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Old 02-10-2012, 10:29 PM
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Moonman (Michael)
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Oct Nov Astro Photo challenge Month (AstroPhoMo)

This is a bit of an exercise I've coined myself and taken on styled on a similar activity that my wife partakes in called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The idea is to write 1700 words a day for a month.

So I've coined AstroPhoMo (Astro Photo Month) where I will attempt to take and post one Astro or Night Sky Photo a day for a month.

You can see the first two days efforts on my Blog at http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.au/

The main idea is to challenge myself to do different things with different combinations of equipment that I might not ordinarily attempt. It's already got me motivated to attempt something different each day instead of just doing the same old things. Hopefully tomorrow night if its clear enough I'll attempt to image an asteroid.

If anyone wants to have a go too let me know and I might put a face book page for it if there's enough interest or we could just create a special thread or just use this one. No need to worry about specific dates. I envisage a two month overlap October to November will work fine.

Cheers

Last edited by Moonman; 02-10-2012 at 10:33 PM. Reason: missed a bit!
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Old 03-10-2012, 03:19 AM
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ourkind (Carlos)
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Cool idea Michael, I have a friend who took a photo each day for a year and shared it on facebook, it was a very interesting exercise he went through ups and downs but he remained true and captured many different moments all with commentary, ones you'd normally forget from one week to the next. At the end of it all he said that it was going to be a year hard to forget, all the photographs were numbered ie. 23/365 and so on.

Something I'd like to try myself ... someday.

Good luck with your project I have subscribed to your thread in interest

Best regards
Carlos
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Old 03-10-2012, 09:25 PM
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Moonman (Michael)
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3rd October

Thanks for your comments there Carlos. Imagine a whole year. Who knows I might just keep going myself

Today I've taken some more solar shots. Taken with an Olympus 5MP Compact
Digital per focal with a PST.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...tro-photo.html

I've come away today with a bit more appreciation of some of my equipment namely the nuances of the filter functions on the PST and some smudges on the ccd chip on my DSI Pro so I think a bit of a clean is in order.
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Old 04-10-2012, 11:11 PM
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Moonman (Michael)
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4th October

A bit of a Ngc104 hash job for today. I spent most of the time trying to chase down an asteroid but failed to pick it out. I had visions of doing a blink comparison shot over time to display the motion but this was not to be.

Running out of time I just took some unguided i minute frames of Ngc104 with my old DSI colour ccd.There's even a touch of amp glow for old times sake.

Blog post is here
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Old 05-10-2012, 03:01 AM
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ourkind (Carlos)
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Very nice as a newbie myself what do you mean by amp glow?
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Old 05-10-2012, 09:29 AM
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Hi Carlos,

If you look at the top border you can see a glow as if some bright object off frame was spoiling the picture. That comes from inside the camera from its own electrics. I think there is a way of turning it off in the software and or taking better dark subtraction frames to neutralize the effect. Either way I was in a hurry in the end too get something on by midnight. You might notice to some blue and red specs which are hot pixels also in the camera residing on the actual CCD chip. I have mostly used the Dsi as a guide camera and chose to use it last night because of its smaller field of view and its ability to stream images quickly which I thought might be helpful. Alas looking for asteroids is,like finding the proverbial pin and its a skill I will have work on.

Cheers
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Old 05-10-2012, 10:55 PM
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Moonman (Michael)
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5th October

Auto guiding gone to the dogs but managed to get these unguided pics of the Tarantula and Lagoon nebulae.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...tro-photo.html
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Old 06-10-2012, 04:54 AM
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they're (from my newbie opinion) really good shots!!

Were they done using the 8" ?
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Old 06-10-2012, 03:04 PM
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AstroPhoMo 6th october

I'm using an 80mm Refractor. You can glimpse the setup in the foreground of todays shot.

As last nights session went into the wee hours this morning I've counted the shots taken after midnight as todays shots.

I've taken a flash light trail during a 30 second shot in the backyard and you can just see the southern cross and pointers just above the trees center right.

The other shot is a 10 minute exposure south celestial pole star trail through the telescope after I parked it, mainly for a bit of fun but the outcome will be some fine adjustments to the mount to bring the SCP bang on center with the concentric circular patterns radiating out.

I'm thinking now that with accurate polar alignment and some PEC (periodic error correction) on the mount (something I've never bothered doing before) I can go out and capture relatively uncomplicated unguided short exposures without too much fuss.

If I get a chance for a clear run I'll try and restart the autoguiding for some longer shots at some point.

cheers
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Old 08-10-2012, 11:12 PM
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Smile 7th and 8th October.

I have been busy doing a more precise mount alignment using the camera to image the SCP. Not quite perfect but probably better than I've had it before just using drift alignment. Also taken a wide angle lens shot of the SCP. Please excuse the hot pixels. I didn't get around to doing a dark frame for this shot and couldn't find an old one to use.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.au/
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Last edited by Moonman; 08-10-2012 at 11:16 PM. Reason: additional text
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Old 09-10-2012, 01:33 AM
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Very cool Michael nice star trails! I like the idea of the long exposure of the SCP whilst the scope is parked I will do the same during my next imaging session and see just how far or close I am with my current set up and tweek it accordingly.

I too have not yet tried PEC or Drift Alignment for that measure, I always skip the bits that sound hard, I just need to bite the bullet and give them a go!

I only bought a refractor and guider a few weeks ago, here's a photo I took on Saturday of my setup, Unfortunately I only got 5 mins worth of imaging before the clouds completely took over.
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Old 09-10-2012, 01:19 PM
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Nice setup there. I'm hoping to tray some auto guiding through the finderscope too but like you clouds are a problem. I also wouldn't mind a bigger refractor like yours. Is that a 100 or 120mm?

Be good to see your SCP shots when you get them.

Cheers

Mike
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Old 10-10-2012, 04:41 AM
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It must look bigger in my photo, it's actually an 80mm like yours

I bought it to guide my C11, but it won't work until I buy a bigger mount, currently eyeing out the Losmandy G11's and possibly the still to be released SW EQ8 which has more load capacity.

Setup yesterday ready to image the SCP but it got cloudy just as the sun was setting it's like watching a mini series with a cliff hanger at the end of each eposide
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Old 10-10-2012, 05:50 PM
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9th and 10th October

Today's offering is a solar shot with a reasonably remarkable flare in process, not surprising given the aurora alerts of the past few days.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...strophomo.html

As for the 9th the weather won the day. Cloudy nights are very drab.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...tro-photo.html
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Old 11-10-2012, 05:10 PM
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Smile 11th October

More solar again today. This with a DSI Colour and Coranado PST. Got some help from this old thread. Thanks to Paul Haese for the blanket tip. Made using the PC in the backyard a lot easier.





http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...omo-astro.html
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Old 13-10-2012, 09:47 PM
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13th November AstroPhoMo

Got a nice shot of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae this evening.

I've posted over in the Deep Space Image Forum.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...3#post904193:D
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Old 15-10-2012, 05:38 PM
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14th October

Did a Twilight to Midnight time lapse with my 300d plus Tokina WA Lens.

Had some fun manipulating the daylight to night sequence with altering camera settings and some curve adjustments in post processing.

Hope you enjoy!

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.a...tro-photo.html
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Old 19-10-2012, 09:20 AM
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I'm enjoying this now that most of my gear is sold and the rest is in boxes.
Keep them coming!

I'm so jealous of your Southern-ness. I would love to see some aurora one day.
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Old 19-10-2012, 09:37 AM
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Sorry for the Hiatus

Work and weather have finally intervened to interupt the flow of images.

Last night it was cloudy but I noticed a bit of a red hue in the clouds from the light pollution from Launceston around dusk.

I also managed to put the finishing touches on a bit of a dodgy all night time lapse from the 15th.

http://astronomytales.blogspot.com.au/
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Old 19-10-2012, 09:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poita View Post
I'm enjoying this now that most of my gear is sold and the rest is in boxes.
Keep them coming!

I'm so jealous of your Southern-ness. I would love to see some aurora one day.
Hi Peter,

I'd like to see and aurora properly one day too. In Tassie Hobart is a good spot but it's hard to get there from here at the drop of a hat when there's an alert.

I still have your Meade OAG too which I haven't had the chance to use yet. Let me know if you need me to post it on to someone or back to you.

Cheers

Michael
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