What is happening in the sky of Bonaire
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The New Lens
The new wide field instrument that was integrated into our instruments is a Rokinon 135mm F2 ED lens, unfortunately the lens we received was for a different camera and we began a process of adapting from one device to another.
Like Murphy's Law, unexpected events made the situation worse in the adaptation process and the lens is now useless for its purpose.
After dissecting the lens several times, according to the photograph taken of Arcturus with the Bahtinov mask, it seems that the problem is solved, we also return to step one: joining the lens with the camera...
The Mask
The Bahtinov mask is a device used to focus small astronomical telescopes accurately.
We make the Mask with toothpicks and cardboard to ensure fine focus of the lens and a well-defined image.
My object to photograph is in the constellation of the scorpion:
Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex.
Rokinon lens is ideal for its wide field, however the universe can wait, as soon as we have resolved the impasse, we will try to do the astrophotography session and we will publish the photograph of Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex from our island Bonaire.
A new challenge:
Doing some research, I found that the best way to mount the lens, camera and guidance system is with a mount made of PETG on a 3D printer, which I do not have or know how to use, so I decided to replicate the mount in wood. . With many trials and errors, here is the final product.
The mount made with a 3D printer by one or two companies and commercialized:
The mount made in wood for me:
Here with the Bahtinov Mask installed to guarantee almost perfect focus
These are days of full moon and illuminated skies, however, here is a test photo, 20 seconds with guidance:
Open cluster NGC 6823 in Vulpecula
By chance the transit of a high orbit satellite is captured, we know that it is not a low orbit because in a 20 second exposure, it has barely moved, generating a small line.
Finally, after struggling with the wrong lens, the absence of a suitable mount and bad weather, here it is, Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
At 460 light years from our planet.
A few nights ago, as a very rare thing in Bonaire, we had clear skies free of the dust of the Sahara for a few hours, this was perfect to photograph M16, the iconic Eagle Nebula, with almost three hours of integration, here I present the photograph with a Very simple stretch, ready to be processed and later published here on this page.
Using the improvised wood mount on the Equatorial mount Eq r-6, I achieve 3 hours of integration of M16.
I use a moded Nikon D5300 (The only one that I have).
Processing was done in PixInsight, the H II (Hydrogen 2 ) emits light after being radiated by stars, that is why is called emission nebula and is red in color.
This is the initial photo after integration without any process.
In this final integration photography, almost nothing is visible, only a few stars, the brightest.
After a few hours of work, we can see the real colors and shape of the nebula.
Here some photos after processing in color, gray and a luminance of the nebula.
M16 in grey
M16 Luminance
Pillars of Creation
Something different:
This is an animation made with two separate photographs taken in Cygnus, more exactly in NCG7000, the iconic nebula of North America.
If you look carefully, to the left of the largest bright star (middle left) named SAO 50368, you can see a point that changes its location from one shot to the other from left to right (apparent movement of the sky, counterclockwise due to the effect of the Earth's rotation, clockwise).
This point of light (object) is most likely an asteroid orbiting our planet and by superimposing two photographs with some difference in time, its movement becomes evident.
But if you look more carefully at this animation, then you can see that there are actually several objects that change position in this animation, perhaps space debris, other smaller or more distant asteroids. To know exactly, an astrometric analysis is necessary that includes all the data existing at the time of taking the photographs.
The objects of the universe are in constant motion, battling with their gravitational forces against each other, maintaining orbits so as not to collide or become fireworks in the atmosphere of a larger body.
The animated images are part of a series of 135 one-minute images of NGC7000.
The final stacked image can be seen in the gallery
on this page.
One minute Sub, NGC7000
Two hours integration and
postprocessing.
After publishing some achievements, I realized that only I know the chronology, so from now on I will publish with dates so that whoever wants to see and/or learn something new has an idea of the date on which the information they see was published.
September 06, 2024, today my son has his birthday and today Bonaire Day is celebrated here on the island, many parades on the street and food sales, the night will close with fireworks.
But besides that, today the protagonist is the moon.
After doing a little research, it turns out that that glow that we see in the first stages of growth, in the dark area, is the reflection of the light that our planet reflects in it.
By exaggerating the exposure a little, increasing the ISO and the shutter time, you can achieve something more dramatic through the telescope, as in this photograph where you can see some stars, the illuminated part and the trace of a satellite passing through the top.
In the observatory there are 2 Nikon D5300 cameras, one modified and one unmodified.
Modified means that I took the risk of opening it and following a tutorial and removed the factory infrared filter which turns it into a full spectrum camera, that is, capable of receiving more light frequencies than a camera without that modification, which makes it more sensitive to the frequency of hydrogen, which is why the raw photographs from this camera have red tones unlike cameras that have not been modified.
This modification was possible thanks to a tutorial on the page.
The last two photographs were taken with the camera with modification, while the first two were taken with the other camera (without modifications)
Details and colors vary.
Of course, preferably the modified camera will be used as primary in the photography of areas rich in hydrogen, generally nebulae like those shown here.
For the moon and planets in general, video and a smaller sensor camera are preferred.
