Terrymcastro

Jan 29 2012

2012-01-30T04:57:00.000-08:00

M42

Half Moon

M46 plus small ring nebula

M45

M78 Small nebula in Orion

All done with the Canon Rebel and 80 mm Nexstar

Transit of Venus 2004

2011-12-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

My pictures of the transit..Taken with a 100 mm st refractor and a Canon point and shoot through the eyepiece Was with George Anderson who took some pictures also..Maybe you could post them George Normand Fulam and Pierre were present also.We were on the top of a hill in St Lazare Overlooking the West Island Sorry they are in reverse order

Terry

Jupiter and spots

2011-11-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Imaged Jupiter last night and some strange black spots near the great red spot

Celestron 8 inch GPS Sac7 ccd and 2 x barlow About 200 fromes stacked with Registax

Terry

Nov 2nd Images

2011-11-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

M27 45 seconds with the new scope and anon XT

Hi all Image of the space station with the new scope and my Canon xt Hand Guided

Had to shoot the Moon

Comet Garrad P1 again south of Vega

Cheers Terry

Comet Garradd 2009 P1 and M71

2011-08-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

Hi all

An image of Comet Garradd 2009 P1 passing close to M71 and Gamma Sagittae

Canon 350d and the Nexstar 80 mm 300 seconds Guided

Terry

Full Moon 18 May 2011

2011-08-13T05:13:00.000-07:00

Heres a fun shot I took when in Florida this May at the Epcott Center

Terry

Comet Garradd C/2009 P1

2011-08-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all Aug 5th
Had some clear sky and imaged Comet GARRADD c/2009 P1
Used the C8 at F5 and Canon Rebel one min exposure no guiding
To see it its just north of M15 A fuzzy blob no tail

SUPER NOVA IN M51 JUNE 2011

2011-06-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

THIS IMAGE TAKEN LAST YEAR WITH THE SAC8-11 CAMERA

SUPER NOVA IN M51 JUNE 2011

IMAGE TAKEN WITH THE CANON XT AND THE 80 MM NEXSTAR

THIS IS A CROP FROM A LARGE IMAGE AND ENHANCED WITH NEAT IMAGE

WAS NOT LOOKING FOR THE SUPERNOVA ..JUST TRYING TO IMAGE IN THAT AREA

READ THE NEWS ABOUT THE NOVA AND STARTED CHECKING IMAGES I HAD TAKEN

Full Moon 16 th July

2011-06-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

Was going to do some imaging but the Moon came up and that was it

Canon XT and Nexstar 80 mm

Terry

South Sky

2011-06-13T04:40:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Couple of images of the south sky with the Canon DSLR and the 80 mm

M8 Lagoon Nebula plus M20 Triffid Nebula

Also M17 Swan Nebula.

The moon with clouds

Terry

Thursday 21st April

2011-04-23T04:11:00.001-07:00

Leo Triplet again and also M64 The Blackeye Galaxy

Canon 350d and Nexstar 80 mm

Terry

Space Center visit Florida

2011-04-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Shuttle transporter

On the pad
Closest we got to the StS134

Hi All
The picture with me and my grandson shows the distance to the StS134

Great visit

Terry

DSO with the SBC2000

2011-03-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all
Imaged some dso,s with the new camera..Not the same quality as the Canon DSLR
but also not bad for the investment...also getting better with experience

Largest Moon for 20 Years

2011-03-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Largest Moon for 20 years tonight so had to take a picture
Done with my SDC 435 Camera and the Nexstar 80 mm

Terry

Moon image

2011-03-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all

First light with the new camera..Just a shot of the almost full moon

Taken with the New Camera (video) frame grabber setup

March Images

2011-03-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Images of M46 and M47 The Beehive and another shot at M42..

All with the Canon Rebel and the Nexstar 80mm.

Terry

Imaging Feb 2011

2011-02-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

Clear sky and very cold..

Imaged the Leo Triplet with the Canon Rebel and the Nexstar 80 mm Guided

A single 2 min exposure

Terry

Imaging 29th Jan 2011

2011-01-31T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Results of my nights work (not that much) NGC2264 The Christmas Tree cluster..

Also has the Cone Nebula in the middle but its too big a scale to see it.

80 mm Nexstar and the Canon 350

This asterism is west of Orion

Sun Shots 20th Jan 2011

2011-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Tried the Sun today and her are the results

Not like Rays but sun spot is visable

Used the white filter and the Nexstar 80mm

Terry

More images

2011-01-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

Rosette Nebula Near Orion

Horse head and Flame Nebula

Canon Rebel 350 Nexstar 80 mm

Terry

Sculptor Galaxy Dec 2010

2010-12-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

Hi all First image with a 300 mm Canon len s and the Canon 350d

The Sculptor Galaxy NGC253 and also at the bottom NGC 288 a mag 8 Globular cluster.

