More stargazing

 The weather over the last couple of weeks has been, shall we say, challenging 😁. Fitted one night of stargazing in in the Wicklow Mountains, but the wind was so bad that I couldn’t take any pictures. Need a steadier tripod / bracket combination. 

Did however manage some backyard shots with the iPhone and a new app. The app is called AstroShader and it is a free app. I am suitably impressed. It takes a series of pictures and automatically stacks them. 

The results are quite good. 

This picture of Orion with Jupiter and Aldebaran to the right taken from my backyard in a class 7 bortle sky. I’m impressed. 

Was also able to capture this one with the crescent moon and Venus the other night. 

Tried another setup last night. Let’s just say that it was less than stellar. 

But I think I am on the right track. Some more experimentation required. 

Shooting Jupiter

 Seriously chuffed with myself. I tried my hand at astro-photography some time ago, and it was, shall we say, less than spectacular. On Thursday we had a rare, cloudless night in Dublin. Well then. Out comes the camera.

Now it is very low tech. I have an ancient Canon EOS 1000D and I have some kit lenses, a nifty fifty, and a 300mm zoom lens. From my research online it seems the prime lens is the best option and armed with my remote shutter, some crazy calculations for exposure times, a warm jacket and a mug of coffee, I headed into the back yard. 

I lined up on Jupiter, because it is bright and easy to see 😉. Did some focussing and fired away. Only did about 100 shots and stacked them using Sequator. 

On closer examination it is clear that my focus (or at least those of my pictures) are not all there. But it is close enough and definitely a base to build from.

Well, what? I think it is quite stunning. I am especially amazed that this was taken in the middle of Dublin, with an silly old camera and a wee little lens. 

Tonight, I went on to Stellarium and searched for the specific section of sky on the night in question.

My wife says it's cool. I agree.