To The MOON !

The Moon doesn't get the respect it ought at times... it's brightness overwhelms the fainter "prettier" objects in the night sky. But it is there, beckoning to be paid some attention to. So last night, with high clouds pushing in I gave it some love.
First of all, an HDR image of it. HDR stands for "high dynamic range" photography. One takes a few under-exposed shots, some normal exposure shots and some over-exposed shots. Then a HDR program aligns and puts them all together. Of course, I pushed it beyond what one normally sees but this is HDR, you know.
DATA: Meade LX200GPS 8" telescope, Canon T3i camera. Prime focus. Post processed with Aurora HDR 2019 software.

Then I used the movie mode of the Canon camera, with its ability to zoom in on specific areas of the Moon to create some short movie clips. As you know, movies are nothing more than individual photos presented in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement.

Software can take those individual shots, find the sharpest ones and stack them for the best possible capture. Then another bit of software can sharpen it up even more!

There are times as the Sun's light moves across the Moon, that certain features stand out better than at other times. Last night the illusion was of an "X" on the terminator (edge) of the light/dark of the Moon.

Here it is up close!

Messier 13 Hercules globular star cluster

M 13

Three clear nights in a row! Messier 13, the Hercules globular star cluster.
Data: Meade LX200GPS 8", focal reducer, Canon T3i camera.
Imaging: Four 120sec subs stacked (total 8 minutes) with DSS, iso800

The Whirlpool Galaxy after hours of frustration

M 51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

After 21 days of rain and clouds I was able to reopen the obs and get back to astro-imaging. However, I had to waste nearly 3 hours trying to figure out why my Meade LX200GPS 8" telescope would not accept commands from both Cartes du Ciel (Star Chart) and PHD2 (guiding program). Frustrating. By the time I got it figured out it was well past midnight. Part of this is the consequence of lack of use for 3 weeks, part due to GPS issues with the government resetting their GPS satellites. So what images I did get were not worthy of posting. Last night I went out again, expecting to begin imaging early... but again issues kept me from imaging for well over an hour. Finally I was able to capture M 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy shown here. I used a Meade focal reducer/field flattener but I was not pleased with the soft focus result (even though I did focus it precisely). Data: Single shot of 16 minutes, Canon T3i, 1600 iso, no cropping. Taken 6/3/2019 at 11:30 pm PDT.

Success in autoguiding with the Meade LX200GPS 8" mount & M 64

M 64 aka the Blackeye Galaxy (cropped about 50%)

Taken last night with the Moon starting to flood the night sky with light. One hour of imaging with my Meade LX200GPS 8 inch telescope (12 images @ 5 minutes each = 60 minutes). DSS Live. Canon T3i @ 3200 iso. Image is cropped about 50%. Guided with ZWO ASI120MM-S, Meade 50mm scope and PHD2.

After some failure to get my computer to control the Meade mount, success at last!

The issue/problem was that I could get the mount to receive instructions/commands from one program (Cartes du Ciel) OR PHD2 (guiding program) but not both at the same time.
It turns out that the mount has two RS232 ports and by connecting (via serial/USB) each to the computer and having each program use a separate COM number, it works like a charm!
In fact, I have never gotten flatter PHD2 graphs... EVER! AWESOME!

A Lunar Conjunction with M 44, The Beehive, open star cluster

 Moon and M 44 (HDR & desaturated)

Moon and M 44 (HDR & in color)

Last night the Moon passed in front of an open star cluster known as "The Beehive" aka M 44. Those on the east coast of the USA (if they had no clouds) were able to capture it from beginning to end as the Moon moved from right to left. But for us here on the west coast of the USA, the Sun was only just setting.
However, I attempted to capture a few images of it though the sky was still not dark (about 9 pm PDT). By manipulating the exposures and finally by stacking them in HDR I was able to at least get a shot of the Moon existing the area of the cluster. The star cluster are those very faint stars to the right of the Moon. Enjoy!
Data: Daystar 480mm f/6.5 scope, Canon T3i (unmodded), Celestron AVX mount, ISO varied from 100 to 800, exposures varied from about 1/600th sec to 4 sec. Post processing using GIMP to layer, stack and adjust image.

The individual frames:

SUCCESS with Meade LX200GPS tracking! M 3

M 3 globular star cluster

DATA: One exposure, 7 minutes, 1600 iso, Canon T3i

UNCROPPED !  NO STACKING!

It may not seem like much but I was able to get my largest telescope to track it for this single shot for 7 minutes! And I could have gone much longer, only it would not have helped this subject matter.

First time ever being able track accurately with with my Meade LX200GPS 8" scope, prime focus for astrophotography!

I was also surprised by the high level of contrast which I did not expect from this kind of telescope.


I did encounter a problem getting the needed two computer programs to communicate simultaneously with the Meade mount. Turns out I needed to use TWO separate RS232 cables, one in each RS232 port, to connect to my laptop computer. Then I have each program use a dedicated cable COM port and WALLA! No problem!

New Celestron AVX mount Gives Longer Exposure Times

My old Celestron goto mount did fine for a number of years but now it was time to invest in a newer mount... especially since Celestron was have a $200 off sale on it!
While I have not yet given the mount a "dead on" alignment to the North Pole, the mount is doing great, especially with a new ZWO b&w guiding camera and the PHD2 program. I am easily getting 3 minute "subs" (individual shots that will be stacked later with DeepSkyStacker)... and sometime even longer!
With clear skies I headed out to the obs (even though I was fighting a cold) and, using the CATE telescope (480mm refractor) and a Canon T3i camera, I imaged a few galaxies.

M 101 galaxy

DATA: 19 minutes total stacking time

6 subs (about 3 minutes each)

ISO 6400

Image cropped in

M 102 galaxy

DATA: 23 minutes total stacking time

9 subs (about 3 minutes each)

ISO 6400

Image cropped in

NGC 5907 galaxy

DATA: 17 minutes total stacking time

6 subs (about 3 minutes each)

ISO 6400

Image cropped in

Oh, and one more thing...

I use a focusing mask to help get a precise focus. It is placed in front of the telescope

and is to be removed when focusing is done... unless one forgets to remove it.

That's what happened in the first image I took and this is what it looks like:

If you look closely you will see that the stars have 6 points to them

instead of being round as they should be.

It happens... LOL!