M45 Stars and Dust

Along with the Witch Head Nebula, I got a 30 minute worth exposures of M45 sailing in constellation Taurus the Bull. Most images of M45 emphasizes the brilliance of the star cluster. However, in this image I opted to highlight the nebulous dust in the region. Previously thought as the birthplace of newly born stars, it was later understood that the star cluster has no relationship to the dusty nebula but rather simply passing through it.

I had no intention of capturing this object that night but since Orion was clouded out, I slew my camera lens to M45 which was clear at that time. I got a measly 30 minutes total exposure before it started to drizzle. It took me a week before I started processing this beautiful object. Hope its not yet too late to add more data next time we head out.. .

Witch Head Nebula and Rigel

This the second time I "caught" the witch. First was that she was unable to fit in the frame. Only her mid-face and protruding chin were shown in the image. But last Sunday, I figured that I could put her and Rigel in just one frame by using the 200 mm lens and the 350D. I made 20 subs of 5 minutes totaling 100 minutes all. Processing as usual was difficult as this was a faint target. Faint nebulosity together with the brilliance of the star Rigel - a processing nightmare. But here she is. . . looking at Rigel. Seemingly amazed at the how the supergiant illuminates the field!

Reminiscing Caliraya

I miss imaging under clear night sky so I reckoned that  re-processing the image of the southern jewel, Eta Carinae Nebulae would somehow alleviate my melancholy. I tried to bring out the stars colors and some fine details that were not prominent in the last image. And I had fun coming back to the old processing techniques that were almost forgotten. Looking forward to another astro-imaging season!

Venus Transit 2012

A Planet Transiting the Sun - so what? It's just a round speck of dark object crossing the disk of the sun. I can't help myself getting amused by all the commotion surrounding this rare phenomenon. I later learned that this event is so rare that the next one will not happen anymore in my lifetime. Hmmm... interesting. I must have been carried away by my astro friends' enthusiam that on the last minute, I decided to take a day off from work to view and perhaps take a picture of this "very rare celestial event". Weather forecast was not very promising-it was already June so I cannot blame myself when I chose to just stay home and observe there. I set up my scope at our roofdeck, fitted the solar filter and wait for Venus to enter the sun's disk. I had difficulty focusing as it was very cloudy and the sun barely penetrated the thick haze. I fired shots at the appointed time of ingress and continued firing every two or three minutes thereafter. Most of the time it was very cloudy but I stayed. There was a moment when I took a peek at the eyepiece and saw that round speck hovering over the sun's disk among the sunspots. At that instant, something gripped me. I was watching live with my very own eyes the celestial dance of the second planet from the sun. It was really  a very small dot against a huge ball of burning gas. Somehow I also felt a bit small. So small and insignificant as a I watched Venus against the backdrop of a brilliant Sun. Then I realized I was not just watching Venus, I was actually watching myself. It's me on Earth-a similar sized planet. Whew, there must be something in the heat of the Sun that made me think in an unusual way. Eventually, heavy clouds covered the spectacle and I started to dismantle my setup.

A Planet Transiting the Sun - so what? It's just a round speck of dark object crossing the disk of the sun. Yes, but I was able to see myself in the perspective of the infinite Universe! Seemed my sunburns  were worth it!

Partial Annular Eclipse 21 May 2012

I was very busy these past days and haven't got real time to update this blog. It's just tonight that I'm able to rest my weary back against a padded chair.

May 21, 2012 - Eclipse Day. It was a partial annular eclipse for us in the Philippines and the already eclipsed sun rose in the eastern sky. I prepared my DSLR and coupled the 70 - 300 mm lens, climbed up on the roofdeck and waited for the sun. Anxious that I might have missed the sun behind the tall houses blocking the eastern side, I went to the farthest side of the deck and hoped that it will rise through the narrow gap between the structures. Clock struck 5:30 am, time for sunrise, but no sun could be viewed from where I was. Oh-oh, I missed it. But hey, I saw a familiar orange radiant gleaming behind the clouds. And yes, there it was-the yellow-reddish sun rising behind dark clouds. I was ecstatic to see that it rose between the two tall coconut trees producing a very nice frame for an unusual crescent sunrise. I clicked away with varying exposures and chose the most pleasant one. Yes.......got it!

