This was the acquisition software exercise, but it is ridiculous what you can shoot through the closed window. app.astrobin.com/i/rh2fdw
08.03.2026 21:33
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This was the acquisition software exercise, but it is ridiculous what you can shoot through the closed window. app.astrobin.com/i/rh2fdw
Partial Moon mosaics with the largest scope I have and the smallest sensor I have. Imperfect mount alignment caused mosaic to run away half past Moon disk, so I have only partial disk coverage, argh. app.astrobin.com/i/gmex5d
Mixed in a single narrow-band panel from the same night into the new revision: app.astrobin.com/i/eeimdi?r=B
Reprocessed without crop and more accurate stretching. Can see more details of Orion molecular cloud complex, including little part of Barnard's Loop!
app.astrobin.com/u/shade?i=ym...
This is finally something I can reasonably call successful, yay! Took me a while to get here. app.astrobin.com/i/eeimdi
Happy to report the widefield rig is performing nearly as expected, with only minor inconveniences. app.astrobin.com/i/ymu8i3
Aleksey – Orion, round 2, fight! Coming back with fixed widefield rig after a flop yesterday.
Several important things failed as I was doing this widefield project last night, but there is at least *some* recoverable results from it. app.astrobin.com/i/lrejtg
Jupiter shots from Saturday; with little animation included. app.astrobin.com/i/hl230w
Some processed Moon shots from Saturday. SCT held the collimation over the month of use pretty good, but not perfectly. Would be greater next time. app.astrobin.com/i/qidkmx
The future is basically choosing whether you pay a monthly subscription for a service which uses your data to build a model that runs the killbot that is about to kick your door down, or not. But I am sure it is here to deliver my sushi order.
RepairCafe: Saturday, Feb 28, 11:00..15:00 at Potsdam SLB. Come bring your curiosity and your broken devices. We can tinker together, maybe successfully, maybe not, but it should be fun either way. We speak German, English, Russian.
Having the unbelievable amount of fun with every test shot with this widefield thing. app.astrobin.com/i/o5ylv2
To be honest, a lot of those additions are the spare stock just waiting to be used, for any self-respecting hobbyist. What, you don't have AM5N that just lies there in the corner? Rookie mistake, that. /s
Wide field deep-sky? Yes, we can as well:
app.astrobin.com/i/ujykks
Lazy through-window test shot from yesterday night: app.astrobin.com/i/pmyf8h
Polished the second-hand Samyang 135 rig a bit more. It is so cute, I just can't. Widefield astrophotography is easy, by the way, you just need a good telephoto lens and a few... well, a few... like, just a bit more things attached to it.
Folks, "Feb 28 planetary parade" is full of AI slop. Half of the parade needs unobstructed 20° alt. Plus, it gets uncomfortably close to the sun; DO NOT EVEN TRY ANY OPTICS UNTIL SUN IS COMPLETELY GONE, I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH. And you need optics to resolve planets...
I knew you would approve ;)
Ye gods, I love buying second-hand stuff from fellow amateur hobbyists. You can clearly see they (we) sell things that we have taken good care of. Holding up my end of the bargain by sending back the acceptance test results when closing the transaction.
More "No Effort Productions" from last night. This time leaning heavily onto post-processing. I hate that it is not *that much* worse in comparison to one I shot freezing by bottoms off. app.astrobin.com/i/c8n2uc
Continuing to sift through "no effort" shots through the window from yesterday. He-e-e-e-e-ere is Horsie! Whooping 1 minute total exposure time. Internal reflections in 2-pane glass window from Alnitak and σ Ori as a bonus.
Но ведь "смазка эта треклятая всё равно везде" -- это ровно то, что ты хочешь от смазки! Лучше смазка где не надо, чем смазки нет там, где хрустит и скрежещет!
As I mentioned earlier, Orion Nebula is extremely forgiving target. You can get a decent shot out of it with the astrophotographic equivalent of a potato. Well, I guess you have to learn how to hold the potato right and steady for a few minutes, but that is not that hard either.
Clear night tonight, but I am too lazy to go out. So instead I made "no effort" quick shots directly through the closed (!) window, with barely any polar alignment, without guiding, etc. 50x5s live SharpCap stack (left) is already quite good. ...and a few touchups later (right):
Keep collecting data, stack the frames and then stretch them to peek into darker areas. On the picture above: single 30s frame, same 30s frame stretched, bunch of 60x30s frames stacked and stretched. Data hides in the dark, go and patiently hunt for it.
Tis' Orion season, which is a good starter target if you get into astrophotography. One thing you absolutely need to know: astrophoto is about total integration time, as you hunt for individual photons in darker areas. Don't be disappointed if your individual frames look dark...
More HST data re-processing, Horse Nebula this time: app.astrobin.com/i/o613bb. This is almost too easy with high quality data publicly available.
Gloomy cloudy days ahead with no clearing in sight, so I resort to processing Hubble Space Telescope, again. This one is (part of) Monkey Head Nebula. HST 2014 Anniversary picture was from the same data: app.astrobin.com/i/n910h0
