Leonid 2009 from Lonavala - Nov 17-18

The Most awaited Meteor SHOWer of the year "Leonids" was here !!!

We decided to avoid Suburban light pollution and go somewhere dark sky location. Our Old-Time friends Girish & Swapnil invited us to join them at Lonavala at their place; which we readily accepted.

Me along with my wife & our friend Ganesh Kale left from Thane by 17th evening. And were joined by Nilesh Desai & his wife at lonavala ST stand. From there we moved to our observing place. we reached there by 11:00 PM.

The Sky condition were not good at that time its was clouded with lot of moving clouds. The Sky as we can see from open patches was very good though.

We spend some time inside waiting for clouds to clear. around 1 AM its started to clear out. We started setting up our photography setups. By the time we were ready the Sky was completely clear & we were already seeing some meteors here and there.

I had Canon XTi with 18-55 lens setup at 18mm to cover max possible field. I decided not to guide but keep camera stationary on Tripod. Took many photos of 2min & 3min exposure times.

As usual Meteors always fall in the portion of the Sky where my Camera is not pointing !!!

Some 4-5 Meteors fall just outside of my Camera Frame Area !!!

And one actaully passed through exactly center of my Camera Framed Sky !!!

But ahhh !!!!

That was the time my Camera taking break of 7 secs between two consecutive shots !!!!

And finally I caught One, Not a Big one, but I have something to show at least !!!

But my happiness did not last even for a minute !!! within next 1 min another Dazzling Fireball passed from my Frame !!!

it was almost -6 or -7 magnitude. Blazing with green / orange color, trailed almost 15-20 degrees across sky & its Smoke-Trail lasted for 15-20 secs !!!

But...

but it started from the point in my Frame portion of Sky and moved OUT !!!! :(

I captured just initial 1/4th trail and the blazzing show was outside of my Frame Area !!!

Here is the Pics... [Click on Image to open Large Size in order to meteors clearly.]



here is the link to tagged photo where I marked meteors on Photo...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thakursam/4116156019/

Hope next time I get better images (With Meteors :P )

Have a Clear Sky Always
Sameer

Moon and Pleiades on 27 April 2009

This came to me as surprise !!!

On 27th Evening I was taking a walk in park with my wife, when we spotted thin Lunar Crescent. It was quite thin than normally we saw after new moon. So we rushed back home to pick up camera.

I shot few photos and didn't do anything even not dowloaded to pc !!!

After few days I saw Moon and Pleiades occultation photo in My Friend Mandar Potdar's Orkut Album !!!

I downloaded photos and found M45 (Pleiades) Faintly visible in photos. It was quite bright sky by that time as Day is quite big here (in US) now.

Here are the pics ... Click photo to see big version.
Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 200mm - F/4 : Expo - 2 sec


Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 126mm - F/4: Expo - 2 sec

Comet Lunin and Behive Cluster

Hi All,

Here is Today's conjunction of Lunin and M44.

Clouds spoiled the game and i got just 2 frames of 60sec each, But decided to use those.

Taken using 135mm JCPenny lens @ f/4 @ ISO 800
Canon 400D unmodified, Astronomic CLS, manually guided on EQ-2.

Cropped to central 60%.

Click on image to open



Thanks for looking...

Comet Lunin meets Saturn

On 23rd Feb 2009, just one day before its closest approach to Earth, Comet Lunin visually passed by near Saturn. Its fun to observe both most attractive celestial objects so close by.

I tried to capture this occasion, though sky was quite cloudy here y'day but I managed to shoot through 20 min open window. Though I did not get enough data to produce attractive image, but enough to show Comet and Saturn together...

Thin layer of cloud gave soft look to starts and Saturn :)


- Canon 75-300mm UMS III zoom @ 75mm F/5.
- Canon XTi - unModified
- Astronomic CLS - EOS Clip Filter
- Tracked on Orion EQ-2 mount
- 5x60sec and 2x30sec @ ISO 800 - captured using DSLR Shutter

Comments and suggestions welcome !!!

