Solar Imaging Session - January 30, 2020

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is fair. AR2757 Sunspot Group is almost the same size and it is nearing the NW limb. In Ha wavelength, AR2757 Sunspot Group show very low flaring activity as well. I also took a full disk white light shot of the Sun to show the sunspot position on the Sun.

Solar Imaging Session - January 29, 2020

The sky this afternoon is clear but hazy. AR2757 Sunspot Group is small and not that impressive, but in the times of solar minimum, one should be thankful that's there is any spots :) LOL Very quiet in white light wavelength and slightly some flaring activity inside its core.

Taal Volcano Imaging Session - January 19, 2020

Lat January 19th, my son KC and friends Joaquin Fajardo and his friend James went to Tagaytay with motorcyles to visit Taal Volcano and see ho it is doing after its big eruption last Sunday, January 12th. So fat\r, it has calmed down a bit and only small smoke emission can be detected. I use my Canon EOS M6 with EF-M 15-45mm f/4.5-5.6 IS lens and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens to image the volcano.

January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Imaging Session

January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at maximum penumbral phase 90% 03:10 PST

Image taken by James Kevin Ty using Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Borg 76ED refractor at prime focus f/6.5 mounted on Celestron Nexstar mount. 1/500sec exposure at ISO 100. #ALPPENLEPH #TeamCanonPh

A composite image of the January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse taken by James Kevin Ty using Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Borg 76ED refractor at prime focus. EFL= 500mm f/ 6.5 (35mm equivalent of 800mm f/ 6.5) mounted on Celestron Nexstar mount. #ALPPENLEPH #TeamCanonPh

Lunar Imaging Session - January 9, 2020

The sky this evening is clear so I use this opportunity to test my newly serviced Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L lens set at 400mm f/8 using Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera and set at 1/2000sec exposure at ISO 200 to see if everything is OK. So far so good and ready for the upcoming January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse.

January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

On January 11, 2020, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines. Unfortunately, the umbral path of the Earth Shadow won't touch any of the Moon area thus at maximum penumbra eclipse at 03:10am PST, only slight shading (maybe up to 1/3 or 1/4 of the southern limb will be noticeable only thus making this eclipse more of a dull visual event and more of photographic opportunity to see the slight shading in the southern limb of the Moon. Out of the 3 penumbral lunar eclipse that are visible in the Philippines, this is still the best one with the November 30 with 83% penumbral magnitude coming in next and the June 6 the worst one with 57% penumbral magnitude. Below are the circumstances of the eclipse Moon enters penumbra : 01:07:44 am Maximum penumbra (90%) : 03:10:01am Moon exits penumbra : 05:12:24 am

Problems Of A Standard ED Refractors

Most of today's refractor be it high end or low ends tends not to give a flat image on the entire field of view unless you incorporate a dedicated field flattener to correct the softness of an image near the edges. Last night, I was able to make a quick and dirty image comparison of the Borg 76ED, an older model 76mm f/6.5 ED refractor with a focal length of around 500mm on the Quarter Moon. I put the Moon at the center of the frame and use a Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera mounted on the Borg 76ED refractor as well as one image that I intentionally position the Quarter Moon along the edge of the frame to show the image quality difference. The results are below: A.) Moon at center of the frame

B.) Moon at the extreme right edge of the frame.

Putting them side by side for comparison

Its obvious that the edge of the field of view is soft thus a need to install a field flattener to correct this problem. Unfortunately, I don't have a field flattener but I intend to get one in the near future as I mostly use this refractor solar use and the chip sensor of my webcam (ZWO ASI120MM) is small enough that it won't interfere on the edges. But since a colleague of mine has an Orion 0.8x reducer for refractor and loan it to me for testing, I was curious to see if it can help correct a bit the softness of the edges of the field. So I use the 0.8x reducer on the Borg 76ED refractor and the result is below:

The left image was taken at the center of the frame with the Orion 0.8x reducer on the Borg 76ED while the right image below intentionally placed the Moon on the right edge of the frame. The result of course reduced the original 500m f/6.5 system into 400mm f/5.3 system. If compared to the one without the Extender and both on the edge, the Orion 0.8x reducer did correct a bit the sharpness of the edge but not totally though but better than without it. Despite the fact the Orion 0.8x reducer is not a flattener, it still helps a bit to sharpen the edge a bit. I hope to also test the 0.8x reducer on actual stars in the future and hope to be bale to acquire a real field flattener to test.

Solar Imaging Session - January 5, 2020

The sky this afternoon is hazy and seeing condition is bad. I still proceeded despite the poor condition to break the ice for my 1st solar imaging session for 2020. AR2755 Sunspot Group is small and inconspicuous both in Ha and white light wavelength. There is also a faint large large prominence in the SW limb. Image is very bad and soft for today's session :(

Lunar Imaging Session - January 4, 2020

The sky this evening is clear and I use my Borg 76ED refractor mounted on a Porta II mount to image the beautiful Quarter Moon using Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera at 1/500sec exposure at ISO 200.