Saturday, April 4, 2020

City Deep Sky Imaging Session - April 4, 2020

With the onset of the prolonged Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in our country, I use this opportunity to do some practice on deep sky image acquisition and processing despite the severe light pollution in Manila. It's been more than a year that I wasn't able to do any out of town deep sky imaging session due to work and family priorities. I set up my Canon EF100-400mm f/4/5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 with Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera to capture again the M45 Pleiades star cluster with planet Venus close conjunction. I also use the said lens with ZWO ASI294MC Pro mounted on Vixen GP-DX mount controlled by ZWO ASIAIR controller at our roof deck. It was more of a practice session and I have to learn again to polar align, autoguide ,capture, calibrate and process in preparation for upcoming Caliraya and Tanay imaging session once the ECQ period is lifted maybe in May or June. With the Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas hovering in the northern horizon just 35 deg, I still manage to image the comet using 20 x 2mins (20 mins total exposure)despite severe light pollution. The comet was very small but surprising bright thus I guess that's why I was able to still capture it. My estimates is maybe around mag 7 more or less with a very short tail. I also tested M35 galactic star cluster which is about 35 deg above the western horizon. With the Waxing Gibbous Moon hovering near the western horizon near M45 Pleiades star cluster. Overall, I'm still happy with my results despite not perfect session as It's been a long while that I havent done any deep sky imaging session.

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