The Sun today, captured using a white-light solar filter:

A quick session under poor seeing, primarily to try out Wavesharp (yay!). 
30sec subs, CDK20/P1533CwADC

A very quick smartphone afocal shot of the Sun through the ED100 refractor using a solar wedge. A smartphone adapter was used to attach the device on the focuser. Some minor processing in Snapseed for framing and contrast.

AR (L to R): 4275, 4274, 4272, 4273, 4267 (Right edge).

Ad Astra!

Due to the damaged threads, the stock AZ bolts have developed flat spots in the threads and are still a bit coarse when adjusting, despite lubrication. I will be replacing these with same size bolts with adjustable ratchet heads shortly.

The whole process took a little over an hour and was fairly straight forward. Testing the mount now I can see a major improvement in the AZ motion. Soon I will be testing it under the stars to form a complete opinion.

The forecasts for this night seemed nearly ideal. Meteoblue as well as Unisys & Wundermap data all pointed to a night of very good conditions. Naked eye examinations of stars at zenith showed little or no twinkling and stars at 30-ish elevations showed a slight calm wobble. Early in the night collimation tests of the telescope showed average to good conditions but the true shocker came in the early morning hours. This must be amongst the worst conditions I have ever imaged! A washed out, soft and nearly feature-less Jupiter! Mars, a bright orange wobbling mess that was so bad it was almost impossible to tune the ADC correctly. Never the less, here are the images. 

P.S. I am extremely baffled as to why this has happened..
P.S. 2 I got the C9,25 fairly well collimated regardless of the bad seeing!

It has been two whole months. After battling poor weather and saharan dust attackes, the skies cleared a bit yesterday to allow the possibility of imaging. After spending the first part o the night attempting to fine tune collimation on the telescope, the early morning hours were spent on observing Jupiter. Now a healthy 42" across, the giant offers a wealth of detail to be observed. The seeing was fair to poor for these captures however and the transparency was also poor as I did notice I was imaging through a veil of thin cirrus clouds, illuminated by the nearly full Moon. I also had a chance to test out the ADC/Barlow combo I put together and happy to report it seems to be doing it's job very well indeed. 

Amazing that I haven't used the blog in nearly four years. Anyway...

Last night seemed like the first chance for decent conditions since the new year. The (new) C9,25 was set up on the AVX at 23:00 and half an hour later it was polar aligned and ready. Attempted to fine tune my collimation using Metaguide and got a fairly even pattern. Occuppied myself with some lunar viewing (amazing!) and covered up the scope by 00:30 in anticipation of dawn. Got up at 04:00 and headed outside. Upon aiming at Jupiter I immediately could see that conditions were far from expected. A very high frequency blurring was prevailing but some fleeting moments of good seeing could be glipmsed. Initiated FC's autoguider and autorun features and awaited patiently for that good window to press "start". I gathered a total of 47 captures of mostly mediocre results apart from two short sessions, one early and one near the end. 

The GRS is seen rotating into view here with the streak of activity in the SEB preceding it. The new prominent red barge is also evident. The NEB's wavy appearance is  also very noticable.

Just before the end of the session here, the GRS is prominent with the "hook" feature trailing behind it. Europa is also seenof the edge.

 After a long absence, I finally returned at the scope with an early morning wake up call to see if Jupiter had climbed high enough for imaging. Having recently upgraded the observatory with a concrete slab and cast iron pier I had yet to see them in action so I decided to venture out early in the morning to see what's going on. Started off with a check up on collimation which I was not able to fine tune completely as the mediocre seeing did not allow precise evaluation. Never the less I did attempt some lunar shots with the ASI120MM and I must say the results look very promising!
I urgently need to clean up the sensor as it has accumulated A TON of dust, something which made imaging a challenge as there are virtually no clear spots on the chip left! Shortly before dawn and with the sky turning blue, I switched to the Giant. The seeing remained a mediocre levels but in any case this was a trial run to see that everything works and prepare to throttle up as the days progress and Jupiter climbs higher and higher in the morning skies.

Here's a first quick processing of last night's attempt. The night began extremely hazy and moist, cleared and dried up a bit after midnight but come dawn the humidity rose to 90%+ according to the observatory meter!


C9,25 SCT @ f/6.3 & EOS 550D
Guided with ST80  & ASI120MM
Lights: 25x 300sec ISO800
Darks: 8x 300sec ISO800
Processing: DSS & Photoshop

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.

This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

source: Wikipedia