Planets
PLUTO - 08-28-08 in Sagittarius
Orientation: North is RIGHT - Distance: 31.51 AU - Magnitude: 13.9
Image Size: ~27x20 arc minutes - Image Scale: ~2.12
DATE: 08/28/2008
Conditions: Seeing Good. Transparency Good. Stable skies. Temp ~60 degrees F.
Processing:
MaximDL 4.x -Calibrate, Align, Sigma Reject Combine. Minimal processing required.
Comment:
Thought I'd give it a shot. What a pain it is to -find- pluto, even with a Star Chart. One heck of a faint/small sucker. An easier way to find it would be to take two or three such images over a series of nights, then 'blink' them. You'd see the planet move against the star background in between each frame.
No Bias. No Darks. No flats. Star2000 self guided.
Total Exposures: 12 minutes
Lum 12 min Bin 1x1
Moon
DATE: 04/17/2008
My first shot of the moon with the MX-716. Super short exposures are critical to prevent overexposing. I also damped down the photons by sticking a Hydrogen Alpha filter in the light path. Not for Ha exposures of course, but rather to block as much light coming at the CCD as possible. Oversaturating is bad. Unless my goal is a picture of a while blob.
Scope: 10" LX200 EMC
Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Skywalker2
Camera: Starlight Xpress MX-716 CCD
FL: F/3.3
Exposure: 37x0.006sec unguided. Occasional manual corrections
Processing: Curves, Levels, Unsharp Mask
Software: MaximDL
Jupiter
*early low res test image*
A bright test shot of Jupiter. Many of the moons can be easily seen. If taken at a very long focal length through a barlow, for example, and stacking multiple images, cloud detail could be discerned. I'll surely come back to this in the future.
Scope: 10" LX200 EMC Classic
Mount: Modified Superwedge/Meade field tripod, roughly polar aligned.
Camera: Starlight Xpress MX-716 CCD
FL: F/10 (I think)
Exposure: 1x0.1sec exposure unguided.
Processing: Curves?
Software: AstroArt