ShahGazer Rambling about Astrophotography, Coding and Clouds

This is, as far as I can remember, the most complete set of Total Lunar Eclipse sequence, I managed to capture under the unpredictable Malaysian sky! I am very pleased with the results. And equally please with the performance of my newly bought AstroTrac! This is a screenshot from my local television, with me and my good friend, Dr. Rowi along with the new toy.

This shot was one of my earliest using a 50mm f/1.8 lens on Canon 550D. Still unfamiliar with DSLR settings, I simply blast up my ISO to 3200 and was pleasantly surprise with the 5 sec exposure results! No tracking involved since I simply placed on my camera tripod.  Looking forward for my astrotrac to arrive next week, and see how deep I can go into with long exposures with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. Photo was taken last December 2010 during the Geminids watch 

The 13th Oct 2011 , Moon-Jupiter conjunction was viewed nicely from my observatory. The weather somehow clears up for the event, and the positioning of both objects and with the nearby mosque's minaret was down right lucky! I had some difficulty in getting my main SW 120ED scope in the frame, since the area inside the observatory is quiet narrow from that angle. However, with the help of my 2 daughters, they assisted me in position the moon squarely under the moon, after much contradicting tips! :-) I posted it over to Spaceweather.com and APOD. And I was surprised as Dr.Clay of Spaceweather.com chose my photo again. You can view the photo HERE Shot was taken with my Canon 550D, 18mm kit lens.

The weather is not that cooperating in Kuala Lumpur for the past months. However occasionally the sky opens up revealing some stars (hardly reach 3rd magnitude!). The haze was thick and never seems to go away. Not wanting to waste any time, and missed the opportunity of capturing my first comet using a CCD, I decided to give it a go. Comet Garradd seems to be quiet large, but the tail is kinda difficult to see the whole stretch. I've googled the comet's photo and a lot shows the tail to be pretty impressive. Well, most probably the haze and the scattering of lights from Kuala Lumpur, making it somewhat drown inside the sky glow. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with my first CCD image of a comet. The image is Luminance only, and even though I have the RGB data sets, I am still trying to find some ways of processing it and making it look presentable. I came across the blog by AstroSwanny , and how to process the comet in  LRGB. Will give it a try soon.

Yes, I am hooked with Google+. Thanks to a friend, I was invited in yesterday, and have a pretty solid day today playing around and familiarizing with its functions. I have to admit, it took me quiet a while to get used to it, and re-learn the concept of 'sharing network' as they called it. Frankly, I need to get a break from Facebook. For the past year, it has becoming too cluttered and 'noisy'. I felt like being forcefully spoon feed with unwanted news, status updates and worse.. spamming! Now with Google+, especially with its really cool Circle concept, I am finally began to have more control on what is displayed on the screen.  Look for "Shahrin Ahmad"

M7, also known as Ptolemy Cluster, tucked nicely at the tail of the Scorpion. With the Milky Way center nearby, it was tempting to give it a try, even though it was right in the middle of the city glow. The final image was rather pleasing for me. I managed to capture some background stars as well. Stretched quiet a lot in Photoshop especially on the grey curve. Camera: QHY9 Mono with QHY Filter wheel (RGB) Telescope: SW Equinox 120ED Mount: EQ6 Pro with EQMOD Guiding: Orion 80mm and QHY5 Imaging Software: Maxim DL Processing Software: Maxim DL and PS3 Exposures: L: 6 x 100sec, R: 3 x 60sec, G: 3 x 60sec, B: 3 x 60sec Calibration: Old Flats (per color) and Darks Dither : 2 pixel per sub

The morning of 14th May 2011 was pretty clear. After several days shrouded by haze, the sky at my observatory was promising this morning. My 10'x10' observatory footprint doesn't allow me to have a good spot for the shot. But at least the planets were pretty near the nearby mosque and have a photogenic look. I submitted this photo at Spaceweather.com and surprisingly was selected at the front page today . Thanks Dr. Tony Phillips of Spaceweather.com !

NGC 2467, an interesting nebula in Puppis. This image was captured last night when the moon was about 30 degrees away. The sky was pretty hazy during the time. And unfortunately my focus was slightly off. I wonder what went wrong with the focus because I already did a new v-curve set in FocusMax the night before. So I had to binned the final image. Combining LRGB was done in Maxim DL, while the final Levels and curves via PS CS3. Camera: QHY9 Mono with QHY Filter wheel (RGB) Telescope: SW Equinox 120ED Mount: EQ6 Pro with EQMOD Guiding: Orion 80mm and QHY5 Imaging Software: Maxim DL Processing Software: Maxim DL and PS3 Exposures: L: 6 x 100sec, R: 3 x 60sec, G: 3 x 60sec, B: 3 x 60sec Calibration: Old Flats (per color) and Darks Dither : 2 pixel per sub

Last night, with the Moon almost full in the east, I was reluctant to do any imaging. However, the sky towards the south became clearer each minute, and having a steady clear sky in my location is very rare. So I fired up my imaging equipments. This is a small planetary nebula in Puppis, NGC 2440. Finding it was easy, using Maxim DL and PinPoint. In fact I am enjoying and more relaxed now when doing imaging, having Maxim DL help me to automate the process and PinPoint assuring me that I am pointing at the correct place! Camera: QHY9 Mono with QHY Filter wheel (RGB) Telescope: SW Equinox 120ED Mount: EQ6 Pro with EQMOD Guiding: Orion 80mm and QHY5 Imaging Software: Maxim DL Processing Software: Maxim DL and PS3 Exposures: L: 6 x 100sec, R: 3 x 60sec, G: 3 x 60sec, B: 3 x 60sec Calibration: Flats (per color) and Darks Dither : 2 pixel per sub

I was following almost step-by-step of processing LRGB images from the Starizona - Guide to ccd imaging , and happily managed to extract some good data from my previous Eta Carina RGB data sets. Combined with the Luminance data, I used R(3 min), G(3 min), B(3 min). The combined method is Median for RGB and Sigma Clip for Luminance. The SNR seems better.

Eta Carinae was barely clearing my rooftop, as it never reaches above 30 degrees from Kuala Lumpur. But, I was please to see the initial results. This is among the first CCD shot and post processing done by me. The learning curve was pretty steep, but then I got a lot of cloudy nights here to force me to learn, read, try and experiment with whatever data I have. The shot was taken on 28th March 2011. Skywatcher 120ED EQ6 QHY9-mono Autoguided by MaximDL and QHY5 Luminance = 11.6 minutes

Finally, my home observatory has finally finished. After about 5 month of construction, the final piece of the puzzle was put in place. I have now a complete solution for an automated imaging observatory. For now, this is a photo of the equipment in place. I will probably do a proper page for this observatory soon. At the moment I am very happy on what I have and can see numerous projects and opportunity when observing from a permanent site.