Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park

April 25-27, 2006

Animation of Comet 73P Fragment "C"

Images of Fragments "B" & "C", Jupiter & Sun in H-Alpha

by Gary Honis

Fragment "B" of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann: Image was taken with a modified Canon Rebel Digital SLR Camera through an Orion ED 80 refractor using a Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer. The ED 80 was mounted on the rocker box of a 20 inch Starmaster Alt-Az Dobsonian with GOTO Skytracker. The image was manually guided on the comet nucleus through the eyepiece of the 20 inch starmaster using a 3X barlow and a 10mm reticle eyepiece. The image is a stack of ten 30-second exposures at ISO 1600 at full frame.

Fragment "B"- 12:30 am on 4/27/06 - Stack of ten 30-second exposures:

Fragment "C" of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann: The two images below were taken with a modified Digital Rebel through an Orion ED 80 refractor using a Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer. The ED 80 was mounted on the rocker box of a 20 inch Starmaster Alt-Az Dobsonian with GOTO Skytracker. The image was manually guided on the comet nucleus through the eyepiece of the 20 inch starmaster using a 3X barlow and a 10mm reticle eyepiece. The images are stacks of 30 and 60-second exposures at ISO 1600 at full frame.

Fragment "C"- 10:20 pm on 4/26/06 - Stack of thirty 30-second exposures and nine 60-second exposures:

ANIMATION:

For Animation of Fragment "C" CLICK HERE.

Fragment "C"- 10:42 pm on 4/25/06 - Stack of fifty-one 30-second exposures:

Fragment "C" of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann: This image was taken at prime focus with a modified Digital Rebel through 20 inch Starmaster Alt-Az Dobsonian with GOTO Skytracker unguided. A Denkmeier 2 inch OCS was used to reach focus.

Fragment "C"- 1:00 am on 4/26/06 - Stack of five 30-second exposures at ISO 1600:

Jupiter - 4/26/06 - A modified Fusion webcam was used with 5X Televue Powermate and 20" Starmaster GOTO Dobsonian for this image. Seeing was bad; skies were clear and temperature dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. OPEN VIDEO CAPTURE was used to capture a two minute AVI file at 1280X960 resolution and 7.5 frames per second using the HuffyUV lossless video codec. 26 frames out of 900 total frames were stacked using Registax 3. Even though seeing was bad, using the best 26 frames during moments of good seeing allowed stacking to bring out a some detail on Jupiter. The large chip of the Fusion webcam allowed the sphere of Jupiter to fit on the 1280X960 frame which would not be possible using the Philips Toucam and my scope.

Jupiter - 4/27/06: A modified Fusion webcam was used with the same setup as for above image. 16 of best 900 frames were stacked for the image.

For instructions on how to modify a 1.3 Megapixel USB 2.0 Logitech Fusion Webcam with test results, astro pics and comparisons to the Philips Toucam, CLICK HERE.

4/28/06 Cherry Springs Field Photos

Tom, Dave, Tony & John:

John and new monster Starmaster dob:

Still need a calendar with moon phases for 2006? CLICK HERE for a free 2006 Moon Phase Calendar that I created for printing full page size and business card size.

For detailed directions for converting a Canon Digital Rebel for infrared and astro imaging CLICK HERE.

To My Astrophotography & Digital Imaging Home Page

Infrared Canon Digital Rebel 300D camera and infrared digital camera with infrared filter for infrared photography