The observatory has a 1.2Mpx Svbony (for guiding and planetary) camera, something very modest, but sufficient for the moment.
September 09, 2024
Bonaire, now part of the Netherlands along with Sint Eustatius and Saba as a special municipality, is located in the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela, a wonderful special tourist destination for recreational diving, known for its stable summer climate most of the time of the year.
However, we also sometimes have bad weather.
The rainy season is in the months of December, January, February and some of March, extending or shortening from time to time.
Sometimes in the rainy season it rains excessively and other times, it barely rains.
But we have also had, in addition to the rains, electrical storms.
In the year 2022 in the month of September at around 11 at night, coming from the south, we had one of those and luckily I had the opportunity to photograph it.
Here I present the best photographs of that night.
In January 2023, a small tropical wave coming from the south west with some rain and wind arrived in Bonaire around 6 in the afternoon. From a drone flight I was able to make a high resolution panorama, after a few minutes of doing the photographs, the drone landed and we closed the door of the house!
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September 15-2024
This is the Celestron 8-inch Orange Tube Telescope.
In the optical train is a 0.63x reducer, a T adapter and a Nikon DSLR D5300 camera.
Unfortunately it has some defects in the image.
The telescope is well collimated with a star and the circumference when defocusing the star is concentric and consistent with the optimal collimation models.
A Bahtinov mask has also been used to achieve the best possible focus of the image as shown in the center of the image.
The problem or deformation in the image is noticeable towards the four ends, with the center of the image having more decent and round stars, but at the ends and converging towards the center, the stars are diffuse and like tulips.
The distance from the reducer to the sensor is like this:
50mm T adapter, 8 mm flange from the camera to the T adapter and 46.5 flange to the sensor (Information about the D5300 camera in its specifications)
Doing the calculation they would be: 50+8+46.5=104.5mm, the optimal distance with the reducer is 105mm, the difference from 104.5mm to 105mm might not even exist, since I do not have a good instrument to measure full accurate, so Maybe a millimeter is here or there, but no more than that.
For planetary and moon, as well as for observation, there is no problem, of course for deep sky it must be precise.
So the question:
Could it be a defect of the telescope?
Will it be a shorter or longer distance?
Have you experienced such a situation?
What would be the suggestions to follow?
The first photograph is taken with the Atik 11000 color and presents the tulip effect more noticeably.
The second photo with emphasis on the four corners is the photo taken with the D5300
Atik 11000 color with reducer
D5300 with reducer, full image
Top left
Bottom left
Top right
Bottom right
Tulip shapes
The setup
New Camera...
Sept 22 / 2024
Orion Starshoot G4
The best astro camera at the time, almost 24 years after being on the market, the observatory was lucky enough to acquire one of these cameras for $87 in perfect condition for testing.
Unfortunately for the two optical systems used, the pixel size is not the best, producing images with square stars, not the best for my eyes.
Very good sensitivity to short exposures, narrow field, ideal for photographs of distant objects such as galaxies and others.
With 8.6 x 8.3 micron pixels, an original 0.5x reducer and the 8-inch Celestron orange tube, it does not generate appreciable and good quality results, although its sensitivity is quite good.
With the Svbony 503 Ed 102mm wide field telescope with a 0.8x reducer giving a focal length of about 572mm, it becomes a disaster.
In short, the ideal pixel size for these two setups, taking into account a seeing between good and almost good due to the air mass above my head (Caribbean area), is between 2.9 and 3.7 microns per pixel.
Currently, with the two Nikon D5300 cameras (3.9 microns), something is achieved better even though they are at the harsh 30/32 degrees Celsius that our climate offers on a normal night and this introduces noise into the image that is sometimes very difficult to remove.
As a sweet and sour anecdote, a couple of years ago I found on Ebay what I initially saw as a gift from the universe ($500), a scientific grade camera, an Atik 11000 with a full frame Kodak sensor, but with one small detail against me. Well, at that time I had no idea about the relationship between pixels and focal length, Atik 11000 has 9 micron pixels.
In addition to this, the software and support for that model is practically not compatible with the applications used in the daily life of an astrophotographer in the year 2024.
So there it is, the camera resting in its beautiful pelican box here in the observatory.
The CMOS revolution took ahead of CCDs and the electronics revolution in general, has put cameras on the market with higher data transmission speeds, better spectrum, less noise and the much-prized cooling of the sensor to points only reached in the past by professional observatories, -40, -45, etc. degrees Celsius, which makes the use of these cameras the dream of every astrophotographer, but they are not cheap, good things have their price.
Here are some photographs taken with the Starshoot G4 camera (single frame raw):
The Dumbbell Nebula( 1x60 sec Sub) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light-years.
The Helix Nebula( 1x60 sec Sub) has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God" in pop culture, as well as the "Eye of Sauron".
In brands such as Player One, Touptek, ZWO, and others there are models with this ideal pixel size (2.9 to 3.9) in cooled cameras with color CMOS sensors in full frame, one inch, 3/4, etc.
Each new addition to the observatory has been with the effort of each day to go as far as possible using the little we have, so that is the new challenge for Bonaire Cloudy Nights Observatory, acquire a good cooled astro camera and take better photographs.