Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2018, September 8, 10:00 CET+1
Scale: 1.5 pixels/arc second
Camera: ZWO ASI-1600MM PRO at prime focus (gain 0, exposure 1/1000)
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount
Filters: Baader AstroSolar
Software: Indi/Ekos (within kstars)
Siril: Registration and stacking of 50% best out of 250 frames. No subtraction of special frames.
Gimp: Unsharp mask enhancement and colourization.
First-light-test of new camera. Monochrome, no filters beyond the Baader AstroSolar, colouring is artificial. Cooling fan off.
The tiny dots in the middle were labelled AR2721 the next day.
Sirdal, Norway (59 degrees north)
2022, March 3, 14:00 CET
Scale: 0.5 pixel/arc second
Camera: ZWO ASI-1600MM PRO at prime focus (gain 0, exposure 1/1000 or 1/10000?)
Telescope: Lunt LS35 B400, piggybacked on a tracking Newtonian/Dobson mount
Software: Indi/Ekos (within kstars)
PlanetarySystemStacker: Alignment, stacking of 50% best out of 160 frames, and sharpening.
Gimp: Colourization and touching up.
Visible sun spots: rim 10 o'clock - AR2960; region left of the centre - AR2959, AR2957, AR2961; rim 4 o'clock - AR2955, AR2954.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, October 7, 15:00 CET
Scale: 1 pixel/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC at prime focus (gain 0, exposure "58")
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount
Filter: Baader AstroSolar (no IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrocam-g2
AstroStakkert!: Debayering, registering, stacking
RegiStax and Gimp: Postprocessing (wavelet sharpening etc)
No subtraction of special frames.
Bodø, Norway (67 degrees north)
2017, December 29, 21:45 CET
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, on tripod and with remote control
Lens: Canon EFS 18-55mm
Exposure: Single 10 s, ISO 800
Siril: dark frame subtraction, initial colour adjustment
Gimp: final adjustment
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2016, November 13, ca 18:30 CET
Scale: 1 pixel/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC at prime focus (gain 0, exposure ??)
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount
Filter: none (not even IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrcam-g2
This is a mosaic, with each tile a stack of the 60% best out of 50 frames.
Siril: debayering
ImageMagick: format conversions, cropping
AutoStakkert!: registering, stacking
Gimp + export layers plugin + enfuse: mosaic assembly, colour adjustment etc.
RegiStax: wavelet sharpening (after assembly)
No subtraction of special frames.
21 hours before full moon at perigee. Terrible seeing.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, January 5, 08:42 CET
Scale: 1 pixel/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC at prime focus
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount with equatorial platform tracking
Filters: none (not even IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrocam-g2
Siril: Dark frame stacking (median stack of 100 frames), dark frame subtraction, debayering, stacking (additive, best 10% of 1000 frames), wavelet sharpening.
Gimp: Montage, color adjustment.
Two separate series of 1000 frames, one for the moons with Jupiter over exposed and another for Jupiter with invisible moons.
Sirdal, Norway (59 degrees north)
2022, November 19, 19:45 CET
Camera: ZWO ASI-1600MM PRO through Televue 2.5x Barlow
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 11, CGX mount
Filters: RGB (ZWO EFW mini filter wheel)
Capture: oaCapture (Linux)
Gain 40, Exposure 80 ms (far too dark).Autostakkert 3: align, stack
Registax: wavelet sharpening
Siril: RGB composing
GIMP: rotate and crop
Haugesund, Norway (59 degrees north)
2011, April 27, 21:22 CET
Scale: 0.8 pixels/arc second (really?)
Camera: QuickCam Pro 3000 SC3.1 at prime focus (gain 30-40 (?), exposure 1/25 s)
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount
Filter: built in webcam IR filter
Software: wxAstroCapture
RegiStax: debayering, registering, stacking and wavelet sharpening.
Gimp: colour adjustment.
No subtraction of special frames.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, January 15, 08:29 CET
Scale: 2.5 pixels/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC through Televue 2.5x Barlow
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount with equatorial platform tracking
Filters: none (not even IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrocam-g2
Siril: debayering
AutoStakkert: registration, stacking (20% best of about 600 frames)
Registax: wavelet sharpening
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2020, October 14, 22:00 CEST
Resolution: 4.8 pixels/arcsec
Camera: ZWO ASI-1600MM PRO through Televue 2.5x Barlow
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount with tracking platform
Filters: ZWO RGB (filter wheel)
Software: oacapture, siril
(Resolution is measured, based on apparent diameter of 22 arc seconds. It means the actual Barlow factor is about 3.1x with this setup.) Stack of 30% best of about 1500 frames each for R, G and B. Capture with oacapture, processing in siril and some adjustment in gimp. All series were captured with the same gain setting and colour has not been adjusted afterwards. The giant volcano Olympus Mons is visible top left as a bright spot.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2016, November 9, 19:17 CET
Scale: 8 pixels/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC at prime focus (gain 70, exposure 0.2 s)
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount with equatorial platform tracking
Filters: none (not even IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrocam
Siril: Dark frame stacking (median stack of about 100 frames), dark frame subtraction and debayering.