This was a 60 second single image

Terry

Cold weather imaging

2010-12-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Couple of images taken when very cold about -18 c at the end

Canon xt batteries were the first thing to fail..

Nexstar scope worked fine in the cold temps though very noisy when slewing

Tried my Celestron Light polution filter in fron of the camera

Imaged M45 and M42 to test it

Results were good in that it kept stars from bloating and reduced the Chromatic Aberation

New M42 and M31

2010-11-28T18:45:00.001-08:00

M31 Revised

M42 as before but used a Baader contrast filter..It gives a lot smaller stars by reducing

the chromatic aberation from the Nexstar 80 mm

Canon xt 350d

Terry

Images Nov 10 and 13

2010-11-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

Orion Nebula 5 min 1 min ten second intergrated exposures with Canon XT

Latest Comet image Hartley 103P

Images Taken 10/11/10 and 14/11 10 with 80 mm Nexstar

Great seeing and sky

Terry

Auto Guiding

2010-10-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

Ten Min exposure

5 min exposure

2 min exposure

My first attempts at Auto Guiding..Made a 2 min then 5 min then ten min exposures..

Had to use my main pc and a laptop to take the images due to duplicate port usage

Results are not bad and better than unguide but still room for improvment

All done with the Rebel XT Canon and the Nexstar 5i plus 80 mm ota

The tem Min exposure was take with a lower sensitivity to avoid over exposure

Results as you see

Terry

Comet Hartly(103P)

2010-10-10T08:14:00.001-07:00

Satellite passes the comet

Images Taken with the Ultima 2000 and C8 with focal reducer
Camera Canon XT 350D
2 min exposures

More to come

Terry

M31 Andromeda Galaxy

2010-10-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

M31 ...One single 5 min image taken with the Canon rebel XT prime focus with the

Nextar 80 mm short tube telescope.P.Shop used to set contrast and size.

Was reduced from 8 meg to 640 x480 to load to the blog..Hope it still looks ok

Any comments

Terry

Jupiter September 2010

2010-09-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Altair 120 second exposure

Jupiter with one major band

Hi all

Image of Jupiter..Single shot with the Canon 350d xt

Also a 120 second image of the star Altair

Terry

19Sept xt pics

2010-09-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all

My latest attempts with the Canon 350d xt Almost full Moon Altair and the North American Nebula...Moon with 5inch Nexstar the rest with 80mm Nexstar

Terry

Sun Ray Lalonde

2010-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Rays Photo

Adjusted by George Anderson

Well done Ray

Canon Rebel XT 350D images

2010-08-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hi all
Took some images with the new camera Canon Rebel 350D XT

M27

M17 Swan

Full Moon

cafta

2010-08-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Cafta 2010

The Sun with my regular solar filter

The Sun through Rays solar scope

Cafta 2010

2010-08-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Images from Cafta 2010

Images 20July 2010

2010-07-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

Triffid Nebula M20

M17 Swan Nebula

M16 Eagle Nebula

M8 Lagoon Nebula

Images taken 20th July 2010

Conditions murky sky lots of humidity

Taken with Sac8-11 camera and the Nexstar 80 mm

Terry

Milky Way Image

2010-06-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

16 Second exposure at f2.8 with Kodak z1012 looking south June 11 0100 hrs

Terry

Meeting BYA Cornwall Cruise Control

2010-05-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Thunder clouds

Murrys creation

Full Moon

Heron

Meeting BYA May2010 Some pictures from the meeting on Cruise Control

Terry

May 12 images

2010-05-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

M13

M104

Hi all

Replaced the faulty computer with a brand new (old) laptop

and had first light with the new setup

Imaged M104 Galaxy and M13 Rays favorite..

used the C8 and Sac8-11 camera

Great view of ISS this night

Neaf 2010

2010-04-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All

Some Neaf pictures..a great weekend

Terry

M51 and M101

2010-04-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

Hi all

Imaged M51 to check out the scope and camera

Used the 8 inch Celestron sct and the Sac8-11 camera

Also imaged M101

Not my best images

but got things working again

Terry

Imaging 21 st January

2010-01-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Best night for a long time and not to cold

Imaged Mars when it came into sight

Before that captued M67 part of the Beehive cluster

And M42 again

Was a good night till the Small Mars image was lost ..

With 2 barlows hard to find again without removing the camera and refocusing

Terry

Mars was very small image size ..Used the c5 sct plus 2 barlows stacked..

