December 30, 2020 Lunar Imaging Session - Cold Full Moon

The sky this evening is clear so me and my son setup our Borg 76ED refractor mounted on Vixen Porta 2 mount to image the last Full Moon for the year 2020. I use a Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera with Borg 76ED refractor to image it with 1/1250sec exposure at ISO 100.

Solar Imaging Session - December 30, 2020

The sky this morning is partly clear but I was able to setup my Borg 76ED refractor with ZWO ASI120mm mini on Vixen GPDX mount to image the 2 sunspot groups namely AR2894 and 2795 despite having trouble with mount tracking problem which I later diagnosed to be a bad battery power output of less than 10.5V even after recharging it.  Nevertheless, I'm still happy to get probably my lat solar image for the year 2020. I was only able to image in white light because of the tracking problem as well as cloud cover.

December 23, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

As expected, the weather this evening is almost clear and together with my son KC, we were able to image again the Jupiter and Saturn Great Conjunction. The separation is now slightly a bit farther than the past 2 days and this will probably be my last documentation of this conjunction.

I initially use my Borg 76ED refractor with Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera at prime focus of 500mm f/6.5 to image the event but seeing the weather is a bit forgoing, we opted to switch to the Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain with an effective focal length of 1350mm f/13.8 on the Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera to get more amplification and it was again mounted on my old reliable Vixen GPDX mount.

Wide field image was taken using Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm (35mm equivalent) at f/1.9 with 1/20 sec exposure at ISO 3200. Close up were taken using Celestron C90  Maksutov-Cassegrain with an effective focal length of 1350mm f/13.8 on the Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera at 1/30 sec exposure at ISO 800 while the overexposed Saturn and Jupiter with Jovian Moons were exposed at 1/8 sec exposure at ISO 800.

December 22, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

 The sky today was very cloudy and honestly, I didn't have plans to do any imaging of the conjunction as it looks very impossible to get any shot at all. But after I got home at 5:30pm, I look out of our house window and some possible cloud breakup where Jupiter and Saturn are located so I quickly setup my Borg 76ED refractor with Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera mounted on Vixen GPDX mount and patiently waits. As soon as I saw the 2 planets from my wide field shot at 6:03pm from my Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm (35mm equivalent) at f/1.9 on 1/20 sec exposure at ISO 2500, I quickly fired away a few shots before clouds started to interfere again. Images was taken at prime focus of Borg 76ED refractor at 500mm f/6.5 at 1/30sec at ISO 800 while the one showing overexposed Jupiter with Jovian Moons and Saturn ere taken at 1/2 sec exposure at ISO 1600.

December 21, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

The sky this evening is very cloudy and actually I already lose hope of seeing it as today is the closest separation  between planet Jupiter and Saturn with less than 0.6 deg apart. 

Actually, I started to wait for clearing since 5:45pm and I only was able to get a glimpse of then first with my Huawei P40 Pro smartphone at 6:51 pm with a low altitude of 11 degrees! I got to snap it at 27mm focal length (35mm equivalent) at f/1.9 1/17 sec at ISO 4000. I also tried to image it through the Borg 76ED refractor at 500mm f/6.5 prime focus at 1/3 sec at ISO 3200. The image is already muddy at less than 10 degrees but I can still see Jupiter and Saturn obviously. Sometimes, astronomy is a test of patience as the time you spend waiting for the clouds to open up might not come out successfully. 

Nevertheless I'm still happy to capture them despite the worst condition that I had. Hope to capture it tomorrow at a higher altitude and better weather.

 

December 16, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Crescent Moon Great Conjunction

The sky this evening is clear and the beautiful pair of Jupiter and Saturn are joined by the lovely Crescent Moon with Earthshine lying low in the western horizon. Image taken using Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.9 at 1/17 sec at ISO 3200.

December 13, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

The sky this evening is again hazy but Jupiter and Saturn  are still visible in the western sky as they continue to get closer each day till its peak of Dec 21 where they will just be separated by 0.1 deg only. Taken using Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm f/1.9 (35mm equivalent) at 1/13 sec at ISO 2500.

