Welcome to my Astro Blog!
Welcome to my blog about all things astronomy and astrophotography! I will feature my latest pictures of the night sky, insights, stories, and more. Subscribe for the latest updates! Clear skies! -Erik
Posts
Great American Eclipse
We are quickly approaching what is being dubbed as the Great American Eclipse, with its path stretching from Mexico, the United States, and through to Canada on April 8, 2024. In this episode, we will talk about how to get ready for this event of a lifetime! IMAGE CREDIT: GreatAmericanEclipse.com SOLAR ECLIPSE What is a solar eclipse? A solar eclipse is when the moon is in a position to partially or totally block the light of the Sun. There are around two to five solar eclipses per year, with a total eclipse happening around every 18 months on our planet. So let's talk about 5 TIPS you can do to get ready for the eclipse. 1. LEARN ABOUT ECLIPSES Eclipses of the Sun and Moon are fascinating. Before our modern understanding, eclipses were viewed as bad omen of things to come, evoking fear in many. Eclipses are fascinating events to learn about. And so is astronomy! You can learn more about this eclipse by going to GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE: https://www.greatamericaneclip
Solar Image Processing
Stacking is the process of importing your video files where the software selects your better images, aligns them, producing a final image should be sharp and impressive. Hi, my name is Erik and I'm an amateur astrophotographer. In this episode, we will explore how to use ASIVideoStack and AutoStakkert Version 4.0 to stack your imaging session and try to determine which stacking software is better. WHAT YOU NEED TO START For this demo, we will need video files of the Sun, our stacking software ASIVideoStack and AutoStakkert!, and I will use Photoshop to make the final edits. If your unfamiliar on how to image the Sun, please check out my GUIDE FOR SOLAR IMAGING for more details. To get really clear and crisp images of the Sun, I recommend taking videos of the Sun (or Moon and planets) using the lucky imaging technique. Lucky imaging is where you use the video feature of your astrophotography camera to take a high number of short exposures so it minimizes the effect of Earth&#
Why I Can't Image the Whole Sun in my Solar Telescope?
MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SUN Imaging the Sun has been a lot of fun with my Lunt 40mm Solar Telescope. With viewing the Sun with my eyepieces through this solar telescope, the Sun comes into full view. Sunspots, prominences, filaments, and more. But when it comes to imaging the Sun, I am missing a portion of our Star through my ZWO cameras. Where did it go? My name is Erik and I am an amateur astrophotographer. In today's episode, let's talk about why is the Sun being cut off in my imaging camera, and what you can do to get it back. WARNING: Before we go into this episode, as a reminder, never point a telescope or viewfinder at the Sun with a proper and undamaged solar filter! The damage to your eye will be instantaneous and likely irreversible. STARLIGHT Stars emit light across a range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Our Sun produces electromagnetic waves in the form of gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and
All I want for Christmas is a telescope
The night sky is full of wonders to behold. After my friends see my pictures, I get asked, can I see that if I bought a telescope? What kind of telescope should I get? I don't want anything too complicated! In today's article, let's talk about telescopes! And what should you look for in your first telescope! Seasons greetings! The nights are getting longer in the northern hemisphere as the winter solstice approaches. It's the season of giving and lots of folks are looking for the perfect gift. Maybe this year it will be a new telescope! What should you look for in a telescope? And what can I expect to see? With a descent telescope, you should be able to see the red spot on Jupiter, the red coloration of Mars, the beautiful rings of Saturn, the craters of the Moon, and countless stars. Telescopes come in all different shapes and sizes. There are three basic categories of telescopes. Refractors, reflectors, and Catadioptric telescopes. TYPES
Dithering and the Iris Nebula, a Blue Gem of Beauty
HOW TO GET BETTER ASTROPHOTOGRAPY IMAGES Recently, I focused my telescope on the Iris Nebula for over four hours. It is an amazing brilliant blue gem in the night sky. Getting great images in the night sky is a lot of fun, but there are a number of techniques you can do in order to get better images. Dithering is one of them. What is dithering and why it is important? ALL THAT NOISE NOISE NOISE! When you are recording, whether it is audio or visual, most of us want the true representation of what we are hearing or seeing. In technical terms, we want the signal to be faithfully recorded and reproduced. Anything that deviates from that signal is noise. Unwanted fluctuations. Additional information that should not be there. When I am recording audio outside, I am doing my best to eliminate all sources of noise from my videos. A passing vehicle, a random dog barking, crickets humming, or wind noise in the background. Other types of audio noise are hisses, hums
Cocoon Nebula and Dual Band Filter
As the nights get longer, I have been enjoying getting some more time in the evenings with my telescope. This past week with the waxing gibbous Moon brightly illuminating the sky, I decided to use my new ZWO Dual band filter on the Cocoon Nebula (IC5146). So what is a filter? Filters are like sunglasses for your telescope, except these are engineered for very specific wavelengths of light. Dual band filters are allowing two bands of light through. They are best for imaging emission nebulas in a light polluted sky location, or when the moon is particularly bright in the night sky. They work great with one-shot color (OSC) cameras, such as my ZWO 183 MC Camera. The ZWO Dual Band filter passes light in the visible spectrum in the wavelengths for Hydrogen Alpha (656.3nm) and OIII (500.7nm) through to your camera. I wanted to image something in the night sky that was maybe a little creepy looking, as Halloween is nearly here. So I picked the Cocoon Nebula in the constellatio