Sirius A&B – Canon 40D DSLR, yeah baby!

[Dennis]

Hello,

After a loooong time skulking under generally cloudy skies, I managed to set up last night for the first time in months! Just to get reacquainted with setting up and operating the rig, I kept it simple with the Mewlon 180 and the Canon 40D and Tak x1.6 Extender. No computer, no GoTo – just a simple night out under the stars.

Bless Pavel Bahtinov for his amazing Bahtinov Mask; I just used “Live View” on the 3” LCD on the 40D, zoomed in to x10 to get the focus.

So here it is, a first for me – Sirius A&B with a DSLR. I created a 2 frame animation showing a single 1 sec and 5 sec exposure.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy (David)]

thought it was a motorcyle coming my way - glad you're out and about

[rogerg (Roger)]

Nice Dennis, very interesting to see a DSLR shot of this

[gbeal]

Nice shot Dennis. I too have rejoined the Mewlon fold, picked up a nice M210 recently. Should give it a whizz as well.
Gary

[theodog (Jeff)]

Nice one Dennis.
Nice one.

[Liz]

Great one Dennis Good to see the pup

[AlexN]

Incredible Dennis... Refresh my memory, what is the separation between Sirius and the pup? I'm amazed the seeing held up!

I must admit, I had a grumbe last night.. The sky was pretty pristine but I had to disappear to bed early due to work.. Its always the way.. so ~ so skies on a friday/saturday.. awesome skies Sunday and a 4:30am start on Monday

Good on you for getting out with the scope and getting some data! Sure puts a smile on your face when you finally get back next to your scope doesn't it!

Cheers mate.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

thought it was a motorcyle coming my way - glad you're out and about

Thanks Dave! Surprisingly, I wasn’t too rusty!

Originally Posted by rogerg

Nice Dennis, very interesting to see a DSLR shot of this

Thanks Roger! Yes, I was very pleased to be able to record the Pup with single frame DSLR exposures compared to my usual multiple DMK frame stacks.

Originally Posted by gbeal

Nice shot Dennis. I too have rejoined the Mewlon fold, picked up a nice M210 recently. Should give it a whizz as well.
Gary

Thanks Gary! I occasionally suffer moments of “I want a bigger Mewlon than my 180” and the 210 would be very nice indeed! As you’re a Tak aficionado there’s nothing I can really add other than enjoy, and I look forward to seeing your results with this fine instrument.

Originally Posted by theodog

Nice one Dennis.
Nice one.

Thanks Jeff! I need something else to do now that the moons of Uranus and Neptune are less accessible!

Originally Posted by Liz

Great one Dennis Good to see the pup

Thanks Liz! It’s always a pleasant surprise when I manage to record the Pup; I never tire of seeing this dim companion peeping out from behind the overwhelming glare of Sirius A.

Originally Posted by AlexN

Incredible Dennis... Refresh my memory, what is the separation between Sirius and the pup? I'm amazed the seeing held up!
Cheers mate.

Thanks Alex! My SkyTools application currently gives the separation details as PA 92° Sep 8.82" so it is quite a wide split. As you know, the main challenge is managing the overwhelming brightness of Sirius A, at Magnitude -1.46 versus Sirius B, at Magnitude 8.5. Even with the fine optics of the Mewlon, it requires good seeing with Sirius higher than 30-40 degrees altitude.

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Well done Dennis!

Al.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by sheeny

Well done Dennis!

Al.

Thanks Al! I’m currently playing hide-and-seek with the clouds in an attempt to get some full disc shots of AR1040. Sweltering once again, but nowhere near as bad as those poor souls in Vic and SA.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tamtarn]

Beautifully done Dennis. Your the master imager of "the pup"

By the way temp at midnight in Melbourne was 35 degrees