1st Solar Ha Image

This is my 1st Solar Ha Image I took on 12th Jan 2010. This was certainly a bad image. Although it showed a sunspot, even a white light filter can do it. I have used several times my LS35T for visual observation. I knew it shows less detail compared with LS60T, LS75F or LS100T, but I didn’t know it is abnormal or not. Today I confirmed my LS75T is abnormal after I consulted my friend who is experienced in solar observation. Good grief! I need to send it back to the dealer. Hope to get it fixed quickly!

LS35T, HEQ5Pro, DMK41, Registax 5

High Resolution Lunar Mosaic

I did a quick imaging work in Christmas Eve because I needed to rush home for dinner. The seeing was 5/10 and the transparency was 4/10. Originally I want to shoot both Jupiter and moon. However I didn’t make it for the Jupiter. I used the Equinox 120ED and the 5X Powermate for the Jupiter imaging. The effective focal length was 4500mm. It was just too difficult for me to get the image on the DBK21 CCD. I tried for an hour and finally I gave up and switched fast to the moon. It was a good exercise for me to shoot the moon in high magnification. I used the Equinox 120ED and 2.5X Powermate. The effective focal length was 2250mm. It was longer than the focal length of C8. In order to save my work, I intentionally used more margins. I don’t want to ruin the whole image by miss a small parts of the moon. The final mosaic is a composition of 22 photos. I found it was difficult to make the sharpness uniform in all 22 photos. The underlining key is the selection of alignment points, not the number of alignment points and the wavelet. After process the image for more than 15 hours, I gave up! This is the result.

Click here for full size images:

http://wphoto.myvnc.com/24-12-2009_original.jpg

http://wphoto.myvnc.com/24-12-2009_original_bg_rotate.jpg

Moon age 7.9, Equinox 120ED, EQ3Pro, DMK41, Registax 5, PS CS4

Filled background and rotation applied

My Dark Age

Despite the recent cloudy weather in Hong Kong, the weather seems going to be good in the Christmas holiday. I wish clear skies are waiting for me! However, I was totally down today! I went to the Lion Rock Mountain today with the Hiking Club members. Apart from the foggy weather, it was cold and dry. It was good for hiking! However it was my fate too! When we walked for an hour, I needed to check the map to make sure that we were in the right trail. As I needed to find the map from my backpack, I asked one of my students to hold my camera for me. While I was reading the map, he suddenly dropped my camera! Good grief! My D80 and 18-200mm VR were gone! I guessed the D80 would be totally lost! I am not sure about the 18-200mm VR. It needs optical alignment for sure. Anyway, I need to bring them to Nikon and see if they can be recovered. They are now in Intensive Critical Unit, ICU! I told my student that this accident can be fixed by money. I will pay for my beloved camera and lens. But some accidents in physics lab would not be fixed by money, perhaps fatal or irreversible! One must be very careful in handling equipment. Anyway, this is not the end of the story. When we almost finished the hike, I wristed my two ankles 拗柴! It was the first time I hurt both ankles simultaneously! In fact I haven’t seen any people hurt their two angles at the same time! Poor me! I wish I can recover quickly. Otherwise it will ruin my Christmas holiday completely! No stargazing!!!

My two ankles were wristed!

My D80 was seriously damaged! See the gap between the lens and the body. This part is supposed to be very tough! But cracked now!!!

These are the bits and pieces from the inner part of D80 and battery compartment. In fact some parts are missing!

Reprocess the 28-11-2009 Lunar Mosaic

The previous lunar mosaic was not very good. Some parts of the moon were blurred. A quick reprocess of one of the avi file tells me that the problem arises from post processing. The problem was mainly due to the poor selection of the alignment points. After some experiments, I found that the optimal number of alignment points is 4 to 5. The location of the alignment points is also important. I cannot generalize the general rules, but it seems that both high and low contrast locations are important. If you want to reveal the details of the low contrast location, one needs to pick an appropriate location for it. So don’t just focus on those high contrast locations.

Moon age 10.636, Equinox 120ED, EQ3Pro, DMK41, Registax 5, PS CS4

Lunar Mosaic

Last night the sky condition was good. Both seeing and transparency were about 6/10. I went to the roof of my school and did observation and imaging. Since I needed to go to a wedding banquet, I did everything in a rush! I deliberately used the Equinox 120ED to make a high resolution lunar mosaic. The image was makeup of 4 images. This was the first time I made it! My next challenge is to use a 2.5X Powermate to make a lunar mosaic!