December 11, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

 December 11, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

The sky this evening is slightly hazy but I can still see both Jupiter (bottom bright star) and Saturn getting closer and closer each day. Image taken using Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm (35mm equivalent) at 1/15 sec at ISO 2500.

December 8, 2020 Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunction

 I was able to image the beautiful Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction that was visible after sunset. I used my Huawei P40 Pro at 27mm (35mm equivalent) F/1.9 handheld at 1/8 sec exposure at ISO 12800. The 2 planets will get closer and closer each day till December 21 when they will be at its closest separation in the SW sky at 0.1 degree separation! This is the closest conjunction of the 2 planets for more than 397 years and the last one happened last July 16, 1623!!! 

Closeup shot of the 2 planets was taken using Canon EOS M6 Mirrorless camera with Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 on Porta II mount. 1/8 sec at ISO 6400. Jupiter also shows the 4 Jovian moons as well on the photo. 

Macro Imaging Session - December 3, 2020

Go to see this enormous common Tropical Swallowtail Moth (Lyssa zampa) near our store building driveway which measures a wingspan of around 5.5 inches width. Image taken using Huawei P40 Pro.

November 30, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

 Last November 30, Both me and my son brought our camera and lens to try to image the penumbral lunar eclipse. Si ce we had an errand in Clark, we brought along our rig just to be sure we would be able to image the event along the way and we saw the Moon rising up to the cloudy eastern horizon at around 6:00pm PST (Philippine Standard Time +8 GMT)

I use my Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera with Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f8 on Vixen Porta II mount while my son uses Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EFS 55-250mm on sturdy tripod.

The Moon had already passed the maximum penumbral 83% already which happened at around 5:43pm but we were still fortunate to capture it around 6:00pm till end of the eclipse at 7:53pm before the sky got totally clouded out after the event.

Below is an image of the Penumbral Lunar eclipse by my son. 

We were on the road when the eclipse happened and we managed to take some photos of the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at a gas station nearby. This is the photo I got that is the closest to the maximum as we got clouded out in the first few minutes. The shading is very subtle (Top left) but still an eclipse nonetheless. 

Photo taken using Canon 500D with 55-250mm EF-S F4-F5.6 Lens at 1/1000 F5.6 ISO400 mounted on a sturdy tripod

11-30-20 6:19PM - Kendrick Cole Ty

September 26, 2020 ALP InOMN Session

The sky this evening is very cloudy and we almost want to cancel the scheduled International Observe the Moon Night event via FB Live. But we persevere and waited till 8:20pm before the clouds started to open up. My son and I setup a Borg 76ED refractor mounted on a Celestron Nexstar mount with Vixen Lanthanum 20mm eyepiece afocally attached to a Huawei P20 Pro smartphone via Celestron NexYZ smartphone adapter. They were able to do a FB Live telecast from 8:30pm till 10:00pm before they ended the event. Image of the Waxing Gibbous Moon was also taken with this setup at the end of the session using a 1/500sec exposure at ISO 100.

FB Live of this event can be viewed at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158273609083005&id=572763004
 

Comet Imaging Session - July 23, 2020 Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

The sky this evening was very cloudy and hazy. But since I want to double check the best position for me at the roof deck for upcoming comet imaging session. I together again with my son try to scan the nearby area where I think the comet will be located that evening. I was able to image Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE under very thick hazy sky and this diminish the comet tail and left the green nucleus the only section that is visible on the comet. I use my usual Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 with 30 sec exposure at ISO 200 before I got totally clouded out. I was also able to get a shot of the Waxing Crescent Moon earlier.

Comet Imaging Session - July 22, 2020 Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

I wasn't expecting the sky to clear up this evening as it was cloudy and hazy whole afternoon. But as I was going home, I saw some open sky in the NW so I started to setup my imaging equipment which consist of Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 on Vixen GPDX mount. The comet at around 7:15pm was about only 20 deg high thus I didn't opt to image using ASI294 MC Pro until the comet is situated higher than 30 deg. As I was about to image the comet, light clouds rolled in and it was a cat and mouse game and I was able to get a few fair images through plants and fence openings to image the comet for the first time in the evening sky so I'm not complaining. I also had a great time imaging and observing the comet with a pair of 10x50 binoculars with my son as well. Comet estimated magnitude is about magnitude 4.0 and was a bit hard also to view through binoculars due to the haze. I can also make out about 1 degree shirt tail through the haze. I got to see the comet through some holes in the NW sky at around 7:35pm and was bale to get 30secs worth of exposure before it got obstructed by the building as well as more plants!!! I hope to image it again tomorrow at an earlier time so I can get away from the fence and plants.

