening.
When I was setting up my gear near my flat I was anticipating a clear sky in the direction of the comet. Thanks to the recent outburst (again), it became a good target that might allow to capture some details that were missing in my previous shots.
But the rolling low clouds! Perhaps I should have gone down west that seemed to be mostly free of those annoying clouds. The comet was already at a fairly low altitude when the sky was darkening, and it was too late to travel there.
I ended up with only 13x30s worth of acceptable exposures. But I have to be happy with the result: for the 1st time my photo shows a large comet tail, and also for the first time it captured the greenish halo of a comet.
Thank YOU Comet Leonard! Since late Nov I have had a lot of fun chasing you.