RegiStax: registering, stack of 10% best of about 1000 frames with 2x drizzle, and wavelet sharpening.
Gimp: 4x magnification, RGB alignment and colour adjustment.
With 2x drizzle plus 4x magnification this is at 8x the native resolution of the webcam. It is a bit of a cheat, since the planet looks like a tiny somewhat fuzzy ball and can be magnified without looking very different.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2016, November 11, 19:00 CET
Scale: 2 pixels/arc second
Camera: Philips SPC900NC at prime focus (gain 50, exposure 0.2 s)
Telescope: Newtonian 15 cm f/8, Dobson mount with equatorial platform tracking
Filters: none (not even IR/UV cut)
Software: Qastrocam
Siril: Dark frame stacking (median stack of 102 frames), dark frame subtraction and debayering.
RegiStax: registering, stack of 40% (?) best of 175 frames with 2x drizzle, and wavelet sharpening.
Because of the 2x drizzle, the image is at twice the native resolution of the webcam. I do not know whether the spikes are diffraction spikes or a wavelet artifact.
Vestre Slidre, Norway
1997, March 27, 21:30 CET
Camera: Minolta SLR
Lens: 50 mm
Film: Agfa Optima 400 (negative)
Exposure: 4 min 45 sec, F5.6, manually tracked
Scanned from negative using Reflecta Proscan 7200.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, February 14, 05:30 CET
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, piggybacked on telescope with equatorial platform tracking
Lens: Sigma AF 70-300/4,0-5,6 DG APO Macro
Exposure: 10 x 30 s
Alignment: manually in Gimp
Stacking: Siril
Post-processing: Gimp
This is next to a 3/4 moon and from a heavily light polluted back yard.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, February 17, 21:00 CET
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, piggybacked on telescope with equatorial platform tracking
Lens: Sigma AF 70-300/4,0-5,6 DG APO Macro (at 300 mm)
Exposure: sequence of 20 s and 10 s exposures
Ekos/indi-gphoto: capture
Siril: dark frame subtraction, alignment, stacking
Gimp: colour adjustment
57 x 20 s exposures plus 67 x 10 s exposures. Stack of 75% best. Combined exposure time about 22 minutes.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2017, October 19, 22:00 CET
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, piggybacked on telescope with equatorial platform tracking
Lens: Sigma AF 70-300/4,0-5,6 DG APO Macro (at 300 mm)
Exposure: 53 x 20 s
Ekos/indi-gphoto: capture
Siril: calibration (bias and flat frames), alignment, stacking
Gimp: colour adjustment
Sirdal, Norway (59 degrees north)
2022, December 19, 19:00 CET
Camera: ZWO ASI-1600MM PRO at prime focus, EFW filter wheel
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 11, CGX mount
Exposure: 50 x 10s each in RGBL
Siril: alignment, stacking, RGBL composition
Gimp: brightness/contrast adjustment
Tracked, not guided. Colour is not adjusted, as flat as the RGB filters are.
Stavanger, Norway (59 degrees north)
2018, March 17, 22:30-24:00 CET
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, piggybacked on telescope with equatorial platform tracking
Lens: Sigma AF 70-300/4,0-5,6 DG APO Macro (at 70 mm)
Exposure: 203 x 15 s
Ekos/indi-gphoto: capture
Siril: alignment, stacking, preliminary colour adjustment
Gimp: final colour adjustement, rotation, annotation
Zanzibar, Tanzania (6 degrees south)
2018, July 13, 22:30 EAT (UTC+3)
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR, lying flat on its back
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 III
Exposure: 30 s (on self timer to reduce vibration)
RawTherapee: conversion/adjustments from raw image
Note: The Linux driver pwc has full functionality only in V4L (as opposed to V4L2), supported in kernel versions < 2.6.38 only (e.g. Ubuntu 10.04, available from the old-releases server).
Philips SPC900NC:
QuickCam Pro 3000: