Jupiter & Io 20121202

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A snapshot between smoking chimneys around me...
Seeing was great but the heat wave from my neighbor's chimney didn't allow a clean capture...
C11 + RGB Astronomik IIc + DMK21 + TV barlow 3x

Sun Full Disc (20121201 @15h05UT)

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Sun Full Disc 20121129 @12h12 UT

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LS60THa + DMK41.

The Sun is much cooler from my School...

students queuing up and waiting for 1st sun view
at Escola EB23 José Saraiva, Leiria

I was invited to a local School in which science was being celebrated today, November 22nd. There were several "science booths" and one of those was Solar gazing.
I took my lil'LS60THa, a Panoptic 24mm and a barlow 2x.
Though there were some high clouds, as soon as the Sun got higher up in the sky, the views were pretty good.
Lots of students joined us for their first solar view and excitement was a constant.
Most of them were able to see the spots, filaments and prominences. Some even spotted several plages and the grainy surface.

A very pleasant morning

Sun - Full Disc 20121118-13h50UT

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The Sun today, Nov 18th, 2012 at 13h50 UT.

LS60THa + DMK 41

Sun Full Disk 20121113 LS60THa

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Another sunny day around here...
Low pressure system is getting closer, so gotta take advantage of cloudless sky.
LS60THa + DMK41

Sun full disk (20121112 @12:05 UT)

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Sun today, 20121112 at 12h05 UT.

Sun close up (20121111 @12:47UT)

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The Sun at 12:47UT at 900mm focal length.

LS60THa + DMK41+ barlow TV 1.8x.

Sun Full Disk (20121111 @1240UT) LS60

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The Sun today.
LS60THa + DMK 41.

Jupiter 20121031 @00:09UT

First Jupiter reprocessed.

First 2012 season Jupiter

Average seeing and hazy sky.
C11, TV 3x barlow, DMK21AF, Astronomik IIc RGB
Oct 31, 00:00 UT

Sun Full Disk (20120930 @12:20 UT)

Full resolution

LS60THaCPT/B1200 + DMK41.

Prominence time lapse 20120930

Time lapse (11h04/12h00 UT) with LS60THa + TV 1.58x Barlow + DMK41.
Still have to work on polar alignment to avoid field rotation...
I wonder if I'll ever get it set up on top of my G-11, since I don't feel like having my Taka 4" under direct sunlight.

AR 1582 Animation

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Full

The Sun between 11h04/12h00 UT, on Sept, 30th.

The Dark Spot is AR 1582. 

Seeing was not as good as usual... :-(

LUNT LS60THaB1200 + TV barlow 1.8x + DMK41.

Prominence Animation 20120929

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Full resolution (color)

First Solar animation.
These proms were recorded 6 minutes apart (15h35 and 15h41 UT).
LUNT LS60THaCPT/B1200 + 1.8x TV Barlow + DMK41.

Sun 20120929 @12:01UT - LS60

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Sun on Sept, 29th. between clouds.
LUNT LS60THaCPT/B1200 + TV Barlow 1.8x + DMK41AU.

IC1396 - The Elephant Trunk in Ha

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IC1396 aka The Elephant Trunk Nebula.

Takahashi 102NSV f/8

ST2000xm

Astronomik 6nm Ha

5x900"

20120921

Sun 20120915 @14h40 UT - barlow 1.8x

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Another close up on saturday, Sept 15th at 14h40m.
LUNT LS60THaCPT/B1200; barlow 1.8x; DMK41.

Sun 20120915 @14h40UT - Close up

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Sun spots close up.

Sun 20120915 @14h40 UT

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First mosaic with barlow 1.8x at 900mm FL.
Still a lot of work to do to manage luminosity differences between frames.
Background and Proms not really processed... will get back to redo.

Still working around...

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Still working on a preferred layout.

This time, following the Sun photographer master Alan Friedman's (please check his phenomenal work here: http://www.avertedimagination.com) colors.

Sun on Sept 6th at 9:40UT.

