Recent Problems

I bought myself a new scanner for the same price I would pay for 40 1200-dpi slide scans.
That means my Canon 8400F should be paid for in 2 or 3 rolls of film :) Oh, and I get 3200 dpi, which should be enough..
In fact, it was enough for me to spot a few problems in my astrophotos.. I found out that I have a drif of 49 arc-seconds in my recent (July 30th) pic from M101, shown here.

It may have several origins:

• Guidescope slipping off place during exposure (it is currently attached to the main scope, and not directly to the mount)
• Guidescope's focuser moving during exposure (the equivalent of mirror slop in refractors :))
• Imperfect mount alignment, causing field rotation as I was guiding on a bright but distant star. (unlikely the case, as the trail measures 0,145mm (49") on all corners of the 6x6cm frame)
• Too large guiding tolerance (not the case: I use 5"~10" guiding accuracy, this is a 49" trail)

Anyway, I've digitized only 2 slides, and found problems on these 2 only. I still need to digitize 38 more to pay for the scanner, and to find out if other photos suffer from the same problem :) scnning older photos, from when I had a slightly different guide-scope setup, may help in determining the cause and nature of this problem..

Good sky vs good night

Yesterday night, I went out to photograph the sky again.. The sky was absolutely fabulous; you could see everything! Stars of magnitude 6.3 showed up quite easily at the naked eye. the atmosphere was decently stable as well.. However, it was extremely windy as well. So I didn't risk taking any pictures :( I'll try again next weekend, probably.
Right now I have one 45-minute shot of M31 in the roll of 120 film (6cm x 6cm), so that means I still have arround 12 photos to shoot before sending the film to processing :P
Taking pictures at this rate means I'll have this roll finished in about 4 to 6 sessions.. Which hints at about one month time from now to have the results digitized :)

IC1318

IC1318
Originally uploaded by Filipe Dias.

Another photo was put online, this time it is IC 1318, a Nebula in Cygnus.
Not as good as my last M8+M20 nebulas, this one needs longer exposure time..
There was not much processing applied to it, just adjusted the levels a bit, and down-sized it so it would look nicer, with less noise :)

M8 + M20

M8 + M20
Originally uploaded by Filipe Dias.

This weekend, under the worst windy conditions I ever decided to take pictures in, produced my best image so far. A shot at Messier objects M8 (Lagoon Nebula) and M20 (Trifid Nebula).

It was difficult to get the blue color to show up.. It still isn't as good as I would like, but..

Blog Bang!

....And a rather Big Bang was heard, somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse..
Actually that "bang" is thought to have come from 527 light-years in the direction of Earth.. Anyway, that bang created, among many other uninteresting things, this blog!
Hence, this blog is a result of a sound. It's true! I can explain it.. You see there are these Strings, you know, and.. and.. Well, it's a theory, you see, but it actually works, and creates.. ..blogs!..

Well, enough about that, let's talk about me!
I'm this blog's writer! Its creator! I am, therefore, a sound! Can't you hear me? Didn't you hear my "Bang"? Strange, Earthlings seem to hear worse than my friends at Betelgeuse System..

Right! About this blog: This is the place where I intend to share what I do in my small astronomical hobby. I plan on writing here experiments I make, experineces I have, stuff I buy, stuff I keep, stuff I make up, mistakes, wonders, images, quasi-random agglomerates of letters, and other mental outbursts I think appropriately related to this topic :) I'm sorry, I don't plan on posting news articles, like space news and such.. This is just a place for my view about my stuff. There's no space here for rigorous and unbiased journalism! That's too easy to do these days!

So I wish you a pleasent Bang hearing, as it might be possible that each post makes a small "Bang". Remember where you can hear them! it's just 527 light-year away from Betelgeuse, roughly on the surface of a strange looking blueish-green camelion-skin planet, that might slowly be turning grey. But it might be easy if you subscribe to the RSS feed, as that usually amplifies bang-type sounds.