Perseid Meteor Shower 2018

My husband, Carl, and I went out to the Witte Observatory on the evening and morning of August 11 / 12 for the Perseid Meteor Shower.  As Carl puts it ~ it definitely was not a "shower" =)

Stone-Kelley Dome and Milky Way

Camera point of view, Andromeda Galaxy is barely visible

Meteors

Plane

Satellite?

Last photo of this session.  Check out how the dew has diminished the star brightness....

More from my new Atik Horizon

Last night I took advantage of clear skies and imaged from home again.  I was out there from about 9 PM to 4 AM.  I used a small RavPower battery pack for my laptop and my new (light) 200WH Portable Generator for my scope and camera.  I was pleased to get about 7 hours out of the two!

I continue to get a bit better at getting where I want and what I want with regard to imaging.  A few things I want to keep in mind below (i.e. note to self):

• Before beginning, use eyepeice and make sure image will be centered.  StarSense will do this.  Go to known star, center, and press Align - etc.  After centering, press Back to continue.
• To focus, slew to object and focus on set of nearby stars.  On my FeatherTouch focuser, the camera will be focused about 80 mm.  Set Video mode to about 4 seconds exposure and make sure Stacking is OFF.  Use the FWHM (Full Width Half Maximum) AND visual to optimize.  Looking for the smallest FWHM (range 3 to 5 is good).  Make sure to allow A LOT of time between focus adjustments - especially at the beginning of the session.  Watch for the "jiggle" and the green status bar at the top to know the image on the screen is updated.  Plan to focus a bit after moving.
• The Infinity software seems to freeze on me.  I think it froze about four time during this session.  A work around will be (maybe) to be sure and record the session so it can be processed later.  Also, save images as they are stacking.
• To get best image, turn on the Fine Histogram option near the bottom left menu - select black, orange, white.
• Take care when slewing between objects.  If there is concern telescope might run into mount, manually slew scope to approximate location and then use goto.
• One BIG thing I think I did find out is that the presence of wispy (high-level) clouds will add a grey / white background to stacked images - this makes sense.

All-in-all, I'm haveing a BLAST viewing "stuff" from home like this.  Things just don't pop out or can't be viewed without stacking.  It's SO enjoyable watching images "come alive".  It's also "fun" playing around with the histogram while gathering those cute little photons =)

NGC 7662 Blue Snowball Nebula

 NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

  NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

 M16 (again) Eagle Nebula

 M19 Globular Cluster

 M27 (again) Dumbbell Nebula

 M31 Andromeda Galaxy (first stab =)

 M57 Ring Nebula

 M81 Galaxy (very low when imaged)

 M82; Cigar Galaxy (very low when imaged)

 NGC 457; E.T. Cluster in Cassiopeia

 NGC 6995 Part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus

Who Needs Dark Skies?

More photos from my Horizon camera....  These were all taken in town and for some the Moon was nearby.

M27

M19

NGC 6604

NGC 6539

M14

M12

M4

M80

M107

ZWO ASI 120 Color Planetary Camera

So my husband is like...  Your new Horizon camera will not image planets?  You should get you something so you can image planets <3

So.... I (we) purchased the ZWO ASI 120 color camera.  I'm still finding my way around - but VERY FUN!  For these photos I used SharpCap software to take the images and then AutoStakkert to stack the images.

More Photos from Horizon Camera

So many things I want to try to image! =)

I feel like I'm getting the hang of using the Infinity software.  It's pretty cool that you can record a session to be looked at later AND also snag a photo on the spot.

You have to look closely to see a "Turtle Nebula".  It's that blue circle in the upper left-hand corner.  Not much detail....

Can't get too much of the Hercules Cluster, M13

 Here's one I've never see like this.... The Saturn Nebula.  How fun!

These were ALL taken from our home here in town.