Starstruck

I’m not happy with the state of astronomical image-processing software on the Mac. I’ve been using Keith’s Image Stacker for the past few days, and while it’s better than nothing, it’s not better by much. So far it has crashed several times, and in one case managed to remove all trace of work in progress [...]

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The cloud gods have been having a conversation over the observatory, so I’m still playing with the M57 captures from last week. There’s a small 14th magnitude (14.8 – but that’s integrated rather than surface brightness, and so not seen at the same time as 14th magnitude stars) spiral galaxy [IC1296] [...]

It’s been a while since I used Keith’s Image Stacker, so I thought I’d take another look at it. I have to say it’s still a pain to use, but on the other hand it has become a good deal more useful than it used to be. I took eight 10-second images of the Ring [...]

I captured a few Jupiter images and a few Ring Nebula images at the prime focus of the FLT-110 scope. I was using an Orion two-inch T-mount adapter to connect the camera to the scope, but the back focus was just a tad short. With great trepidation I pulled the camera slightly out of the [...]

According to both regular weather reports and the Clear Sky site, Sunday 19 June will have clear skies in the evening hours. On the assumption that that’s correct I’m going to work myself up to taking at least one image on Sunday. That sounds like a paltry ambition, but I’m up to my ears in [...]

Through the kind courtesy of Attila Danko there is now a Clear Sky clock for Woodbridge, Ontario. This makes it easier for me to figure out when the skies are likely to be good for observing. This is particularly useful for me as the weekend approaches, but will also be useful during the week as [...]

Transparency is currently the pits, though the sky is relatively clear. All four of the Galilean satellites are spread for review on the eastern (I think – have to consider this) side of the planet, but the Great Red Spot is not yet visible, and won’t be for a couple of hours. The planet itself [...]

I had thought this week that I would head out to the Lorentz Observatory a few miles northeast of Cobourg, Ontario and set up for some dark sky observing. Early in the week the forecast looked good, and I expected I would be joining other members of the NYAA overnight Saturday. Then the weather forecast [...]

I’m in the middle of upgrading my laptop—iBook, actually—after the previous version fell victim to a relatively common problem in which the display would flicker when the laptop was open at certain angles.

The new version is faster – 1.2 GHz against 800 MHz, has a more advanced processor – G4 against G3 - and a [...]