Allmost full moon 7th March 2012

Taken with a Canon 350D and Skywatcher ED80 with ND filter on an EQ6 Mount.   Image consists of 10 x1/16th second exposures, 6400 ISO, captured, alligned, stacked, sharpened, stretched in Nebulosity.

And this one with colour post processing.

Reprocessed Images

Given the pleasing result I got from reprocessing my Orion shot from this January I revisted some old data from last year to see if I could spruce it up.    Here's a shot of Centaurus A. that you can see on a previous post in this Blog.

That was then.

This is NOW!

I've managed to remove a good deal of the background noise.  Also there was a fair amount of cloud around when I took the original shots so all in all I think it has cleared up well.

Thanks for Looking!

 The Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42 and 43) in my previous post for the 28th January.  The image was very grainy and noisy, not surprising as this nebula is a very intense object.  I used another processing tool call GreyCstoration in Nebulosity which is designed to get into the the background of the image and remove the some of this noise.

Day 11 Moon Early Morning 5th February 2011

Canon 350D, WO Z70 Refractor on Tridpod.  16 1/80sec frames stacked and processed in Nebulosity.

January 27th and 28th 2012 Blackstone Heights.

Wide field shot of the Sword of Orion inc. Orion Nebula M42.  Telescope SWED80, Camera is a Canon 350D, 10*60 second exposures at 400 iso, stacked, alligned and combined and post processed in Nebulosity. Auto guiding with Meade DSI Colour CCD and PHD.

M42 cropped from previous image.

M42 but this image a stacked of 5*120 second exposures at 1600 iso. Visible now in the right of the image M43, the Running Man Nebula.

Waxing Crescent, 4th Day Moon, Stacked in Registax from 20 1/80th second exposures 200 iso .

M1 the Crab Nebula (middle bottom) and Zeta Tauri (top left).  Two 10 minute exposures, processed in Nebulosity.

Crab Nebula cropped from above image.

International Space Station Flyby AM 24th December 2011

What a Bonus!!!   James Harris and I were out photographing Comet Lovejoy and the ISS flew past.  I managed to grab these 30 second exposures with my Canon 350D.

Comet Lovejoy Early AM 24th December 2011

This is the view I snapped of Comet Lovejoy this morning with my Canon 350d. The comet tail is centre and you can see the effect of a car tail light in this 30 second exposure bottom right.

Darkness but lots of Cloud!

Well we had the darkness as the moon moved into the umbra of the Earth's shadow but the good ol clouds blocked our view here in Launceston.

We will have the another chance to see a full lunar eclipse on December 10/11th this year (Midnight). A bit less bitter as it will be summer and not an early rise needed, just a late night/early morning to bed.

For more info on upcoming lunar eclipses see http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/lunar.html.

Cheers

Michael

Prelude to the the Lunar Eclipse June 16th 2011

Full totality of a previous Lunar Eclipse on August 28th August 2007 taken at Royal Park Launceston.

Just Before totality!

Halfway to totality

The intitial darkening of the limb of the moon which will begin around 4am Thursday Morning (tommorrow).

Here is a short summary on the Iceinspace website for basic information about tommorrow's Lunar Eclipse.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-618-0-0-1-0.html

If its clouded out here in Northern Tasmania you can try a live upload to u tube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgUieQsR4YI

Here's hoping for clear skies wherever you are observing the eclipse.

Michael

Home from Snake Valley now with a Canon 350D and loving it!

M83, Southern Pinwheel Galaxy.

Sombrero Galaxy

Centaurus A Galaxy

Omega Centauri Globular Cluster

Jewel Box, Open Cluster

Eta Carinae Nebula

Tranquility Base, Blackstone Heights

Snake Valley March 2011

Images of and taken at the Snake Valley Astronomy Camp March 2011