Polarie Star Tracker - First Glimpse and Preview

The Vixen Polarie Star Tracker is the ultimate highly portable star tracker that one can own and setup in less than 5 minutes to get started in wide field to medium telephoto astrophotography. Relatively very light for about 700 gms which is more or less the weight of consumer DSLR body. Its size is also a joy to hold in the palm of your hands as it is about 4" x 6" x 2" in dimension! It can carry a payload of around 2.5kgs but later Vixen statement indicates it can carry up to 3.5 kgs might be on the upper limits of its maximum payload weight. The Polarie unit has a built in polar bore scope for one to get a rough alignment to Polaris and an altitude meter (inclinometer) as well as compass for easy basic polar alignment for wide field astroimaging. For use of a 100mm-200mm lens, an optional polarscope is highly recommended to use. It runs on 2 pcs of AA batteries which can run more or less around 4 hours if alkaline battery is used. Rechargeable NiMH battery can also be used as well as an optional USB mini B plug type battery pack. Another good feature of the Polarie is that it has 4 tracking rates for you to use- Sidereal, Solar, Lunar, 1/2 Sidereal are available on the unit. The 1/2 sidereal rate is very good for use in doing nightscsape time lapse photography :) The basic Polarie unit has no ball head included in the package but if you buy the Polarie Set with Velbon M-178V tripod, 2 ballheads are included with the package. If you are interested to buy the Polarie unit or set, please PM me or text me through +639178559863 or email me at jkty@astroleaguephils.org . Serious buyers only please.

More images can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151182147663005.467369.572763004&type=1

Reprocessed Horsehead RGB & HaRGB Images

After getting some rest after a tiring but fruitful Caliraya session, I reprocessed the RGB Image that I took of NGC2024 Flame Nebula and B33 Horsehead Nebula a. Image is made with 3 hours RGB and 4 hours HaRGB composites using a Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 300mm f/5.6 using ATIK 16HR CCD camera. Ambient Temp during Imaging = 23 deg C 90% humidity (CCD temp = -2 deg C ) The final reprocessed image can be found below:

Previous Initial Process is below:

Deep Sky Imaging Session - November 17-18, 2012

I went with some members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines to Caliraya to observe and image the heavenly bodies under dark sky. I brought along a semi portable imaging setup which includes the trusty Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L Lens with ATIK 16HR ccd camera mounted on Vixen GP-DX mount. When I arrived at the site at around 7:00pm, the sky was very clear! I hurriedly setup before having dinner as I want to have my setup already polar aligned so that I can start early. I saw constellation Orion already rising from the eastern horizon so I prepared my imaging setup to image the NGC 2024 Flame Nebula and B33 Horsehead Nebula altogether so I calculated that I need 300mm to get a good composition of the DSO I wanted to image that evening. Aside from the imaging setup mentioned, I also brought along an autoguider system with a LX mode webcam mounted on an Orion Mini50mm guider and connected to the Starbook-S via the Shoestring Astronomy's GPUSB interface. Unfortunately, my autoguider doesn't seem to function properly as I cant command the PHD guiding software to calibrate :( Maybe somewhere the numerous steps that I might have missed to get the connection right :( Anyway, It's my first time to do autoguiding so I was expecting to confront some problem during the learning curve :) I image the Flame Nebula as well as Horsehead Nebula with a 12 x 5 minutes subexposures per channel totalling around 4 hours. This is the first time that I needed to exposed that long in order to get one object. Overall, I'm still happy to get some first nebula through the CCD camera :) Practice makes perfect I guess :)

RGB Image of NGC 2024 Flame Nebula & B33 Horsehead Nebula

HaRGB Image of NGC 2024 Flame Nebula & B33 Horsehead Nebula

My CCD imaging setup :)

My son KC never fails to join me and ALPers to every Caliraya Imaging Session :)

Image of the Crescent Moon taken by my son by himself using a point and shoot Canon A650 digicam. Following Papa's footstep :)

ALPers posed after a successful stargazing session at Caliraya!

Testing GPUSB Autoguider Interface with Vixen Starbook-S

After testing and getting good result of my ATIK 1HS II webcam long exposure mode with the LX mode parallel to serial adapter and serial to usb adapter, I now tested the Shoestring Astronomy's GPUSB Autoguider Interface connected to my Vixen GP-DX mount's Starbook-S controller's autoguider port which has a standard ST-4 compatible port. Another good thing in my setup is the ATIK-1HS II main power USB port as well as the LX mode Parallel-Serial-USB adapter as well as the Shoestring Astronomy's GPUSB autpguider interface worls well pn the USB hub so that solves my earlier encounter of running out of USB port in my last deep sky imaging session / test at PAGASA observatory last November 11, 2012. I run the GPUSB Check program and tested all the buttons on both RA and Dec if they responded and it works ! :) I then connected everything up to the PHD Autoguiding program and I can control the long exposure mode as well so that should solve the major issues of compatibility and needs realtime test left :)

My Autoguider Complete Setup :)

Shoestring Astronomy's GPUSB Autoguider Interface Connected to Vixen Starbook-S Autoguider Port

Tested the autoguider interface with GPUSB Check Program\

Success!!!

