Marc
@corpsmoderne@mamot.fr  ·  activity timestamp last week

So I've this app I've coded that I use to capture my pictures (I should clean the code and open-source it really, one day maybe...). And I've added this mechanism to polar align:
- center Polaris in your polar scope (dead center)
- In the app, place a marker on Polaris (the red square one), and another on HD5914 (which is the brightest star next to Polaris) (the red diamond marker). Then the app shows you where the true pole is, and where you must "move" Polaris to to be polar aligned... 1/2
Marc
@corpsmoderne@mamot.fr replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

... then you just have to use your mount Alt and Az knobs to place Polaris bellow the green circle and you should be done. It works well in "live view" mode in my app.

I then plate solved the result with astrometry.net and I'm pretty happy with the result.

#astronomy #astrophotography
Marc
@corpsmoderne@mamot.fr  ·  activity timestamp last week

Last night I tried something different: can I detect Caph (β Cassiopeiae) variability by taking pictures of it for hours and analyzing it's brightness. And the answer is: no, I can't 😅 (please don't show this toot to conspiracy theorists).

But I've also used for the first time a homemade way to polar align and it worked decently well... (more bellow 👇 )
#astronomy #astrophotography
Marc
@corpsmoderne@mamot.fr  ·  activity timestamp last week

Another weird #astrophotography question 😅 : on nova.astrometry.net after solving you have a "grid" tab where you have your image with the Alt/Dec grid (?) overlayed, which is certainly handly for polar alignment (for example: https://nova.astrometry.net/grid_display/13966054 ) . I have installed the astrometry software package locally, but I can't find how to output this grid with the solve-field command line utility, if anybody knows if it's possible, how?
Marc
@corpsmoderne@mamot.fr replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@malcircuit what I'm sure of is that I don't want to open the guiding can of worms just yet, and I want to keep a "human in the loop" approach. I like the magic of the 3 stars alignement procedure when after *some* efforts and steps between you and the mount, you enter the name of an object and it goes there and it's dead in the center. I like the "good job, team" feels of that, I don't want a fully automated procedure were I'm useless. ( I know it's not 100% logical )

Rob Tilsley
@stargazerrob@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last week

Tonight's view of the Milky Way

#astrophotography#astrodon #milkyway #NightPhotography

Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
Rob Tilsley
@stargazerrob@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last week

Tonight's view of the Milky Way

#astrophotography#astrodon #milkyway #NightPhotography

Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.