Great end to 2013

Leading up to Christmas 2013, Cheryl hinted and hinted at the idea of getting me a watch. I've been without a watch for a while, and she's even asked if I wanted to go in shops looking for one. I even asked her if her present to me was something I'd not had for a while and she laughed. Come Christmas morning, she gives me a small wrapped gift. I tear back the paper and it's a tin, the kind of tin a watch would come in.

I read the top of the tin lid to see it's a QHY5L-ii guide camera / CCD camera. Chuffed to pieces would be an understatement of how happy I was. I jokingly put this on my Christmas list as it's a fair piece of money, so couldn't believe she'd actually bought it.

Jump to a few days later, I've sussed out the way it fixes to my finderscope and installed the required software on my laptop. Part of me was hoping for plenty of clouds as it's always a little daunting getting a new piece of equipment in the hobby of astrophotoraphy - nothing is ever simple or straightforward.

Surprisingly, after maybe an hour of playing around and clicking different buttons, I managed to get the guide camera fixed on a star (for those of you that don't know, a guide camera "watches" a selected star and tells the mount to follow it exactly, you could say the guide cam acts as an eye for the mount).

My first image captured using the guidecam was the Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33). This shot below was a total of 29 minutes exposure, with each image at an exposure of 160 seconds. Before the guidecam I was unable to image longer than 70 - 80 seconds without the stars trailing off. Safe to say this camera is doing its job!

Which brings me on to my final image of 2013...

The Horsehead nebula has always been my favourite nebula in the night sky - having never seen it, I've always awed over images online and in books. The mysterious dark cloud in front of the nebula, forming the shape of a horses head looking away from you into the dark distance of the universe.

New Years eve 2013 I headed out with all my equipment and set up, with only one target in mind. Cheryl was busy inside baking cookies, neither of us really caring much for the hyped up day of the week.

After almost two hours inside, I came in with the captured images and spent around an hour editing the curves and levels of the final stacked result. This image is around 20 minutes of exposure (I had a few problems along the way which caused a few shots to fail sadly) and is most likely my favorite shot so far. I can't wait to get out and try again when the weather clears.

Andromeda Galaxies

Andromeda is the closest galaxy to our own, and is getting closer. Eventually the two galaxies will collide and become one great galaxy (we're talking billions of years however). It's a good target for any astronomer, and on a clear night is visible with the naked eye. Currently it isn't in an ideal part of the sky for viewing, as it is quite low down and close to the horizon - it only starts to become clearer at around 01:00am.

The first sighting of Andromeda with the 300mm lens on the CG-5 mount came out pretty well. The following shots were taken from a few separate exposures and a few dark frames put together in Deep Sky Stacker.

I'm really happy with the fact I caught two other galaxies within it (click the image to see labels) as I didn't expect to be able to pick them up. I know the final image isn't great - but it's definitely something to work and build upon.

How to: Capture Star Trails

Meteor on the right

Star trails have been something I've wanted to photograph since I first became aware of them around a year ago. The patience of spending all night in the garden with your camera in the freezing cold put me off slightly, but lately due to a clear window and some clear skies, I've managed to get the same results indoors.

This guide will briefly (and as simply as I can) explain the process I took to get these results by stacking multiple images together to create one final long-exposure image.

The first step is to set the camera up. For these images I use continuous shoot mode, with 30 second exposure and a low ISO (around 400) to keep the grain down. I'll set the aperture once the camera is pointing at the sky as it depends on how dark/light the sky is.

I've been taking my latest star trail shots through a back window in a spare room. By positioning the tripod against the wall, I can get the camera as close to the window as possible (try make sure the window is clean too!). Adding a bit of support to the tripod legs to stop any movement or slippage during the night. 

Once my shutter speed, shooting mode ISO are set, and I'm happy with the aperture, I use a wired external remote with locking switch to begin shooting. Continuous shoot mode will continually take shots while the remote button is pressed.

I'll then, usually, go to bed. You will usually find the camera silent in the morning, having drained all battery life. I've been told that when the sensor is activated is when the camera uses the most power, so continuous shots drain it pretty quick - however you should still get 5 - 7 hours of shooting out of a full charge (on my Canon 1000D anyway).

I'll then review the photos on screen, checking every 15 - 30 shots for clouds. Some trails I have had to cut short as clouds tend to come along after a few hours, in this case, I'll discard these from the final edit.

To stack the good images I use a program on the Macbook called Starstax (will add a link). This program, simply put, takes all the photos you select and stacks them together. Very simple to use indeed so no real need to explain further in this.

The stacking will show you each image as it stacks it, 2 or 3 per second, which is interesting to watch as you can see your photo gradually building up - star trails gradually getting longer. Occasionally you may see a plane fly past, or if you're lucky a meteor suddenly appear. By watching the stacking process you can also identify any shots that need touching up, for example last night I had to edit 4 or 5 photos after noticing a neighbour used a spotlight, thus filling the shot with an over-exposed foreground and bit of lens flare. A quick touch up in Photoshop on these images quickly solves this. If you chose not to touch these up, and simply delete these images, you will have gaps in your trails.

Once the stacking is complete, you can save the final image onto your computer.

2 hours 38 minutes

I tend to open the final image in Photoshop to see if it needs any touching up or colours fixed. I generally make the sky a little darker black/blue as so much exposure can make it pretty light/purple. I may also touch up the light pollution at the bottom of the shot.

I'm now pretty confident with this process, but am continuing to play around with different angles and parts of the sky. I'm also trying to hunt down some meteors of course ;-)