November 28-29, 2012 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

On November 28, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines as well as most of Asia. Penumbral magnitude will be around 94%. The event will start at around 8:15pm PST (Philippine Standard Time) about 40 degrees high from the eastern horizon wherein the Moon will enter the Earth's penumbral (lighter) shadow and reach maximum penumbral eclipse of around 94% , meaning the Moon will not enter into the umbral (dark) shadow, thus will only display a pale grayish shading on the northern limb of the Moon. During this time, the Moon will be in the constellation of Taurus with the Hyades star cluster and planet Jupiter close by :) The Moon will finally exits the Earth's shadow past midnight at around 12:51am. Click above image for bigger view. Image courtesy of Fred Espenak. Local circumstances prepared by James Kevin Ty of Astronomical League of the Philippines. Members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines will setup public observation as well as documentation of this event at AstroCamp Observatory in SM MOA, Pasay City. TIME (PST) / ALTITUDE / AZIMUTH Moon Enters Penumbra 20:14:59 pm 40 deg 58' / 75 deg 31' E Maximum Penubral Eclipse (94%) 22:34:07 pm 72 deg 13' / 68 deg 16' E Moon Exits Penumbra 00:50:59 am 74 deg 05' /294 deg 07' NW

Testing ATIK-1HS II Long Exposure Mode

Despite the bad weather tonight, I just opted to test my ATIK-1HS II webcam's long exposure mode of it is working with a fabricated parallel to serial port LX mode adapter so I can connect it to my webcam's parallel port's long exposure connection. With the removal of parallel ports on all new laptops, I had no choice but to have this adapter made. Since I'm not good in electronic diagram to make the customized parallel to serial adapter, I asked a friend of mine Anthony Urbano to help me make the adapter with the diagram design submitted to him to work on the adapter. BTW, the LX (long exposure) mode design and diagram were based from Steve Chamber's long exposure webcam modification and refined by Peter Katreniak's K3CCD page to make the necessary adapter which can be seen at http://www.pk3.org/Astro/k3ccdtools_serial_port_adapter.htm . I then tested the adapter by connecting my ATIK 1HS II webcam long exposure parallel port to the fabricated adapter and then to a generic serial to usb adapter then to a generic USB hub. Then it is connected to my Orion Mini50 Guider and pointed to a building window to test. I run AMCAP software to run the webcam initially at normal mode and dim down the image a bit to see of it will brighten up after i turn on the LX mode switch. Then presto! It works! The dim window was brighten by the slower exposure of course :) I then tested it to the PHD guiding software to see if it will detect the camera and it did :) Now I need to wait for a clear sky to test the setup in real time but for now, I'm satisfied with the results :)

Orion Mini50mm Guider

Parallel to Serial LX Mode Adapter

My Autoguider setup connections

My autoguider setup connection to my Orion Mini50mm Guider

Amcap Test Image under Normal Mode

Amcap Test Image under LX Mode

PHD Test Image under LX Mode

Deep Sky Imaging Session - November 11, 2012

The sky in the evening was clear and Oliver de Guzman and me decided to proceed to PAGASA observatory in UP-Diliman , QC to do some testing of my CCD well as autoguiding setup in preparation for next weekend's imaging session in Caliraya, Laguna. Although the sky there is not that good to do DSO imaging, my main purpose is to test out the system if I will encounter any ........ I brought along my Vixen GP-DX mount and Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Atik 16HR ccd camera as well as Atik 1HS II webcam on Orion Mini50 guidescope as autoguider. He also brought along his Kenko Sky Memo-R mount for Oliver to do some deep sky imaging of his own as he only brought along his DSLR with him to Manila. With the session, I was able to found out a lot of things to be addressed for next week session. Some of the problems encounter were 1) the lack of at least one more USB slot for use with the autoguider setup thus he wasn't able to test out his autoguiding :( 2) Temperature was around 22 deg C and 89% humidity and initially I saw ccd condensation again on the glass window but surprisingly, it evaporated after I waited for around 15 minutes. Although some hint of condensation was still visible but it was tolerable for me to at least do one test of the ccd camera on M41 galactic star cluster in Canis Major. 3) I need to replace several allen bolts which I lost the keys for me to lock the lens and Orion 50mm MiniGuide on the Vixen saddle plate thus I was forced to use a vise grip to lock the 2 unit on the plate. After doing LRGB sessions for 5 x 2 mins each on each channel, I was interrupted by clouds after doing my B channel :( I was only able to get 1 sub for the blue but anyway, I was able to still come out with an image worth sharing as my first successful CCD imaging with my Atik 16HR ccd camera. I;m looking forward to getting better results in next week imaging session I hope :)