Have a Clear Sky
Sameer

Comet Lunin on Feb 21, 2009

Here is the photo of Comet Lunin !!!



:: Image Details ::
- 11 x 30 sec = 5.5 min total
- Canon XTi with Canon 70-300mm UMS III lens @ 140mm - f/5.6
- Astronomic CLS - EOS Clip Filter
- Tracked on EQ-2 mount

Have a Nice Day
Sameer

Orion Wide Field

This is my test with tripod mounted Shot

Following Photo combined from 44 X 10sec exposures with Canon Xti, 18-55mm zoom @18mm F3.5.

Vignetting corrected in PS, Combined in registar, Light Pollution corrected in PS and Black Point & Curves adjusted in PS.

Though I did not get any nebulosity in it but overall nice stars in light polluted sky of Woodbridge, NJ, US...

Moon Mosaic on 18 Oct 2008

4 Pan mosaic of Moon taken with Meade 12" F/10 and Canon 400D DSRL
V1.0


V1.1

Moon Venus Conjunction of November 1, 2008

Hi All,

here are the pics of Moon Venus Conjunction.

All Images taken with Canon 400D DSLR, Canon 75-300 Zoom.

Processed in Photoshop :
- Dark Frame Subtracted.
- Black point adjusted.
- Resized to 50%

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGE IMAGE
-------------------------------------------------------
2.5sec @ ISO 400 @ F/5 @ 75mm


-------------------------------------------------------
2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/5 @ 75mm


-------------------------------------------------------
3.2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/4.5 @ 130mm


-------------------------------------------------------
1sec @ ISO 1600 @ F/5 @ 190mm




Cheers
Sameer

Surviors of Bad Seeing...

Hi All,

Saturday 24th May once again Nilesh and me tried some photography..

The seeing was very bad from Nilesh's place but we dont have any option !!!

We setup C9.25" + 2x Barlow + Meade DSI Color and took some Jupiter and Moon shots..

though not as good as it can be, We have over processed to bring out details..

Color Image : Stack or 101
B&H Images : Stack of 85

Click on image view to large size

I will upload more images of Moon soon.

Cheers
Sameer

Mars Occultation on May 10

Hi All,

We have planned observing and photography of Mars Occultation of May 10 from Pune. I reached to Nilesh's place on Friday Night and we did some photography at night.

Next evening we setup Nilesh's 12" Meade on his building terrace for capturing Occultation.

But Bad seeing and extreamly windy conditions spoiled the show. The Mars was dancing in Camera Field even in exposures as short as .0020 sec. !!!!

The output of cource is not what one should expect... its very bad indeed....

We also captured some other objects...

But I did not get enough time to process images after i come back from Pune... I will post images of Mars and Moon soon....

The seeing was too bad it was like looking at object at the bottom of swiming pool... Both images are stack of around 200 images @ 0.0024 sec and Over processed in Registack....

Saturn

with Meade 12" SCT + 2x Meade Barlow + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer

Jupiter

with Celestron 9.25" SCT + 2x Meade Barlow + Meade DSI Color Camera... + Sameer

M4

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + SBIG ST7 + Nilesh

M5

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + SBIG ST7 + Nilesh

M51 - Wirlpool Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M64 - Black Eye Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M104 - Sombrero Hat Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M5

with AstroTech 66mm Refractor + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer

M104

with AstroTech 66mm Refractor + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer

MilkyWay from Vangani - May 3 2008

Following are the pics of Milkyway taken from Vangani by Anurag.I and Amar Sharma also tried our hands at Barn Door mount.

We used Barn Door mount made by Anurag and used his Canon 400D camera @ 24mm !!!
Exposures are in the range of 1 min and 2 mins.

click on images to see bigger version....







Cheers
Sameer

Washed out Lyrids...