Eta Carinae Nebula

I was so excited to go back again to Caliraya with my family. And the weather last Saturday was promising that I imagined myself imaging the southern skies with a wide grin on my face. Hopes were high when we arrived at Caliraya Lake with the blue sky mirrored at the waters. "This could be it," I said to myself, as I gazed over the southern sky, somehow imagining the Great Eta Carina Nebulae just hovering above the mountaintops. I hurriedly set-up my gears and prepared for a good night of southern sky imaging. Darkness fell and soon my scope was aimed at the Eta Carinae Nebulae. That was the first time I used the Megrez 90 and Zenithstar80 tandem for dual camera imaging, which saved me a lot of time in image acquisition. But of course all good things must come to end as my batteries were eventually gets depleted. I was able to shoot a good 45 minutes of images before the batteries drained out. As usual, I did a quick processing to see how the nebula looks like. Hmm... not bad.... not bad at all....

California Nebula during Easter

This work-break allowed me to finally process and add color data to my previous H-alpha only NGC1499. The H-alpha subs were taken two years ago and they were among the first lights of my H-alpha filter. The color subs were taken in Buso-buso during the Christmas break-New Year's Eve in fact. Early in processing, I was getting errors during registration of the images as the H-alpha and color subs were of different scales and orientation-taken with 558mm F.L. Megrez 90 and 200mm F.L. lens respectively. After three attempts, I stopped, went outside for fresh air and had snacks. I went back in front of the computer and tried again. It took me five attempts before I got it right-it seemed. Talk about processing! Usually its harder than image acquisition.

Crescent Nebula

The Full Moon beamed that clear night as I reminisced my time under starry skies. How I wished I was there at a dark hill with only starlight illuminating the sky! I reckoned that the closest to this astro-tripping was to do some exercises in image-processing. so, I brought out my previous capture files and decided to do some redux on the Crescent Nebula. I remembered that I acquired the subs at home and at Buso-buso. I again quickly did processing and compared the result with the previous I had. Well, slight improvement but an improvement nonetheless, enough to quench this astro-thirst at the moment.

Rho Opiuchi Region

I'm used in seeing red in nebula. So the colorful image of the Rho Opiuchi region is something I'm not at home with. Even this was my second try at this region, there's still something unfamiliar. The colors were off, framing was even off and the imager (me!)was obviously off. I struggled with my autoguiding when I took this image. As expected, processing was also challenging. I really wished I had everything prepared then. But, this was the only object visible that night of seemingly endless clouds. So, "carpe diem". Seize the day, err.. night!

Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day (2nd time)!

I was elated upon learning that my lunar eclipse image made it as the AAPOD for 24 February! The composite image was actually taken during the total lunar eclipse last 10 December 2011 and was submitted the day after. I was pleasantly surprised that they eventually chose it. This is my second AAPOD and hopefully not the last. Really made my day!

Congratulations! tani
Earth's Shadow on the Moon
http://astronomy.fm/aapod/2012-02-24/Earth%27s+Shadow+on+the+Moon.html
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Astrophotographer of the Day!

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Re-processed Seagull Nebula

A good astro-friend gave me a book on astro-processing. I applied the new techniques on my recent seagull image and here is the result. I increased the contrast to darken the background and cropped the whole image to center the seagull.

The Seagull in Flight (IC 2177, Gum 1)

I thought of processing the images I took last New Year's Eve in Buso-buso. I actually took shots of two objects-the California and Seagull nebulae. However, during processing only the seagull was workable as the California nebula was constantly reporting stacking error due to large difference in image size. I wanted to preserve the extent of the nebula so I was careful in using the contrast control. I was not really very happy with result but I can't figure out what's wrong but anyway here it is: