Cold AND Clear

Temperature (without wind) was -1 F, but I wanted to see Comet Lovejoy again AND it was Friday.  What better thing is there to do on a Friday night then to spend some time with your scope?  lol

Also ~ school will be starting next week and I'll need to fight the urge to get out the scope instead of preparing for lectures, etc.  Sigh!

These pictures were taken without the aid of the telescope lens.  The camera was mounted on the optical tube which was being guided.  I was pleasantly surprised that the fov in the scope lined up pretty darn well with the camera :-)  I used an 85 mm f/1.8 Opteka lens.  Several photos were cropped.

M42 / Orion Belt and Sword; t = 8 sec, ISO = 800

Double Cluster in Cassiopeia;  t = 10 sec; ISO = 800

 ET Cluster in Cassiopeia; t = 8 sec, ISO = 1600

Comet Lovejoy; t = 20 sec; ISO = 400

M45; t = 3.2 sec; ISO = 800

Oops!  I need to clarify here I used an "Eyepiece Projection" technique - for the first time.  So taken through the telescope / 20 mm eyepiece =)  Jupiter; t = 1/40 sec, ISO = 400

Some pics of Comet Lovejoy through the telescope ~ no stacking; ISO = 1600 for all

t = 15 sec 

 t = 20 sec

t = 30 sec

Waning Gibbous Moon ~ t = 1/200 sec, ISO = 200

ALL for now.... =)

'Twas a Chilly January Evening

January 7 we experienced a blast of cold Arctic air.... but the skies were clear AND Comet Lovejoy <3 was at its closest (not necessarily brightest) to the Earth.

The temperature was -7 F with wind chills of -20 F.  ALL gear worked just fine!

Raw Pics:

10 sec; 1600 ISO

 30 sec; 6400 ISO

 20 sec; 1600 ISO

 30 sec; 1600 ISO

 30 sec; 6400 ISO

 30 sec; 800 ISO

 20 sec; 3200 ISO

Then I used Deep Sky Stacker 40 Lights (t = 30 s; ISO = 1600); 20 Bias; 20 Flats; 15 Darks to come up with these processed photos.

Playing around with StarStaX because I want to create star trail images, I plugged in 40 Light frames I took of Comet Lovejoy.  It's rather telling, I think, about how well the mount was tracking ~ hmmm.... =)

Stacked ~ 4000 frames of Jupiter; t = 1/125 s; ISO = 400 using AutoStakkart!2

An last but not least.... a waning gibbous Moon =)

Other Misc Pics....  Is this what "cold" looks like?  =)

Snow not Stars Tonight =)

Happy New Year! =)

A bit on the nippy side (~15 F) but enjoyed setting up for the Sun New Year's Eve Day and ringing in the new year viewing from the porch =)

t = 1/640 s; 200 ISO

t = 1/1600 s; 200 ISO ~ I really like the jet and its contrail =)

Mars ~ t = 8 s; 6400 ISO

M35 - M38 ALL t = 30 s; 1600 ISO

Waxing Gibbous

t = 1/200 s; 200 ISO

Here's to a TERRIFIC 2015!!! :-)