Catching Meteors - January Quadrantids

     Back in January, the Quadrantids were predicted to be a pretty good shower, given the lack of moonlight and the amount of comet dust we were likely passing through.  Hence, I decided to give it a whirl with my DSLR (Canon Rebel XS) with the stock 18-55mm lens at 18mm.  Here's the logic I used to get something.
     Highest ISO possible, with largest aperture possible.  Why?  Since meteors are objects that only appear for less than a quarter of a second, I need to maximize its exposure compared to the exposure of the rest of the picture, while still getting a good enough picture of a constellation.  If I had lower ISO or smaller aperture, it would require a longer exposure time which would mean the meteor would be visible for a shorter fraction of the exposure, making it dimmer.  After taking some test shots with ISO 1600 and f/4, I found that a 20s exposure gave me the best constellation shot without too much light pollution.
     So with the settings ready and two charged batteries waiting, I set my remote shutter to continue taking 20s shots until the battery died or the memory card was full.  I did have to switch batteries part way through, which you'll notice in the video.

     I only got about 1.5 hours worth of the shower, but I was able to take all of the pictures and load them into iMovie and shrink the display time of each to 0.1s to create a movie.  Really the only purpose of an iMovie in this case is to use it to try to find the meteors in the pictures.  Playing it allows me to watch many at one time and it's easier to see them when they flash up on the screen.  It also helps to have 20 sets of eyes in the classroom checking it out, too.  We found two other "meteors", though I'm not quite convinced.
    Using the timing in the video, I was able to find one....yes, just ONE meteor.   Oh well, I DID get a picture of a meteor!  Alas, here's the original photo.

     After cropping it and doing some darkening in Photoshop (I'll post on that stuff later), I got the final picture, which I'll probably frame.



     This was all done by trial and error, although I did do a little bit of research to get some general ideas.  The problem was that most of the stuff online has ISO settings of 3200 or 6400, which my camera does not have.  Have you captured any meteors?  What settings did you use?

So....it's been a while

Yeah, more than a year.  For all 6 of you followers, I apologize.  I actually have been taking pictures, but I've fallen into the trap of taking so many shots on a rare fateful night where I actually get the chance, then falling asleep and never really getting to processing them and posting about them.  So I have a back log, and I intend to post about my favorites as I go from most recent shots to the oldest ones.  Hopefully they're enjoyable to see, and who knows, maybe you'll learn something from me, or I'll learn something from you.  After all, as an educator, that's kind of the goal.

2011-06-30 – Dumbell Nebula

Also while I was taking some pictures of the Ring Nebula, I decided to take a quick look at the dumbbell nebula.  Here I did some darkening like I did on the Orion Nebula before.  It got better, but I think some better planning, light pollution filters, etc. would make it better.

Canon Rebel XS, through my 120mm refractor, with 10mm eyepiece projection, 90 seconds

Same picture, with some processing

2011-06-30 - Andromeda

I was taking some pictures of the Ring Nebula, then moved on to see what I could do with the Andromeda Galaxy.  Unfortunately, the light pollution in Ephrata is simply too much.  It didn’t help that I was looking through my 10mm eyepiece, but you can see the dark dust lanes at least. 

Canon Rebel XS, through my 120mm refractor, with 10mm eyepiece projection, 95 seconds

Next time I’ll put a light pollution filter on and see what happens – maybe use the Newtonian or SCT for more light gathering.

Jupiter Refractor Less-of-a-FAIL

On the same night that I took the previous pictures of Jupiter through the Dobsonian Reflector 10in, I also took pictures through the EON Refractor.  Judge for yourself, but the cool part is I got some of the moons on this one.

Jupiter Dobsonian FAIL

Alrighty, so back in October of last year, I tried getting some pics of Jupiter through the 10-inch Newtonian Reflector on Dobsonian mount, just to see what would happen. Basically a fail because I couldn't magnify it (putting in an eyepiece would have changed the focal length to a spot I can't get to) and because my refractor is better for planetary observing anyway. Alas, if I don't blow up the pictures at all, you can see some detail, like Jupiter's band (Usually there are two band, but this was taken when the one band suddenly "disappeared").

The original after cropping - Shot with DSLR on 10in reflector, 1/500s, ISO 200

The "processed" picture

Overall, I'm not impressed.  I figure if I want to get good pictures of Jupiter I should:

1. Use the Refractor
2. Use a CCD camera and learn how to stack images
3. Or if I want to use the 10in reflector, I think I need a focal reducer or something...