Hi All,

Today early morning one of the famous Meteor shower "Lyrid" was peaked, I planned yesterday to wake-up early in the morning by 3:00 AM and try to get some photos, but was bit lazy & woke up at 4:45 AM and ran to terrace with DSLR and Tripod, And what a sky !!! with little clouds and all washed out with bright moon light, i was expecting it but moon was already near the west horizon still 30 degree above it and i thought i might get East bit darker but all sky was very bright, Mixed with light pollution from City the pics look all red-gray.

So i switched to Mono Chrome mode which at least gives some natural look to photos, with lens set at 18mm, ISO 1600 & Aperture F4.5 i started taking series of photos at 30 sec exposures hoping to catch at least one meteor.

Mean while I was staring in bright sky in hope of catching meteors visually. I had a better experience of catching meteors visually in other part of the sky than where my camera is pointing :D But my efforts was in vain I could not spot a single meteor till East Sky started glowing as sunrise nearing. may be i was late....

I took some 37 snaps till 6:00 AM and returned to continue remaining sleep. After I woke up again at 8:00 I downloaded photos on computer, started analyzing each photo carefully by converting them in negative, and Suddenly I saw one steak on one of the photo which i took of Moon in clouds, Wow a small meteor in Bright Sky !!!

I took this photo to capture beautiful Moon Rays from clouds and turn out to be one with Meteor too.. And that to in just 6 sec exposure !!! - May be that what they call "at Wrong Time at Wrong Place" :D

I am bit suspecius about its origin is Lyrid, but nevertheless I caught one !!!

The beautiful moon-rays and Scorpius... the meteor is about one o'clock position to the pipe... Click on photo to view large size in new window...


This is cropped close up of Meteor part of above photo, it is just to the left of Antares of Scorpio...



Cheers
Sameer

Victims of Light Pollution....

Hi All,

On Saturday 5-Apr-08, I and Nilesh we planned for Astrophoto session from my home at Thane. Nilesh come from Pune with his C9.25 and HX9 CCD cam. We were hoping to set it up on LXD75.

But it did not go on it as we did not have dovetail plate for it :(

Anyways we decided to use my AT66 (focal length 400mm) and Mead DSI color for photography. Nilesh fixed RoboFocuser on AT66. That reduced our great efforts for focusing Mead DSI. as those who used any CCD cam knows what a pain to focus it... Using robofocus its just 5min job to get perfect focus !!!

We Started at around 12 and setup was ready to use by 1:00 as we spent some time for visual use too...

Then come the next frustration act searching for targets in light polluted sky and that too in Leo / Virgo sky where there are many galaxies, which we do avoid as being beginner...

And further to push us hard we don't have finder on AT66, as it is very small scope... finding galaxies with small scope was pain ( even M4 was not visible when it was 40 degrees above horizon... Its Glow from Mumbai and Thane....)

After searching fruitless Nilesh advised remove cam and use eyepiece to find targets and then use cam... This worked and we got first target M51.. thoough it was not visible in Scope we know for sure where it is so we set it using eyepiece and then put DSI back. the focusing was not an issue now. and took 30 sec preview :D wow the galaxy was just near the corner. we center it using 15sec expos... and then started actual shot.. we Set Cam at Monochrome Mode as we found the color mode after subtracting dark frame causing some false color.. and set exposure to 30sec...

The best feature of Meade DSI it auto selects the good frames and stacks based on track stars provided to it.. this helps to avoid tracking errors...

We stacked around 45 frames and the result is.....

M51 : Stack of 45x30s


Later we tried following objects but the extream light pollution caused to drop out many frames in Auto Stacking and the resultant were not so good.... I hope i can upload maually processed images some where in this week, as I have all individual images which were taken during auto stacking....

M4


M8 - Lagoon Nebula


M22 - In Color


Do post your comments and suggestions

Cheers
Sameer

Lunar Eclipse of Feb 20 2008

Hi All,

here are my photos of Lunar Eclipse of February 20, 2008. This eclipse was not visible from INDIA, but i was lucky as i am currently in New Jersey, US.

