A few Preliminary Images

Pristine Eclipse Coming Up

There hasn't been an ideal Lunar Eclipse observation condition since 2000. The prediction for this Saturday has been perfect: crystal clear skies, freezing weather (not really compared to the US and Europe, though...=) It's time to do something SERIOUS.

2 proposals:

A: Widefield Timelapse
Use a wide field lens, set timer 10 min each, set and go, quick and easy.

B1: Prime focus with starlit background
FSQ106ED, multiple-exposure to get enough S/N ratio. The problem is the moon is constantly moving compared to the background stars. The total exposure can't be anything too long otherwise the moon will start to blur if Sideral rate is used.

B2: Prime Focus Earth Shadow
FSQ106ED, switch on Solar speed on EM11, set timer, let go...

OK I admit I am always greedy so I'll definitely go for A and B1 together haha.

Alright...

Something has happened to my family so I have totally stopped imaging for a long time. Going to pick it back up during X'mas.

However I DID go to a dark place this summer just to relax myself and took a few shots... Not deepsky, just general scenery kind of stuff.

This is a place in Inner Mongolia. I went there with some students and we had a great time.

Finally some deepsky is happening....

Been astronomically vacant for almost a year.. finally starting to pick up some work done.

Also shooting from very light polluted sky, 3 open clusters were taken very lazily...

M35, M41, and M46/47, with exposure of 10x30sec, iso1600, 5DII modified.

Horsehead to come.

Old processed photos

I've worked on some urban deepsky photos last year late Novemeber. Haven't touched them much since acquisition, here are the results.


Each image involves 1 hour of exposure, 60 subframes of 1 min. Sky90, Modded 40D, EM11 unguided.

The background is not even, i don't really understand why even after PixInsight manual correction and IRIS auto correction the unevenness is still very prominent. THe are different patches all round the place which hinders post-processing of weak signals. May be it was because I haven't applied a correct flatfield...

Setup Reform

My imaging setup is currently under reform...

I have sold my modified 40D and is selling my FS60C, a scope which has stuck with me for 9 years and brought me a lot of joy and memories. What is left is Sky 90 and EM11. Newly acquired are the SG-4 and the Gitzo 3541LS tripod. I'm currently bidding a T mount photo lens to be used with the SG-4 on Ebay as well. I hope it will turn out fine.

With the new setup I can reduce the weight of the whole thing for 5kgs, which is really substantial.

I'm suddenly back with the interest of solar system imaging again. It's time to dig out my C5 and clean the optics, and maybe I can get an Imaging Source camera as well.

May be I should also consider a Mewlon 210, Or C9.25, or C8 EDGE HD....

Pretty unstable weather around here. I was out on last friday on a cloudless day but clouds rolled in and even rained at night.

Couldn't get much going lately apart from this 3min M45 on 135mm lens.


Looking forward to the Mid-Autumn festival weekend when Northern monsoon is blowing hard.. which i hope will result in a few day's clear.