After doing some deep sky imaging I turned the scope onto Jupiter again and did some quick imaging through the 120ED with the Televue 2x Powermate and DMK21 camera. Small image, but I like to see the detail.
Last year after BBC Stargazing Live one of the most popular items was the Philips Planisphere, which Jonathan Ross used on the show to find the stars in the sky. The Planisphere is the perfect tool for any amateur astronomer. It comes with full instructions on its use, so you can have a quick look
It’s been a while since I imaged Jupiter, and I have never imaged it since I got my Skywatcher 120mm ED refractor. This was taken with a mono DMK21 camera and stacked in Registax 6. It was taken using a Televue 2.5x Powermate. I did try a 5x Powermate but the image was too blurry
After FocusMax not working as it should after I installed ASCOM v6 and the latest FocusMax version, FocusMax v3.4.0 now works perfectly tonight. All I did was remove ASCOM v6 and put v5 on, then tried lots of different FocusMax versions – still no joy. I then decided it could not be ASCOM, so put
IC 5146 (also known as Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection emission nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. This image was taken using my 120ED refractor, with my William Optics 0.8x flattener and Atik 314L+ CCD camera, cooled to -10 degrees. I used my Astronomik LRGB filters. The luminance layer
After the easy upgrade to ASCOM v6 and the install of the latest FocusMax it now turns out that it does not work anymore. The thing is now I don’t have a copy of ASCOM 5.5 anymore and I can’t fine a copy online either. I do have ASCOM v5.0 as that may be worth
I submitted the Harvest Moon image I took to AstronomyNow magazine (blog post here – https://www.astronomylog.co.uk/2011/09/15/harvest-full-moon/) and I am lucky enough to have had it published. Click on the image opposite to enlarge it or view the PDF version here. My image is at the rear of the magazine in the ‘photo gallery’ section of
I thought about it for a while, but finally decided to upgrade from ASCOM v5.5 to ASCOM v6 as I wanted to use the latest version of FocusMax and that only runs on ASCOM v6. The upgrade is painless, go to the ASCOM website and install the v6 software straight over the top of v5,
Decided to try and image the full harvest moon the other night. When the moon is so bright there is not much else you can image other than doing some Hydrogen Alpha imaging. I decided to use my new Skywatcher 120ED DS Pro. It was taken with a William Optics 0.8 reducer, through an OIII
Whilst I was searching lately for a new Skywatcher telescope I was amazed to see that John Lewis appeared in the lists on Google. So I had to have a look, John Lewis now sell telescopes. They don’t sell too many, about 7 in total. Maybe telescopes are becoming mainstream, maybe it’s the Brian Cox