The conditions were very cloudy initially but as eclipse progressed the sky was also cleared and almost clear around moon during totality.

I used my AT66 ED refractor at prime focus (@400mm) and Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera.

1. Patial Phase @ 9:26 PM EST | 1/60sec | f/6 | ISO-100


2. Partial Phase overexposed to show shadowed moon @ 9:45 PM EST | 2.5sec | f/6 | ISO-100



3. Totality just began @ 10:03 PM EST | 5sec | f/6 | ISO-100


5. Mid Totality @ 10:26 PM EST | 5sec | f/6 | ISO-100


6. Saturn - Regulus & Eclipsed Moon @ 10:40 PM EST | Canon 75-300mm lens @ 75mm | 3.2sec | f/7.1 | ISO-100 | Tripod mounted


I will post details of photos including exposure and equipment by tomorrow on my Astrophotography Blog

Cheers
Sameer

Mead DSI-Color - First Night Out

On Thursday 14th Feb I have received my Mead DSI-Color camera, luckily today that is Saturday the condition of sky was very good, so i planned for photography session.

Mead advertises DSI cameras are very easy to use, but on Windows VISTA there is lot of problems in using camera, I searched all forums and did not find any proper solution.

I spend Friday night and Saturday morning in installing uninstalling Autostar suite and other required software, at last camera started working...

The evening was chilling, temp was -4 -8 Celsius when i started at 7:00PM !

I setup my mount, did casual alignment, and DSI was ready for action. I first targeted brightest object available MOON, but with focal length of 400mm the results were not acceptable, Moon was not sharp enough :( the Magic Eye function of Autostar software did not help much !!!!

Then i turned scope to M42(my test object) and spend some 10min in focusing cam, i realized that the most critical part of any astrophotos is focus!!!

As soon as i got reasonable focus, i took dark frames(It is very important to take dark frames for Deep sky photos, DSI dose have some hot pixels that can't be eliminated without Dark Frames.

Once dark frames are completed i started takings snaps of nebula, I started with 5sec and pushed till 2mins. unfortunately my 1 min and 2mins snaps were not saved due to software problem or may be due to my poor understanding of camera !!!

i got some so so pics with exposure of 5x8, 10x7, 30x5 sec exposures...

I processed those and combined in photoshop, the result is not satisfactory but if i would not have those lost images with exposure of 1 min and 2 min (taken for Luminance) then it would have been excellent image :)

Uff... Astrophotography is cruel, lessons are always learnt hard way !!!

during this session i also notice the LXD 75 mount works great even though the scope aligned causally it tracked objects very well, even 2min exposures were excellent with no trails or jumping in star image... Cool thing [:)]

here is photo of M2 taken with DSI. The result is not great but it is my first attempt with using Meade DSI, and image is not bad; considering heavy lightg pollution of New York...[:)]




Hope very soon i get clear sky !!!
Cheers
Sameer

Lunar Crescent and Orion Nebula

Hi All

here are the two pics i took on 10th Feb with 66mm refractor...



Orion Nebula



more information on http://samastrography.blogspot.com/

Cheer
Sameer

AstroTech 66 ED in Action

After wait of almost 20days, at last i got clear sky on 10th Feb. The sky condition was very good but temperature was chilling -15 Celsius !!!

I setup mount and scope and attached My Camera at prime focus. Now my scope is working as 400mm Tele lens...

I roughly aligned mount using polar finder and centered Moon, focused and bingo !!!

Got few nice images of moon....


using Moon as focusing aid, i turned scope to My Favorite M42...
I took series of photos from 5sec to 30sec at 100 ISO and 800 ISO. photos taken at ISO 100 was almost useless due to heavy light pollution, and at 800 ISO sky background turned red !!!

Also the images are soft-focused as focus shifted while adjusting telescope :(

I combined and processed images taken at 800 ISO and achived acceptable image of M42.

here is the result processed and cropped...