Image was still small

Moon and Jupiter

2009-12-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Moon and Jupiter on Monday night..looked better in real time

Terry

Meteor shower

2009-11-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Took this image while waiting for the ISS to pass.Nice meteor trail in the North West sky

Took with the new Kodak Z1012 is camera on a tripod

16 seconds at f2.8

Terry

Nov 16 imaging

2009-11-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

M57 Ring Nebula wide field

M45 Pliedies

M33 Pinwheel Galaxy

M31 Andromeda Galaxy

M27 Dumbell Nebula

All taken with the Nexstar 80mm and Sac 8 ccd camera

Longest single exposure was 8 seconds

Winter images

2009-11-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all some winter images with the Sac8 camera and 80mm nextstar

Flame Nebula

Horse Head Nebula

Combination of 1 2 3 5 second images for M42 Orion Nebula

All taken with the 80 mm nexstar and Sac8-2 camera 10 -11 -2009

Terry

BYA Meeting )ct 2009

2009-10-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Few pictures from the meeting and the new toys

Pictures took with new camera ..Kodak Z1012 Moon and Southern Sky

Murrys new toy Celestron Comet catcher

Terry

Imaging again

2009-10-13T05:23:00.000-07:00

Widefield 50mm lens M33 Pinwheel

M31 Andromeda

Jupiter 5 inch prime focus

Imaging again Sunday night...

Tried Jupiter and not to bad...Seeing was soso...Done with the Nexstar 5 prime focus

Terry

ISS Sept 25TH Images

2009-09-25T21:25:00.001-07:00

Sept 25th

Hi All

Took more ISS images with better results..

Starting to wonder why I do this..

ts very hard and results are as you see not the best

This time used the C8 at F3 with Webcam type imager

Manually tracked

2009-09-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

ISS Sept 13th 2009

2009-09-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

Couple more Iss images...Took 15 Seconds at ISO 100 to stop over exposing the background.

Canon a60 at F3.2 cropped images..... Terry

Sept 9th ISS again

2009-09-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of ISS and Discovery at 8.13 on Sept 9th 2009

ISS Sept8

2009-09-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Took an image of the ISS..Still blurry but you can see some shape.

Taken about 9.22 on the 8th Sept 80mm nexstar plus 25mm and 2x barlow Cannon A60

June 24 BYA Meeting

2009-06-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Meeting on June 24th was held on Cruise Control 11 with Captain Ray

Present were Dan Heinz Hughe Murry Terry and of course CPT Ray

Great weather and a good evening was had by all..

Big thanks to Ray..

Have included some pictures of the meeting and also some of my images from 2 days before.

Cheers Terry

Antares and Moon Encounter

2009-06-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Some of the images of Antares and the Moon encounter.

Taken with the Nexstar 80mm short tube and Canon Digital Camera

Latest Comet Lulin Image 01 March

2009-03-02T05:45:00.000-08:00

Clear about 10.30 pm and took this image

Terry

Comet Lulin 26th Feb 2007

2009-02-27T05:52:00.000-08:00

Regulus Test Image

Hi all

Looked for Comet Lulin with binos ...nothing ..sky was awfull not transparant at all..So resorted to the Nextar 80 mm on the goto mount...Still nothing with the data for the comet I just downloaded...Soooooo...looked around that area with a wide angle eyepiece and found a fuzzy smudge about 1 degree away from the Starrynight location.Very dim..

Popped in the Sac8-2 camera and made some images..Not the best best at least you can see some tail effect.

Used the 80 mm short tube at F3 ...3 second times 40 images all stacked and processed with a program called Fits x.

Low down the sky had no visability ..when I took the images between 11.30 and after midnight

the Comet was very high in the sky..I could see Regulus ok and took a test image on it for calibration

20th Jan 2009

2009-01-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

Horse head Nebula

Rosette Nebula

Venus

Hi all

Took a few images tonight before frustration took over..Go to was off and had a hard time focusing..

Imaged Venus with 5inch sct and barlow..Nice half moon

The Rosette nebula came out not too bad

Seeing was not too good

Terry

Man in the Moon

2009-01-11T08:49:00.001-08:00

Hi all

Took this picture of the Moon with the Canon Digital Camera at full zoom plus 2x telephoto lense.

Yes the Man in the Moon is really there

Terry

December 22 imaging

2008-12-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

M45 Pleiades

M33 Trapezium Galaxy

Hi all

As we has clear skys forcast for tonight I dug out the Skypod.Then remebered that about -12c

is the lowest my C8 will work without damage I decided use the indoor /outdoor imaging setup..

Just as well as it was -20 c before I finished at 10 pm.

Imaged Vesta though not to interesting to look at..just a starlike spot.

Also Venus Very bright

M33 M45 were the best results for the night..Did the Orion Nebula but it came out really over exposed..

All taken with The Nexstar 80mm scope and Sac8-2 camera

Moon Venus Jupiter conjunction DEC 1st 2008

2008-12-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all

There was a sucker hole in the clouds at 4.45pm local time Dec 1st 2008

The conjunction was visable for about 12 minuites.

Took some images with the Canon A60 .

Exposures were .5 to 2 seconds

Observing Nov 5th 2008

2008-11-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Not a bad night though fog came in eventually and by 9.pm conditions went pretty bad.