First Processing Attempt (almost) EVER!

Ok! So I decided to do a little QUICK processing of my image and found that it was actually not that hard and there was definitely a vast improvement in the picture quality (I think).  So I took the advice from this website (and changed the RGB settings based on what I liked).  I really just changed the RGB levels and contrast and brightness (after cropping it).  What do you think?

Obviously, it's not show quality, but it does give me hope for later.

March 26th, 2011 - Orion Nebula

Alrighty, so I knew that if I wanted to try getting the Orion Nebula M42 through my scope and with the DSLR, I had to try it soon since Orion won't be up for much longer and it's always setting and getting closer to more light pollution all the time.  So I went out last night and just messed around with DSLR and got some decent shots for just messing around.

150s exposure, ISO 200 with DSLR & EON refractor 

This one was my favorite.  Light pollution limited me to this long of an exposure.  Perhaps next time I'll use a nebula filter or a light pollution filter (just thought of that right now...wish I had last night).

 

270s exposure, ISO 100 with DSLR & EON refractor

As you may be able to tell if you zoom in on this one...tracking was a problem.  I'm pretty darn sure it's because the mount has shown to be more wobbly and moveable - this movement has increased after every star party I hold.  Lesson learned

70s exposure, ISO 400 with DSLR, 2x Televue Barlow, EON refractor

 This is using a 2x Barlow Lens to get up close a little more.  It was hard to focus, and I was running out of patience, but you can see the red vs. blue stars well because of the lack of focus.

Yeah yeah, I know I should have used my Newtonian for better light collection, but it doesn't track - perhaps I'll use the SCT next time.

Lunar Eclipse Pics - FINALLY!!!

Sorry for the long delay.  School caught up to me and has kept me incredibly busy.  I could rattle off the reasons, but I doubt you want to hear me whining. 

Alas, here are my favorite pictures (of about 500 or so) from the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. 

I had two setups going.  One was just a DSLR identical to mine (Canon EOS Rebel XS) with the 18-55mm IS Lens.  The pictures taken with those are the ones that give a wide field of view with the constellations in them.

The other setup was my DSLR hooked up to the back of the Orion Sirius EON 120ED EQ-G GoTo Refractor.  Those pictures are the close-up shots of the Moon.

Overall I was very happy with the pictures.  The lone DSLR got some great artistic shots and required not much effort.  I did have to focus using the LiveView function and zooming in 10x on a far away radio tower - but it seemed to work.  With the telescope setup, there were a few that were out of focus which frustrated me, but luckily I did get a few really good ones. 

What to do with all of these pictures?  I'd like to photoshop some of them into one single picture that shows the track of the Moon through the umbra or something like that.  I haven't gotten into Photoshop quite yet, so that's later.  Anyone have suggestions, ideas, resources for putting these images together in one shot?

Definitely my favorite shot with the DSLR only.  F4.0  30s   ISO400   27mm

 Another great one, with star trails of Orion.  F4.0  360s   ISO100   27mm

 Toward the beginning of the eclipse 1/200s   ISO100  through scope

My favorite of the bunch  3.2s   ISO400  through scope

Here are the rest of them - Total Eclipse Pictures

Hawaii Astrophotography Part 2: Mauna Kea

Where to start? While in Hawaii on a family vacation, I was able to go up to Mauna Kea. That's 13,796 feet above sea level and plenty of feet above the clouds. This makes it pretty much THE place for astronomy, since being so high up reduces the amount of atmosphere between you and the stars (less twinkling, more clarity) and being in Hawaii above the clouds means there's essentially NO light pollution. To save space on the blog, my favorites are up here in the gallery. But here are my two favorite star shots from the night. Only wish I could have gotten more!

The Milky Way through Sagittarius and Scorpius
180s f5.6 ISO1600

The Milky Way as it appeared to the naked eye (roughly)
120s f5.6 ISO1600

What did I learn? I wish I had higher ISO levels on my camera to get brighter stars (though more noise, but I'm sure there's a nice happy medium). I wish I had had a star-tracking mount (it would have been ridiculous to bring my telescope mount with me on the plane).

Hawaii Astrophotography Part 1: Oahu

Skies in Hawaii are good...IF you get on the beach and look away from the light pollution, as is the case with the third picture here. The first two I caught one morning waking up jet-lagged very early. The pollution was astounding, but I guess that's what you get for living in a city like Waikiki. I probably could have gotten some better pictures by walking on the beach, but a) I was tired and b) I didn't feel like being mugged by a homeless person (no seriously, they have a homeless problem there, somebody was stabbed the week before I got there).

