Posts Made By: Enrico Africa

A local club has some equipment that they'd like to put up for sale. Given that an Astromart member can not sell 3rd-party items, how best can this club list the equipment on Astromart should they decide to go this route?

Thanks,
Eric

Hello all,

I *finally* got around to processing and posting my gallery of images taken of the annular eclipse and Venus transit (I guess I won't be a great "breaking news" report, eh?). Anyway, it's better late than never! I hope it's worth the (3 month!) wait!

Main page:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/Sun2012.htm

Eclipse report:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/ATaleOfTwoTransits.html

Venus transit report:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/ATaleOfTwoTransitsVenus.html

Eclipse gallery:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/EclipseSequence.html

Transit gallery:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/VenusTransit.html

What’s really taken me so long to process all these images (aside from their sheer number) is that I also thought to take a stab at creating animations of the events:

Eclipse (Warning: 4MB in size!):
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/2012EclipseAnimation.gif

Transit (5 MB in size!):
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/2012VenusTransitAnimation.gif

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

I haven't been active on the DSO imaging groups lately. I still have a bit of a backlog to work through, and was also distracted by the solar events of May and June (my apologies to those who've seen these before):

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/ATaleOfTwoTransits.html
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/EclipseSequence.html
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/ATaleOfTwoTransitsVenus.html
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/SolarSystem/Sun/2012/Transits2012/VenusTransit.html

During my trip out west for the solar events, I swapped out the TOA-130 in our remote observatory with an FSQ-106. Here is my first finished image taken with the FSQ-106 taking advantage of its FOV: M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

This is not my first attempt at M31; I have two finished images of it from 2004 and 2006. This is my first attempt of it from a dark sky site, however. I am particularly pleased with the relative ease of processing this image. I did not have to run any gradient removal algorithm with this data. Either it's that good, or perhaps I did not stretch it enough?

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/M31.html

75% sized image:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/M31/M31_2012.jpg

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

I got around to processing some of my backlog of data from New Mexico.

First up is Sharpless 181 and 183, which reminds me of the logo of the Chicago Bulls:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/SH2-183.html

Next up is a couple of supernova remnants, the remains of a couple of supermassive stars that blew up a few (or perhaps several) thousand years ago:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/SH224.html

Sharpless 224 is particularly interesting to me shape-wise. I’ve actually been aware of this object for several years now, but only got around to finally imaging it late in 2012.

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

I have a confession to make: I have this bad habit of working on an image, then giving up after a while because I'm not happy with it with the intent of coming back "some day" to work on it. I then either never get around to it, or go back, fiddle with it a bit, then forget about it.

I resisted this urge with my recent sharing of the two faint objects, specifically the Sharpless 183 image. That one was, I felt, not ready for prime time, but I shared it anyway, warts and all. The feedback was enough impetus to make me look at the image with a fresh eye. I am currently working on a bit of a redo on that target. Expect a reshare of that nebula soon.

With that philosophy, please allow me to share two images going back a couple of years (yes, years!). I call this pair my "Supernova Predictors", because in both cases, a supernova went off a few months *after* I shot a galaxy in that composition!

The first is M101, a nice big galaxy near the Big Dipper. This is quite aptly called the Pinwheel Galaxy, though I will admit that I am a bit confused by that moniker, as M33 (http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/M33.html) is also called that:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/M101.html

Next is a wide field of galaxies in Leo that I originally planned to call "The Trio in Leo 2", as a nod to the original Trio in Leo (http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/TrioInLeo.html). There are more than three bright galaxies in this field of view, however, so I decided to call it a "Quintet in Leo" instead:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/TrioInLeo2.html

As mentioned in the text of this page, quite a few asteroids zipped through the field of view as I shot this area:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/TrioInLeo2/TrioinLeo2Asteroids.jpg

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

I started down this wild, wooly and fantastic journey of imaging DSO's with CCD's almost ten years ago. In all those years, I had never imaged the Pleiades. Why? I was following a rule of thumb from back then that I believe is still a standing recommendation by CCD manufacturers (unless that recommendation has been updated since): use NABG cameras for imaging in light-polluted sites, ABG for dark skies. As I was imaging from our back yard, I picked NABG over ABG cameras. And I was never daring enough to fight the massive blooms that shooting the Pleiades would incur.

That finally changed two years ago when I bought an STL-11000 from a friend. I didn't get much of a chance to use it though, as I was focused on imaging at our remote site, which had our NABG camera. I finally moved the STL-11K down to our remote site a few months ago, and bolted it onto our FSQ-106. This image represents the first light taken with this combination at our dark site.

This was shot late in the season as I only got the equipment configured last month (February), so it's a little past the peak of this target. But I had to shoot something that represents the "why buy an ABG camera" all too well. My imaging time was shorter than I would like, so I'm pretty delighted with what I was able to pull out anyway given the relatively short (for me!) total exposure time.

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Clusters/M45.html

Questions, comments and suggestions always welcome.

Thanks,
Eric

Hi all,

I've been dialing in a 12.5" PlaneWave CDK since late last year at my remote observatory. Four trips later (between November 2012 and May 2013), I am happy to say that all systems are pretty much a go. There's still a lot of work to do (creating a TPoint and PEC model for the mount, focus parameters for the scope, etc.), but this first light is very promising.

Object: M13
Telescope 12.5" PlaneWave CDK at f/8
Camera: SBIG STL-6303 with 5-position filter wheel and AO-L
Mount: Paramount ME

Exposures: 3x5 minutes each RGB

Full-size image can be seen here:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Clusters/Images/M13/M13_2013PW.jpg

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

Here is my first image taken after a February trip to my remote observatory in February 2012. This is of IC 2177, nicknamed The Seagull Nebula. This is a large emission nebula, which is yet another cloud of hydrogen gas glowing from the radiation of nearby bright stars. It is made a bit more interesting with the tongues of dark nebulae crossing the emission nebulosity. I especially like the small "river" or "crack" in the "head" of the seagull. Though I just noticed a little rabbit-like (or is that more of a long-eared terrier?) silhouette towards the lower right of the emission nebula's "wing".

Description and a preview image can be seen at:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/IC2177.html

75% Sized image at:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/Images/IC2177/IC2177_HaRGB_2013.jpg

Enjoy,
Eric

Hi all,

On June 14, 2013, almost ten years after I signed up for an AP130, a couple of boxes arrived from Astro-Physics, bearing an AP130EDF GT and accessories.

I'm not sure what I did right, but the sky was clear enough that evening for me to experience first light with this wonderful scope. A waxing Moon was an easy target, so I shot it. I have to try Saturn yet.

DMK41, AP130EDF GT, Televue 4X Powermate. This is a stack from a 30-second video. Processed in AviStack and Photoshop. I had to crop a bit as there were some shadows from possible dust bunnies.

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all,

It’s been a long while since I got around to processing some data. This is an image captured from last February 2013. I was hoping to gather more data of this target (as well as another target I was starting to work on) when my camera apparently died on me. Fortunately, a visit to the remote observatory determined that the fault was a filter that had fallen off and jammed the camera’s motorized filter wheel. The filter is back in place and the camera is busily gathering data once more.

Nevertheless, it took me until now to process this particular image, that of Sharpless 249 and IC443.

Details on the object and a small image can be seen here:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/IC443.html

Please be sure to click on the small image to see a 75%-sized version. Or just click here:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/Images/IC443/IC443-2013.jpg

Regards,
Eric