Eyeballed the Moon Jupiter Venus setup for a while..

Imaged M57 M31 M45 Jupiter also M27

The Moon made imaging hard as the fog moved in.

Not a bad night

May 25 ISS again

2008-05-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

My last attempt at ISS...I think thats a solar panel...Still overexposed

Terry

International Space Station Pictures

2008-05-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hi all

My first attempts at ISS imaging..Over exposed and shaky but a little detail showing..

Lots of room for improvment..

Here are some of the images.

May 11th Session

2008-05-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all
Tried earlier in the week to image the asteroid IRIS passing M104..took some images but didnt confirm the asteroid..Imaged the Globulars comming up for the summer tonight.. M10 M12 M5...did some small galaxies also. M64 Black eye above.

M10 Globular Cluster

M98 Galaxy

M5 Globular Cluster

All were imaged with the Nexstar 5 inch at F3 with the Sac8 -11 ccd camera May 5 th to 11th

Smaller photos from last post

2008-03-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

These are at 640 by 480

Hope they are better

March 19th Southern Skys

2008-03-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hi all
This will be a log of my observing in the Falkland Islands.
My first reaction when it got dark on the 25th Feb was how clear and transparent the skys were.Not quite normal for this time of year (fall)..clouds and heavy winds are the norm.
From the 25th Feb for two weeks the weather was amazing..Clear skys every night.
The Milky Way like a starry stripe overhead.The Southern Cross in the south sky and an Inverted Orion in the North sky.Was a little disapointed with the Southern Cross..
It was easy to find by eye but not that bright.
Alpha Centauri that is close by is very bright(Proxima Centauri is also this location
but very dim Mag 10)
This is the closest star to Earth at about 4.2 light years.
Next night observing with Celestron 8x50mm binos was great..

Located some very big and bright globular clusters.
One in the constalation of Tucana #47 and one in Centauri

Omega Centauri globular is very big ...even with binos.

Also observed first by eye The Large Megelantic and Small Megelantic Clouds.
The Large is bigger than the field of view of the Binos..The Small fits in nice.
They are both easy to spot,,,even with a few street lights around.

Had a great pass from the Space Station...right overhead...brought all the family out to see it and ALL were impressed.

Towards the end of the clear sky two weeks managed to get hold of a Meade ETX 70 mm

with autostar..Had two good nights browsing the Milky Way..Stars are VERY DENSE overhead...No Moon at all for all these sessions..Couldnt be better.

The weather did change in the last week of my stay in the Falklands (Due to the Meade telescope being available I presume )..Back to cooler temps and wind plus clouds..

Did mange one more night on the night of March 13th ..Clear but cool.
Set up the ETX 70 and had a closer look at 47 Tucany and Omega Centauri Globs..

Also went to Inverted Orion to take a last look ay The Orion Nebula and others to the North.

This was the end of observing as the weather closed in for thre balance of my stay..

It was amazing to see all these Southern Objects

February Mars Images from 2007

2008-02-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hi all
What I think is my best images of Mars from the 2007 opposition.

M46 Image 28th January

2008-01-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Heres the Image of M46 star cluster..somehow it didnt load with the other images.

Imaging Session 28th January

2008-01-28T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hi all
As it was fairly clear I set up for an imaging session.Was going to attempt the Rosette Nebula but the tranparency was not good enough..I did image the Orion Nebula and made a not to bad composite image with exposures at 12 seconds ...2 seconds and One second and added the images,,,..
Also imaged M46 star cluster with a small planitary nebula at the upper center..
Also imaged again the Horsehead Nebula ...Flame Nebula and the star Alnitak.

Images taken with the Nexstar 80 mm with .5 focal reducer...Ha filter and Sac8-11
ccd camera.

Clear sky clock gave the transparency as medium which it was..
Started session at 7 pm and imaged till 9.30 pm

Wednesday 16th January

2008-01-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Clear skys and a half Moon gave me the idea to use my 80 mm short tube Antaries Sentinal

for some high power imaging.. Used the scope plus 2 barlows stacked for a focal length of about 1800 mm.Imaged the Moon and Mars with some medium reults..Moon was ok but Mars not the best at an angular size of 14 seconds..Just a little detail...No where near as good as the 5 inch sct

The larger image of Mars was taken with the 5 Inch

Images are of Plato , The Alpine Valley and a crator North of Plato(or south not sure)

Images

12 Jan 2008

2008-01-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

At last clear sky for imaging...Imaged The horses head...M1 Crab Nebula Orion Nebula and M45 Pliedies..Tried to get the nebula around some of the stars.

M42 imaged with a 125 mm lense and the Sac8-11 camera.

Rest imaged with the 80 mm Antaries Sentinal

Sac8-11 mounted on the Nextar I mount