Science Daily: Mars
- Simulated mission to Mars: Survey of lichen species October 11, 2024
- New insights into how Mars became uninhabitable October 7, 2024
Science Daily: Uranus
- NASA's Hubble, New Horizons team up for a simultaneous look at Uranus October 11, 2024
- Key to rapid planet formation August 1, 2024
Science Daily: Kuiper Belt
- Carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on Pluto's moon Charon October 1, 2024
- How Pluto got its heart April 15, 2024
Welcome to astrofoto.org!
Here you will find the fruits of our hobby. Well, for Maria it is a hobby; for Roland it is closer to an obsession. Still, this is where you will find some of the fruits of that work. In March of 2000, we purchased an 8-inch Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount from Orion Telescopes, the SkyQuest XT8.
Using the telescope was a learning experience, especially since time and responsibilities did not allowed us to get to any star parties or meet members from any clubs in the area for nearly a year. Usenet news on sci.astro.amateur was a lifesaver. Most of the time we were viewing from our 3rd story porch in Queens (in the eastern part of New York City). Views to the west were compromised by massive light pollution from Manhattan and during the coldest months the city generates significant heat that ruins the seeing even as high as 60 degrees above the horizon. Still, there are plenty of things which can be seen with the 8-inch scope, or for that matter, with our 10×50 binoculars.
In October of 2002 we moved to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. We no longer have the 3rd floor porch, but the skies actually seem to be darker. Some of this is because we are near the water which means that in some directions there really is less light pollution. We’ve also acquired some camera equipment and a several telescopes as Roland has gone on a shopping spree (not really, it just kind of accumulates). At this point we have a couple of smaller scopes includeing a 90mm f/5 refractor, its bigger brother, a Orion 120ST 120mm f/5, and older Tasco 60mm f/11 (or so, not quite sure), and an Orion Apex 127mm. And since the imaging bug bit, I’ve acquired a Losmandy GM-8 mount with Gemini GOTO and an older “push-to” Mountain Instruments MI-250 mount. Storage is a problem, but having enough scopes for kids activities is not.
Comet C/2023 A3
Quick and dirty using a cell phone from near my home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Hoping for much better views later this week as it to rises higher after sunset.
Eclipse Prominences
I had a vague idea of trying to merge this with an HDR version of the corona to show the prominences and the corona all at once. Of course, it doesn’t look like that to the naked eye, but hey! However, the process of aligning the image sets immediately revealed that won’t work. The moon …
“First” 2024 Totality Image
It’s really about the 3rd or 4th attempt to merge multiple exposures to get an HDR image. Object: Sun, solar eclipse Location: Outskirts of Jackson, MO Observer: Roland Roberts Time: 8 April 2024, 13:59:10 – 13:59:33 Camera: Canon T6i, Lens: AstroTech 66ED, 400 mm @ f/6 Exposure: 2 each at 1/4000, 1/1000, 1/250, 1/60, 1/15, …
3D Constellation Models
Last week I as at NEAF and as usual, the 3D constellation models were a hit. I’ve been reusing some very old model templates created ages ago but they have some problems…with the math that created them. This past year, I wrote up a spreadsheet with the calculations an a write-up on how to use …
Eclipse 2024 Preparation
Final setup and tests for Monday’s totality from Jackson, MO. I’m fortunate enough to have family living pretty much on the centerline for this one. Depending on which eclipse map web site I visit, the centerline either goes by about 50 meters west or 50 meters east of my location. This is a 1200×1200 crop …
Eclipse is Coming
I’ve been silent for the past year because…well, I’ve done pretty much nothing astronomy-wise. Life has kept me busy. But I’m fortunate enough to have relatives that live pretty much on the centerline of this eclipse (within a couple hundred meters or less, depending in which online map I consult). So, I’ve got 4 minutes …
Lost Drivers from the Days of Windows 7
So I haven’t used my Orion ST120 in a while which means I’ve gone through two OS upgrades from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and recently to Window 11. Which means I don’t have a driver for my archaic James Lacy LazyFocus controller that goes with my very nice first generation Moonlite focuser. Fortunately, I’m …
StarXTerminator 2.x: I’m sold
I’ve had mixed luck with StarXTerminator. When I first came across it, I found it worked better than StarNet for the images I was processing. Those were with the RedCat 51 at 250mm F/L. It was wonderful, so I bought a license and considered worth every penny. Then I started doing some wider field images …
Star Haven M31
As usual, between equipment issues and weather issues, I got much less than I expected. But it was a good time with friends from the club and I did get some images. Object M 31, in the constellation Andromeda Camera dual Canon T6i, modified Lens/Scope Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 @ f/4 Exposure 55 x 3 minutes …
PixInsight Background/Gradient Removal
Sometimes, you just have to keep asking the same question over and over again until you get a good answer. PixInsight has some really good background/gradient removal tools and if you use PixInsight, you’re immediately thinking of the Dynamic Background Extraction (DBE) or Automatic Background Extraction (ABE). Truth is, that’s what I always think of, …
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