Rosette Nebula

This was my third and last target last Saturday evening. This was also the first time we encountered heavy dewing at Buso. I had to quit at around 2am because my scope was not registering at all due to severe dew on the objective lens. Nevertheless, here is my second-time image of the beautiful Rosette.

Witchhead Nebula

This object in Eridanus has captivated my imagination ever since I saw it from an astro magazine. The eerie faint nebula looking at the bright Rigel is an irony of sorts. In fact, the object was my primary target last Saturday night just fulfill my yearning to capture that "witch." There's no hint of the witch in single frame, only the "J" asterism near her nose was my guide. As it turned out, the nebula was huge, almost filling up the entire field of my scope.

Helix Nebula

It was a good feeling to come back again to Buso-buso to do stargazing with a group. Early evening was cloudy but slowly cleared up as the night went on. My first image was the Helix Nebula. It was suggested by Irving because the best time to obeserve it was usually rainy season. I started taking 3 minute shots until it was swallowed by skyglow in the west.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy

Last night, I went outside to our roofdeck to breathe some fresh air after a long day's work. I was surprised to see Polaris which meant that the sky was good enough for viewing. I hurriedly brought out my astro gears to check if they were still working. I excitedly set-up the scopes for a quick polar alignment and in less than half-hour, I was ready for fun. This could not be a time for DSO as the Moon was blazing and the city sky glow was just too much to see or even image anything. However, curiosity started to get me and I found myself putting M31 in the finder. I used 90 seconds subs and started clicking away. I managed to squeeze 30 frames before the realities of my fatigue and sleep crept in.

After stacking the frames, here is the result. Horrible sky glow made the background uneven. I can't wait to do a dark sky stargazing!

Partial Solar Eclipse 22 July 2009

Astronomy during daylight? I made a short movie from a sequence of shots taken from 0833H - 1059H (Manila local time) The shot were made using Megrez 90FD fitted with Baader Solar Film producing solar images in white light.

M57 widefield

I like to pick big and bright objects to image, partly due to short focal length of my scope. But Lyra was so tempting that Saturday night, and since I got no more planned targets, I tried to snap just one frame of the Ring Nebula to see how small it is on my 558mm FL scope. Sure enough it was so tiny. I decided not to shoot additional frames as I though it was just a waste of time. Now I realized that I wasted my time NOT shooting it. How ironic! This is just one 3-minute frame of the famous Ring.

Centaurus A (NGC5128)

Uniqueness and peculiarities always trigger my curiosity. That's why I could not resist of slewing my scope to the peculiar galaxy Centaurus A. After doing some shots of the Omega Centauri, I reckoned that Centaurus A was about the same R.A. as the Omega. I just needed to swing a little bit on the Declination. And there was I, pushing the camera shutter button several times to capture a beautiful galaxy. Yet, that beauty was not in my shots! My scope was not tracking well. Well, got to fire away before the Moon rises, I said to myself. I will re-visit this Galaxy definitely next time and will attempt to capture its elusive beauty!

Omega Centauri (NGC5139)

Globular clusters are not my favorites deep sky objects. They all look the same to me. In fact, I haven't spent considerable time scrutinizing globulars ever since. But, I guess some things can change. Last Saturday, I and Irving made a stubborn attempt to do stargazing at Buso-buso. I was so excited to bring out my gears again after a long time of accumulating dust. So excited indeed that I foolishly forgot to do proper polar alignment. I used the polar alignment scope without reference to the date & time. Result-I was offset by considerable amount. This I learned when I got home when processing the images. Anyway, my attention was called by Irving by pointing out Omega Centauri low in the southern horizon. I looked at it through my Megrez and from that time on, I knew that my old impression with globulars will change. I found myself looking at a cluster of enormous number of stars resembling a heap of sugar! This image is a pale representation of what was stuck in my memory. I do like globulars after all!

