Monthly Archives: November 2016

Moon

The Super Moon of Nov 14, 2016

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Full "Super" Moon on Nov 14, 2016. Mosaic of 31 panels shot with an Aptina AR0130 color planetary cam. Normal version.
Full “Supermoon” on Nov 14, 2016. Mosaic of 30 panels shot with an Aptina AR0130 color planetary cam. Normal version.

The Supermoon of November 2016 was set to be the biggest of the year.  I tried to get a good mosaic of it, but the seeing was poor on this morning, so it is not quite as sharp as I would have liked.  The mosaic took about 30 panels to construct and lots of time and effort to put together.

I took this on the morning of the 14th, so there was a chance the seeing was better in the evening when the moon still looked full, but I was too tired to go another round by that time.   So, I worked through several iterations of the data I already had and came up with what I think is a reasonably good image.

I also created an enhanced image that is basically just sharpened more.    A couple of seams are more obvious in this version, but I figure not bad enough to spend too much time on trying to correct:

The Supermoon of Nov 14, 2016 - Enhanced Version.
The Supermoon of Nov 14, 2016 – Enhanced Version.

 

Galaxies

M81 and M82 Galaxies Reloaded

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M81 & M82 Galaxies. Combined data from 3 imaging sessions.
M81 & M82 Galaxies. Combined data from 3 imaging sessions.  350XT as the base image.
M81 and M82 Galaxies. Combined data from 3 imaging sessions. T3 as the base image.
M81 and M82 Galaxies. Combined data from 3 imaging sessions. T3 as the base image.

I was playing around and noticed I had three different images of this area.  Two were taken with the same scope (a Televue TV-85,) but with two different cameras (a Canon 350XT and a Canon T3, both modified.)  One was with my Meade SN8 and the Canon 350XT.

With Registar, I was able to align and combine the three images.  I used two base images, one with the 350XT as the base and one with the T3 as the base.    So, Registar scaled the T3 image down to the resolution of the 350XT in the first image, but scaled the data up in the two older camera images for the second image.   I tend to like the larger scale second image more, but the scaled data is softer and not quite as sharp as the down scaled data.

The background in both is still a little noisy, but I think it is tame enough to post.  There were lots of faint background galaxies in the full frames, but the one in this view that matters is that smudge just above M81, which is the galaxy on the left.  That dim smudge is Holmberg IX, a dwarf satellite galaxy of M81.  It is considered a good test of your data, since it is so dim and can be easily swamped by noise and not be seen.

The data I used is from Feb 2007,  24×360 sec @ ISO 1600, SN-8, Canon 350XT,  Feb 2008, 41×180 sec @ ISO 1600, TV-85, Canon 350XT and Feb 2012, 39×240 sec @ ISO 1600, TV-85, Canon T3.  Total integration of  7.05 hours