Dec, 1st - The Next Bang

Ok, so there was a Big Bang when this blog appeared.. Then the universe cooled for a bit and messages stopped popping up (is that what they call the Big Freeze?). But like any Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), a message may "bang" into existence unexpectedly.. And so it happened!

December 1st, the first day of a long 4-month mission to acquire spectra of some targets, among which is WR 140.. Wolf-Rayet stars such as these are believed to be candidates for originating GRBs! The actual proof of that, is this very message, which outshone this entire blog put toghether after 27 months of conspicuous inactivity!

The next posts will naturally have to bring updates as to what I've been doing for the past 27 months aside from not writing blog messages.. They will also bring more details on this mission that will be part of: What makes it special to astronomers, to some amateurs, and specifically to me!

So like any sight of a GRB, keep tuned observing this one, to learn from the moments that follow it :)

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..