M101 Galaxy

M101 is one of my favorite galaxies. I have always dreamed of imaging it one night. This is a fulfillment of that dream. My fascination with M101 was sparked by a Sky & Telescope magazine article about it. I first viewed it in 2006 at Caliraya during my participation on the yearly Messier Marathon. That time, I found myself stuck at the eyepiece drinking the majestic view of the galaxy, briefly forgetting that it was a marathon. I had the opportunity to image it last February at Spring of Life Adventure Camp and boy, was I very glad! This is a re-processed image from that night.

3 minutes X 10 frames

Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800

Megrez 90FD at FL=558mm

21 February 2009

Buso-buso, Antipolo City

M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

This is again a re-processed image from our session last 21 February 2009. I tried adjusting the colors and saturation resulting in a somewhat pale image compared to my initial M83 image. Details are:

3 minutes X 6 frames exposure

Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800

Megrez 90FD at FL 558mm

21 February 2009

Buso-buso, Antipolo City

Horsehead & Flame Nebula

I re-processed the Horsehead & Flame Nebula last night using the newly discovered features of IRIS. The dynamic & asinh strecthing proved to be useful in bringing out faint details. Here, I allowed the bright stars to saturate to coax as much faint details as possible.
Details of the image:
3 minutes X 14 frames exposure
Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800
Megrez 90FD at FL=558mm
Calibration/Stacking=IRIS
Touch-up=Photoshop CS/NeatImage
31 January 2009/Caliraya, Laguna

Caliraya Night

It was a adventurous trek to Caliraya, Laguna last Saturday. I brought along my family to see where I have been going for skygazing. Just last Friday night, my wife and I made a quick stop at Robinsons to buy a tent for our use overnight. We set-up our tent immediately when we arrived with the help of our two kids. Then I started to set-up my scopes. But it was a night of poor weather! My disappointment set in when I realized that it was next to impossible to get decent images with the strong winds and haze prevailing that night. Anyway, I tried to shoot between the clouds and all I got was a measly 16-minute exposure total for the Rosette and only one minute for Lulin! The sky grew worse until it started to drizzle. I thought that it was now time to hit the sack. By around 4 am, we dismantled the tent and scopes and headed home.

Galaxies, a Comet and an Owl

Last Saturday was a fine night! I was able to image plenty of objects mainly due to longer time that the sky was clear. A bit hazy in the early evening, clouds came & went quickly, but overall it was a good night. First object was the Rossette Nebula. This is a huge nebula in Monoceros, almost filling up the entire field of my camera. However, clouds and poor transparency ruined the frames so I thought I will have to try it again later. I immediately slewed my scope towards Sombrero galaxy, but this time I was not able to locate it. Somehow, I got envious of my colleagues who got a go-to system. Next target was my favorite galaxy-M101-the other pinwheel galaxy. Here I made 5 frames. It was a pain to locate a suitable guidestar for the M101. I eventually settled for the star Dubhe which is quite far from the galaxy. As expected, I noticed some star trails on the images. Irving pointed out Comet Lulin on his scope so I tried imaging my second comet. It was large & bright so I had no trouble locating it on my Megrez 90. After that, I returned to Irving's scope and looked at a bright galaxy. I later found out that it was M83, the so-called Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. I hurriedly returned to my scope and began imaging M83. Last to image was the Owl Nebula. I was surprised to find a companion galaxy to the owl. Very impressive. Wow! I wish the future imaging sessions would be this satisfying!

Flaming Horsehead

It's been a while since I last posted. Last Saturday, we went to the Spring of Life campsite to try observing and imaging the heavens. Coming from a children birthday party, I proceeded directly to Irving's place to pick him up with his telescope. We arrived at the site at around 5:30 p.m. Brian and his friend were already there. I quickly set up my scope and tried drift alignment while the moon was still up. First target was the Horsehead & Flame Nebulae. I used 3 min X 14 for the exposures. Finally, I was able to test my autoguiding set-up. It worked very well and I was very satisfied with the performance. When I was about to turn-off the Guidedog, the computer suddenly crashed. Oh boy, was I afraid that I might never recovered the files. It took me a long time to seached the files but found it later on. After that, I point my scope towards M51 Whirlpool Galaxy. However, I found difficulty finding a suitable guidestar. Then the clouds covered the northers sky until we decided to pack-up and head home. It was a good and fulfilling night!