I took this data with the Hyperstar on the 6th. I was expecting to get more data last night (7th) but there was tons of thin high cloud. So I cropped the data I got and you can see it above. The only reason I need more data is that the background is a little too noisy. It might be clear tonight in which case you’ll know what I’ll be doing.
A clear Moonless night tonight and I am imaging the Coma Cluster of galaxies (yes that’s the cluster that Zwicky used to infer the existence of Dark Matter way back in the 1930s).
Hyperstar 4 on a C11 with an ASI 2600MC Pro CMOS camera and 5-minute subs. Looks like some thin high cloud on a few of the subs so I hope I get enough to be able to throw those out.
Need to manually rotate the south dome every half hour and on the last venture into the garden I saw a very nice meteor.
Damned computer decided to reboot itself twice before I started the imaging session which slowed things down a bit and I am watching progress on a monitor indoors with bated breath and praying I don’t get another reboot. If I do get another reboot I will call it a night.
I was very fortunate in that the computer didn’t reboot again so I managed to image until 1 a.m. Got 27 x 5-minute subs out of which 19 were good. So as I need a few more subs to get a pretty noise-free background I intend to spend any more imaging nights this month on the same target.
I gave the computer the once over tomorrow, reset the RAM, and it behaved itself all day. So if I get some more clear skies the Coma Cluster it will be.
Another astronomical image this week. This time we have Jupiter and beautiful red Mercury captured over at Whitemoor Pond, the New Forest.
Well the new 2600MC CMOS camera from First Light Optics arrived, it has been fired up, and all is well!
Also the USB Canon lens focuser manufactured by Astromechanics and distributed by Ali Express also arrived. At first I didn’t think it was working properly, but when my son came over and had a look it turned out to be 2 duff USB C cables 🙁 With a working USB C data cable attached to the focuser – all ran as expected.
Next move is to bring computer 3 indoors and put all the necessary software on there before finally swapping out Sky90(3) for 200mm lens(3).
Then it’ll be imaging time!
A high-speed image features this week. Here we have 3 separate images of a double waterdrop collision taking place underneath a bursting soap-bubble. I have used different coloured filters in front of the high-speed flash units. The HSF units are of my own design and give out 50 Joules of light in 10-microseconds (1/100,000th of a second). They are highly portable and run off a 12 Volt battery.
I just combined the two M105 images recently taken with the Hyperstar using the brilliant software Registar. Registar makes image combination so easy!
A couple of changes to the re-configuration. I have decided it is pointless to remove ALL the Sky90s from the array and I will simply replace Sky90(3) with the 3rd 200mm Canon lens. That way I retain 5 imaging rigs on the array.
The 2600MC has been ordered from First Light Optics so I am now awaiting delivery of the Astromechanics Canon lens focuser and the 2600MC camera.
The North Dome MiniWASP array is starting its transition to the Micro-Dragonfly array, named after the much larger Dragonfly array.
Today I received the first of 3 key components – the 200mm Canon f#2.8 prime lens. I have on order the Astromechanics USB focuser for the Canon lens, and I have yet to order the 2600MC CMOS camera from FLO.
The project is now well-underway and tomorrow I will check that I can connect up and run one of the 2 Astromechanics USB focusers I already have to the new lens.
Dad captured this group of Fakirs/Holy men on his travels. Once again we have the original sepia print at the top, followed by the Grok cleaned-up and colourised print, followed by the amazing Grok animation.
This is a very interesting image taken by Dad in WWI in beautiful downtown Kabul. I turned the original first image above into a B&W image (from the sepia print) using Photoshop. I wondered why the two locals were giving Dad the evil eye, but a close inspection of the image shows they are in chains! Further close inspection of the image shows that ALL these guys are in chains (they must have been a hard bunch) but Grok clearly didn’t recognise this in the animation!