Orion in the AM

Orion running across the sky in the AM,

Mars, Venus, Saturn at the Luau

More pictures here.

Wisconsin Road Trip Part #2: Indiana Dunes State Park - July 22nd, 2010

After picking up Danielle and traveling to Indiana, I took a good portion of the night after sunset to take a bunch of different pictures of different subjects. Here are some of my favorites:

Conjunction of Saturn, Mars, and Venus with the lights of East Chicago. Submitted this to Sky & Telescope - here's hoping they publish it!Second picture of the conjunction of Saturn, Mars, and Venus with the lights of East Chicago. Submitted this to Sky & Telescope, too - here's hoping they publish it!Big Dipper - best one I have so farLyraStar Trails (Polaris in the middle)I love the effect of moonlight lighting up the foreground, no matter how unfocused the shot is
More pictures from the night here

Wisconsin Road Trip Part 1: Ohio

Before catching up to Danielle, I stopped off at the Wayne National Forest in Ohio. Despite the family down the trail setting off bottle rockets, it was a good night to take some pictures. There was a good bit of light pollution from the gibbous moon, giving the background a bit of a blue hue.

I like how you can still see the stars really well even though there's light from the moon and clouds. Note Corona Borealis (Northern Crown) to the left of the center tree.Some decent star trails from a 10 minute exposure, though less moonlight would have made it darker.A good look at Hercules, though the background color is too gray.
More pictures (including some moon shots) here

Constellations @ Middle Creek - July 2nd, 2010

I was doing some observing with the AELC up at Middle Creek and I just opened up the camera in its widest angle and caught the following pictures. Nothing too great, but it's still pretty cool to see the different colors of the stars in the first one, and how much they move in in 5 minutes in the second picture.
Pictures here, too.

Summer Update: The Moon through the Refractor May 30th, 2010

The night after my birthday party I got to take out the Refractor and took some pictures of the Moon.
This first one is pretty good, especially since it's through prime focus (no eyepiece). It's much clearer than my previous looks with the 300mm zoom lens.

I also decided to put the 10mm eyepiece in the camera adapter to get some closer shots. My favorite is this one of the crate above. It still seems a bit unclear...perhaps because the Moon was still low on the horizon. So the Moon pictures have improved, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

A lot more pictures of the Moon from this night here.

Summer Update #2957: April 25th, 2010

While up in Ohiopyle I took some pictures of the moon just using the Canon Rebel XS and a 75-300mm zoom lens on 300mm. I like the look of them, but when I crop or zoom in, the quality goes down significantly.

More pictures from the night here

Summer Update: First Night through the Refractor April 4th, 2010

I attached the T-ring adapter to the Canon Rebel XS, and then attached an Orion Universal Camera Adapter.

Started out with the Beehive Cluster in Prime Focus

Here's Saturn in Prime Focus as well, but it's a bit small

Here's Saturn with an Orion 10mm Plossl Eyepiece projection

Lastly, the crop of one of my Saturn pictures
More pictures here

Summer Update: March 20th 2010 - Moon & Pleiades

I tried getting the moon and the Pleiades together in a shot, and I was successful! Although, in most of them, the moon was overexposed and the Pleiades underexposed. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Moon with Pleiades


Setting Moon


Some Star Trails

Overall, nothing spectacular, but good practice for learning the basics. I need to find somewhere that's not light polluted to take star trails.

More pictures from this night here

Summer Update: March 17th, 2010

So the next night I went out again, and found that a parking lot not too far from home provided me a great view of the western horizon. Same subject matter as last time, but much earlier in the night. I really liked the sunset colors in the pictures, but there wasn't much emphasis on Venus or the Moon, since they are really small compared to the local landmarks from my perspective.

Moon, Venus, and Applebee's

Some good Earthshine bouncing off the dark side of the moon here.

More pics from March 17th, 2010 here

Summer Catch-up: March 16th pictures

So back in March I started taking some pictures just with the DSLR on a tripod with the 75-300mm lens. This was the first night I went out, which included a very young crescent moon. The pictures aren't spectacular, but I was happy to be able to fit Venus and a cool lookin' moon in one shot. (You'll have to open it up to see it in better detail.) I should find a better foreground for the pictures, and probably time it better so that the sunset colors come out.

More pictures from March 16th, 2010 here