Comet Imaging Session - July 9, 2020 (Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE)

I try to observe and image the bright Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE from our roof deck earlier this morning to get a slightly darker sky background. I setup my Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 mounted on Vixen Porta II mount. The comet rises at around 4:21am PST (Philippine Standard Time +8 GMT) but I as able to locate it coming out of the low horizon clouds at around 4:37 am PST at an altitude of 3 degrees. Decent images were made at around 4:47am PST with an altitude of 4.5 degrees. The sky background was still a little dark so I was able to increase the ISO a bit to get some more details on the comet's tail which shows a more pronounced V Shape structure that seems to split the comet tail in the middle. Estimated comet tail length is about 1 degree long and magnitude estimate of around +1.5 . I ended my session at around 5:00am PST when the cloud beside the comet decided to cover it up.

Comet Imaging Session - July 8, 2020 (Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE)

In the early morning of July 8th, I try to observe and image the surprisingly bright Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE from our roof deck. I setup my Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 mounted on Vixen Porta II mount. When I saw the bright star Capella rising in the NE horizon, I'm confident that I will finally be able to observe and image this bright comet after getting clouded out past 2 days. The comet rises at around 4:21am PST (Philippine Standard Time +8 GMT) and I was able to locate it at around 4:42am PST at an altitude of only 4 degrees above the NE horizon! I quickly took some images of the comet right away as the bright dusk glow is starting to wash out the comet. After a few minutes , the sky got brighter and brighter that I stop imaging already before 5:00am PST as I fell its useless to image the comet anymore by that time although I can still see it on the live view screen of my EOS M6. Through the 10x50 binoculars, the comet nucleus is easy to see but the tail is surprisingly faint compare to the live view screen whereas I can see some tail. From the comet image that I was able to image, I can see a bright V shaped tail coming out of the bright nucleus but I can see more or less about 1 degree tail. My estimate of this comet nucleus is around apparent magnitude of about +1.5 or +2.0 . Reports from the US has reports saying the comet tail is as long as 3 degrees! This might be so as this comet favors the higher latitude Northern hemisphere countries such as USA, Canada, and Europe where the comet tail are imaged beautifully. I do hope to be able to image this comet maybe another 2-3 days before it will be hard to image it anymore due to bright dusk glow. After that, the comet will be better observe and imaged in the early evening time after sunset in the NW horizon.

June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse

I was initially planning to travel to Chiayi, Taiwan to document the June 21, 2020 Annular Solar Eclipse but unfortunately, due to Covid19 pandemic situation, international travel is very restricted due to very strict quarantine procedures :( So I together with my son KC setup at our roofdeck in Manila, Philippines to document the partial solar eclipse which will start at 3:01pm PST with maximum eclipse of 68% at 4:22PM PST and ends at 5:31PM PST. I set up my Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on TV-101 refractor on Vixen GPDX mount while my son use Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain on Nexstar SLT Mount. Eclipse started partly cloudy at around 3:00pm but we were able to play hide and seek with the clouds till 4:10pm PST before we got clouded out and made a final tease for us to make our final image of the eclipse at 4:43pm PST, after more than 20 minutes past maximum eclipse at 4:22pm PST. After that, the clouds shut us down totally till 5:32pm before we end the session and packup. We were also able to see a iridescence colorful cloud formation while we were clouded out at maximum eclipse as a consolation.

Solar Imaging Session - June 7, 2020

The sky this afternoon is not good and seeing is also bad. I try to image the new AR2765 Sunspot Group in Ha wavelength but encounter bad seeing that virtually is smearing the image although one can still see some bright flaring activity in the smaller pores of this group. I was also able to image the Sun in full disk whitelight but unfortunately got clouded out trying to image the group at high resolution :(