Here comes the Sun 20120906

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Full resolution

The Sun today.
Time to do some imaging processing experimenting; Figuring out how it would turn out with not so usual color.

Sun 20120902 @11:59UT and scaled earth

Earth dwarfed (scaled) by this prominence.

Sun 20120902 @11:59UT LS60THa

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Sunday, Sep 2nd.
Seeing was very good, though very hot outside...

Sun 20120831 @16:52UT LS60THaCPT

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This imaging session ended at 17h52 local time with this capture.
Imaged with IC Capture, with Pedro Ré's settings.
Still following Ken Crawford's processing tips and actions.
100 best pictures of 900, stacked & aligned in Autostakkert 2 and processed in CS5.
LS60THaCPT/B1200 + DMK41.

Sun 20120831 @15:35UT LS60THaCPT

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Still working on Sun imaging settings and processing.
This time Sun was capture with IC Capture (Pedro Re's settings).
Aug 31st, 2012 at 15h35 UT.
LS60THaCPT/B1200 + DMK41.

LS60 2nd Light

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Second light with different settings to allow prominences and disk viewing.

Captured in Lucam Recorder, aligned and stacked in Autostakkert 2 and processed in CS5.

Processed according to Ken Crawford.

LS60THaCPT/1200 first Light

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This is the first light with the new Lunt LS60 and the new (used) DMK41AU, on Aug 24th at around 11:00 UT.

Captured in Lucam Recorder with these settings @15fps:

exposure time: 7.90 ms

gain: 2.87

gamma: 1.7

Aligned & stacked in Autostakkert 2 and processed in CS5 (mosaic of 2 images).

LS60HaPTC

Just got my new LS60HaPTC last Monday, Aug 20.
Boy what a piece of engineering...
Excellent finish and design!

I had my first light yesterday, around 16:00 UT and was I amazed. Tuning the scope proved a bit difficult at first but eventually I got it. What a beautiful sight... the prominences were right on the disc's edge, clearly visible; the filaments too.
The seeing was good enough and I pushed it up to 62x (2x barlow and a 24mm Panoptic EP).

In one word: Awesome!

Time to experiment with the DMK41AU02.AS now...

M27 - 20120716

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M27 - 20120716 @00h18-01h20 UTC
FS102NSV f/8 (FL:832mm) + ST2k XM + AO8
6x 600"
Astronomik IIc Luminance

After a long long cloudy season, dusting off was pretty easy...

Still May 25th Saturn

full

Reprocessed the May 25th picture and made Crepe ring visible and disc colors more vivid.

Saturn 20120525

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Sky transparency was much better but seeing was not as good as the previous evening.

Fitswork and CS5

RGB 15fps best 70% of 1200 frames per channel.

Saturn 20120524

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Finally a good seeing evening, though a little hazy and moist.

Time to dust off, after a wierd winter & spring around here.

C11 f/30; DMK21AF icx618; RGB Astronomik IIc

Leiria, PT @ 01:45 UT

Mars - Oposition 2012

Winter is slowly fading away and rising night temperatures allow for some astroimaging, since neighbors do not light up their fireplaces so often.
Yesterday evening was one of such nights.
Yes! I loved it!

Mars - January 28, 2012

Mars is getting closer and closer...
Winter time is a great season for astronomy, with those long nights and freezing temperatures, or is it? Well, not quite so, especially if you live right downtown and surrounded by those cosy fireplaces' chimneys... Even at 2 a.m. it still warms up the air and warps anything you point at...

There is a new star out there up in the sky

Very seldom you feel you have a true friend after just 3 months of meeting someone...
Well, this is so true I cannot believe it.
My dear friend Mario has passed away on January 6th. He was the heart & soul of CRD Soutocico, a basketball club in which I got back to coaching again after a long 10 year leave. The atmosphere was so intense that we develop a trusty and special relationship.
I am feeling so terribly sad I just cannot believe it.
Mario, my friend, you will always light the way and I just can wish I am up to the dreams we were having about basketball and how to raise those great kids of ours.
Farewell dear president and friend.
R.I.P.