5/29/2016 SJAA RDCO Private Viewing

Weather has been bad since last year. Finally we have a relative clear weekend.

There are about 20+ scopes there and most of them doing visual.

I take my FC-100 out the first time.
I setup close to Ryan (my friend) who has a very nice 10" Dob.

This is also the first time I use DSC (digital setting circle).
It is like cheating as star-hopping is no need now.
I look at the following objects from 9:30pm to 12:00am.
M3
M53
M64
M80
M107
M84
M86
M87
M88
M91
M100
M85
M59
M60
M58
M90
M89
M49
M61
M99
M98
M51
M63
M94
M101
M106
M4
M9
M12
M10
M5
NCG4762
M19
M62
M57
M56
M29

There is also a 8inch refractor there !!

The sky was OK dark but not very transparent.
I am not sure if I trust the SQM reading from my iPhone.
The milky way is not visible...

First Time at Montebello (M101)

First time to try this local site (Montebello) close to Stanford. About 45min door-to-door from my house. (http://old.observers.org/sites/) The site is not as dark as BLM but it is good enough for me. I decide to go this place more often for narrow-band imaging.

Spent most of the time testing the FSQ-85 + STT-8300. Still struggle on the SGP auto focusing.

The star shape at the corners are not perfect too. This makes me thinking to upgrade to FSQ-106...

Below is one shot of 30min Ha of M101.

Second try on Jupiter + New ASI224 Camera

Got an used ZWO ASI224 camera for planetary imaging.
Finally decided not to use DSLR for this job.

My friends weChat me said the seeing is excellent on 4/1 (I thought it was a April Fool joke) so I only setup the quick one.

The second day (4/2) I setup my 10" to try on Jupiter.

Borrow a 5x Powermate from a friend and get the scope to F25.
Man, it so painful to find the target as I didn't use GoTo.

New on Firecapture too...

 Install a poor-man electric focuser too.

This is the focuser looks like ...

Finally give my small refractor another try. Still cannot get to focus with 5x Powermate...

Add caption

The result is still no good but I think I am getting there... ;-)

Still Learning Planetary Imaging

This Wednesday seems like our only chance of good weather (in fact, Thursday turns out OK too), so I setup on my backyard and do some imaging.

It takes 30min to setup and 25min to tear it down...

The seeing is actually pretty good but my focusing skill sucks.

The result turns out not good.

Need to get an electrical focuser for sure.

Still using DSLR (Canon T3i) with BYEOS. Looks like I might need to invest an webcam or CCD ...

First Planetary AP Ever ! Jupiter !

Want to see what I can do from my Fremont backyard for a long time.

I got an Orion tube ring for my 10" Dob and mount it on the Mach1.

It is heavy and I have to use all 3 counterweight plus some dummy weight from Sports Authority.

I just would like to give planetary AP a try so I use my DSLR (Canon T3i) and control with BYEOS.

With the 5x LiveView video, it gives me almost 1:1 pix scale.

Not too bad from the first try !!

Did some quick and dirty process and here is the result.
A lot more to learn.

The funny part for planetary AP is you take 1hr to setup and tear down. But only get something like 2min video...

First Narrow Band CCD Experience

Acquired my CCD (SBIG STT-8300) used for a long time but didn't get chance to use it.
This is actually a new unit from AstroMart.

Setup at the evening after watching StarWar with wife...

The OAG of STT-8300 is really stupid. It shares the same USB port with the main CCD so there are a lot of problems. I hate those workaround. Some problems shows here:

I only get one 30min Ha sub and it is getting really cold (0-C).
I decided to back inside and do some adjustment on the gears.

Here is the quick process of the single-frame with 30 dark subs...
I think I like NB !! ;-)

M33 (2015/09) @ DARC

This is the first AP image that I felt happy to share. ;-)

This is also my first time do image for a whole night !

I met a few new friends from China who also live at Bay Area. They have a "secret" site where is 2 hour away. We chat on "WeChat" for a while and I decide to give that site a try.

PS: https://blackdragon72.wordpress.com/ this is one of the guy's blog. Very cool.

2hr drive is not much and the site is pretty dark.

It is very close the the D.A.R.C observatory (http://www.deepskycolors.com/locations_DARC.html) and kind of a semi-public place.

At 2015/Sept/19, I arrived at about 7pm and quickly setup the gears and meet the new friends in person. Although I got the CCD at time but that's too new to me, I decide to use DSRL on this one.

Total 40 subs and 480sec each.

Detail: http://www.astrobin.com/212993/B/

OTA is Takahashi FSQ-85 (without reducer).

Mount is Astro-Physics Mach1

Camera is Canon T3i mod

I really like the site !!

It is dark, clean, and convenient.

We have 4 scopes that night.

This is DARC observatory... (http://www.deepskycolors.com/locations_DARC.html)