Moon age 10.636, Equinox 120ED, EQ3Pro, DMK41, Registax 5, PS CS4

The Lunar X

Yesterday after school, I was fed up with my work and I missed two consecutive observation days already. I don’t want to end up with sorrow and I don’t want to waste the clear sky. So setup telescopes quick and enjoy!

This was the first time I seriously use the new eyepieces, Baader Planetarium 8-24mm zoom, Tele Vue Nagler 3-6mm zoom and Tele Vue 2-4mm zoom. However, the instrument is nothing more important than the observation. I started the observation at about 6:00pm. The moon & Jupiter were hanging in the sky. When I pointed the M8 ACF to the moon, I quickly recognized the Lunar X. This is the first time I saw it and I remember that it can be seen in certain moon phase. However, I must good home because my two little daughters were waiting for me. So I packed all the telescopes and went home. I thought I can take the Lunar X after dinner.

After the diner and father’s evening duties, I started to image the moon at about 10:00pm. Oh Gosh! The Lunar X was not as obvious as that at 6:00pm (Moon age 7.615). It was stand out at 6:00pm, but now it was pale. I did everything in rush. Finally I made it! After that I search the Lunar X information in the Internet. The Lunar X can only be seen in 4 hours just before the quarter!
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOW_DIG/097.HTM
Lucky me! I made it! My next challenges are high resolution lunar mosaic and high power magnification lunar features.

Moon age 7.781, Equinox 80ED, DMK 41, Porta mount, 482 out of 500 frames stacked, Registax 5, PS CS4

Equinox 66 Vs Tak FS60C

A long awaited comparison, Sky-watcher Equinox 66ED Vs Takahashi FS60C. I borrowed the Equinox 66ED from the dealer for sometimes and waited for my friend, David, for quite a long time. The sky was not cooperating. Our schedules were not matching. Finally I gave up the comparison through celestial objects, but terrestrial observation.

I went to David’s school at about 5:00pm yesterday. We setup all the scopes quickly. David’s students were good helpers and little judges. I guess they are trained to be experienced telescope users. The main disc was Equinox 66ED Vs Tak FS60C. However, there was another super star TMB 80/480. The main concern was the chromatic aberration. We selected some white light sources from distant buildings. In addition, we luckily found some really small bright spots which can be treated as point source. So we did “star test” as well. However, one should be reminded that these artificial objects were much brighter than Sirius and even Venus. Using these artificial sources was extremely harsh to telescopes.
At the first sign, both scopes are strongly built. I like both focusers, although Tak FS60C got no dual speed, it is firm and solid. While the Equinox’s dual speed focuser makes focusing easier. We used the Nagler 2-4mm zoom and Nagler 3-6mm zoom. Ordinary diagonals used were used. For comparison purpose we set the magnifications of Equinox and Tak to 400/3 = 133X and 360/3 = 120X respectively. Despite low contrast, both scopes didn’t breakdown even at 2mm eyepiece focal length. The trends of CA of both scopes were similar. There were some violet in front of the focus and some green behind the focus. However the degree of CA was different. The CA of Tak FS60C was very small. The CA of Equinox was small. Both scopes gave good “star test” results. All the diffraction rings were symmetrical. However the pattern in front of the focus and behind the focus in the case of Tak FS60C was a bit better. We repeated all the comparisons by swapping the Nagler 2-4mm zoom and Nagler 3-6mm zoom, the results were the same, which means the differences were not from the eyepieces, but the scopes. Anyway, the difference in CA was not big in fact. So what really make the difference in this comparison? Resolution!!! David and I found that the resolution tells the difference. Tak FS60C gave shaper images.
About the CA of Equinox 120ED, it was reported in Cloudy Nights that if one stops down an Equinox 120ED to 110mm, it was virtually color free. So I tested this idea in Equinox 66ED. Since I could not find a compass this morning, I used a cap to draw a circle. The diameter of the stopper was then 58.5mm. There was still CA exists and showed a bit improvement in violet. I couldn’t see improvement in green.
Well, the final verdict cannot be made. The reason is that in real sky observations, stars are much dimmer that artificial lights. The observed CA in very bright artificial lights may not be detectable by human eyes in the case of real stars, so further test is needed.

At the end we try those eyepieces on the legendary TMB 80/480 quickly. We selected a very bright source. No kidding! We were not able to find any CA!!! We were rushed by janitor. So we didn’t try deeply the Nalger zooms on the TMB 80/480. Wait for next chance!