Exploring the Suffolk Virginia Night Sky – Astronomy, Astrophotography, Telescopes, EAA – Planets and Stars and Nebula and Galaxies – Looking, Learning, Sharing… Let's see what we can see…
Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (N.I.N.A.) is a free, open-source software suite for astrophotography that allows users to automate many tasks for capturing images of the night sky.
I picked up a new telescope for my Birthday, the SVBONY SV555 Astrophotography Telescope. The SVBONY SV555 is an F/4.5 widefield APO lens with a 54mm aperture and a 243mm focal length. I ordered it while we were down on Ocracoke Island…
It has been a good while since the last time I was able to capture any far off photons with the SV503. I broke the scope down and stored it away in the Astro Shed just before we went down to Ocracoke…
I picked up the Gemini Automatic Star Focuser Pro for the AT66ED so that I can change scopes between the SV503 102ED and the AT66ED without having to remove and refit the electronic focuser. I have used the focuser for a couple…
Nice clear night. Still doing a lot of tinkering and testing with the AT66ED setup. The plan was to work on getting the focus configuration dialed in and I was able to do that. Then I decided to gather a couple hours…
This is a really neat project which is integrated directly with Nightime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (NINA) using a plugin. To enable this integration simply install and configure the Lightbucket plugin. Once the Lightbucket plugin configured with an API key the information about…
Another clear night. That’s two in a row! Clear and cool, a little bit of haze off to the east, that cleared up a bit later. Another nice night to look up. This is the first time I have done an “unattended”…
Nice clear night, a little on the cool side for this time of year with the temperatures in the low 60s. A 29% waxing crescent Moon was setting. First time in a couple months I have had the SV503 102ED out, I…
The NINA Imaging Dashboard provides a one stop display of command and control information for a NINA imaging session: gear connections, camera control, mount information, guiding statistics, image statistics and history, focus, sequence progress, and more. NINA’s Imaging Dashboard is also very…
Mostly clear, highs in the upper 60s, and a light breeze. A nice night even with a very bright 91% Waxing Full Moon. Despite the Moon I really wanted to capture some light. 06/19 is a holiday, so I could stay up…
It is helpful to have current weather information during an observing session. I typically record the current temperature, humidity, and cloud cover in my observation session logs. Weather data can be obtained from a few different sources. In this post I am…