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.

New Shopping List

Main Setup
- Mewlon 210
- APM 107mm Astrograph
- Celestron CGE
- ST2000XM

Portable Setup
- FSQ106
- EM11
- 5DII modified
- SG4

Current Equipment List

Telescopes:
Takahashi Sky90
Takahashi FS60C
Celestron C5
Vixen 4" F10 Reflector (no idea what to do with it)

Mounts:
Takahashi EM11USDIII
Mizar New AR

Cameras:
Canon 40D modified
Mamiya 645
Vixen VX2


Plans for future:
Selling:
1- FS60C
2- 40D
3- Vixen Reflector (if possible...or give it away)
4- C5 (if possible)
5- ..... basically everything apart from EM11 is changeable

Buying:
1- SBIG SG4
2- Gitzo GT3541LS
3- Power solutions for the mount and SG4

A perfect example of my ideal setup at the moment.

Just imagine the mount is changed to EM11, the camera is changed to a DSLR, and the guider is changed to the new SG-4...

My FS60C can be sold; much less counterweight (but more battery needed maybe); then add a pair of Fujinon binoculars... Can't be more relaxed doing imaging.

Shopping List

----Main Setup:----

Main Scope:
1st Choice: Takahashi TOA130NF
2nd Choice: William Optics FLT-132*

Main Equatorial Mount:
1st Choice: Takahashi EM200 Temma2*
2nd Choice: Skywatcher EQ6

Guidescope:
1st Choice: Takahashi FS60CB + Extender*
2nd Choice: Stellarvue 80/9D

Camera:
Spectrum Enhanced Canon 5D MarkII



----Lunar/Planetary Setup----

Main Scope:
Celestron C9.25

Camera:
Imaging Source DFK 41AU02.AS



----Portable Setup----

Main Scope:
1st Choice: Takahashi FSQ106ED*
2nd Choice: William Optics FLT-98

Main Equatorial Mount:
1st Choice: Takahashi EM11 Temma2 Jr
2nd Choice: Vixen SXW*

Guidescope:
1st Choice: Takahashi FS60CB + Extender*
2nd Choice: Stellarvue 80/9D

Camera:
Spectrum Enhanced Canon 500D



----Visual Setup----

Obsession 15" Ultra-Compact


*More prefered due to various reasons

Suburban M42

5min x 35 + 1min x 8 + 30sec x 8, ISO800
Sky90 manual guide

8-orientation dithering, causing the banding noise to form squares...

One of the longest exposed single frame to date.

Longer exposed M63

A combined 158min of exposure from downtown HK...

70 x 40sec + 112 x 60sec.
350D ISO800

Deepskystacker 3x drizzle enabled.

Urban M63

It's the first time I shot something outside the local group of galaxy...

40sec x 70, ISO800

It's really small, but its fun to play with this kind of stuff.

Another round of rooftop astrophotography

I'm giving up on shooting nebulosity in urban areas... But it doesn't mean I'm giving up deepsky shooting in urban areas.

I'm trying to do something new when weather cooperates. Perhaps better results could be achieved by shooting distant galaxies? They are much more point like than extended nebulsity, so should I expect better results than shooting M42 and horsehead nebula?

I realized in the previous 2-hour M42 shot the limiting magnitude of stars can go down to 13-14th... it's just an estimation because I have no reliable starmap that goes down that deep available. I hope shooting galaxies around 10th mag wouldn't be a problem.

Also I hope 405mm wouldn't be too short for galaxies like that. And this thought reminds me of my previous plan of getting a 6" F5 reflector.