Tag: star-gazing

An article from lost-infinity.com in the "Dark Sky Travels Magazine"!

/ Carsten / Leave a comment

Recently Dark Sky Travels Magazine contacted me and asked if they could publish one of my blog articles in their magazine. The article describes how one can use DeepSkyStacker to stack conventional DSLR camera RGB frames. Of course I didn't say no and in the end it just happened and I saw my article on page 42/43 in Issue 4 of the DarkSkyTravels magazine!

I am very happy about that opportunity and the chance to share my experience this way.

Thanks and clear skies!

Andromeda Galaxy (M31) - The first time from La Palma

/ Carsten / 2 Comments
M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - 2018/12/31

Date2018/12/31
LocationLa Palma / Spain
ObjectAndromeda Galaxy (M31)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6 Syntrek
Cooling-10°C
Luminance6x 600s, bin: 1x1
Red5x 150s, bin: 2x2
Green5x 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue5x 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark2x
Flat10x
Total exposure~1h38m

Tonight I again decided to image the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) - the first time from La Palma. The seeing tonight was very good - around 1.5~2" which was extraordinary! Also the weather conditions as shown by La Palma HDMeteo were excellent.

Back in 2013 I already imaged the Andromeda Galaxy with the same equipment but from Boeblingen. It is interesting to see the difference here.

For post-processing I used the free software DeepSkyStacker and GIMP.

The full resolution images is available here.

Clear skies!
M31_guiding

weather_la_palma_hdmeteo

Trifid nebula M20 & open cluster M21 from La Palma

/ Carsten / Leave a comment
Trified nebula (M20) & open cluster M21 - 2017/07/22

Date2017/07/20
LocationLa Palma / Spain
ObjectTrifid nebula (M20) & open cluster M21
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6 Syntrek
Cooling-10°C
Luminance8x 600s, bin: 1x1
Red7x 150s, bin: 2x2
Green7x 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue7x 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark2x
Flat10x
Total exposure~2h12m
Tonight I decided to image the Trifid nebula (M20) which is quite "close" to the Lagoon nebula M8 from my last session. The seeing tonight was around ~2.4" which could have been better - but certainly it was still sufficient.
Back in 2013 I already imaged the Trifid nebula with the same equipment but from Boeblingen. It is interesting to see the difference here.
For post-processing I used the free software DeepSkyStacker and GIMP. The full resolution images is available here.

Clear skies!

Stargazing time on La Palma - Casa Las Flores

/ Carsten / Leave a comment
Star gazing Casa Las Flores La Palma
It's stargazing time on La Palma again - this time from Casa Las Flores. The little house is located in Aguatavar - close to Tijarafe on a height of about 580m. You have a power supply outside the building, free view to Polaris from both terraces and in July the bright part of the Milky Way is perfectly visible between 22:00 and 4:00 local time. Furthermore you have a coffee maker, a table, chairs, a fast WLAN internet connection and a barbecue. What else do you need? 😀

The image is a single frame recorded with an Canon EOS6D in combination with a Samyang 2.8/14mm lens (15 sec. exposure time, ISO4000) . The post processing has been done with rawtherapee.

Tonight I only test my equipment - for tomorrow I plan to record the bright nebula M8 in the milkyway. So stay tuned for the result!