Chris Curtis Web Site

I just spent an hour looking at Mars through my 6 inch telescope. The Moon is so bright that other things are not very visible ( though I did look at the clusters M46, 47 and 50)
At first all I could see was the North Polar cap as the planet itself was “boiling” with the turbulence of the air above me. With a red filter and patience more came into view. Looking it up I can see that Mare Acidalium was very clear as was the Syrtis Major region disappearing towards the limb.
To be honest, it is not that clear a view but there is something magical about looking across millions of miles to another world.

ngc869, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

This is part of the double star cluster in Perseus taken tonight (in the bitter cold) while there was thin high cloud and the moon was rising. The less than perfect conditions meant a lot of processing, which is why some of the stars are a little “clumpy”.

What you are looking at is a genuine collection of stars about 7000 light years away. The stars are very young – only 5 million years or so – and are still close together since they formed together in a great cloud of gas and have not yet had time to move fully apart. Most of the stars in the cluster are hot and appear blue but some have already used most of their gas and are expanding into red giant stars – very obviously different in colour to the blue stars.

This was made of 20, one-minute exposures, (Atik 16ic on 6-inch SCT) combined using “Astro Art” and further processed in Photoshop. The diffraction patterns on the brighter stars are courtesy of the “StarSpikesPro” plugin by Pro Digital.

The one-minute (rather than 30 second) exposures follow me updating the software on the mount for the telescope and then making a very careful polar alignment. The scope will keep an object in the field indefinitely now – visually, things stay where they started. This means that the telescope very accurately tracks the movement of the earth. However, photographically some one-minute exposures show movement while others show none at all. This is called “periodic error” and is because no mechanical system is perfect. The only answer is to guide the mount, using a camera and computer to immediately correct any movement while it is happening, and I will be experimenting with this over the next little while. I want to be able to do exposures lasting several minutes each to capture even dimmer and more subtle objects such as galaxies.

M42 and M43, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

I was pleased with this. The fog was coming in and I snatched a few 30 second exposures – this was the best and I had fun developing it in AstroArt then in Photoshop. I am aiming for a poster I can hang on the wall!

Seriously, looking at an area where new stars are literally being born is awe-inspiring.

M42 – Great Orion Nebula, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

Another astro photo that is recognisable. As this was coming onto the screen, it was very exciting. I did 30 x 30second exposures, but had to discard quite a few because the tracking gave slight star trails.
I think I can do better in future, but this is already worth hanging on the wall and I can re-process the data when I understand in more detail how to get the best from it.

To capture this, I stood out on the snow with an air temperature of about -4C. Fortunately, there was not a breath of wind and the air was fairly dry (all the water had already condensed and frozen onto the ground) so it was not too uncomfortable, especially wearing lots of layers. I did have to use the hairdryer a couple of times to deal with condensation (ice?) on the telescope optics.

It started snowing about 8pm last night, but was only light. Around 10:30pm, the wind had picked up, the snow became heavier and we had a genuine blizzard. The snow was dry enough to be driven by the wind and came in sheets off roofs and from the ground to be blown across the road. It was like a film of the antarctic ice-sheet with lines of fine snow snaking across the surface.

This morning, there are 10cm here. Roads are blocked or dangerous and the forecast was for more (though this has not actually happened). So I closed the school and stayed in the warm at home.

Double Cluster in Perseus, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

First light with the ATIK16ic camera fitted to my telescope. I took some time focusing, but am still not sure if this is quite “tight” enough. Still, pleasing enough for a first try.
I was keen to use a rare clear night, but very shortly after taking this, the telescope was so covered with dew that it could not see a thing – visually or with a camera, so I had to give up.
Taking astronomical photos is a black art and reminds me of fishing (not that I have done that for decades). You do everything you think you need to, but it is never enough. You have to add the “secret sauce” (or bait) and then, very occasionally, it works. Most of the time you come back empty handed despite carefully doing everything right.

The Pleiades, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

At last, a recognisable astrophoto!
The exposure is too short to capture any of the nebulosity, but stars are there down to about 9th magnitude. I took care to focus well – very hard with the scope’s built in focus – which is very coarse.
The neighbour’s Christmas lights, and a dew-filled evening made it hard to get this, but I am pleased with it.