Following are the unprocessed crops from original images which are combined in above processed image..



Now weather here for next 15 days is expected to be bad :( and wait for clear night started again...

Cheers
Sameer

The First Light....

After waiting 5 days for clear sky, at last today i got chance to use my new setup.
also just yesterday i received my Mead LPI camera too.. So its good time to test all things together.

I carried everything to terrace with help of Mandar, and setup mount Mead LXD75 and AstroTech 66ED refractor... and without counter weight !!! even with single counter weight i cant balance scope, it just too light for 10LBs counter weight....

It was dammn chilling... -4 Celsius !!!

The sky was clear but very bright due to glow from NewY ork Manhattan and Jersey City lights.... the Orion Nebula was hardly visible in telescope!!!

I setup mount with polar finder as close as possible to north pole.... and set mount for easy align method... It set Capella first and as soon i set it manually and hit enter on Autostar keypad it moved to next star Dhube... Telescope swelled and in low power field the Dhube was right there...alignment complete !!!

Its time to test GoTo capability, object i asked to set is MARs and goto scope did it right at first time.... mars was just below the center of field... Not BAD at all...

I tried to search Comet Holmes but cant find it due to bright sky, next i setup M45 and used Mead LPI to capture pics but the Field of frame is not enough so i switched to All Time favorite of First Time Astro-Graphers... ORION NEBULA...

I used Mead LPI on 400mm AT66ED...

here is the result of First attempt...stack of 3 pics 5, 8 and 11 sec.... combined using Registax.... As LPI is not meant for deepsky photos i was not expecting something deferent than what i got...

But still its my first Pic on owned setup :)



Cheers
Sameer

The First Pic with new DSLR

This photo with My New Camera i recently acquired. The sky condition was very cloudy and this pic taken from barely open window of clouds... Also there was too much wind, even on tripod camera was shaking a lot.



Hoping to get more pics soon...

Cheers
Sameer

Comet By Nikhil Tungare from Hydrabad - 2nd Nov

Hi Friends

Here i the bueatiful photo of comet taken by Nikhil Tungare, from Hydrabad on 2nd Nov Night.

Nikhil Has 10" Telescope...




His Telescope Setup


Have a nice day
sameer

Comet 17/P Holmes - Outburst

Hi All,


Till October 23, 2007 Comet Holmes was fibble small dot of magnitude 17 that is almost 25,000 times fainter than faintest star we can see in clear dark sky with unaided eyes. But on 24th Comet suddenly brightened to 7th magnitude and with in few hours it reached to magnitude 3, almost 400,000 times increase in brightness !!!


Now comet is visible to naked eye like a star in costallation Perseus.


About Comet Holmes...


Comet Holmes was discovered by Amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes in 1892. While he was observing Andromeda Galaxy comet was discoved, and then comet reached to 4th magnitude.
It fainted and again in Jaunary 1893 it brightened 100 fold.


It seems to be the outbursting is the nature of Comet Holmes.


The comet orbits the Sun once in 7 years at a distance of about 200 million miles (compared to Earth’s 93-million-mile orbit). It was observed again in 1899 and 1906But after that comet was not seen for almost 60 years!!! Based on a calculations by Marsden, the comet was recovered in 1964.


No body knows exact reason for these OutBursts !!!

Currently the comet is at magnitude ~2.5 and becomes small fuzzy ball in telescope with bright starlike necleaus. we are not sure how long comet will remain visible....



Here is my sketch of Comet on October 25, 2007

These photographs are taken using mobile camera over my 4" Newtonian telescope. The Quality of photos is very poor but it gives you idea how bright the comet is, to being captured so easily using mobile...




======================

And here is the picture of Comet by R. Richins on October 24, 2007. This is how comet look in small telescope...

========================



For those who wish to go out and see comet below is the Map of Sky...

So check out your sky at night....

More Info at WiKi

Wish you clear sky...

Sameer