I knew the moon was going to be fairly bright, but I wanted to have a look at and maybe try to get an image or two of Jupiter. It was nice and clear, a bit warm, and very humid.

I recently picked up a 16mm Nagler on Astromart and was looking forward to giving it a try in the SV80BV – WOW! This will probably end up being my main eyepiece for this scope. Nice crisp views, sharp focus, just very nice. Since it is a 1.25″ eyepiece I stuck with all 1.25″ eyepieces so I did not have to keep switching out the 2″-1.25″ adapter.

The notes in my log are not as I usually do them – Object: Description of what I see. This time they are a bit more free form, I guess I was just not feeling very structured during this session.

I tried to check out several Messier objects before moon rise, but even with the moon over the horizon the bright light from it still made a wash of the night sky. I did get a view or M27, M57, M13, and M15 but because of the bright moon light I was not able to see very much detail for any of these. M13 was very faint and I was not able to resolve and individual stars with either the 16mm or 7mm eyepieces. M27 looked like a faint bubble and showed no detail.

Jupiter was just awesome! Very clear and crisp in the 16mm and 7mm. Even very nice and sharp in the 4mm Radian. Lots of detail in the 4mm – one dark band and at least two visible lighter bands. The views through the eyepiece were just spectacular! The four Galilean moons of Jupiter were very bright and easy to spot. I could keep all of them in the FOV of the 16mm and 7mm eyepieces. (I made a rough sketch of their position in my log, I might scan it later)

I hooked up the Orion DSI II camera to the Televue 2x Powermate and took 100 exposures at 0.04 second and 100 exposures at 0.05 second. I was a bit out of focus on the second set so they are pretty much trash, but after stacking the 100/0.04 seconds I ended up with my best Jupiter image yet.

I ended the night with a look at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Even with the bright moon the galactic center was easy to find and looked very nice in the 16mm. With a darker sky I think this object will end up looking amazing with this eyepiece through this scope.

Friday night was very cold and fairly clear – just a few high thin clouds passing through every so often. I was out for a few hours and had the chance to take a few images with my new AT66ED scope that I picked up a month or so ago.

I was able to get scope pretty well aligned fairly quickly and then I was really just focusing on, well, getting decent focus with the my D60 through the scope. A few weeks ago I picked up a
Orion 12.5mm Illuminated Reticle Eyepiece. This was the first chance I had to try it out and it really helped in getting the goto aligned.

Besides just taking some time to observe, I was just trying to get a feel for taking images with the new scope. Here are a couple of the images I captured and I think these are some of the best I have done so far.

Check out the image I got of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. I actually took about 20 minutes worth of exposures but only 4 of the 2 minute exposures really came out well enough to stack. You can really start to see the dust lanes in our large neighbor. The satellite galaxies M110 and M32 are also both visible in this picture. I can’t wait to image this again.

Andromeda Galaxy - M31, M32, and M110 - 8 x 2 Minutes, ISO400

Then the Pleiades or M45, this image could still use some work, but it is the first stack of images that I have taken of the star cluster where you can really start to see some of the blue nebulosity around the stars in the cluster. The Pleiades will definitely be a target of future observations and images.

M45 - Pleiades, 10 x 2 mins ISO400

Original sizes of the above pics can be found on my flickr page here.

I also spent some time visually observing M42 and several other targets in Orion, such as the Horse Head and Flame Nebula. I was able to make out both of these in the eyepiece but not with very much detail. Again more targets that I cannot wait to spend some more time on.

Mars rose in the east sometime after 11:00 or so and I spent a little time checking out the red planet. I will spend more time checking Mars out again.

Friday was a great night for star gazing. While I was out I also saw one really bright Geminid meteor streak overhead. The rest of the weekend has been cloudy and rainy.

Just a quick thanks to Flintstone Stargazing for the Quick DeepSky Stacker Tutorial, very helpful in setting things up to stack my images. I was not able to “Mosaic” mode for some reason, just showed streaks through the images, but in “Standard” mode I was able to produce the images above by following his other guidelines.

The Andromeda Galaxy

Here’s a wide field shot of Pleiades. Six 2 mintue exposures ISO800 piggy backed 50mm f/1.8.

Pleiades

Tonight was just a quick look.  The weather was calling for a mostly clear sky and I just wanted to take advantage of it, even if it was only for a quick look.

Because of this I decided to setup my NexStar 60 SLT Refractor.  I have not used this scope since I got the C8.  Unlike the C8 the 60 SLT takes about 5 minutes to setup and align, the views are no where near as spectacular, but if you are just trying to take in a quick view, it’s perfect.

I setup the scope and powered it up, selected the two star manual align on the GOTO controller and after setting the location, time, and date selected Betelgeuse for the first alignment star and then Rigel for the second, after I was finished aligning these stars in the eye piece “Alignment Success” flashed on the screen of the hand controller.

I selected M31 on the GOTO controller and the scope moved into position nearly dead on the Andromeda Galaxy.  Through the 15mm lens I could pick up a fair amount of detail.  The bulge of stars in the center fading outward to the left and right of my field of view.

After studying M31 for about 20 minutes, I entered M33 hoping to get a glimpse of a second galaxy. The scope changed position but I was not able to find the Triangulum galaxy in the eyepiece.  After about 5 minute or so of searching I gave up on this one till next time.

Venus is high in the Southwest sky so I entered Planet and selected Venus on the GOTO controller.  The scope slewed around to the planet, it was a little high in the eyepiece, but still not bad.  Venus looks like a half moon and is very bright.  I was able to get a pretty decent view of the planet through the 20mm eyepiece.

I ended my time with M43, this is one of my favorites.  Partly because it is so easy to find and partly because it can be viewed with even a low power scope.  Even with a small scope you can see this nebula and enjoy it’s beauty.

Just before 8:00 PM some high thin clouds started to move in and the moon began to rise in the East.  By 8:30 the light of the moon reflecting off the high clouds was washing out all but the brightest of stars.

M31 - 25 x 1 minute exposures

I also took a series of shots of M42. Again the moon was very bright so it kind of washed it out.

M42 - 15 x 1 minute exposures

These were both taken with my Nikon D60 200mm f/5.6 piggy backed on my C8 scope. I also spent a fair bit of time checking out the moon. Nice night.

Moon

The frost got to the scope lens pretty quick – even with the dew shield, so everything was cloudy through the main scope not 45 minutes after I got started. I am working on a dew heater for it which should be finished by the time I am out next weekend.

I just did a few test shots of M42, M31, and Pleiades. Tried 30 second, 1 minute, and 2 minute exposures just to see what I could come up with. Below are a few that I think turned out really well. These are either 30 second or 1 minute single exposures with no stacking or other processing (besides cropping and resizing). I used my 55-200mm f/3.5 lens set at infinite focus, ISO800. Most of the shots were taken at 105mm except for the Orion’s belt one which is at 55mm.

Seeing conditions were not that great. A lot of light pollution and clouds but I did enjoy trying out the new mount and I am looking forward to practicing with it on a good clear night.

M42 - The Orion Nebula

Orion's Belt and M42

Pleiades

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy