41:11 @Kepler_22B

2012 . d . r . e . a . m . s .

2012-01-01T16:39:00.000+08:00

Every year begins in a snow-storm of white vows. Last night in Balai Cerap Selangor, Sabak Bernam - something bigger rolls in.

I . a m . s p a c e . d y s l e x i c

2011-12-24T01:20:00.000+08:00

This Year Has Been :

1. Catastrophic external drive disaster lost years of history images of myself.
2. Now this 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 idling to be utilized.
3. Do you know that failing which to acquire 70% passing mark will result in failing of the whole course of certification? I failed my Snubbing unit on my first attempt of International Well Control Forum for Well Intervention in December.
4. My song of the year is Coldplay featuring Rihanna, Princess of China.
5. Twice the total lunar eclipse happened this year & I still haven't finish with the processing still.

6. If only Coldplay would come down to Kuala Lumpur, I might just be right in the same room.

Eid Mubarak 1432H

2011-08-30T05:49:00.003+08:00

Selamat Hari Raya

Maaf Zahir & Batin

Milky Way from Gem Island, Malaysia - another view.

2011-07-31T00:53:00.000+08:00

Milky Way from Gem Island, Malaysia.

2011-07-29T10:08:00.000+08:00

Here is the first one, more will come.

Single shot pushing the limits with high ISO, 15 secs exposure, before the star starts trailing....

infinite subconscious' photostream

2011-07-15T21:48:00.001+08:00

infinite subconscious' photostream on Flickr.

Fluke trial & error attempts towards astronomical surround.

Jupiter Rising

2011-07-10T16:21:00.003+08:00

28.06.2011 4:31:38am
Canon 60D
Megrez 90

Here is why I need a dedicated planetary camera, or a webcam at least.

Planetary details are not meant for APS-C sized camera, let alone a full frame.

InfiniteColours was born

2011-07-09T00:41:00.002+08:00

This week had a few good nights with very little cloud cover and decent viewing. I am struggling in getting the setup polar aligned though. My subs are limited to 30secs before things gets oval, or worst - a line. It is that bad.

From my viewing space, the southern sky is only in sight for objects located from about 55degrees & above.

I kept the autoguider off on all shots. PHD was only being used to double check the polar alignment after the star drift method was performed during the alignment attempts.

Here are couple of the single frame among those captured.

Swan Nebula (Messier 17)

Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8)

Gears -
WO Megrez90
EQ6pro
Canon 60D Astrodon UV/IR
Astronomik CLS

I am still learning to stack the many shots taken so far, we'll see how it goes on this one.

Jupiter - 28.06.2011

2011-07-01T01:11:00.002+08:00

The last time I used QHY5 for imaging saturn & luna, I realized the ccd chip has got them dust bunnies appeared on my images. Blowing it over doesn't seems to be the solution, as I can see it settled on the chip surface. Lenspaper was used & I think I have removed most of them bunnies, if not all.

Seeing was rather bad, and these were the shots through & between the clouds. Stacked in Registax 6.

I knew that I have to capture something that night, or the time spent with them mozzies outside will just be another night of my failure attempts.

Saturn - 24.06.2011

2011-06-24T09:20:00.000+08:00

Sky was not at best this morning, but Spica & Arcturus are pretty clear to be used as the alignment star(s). Saturn is just there somewhere in between the two. This is the first light for the newly acquired QHY5, bought to be used as an autoguider. But for now I am using it to capture Saturn, at the same time this serves as to test the capability of what the seller claims it is capable of.

Turbulence makes it hard to capture pin-sharp image, so I randomly shot hundreds with the setup pointed at this gas giant. 200 best images was selected from the many hundreds, processed using Registax 6.

Startrails without Intervalometer

2011-06-12T22:56:00.001+08:00

Was busy with work and now I am back in town for an unknown duration. Until the tired is all worn off, then I will continue attempting to work with my gears / setup. Meanwhile, I'm just trying this out with the new acquisition, Astrodonized Canon 60D.

This image proves that startrails can be done without intervalometer. Here is how it was done.

1. Point the camera to the target, on top of a sturdy tripod. Get the focus.
2. Camera was set to 2secs timer mode.
3. Manual shot setting @ 30secs, ISO100.
4. Be the one who presses the shutter everytime after 30secs lapsed. The 2 secs timer interval helps the riddance of vibration from pressing the camera shutter.
5. Stack em all.

Voila!

The Night Before It Becomes Full

2011-04-19T00:47:00.003+08:00

With the similar setup, I shot 194 nos of images on to an empty CF card before it was full. The RAW images then edited for sharpness and contrast using the Canon DPP, cropped and further processed in Registax. The final results were aligned, stacked & the final brightness & contrast was adjusted to ease my lazy eyes.

I guess I have pushed it to the limits with the current setup I have available. Perhaps a SkyNyx webcam can easily thrash this with it's hundreds of shots stacked.

For 940 x 1024 image, click here.

Fluke First Light

2011-04-14T14:41:00.001+08:00

14th April 2011 - Sky was permitting to get the first light through my new Megrez 90, although the visibility was not perfect. Here is the brightest sky object to begin with... Master Luna. The imaging setup includes Megrez 90, field flattener 4, Canon 5d Mk2 on EQ6 pro.

There were not too many shots which was usable, and with the acceptable few I made my first attempt of using Registax results to the image as - THIS

Our 50th Anniversary Today

2011-04-12T18:43:00.001+08:00

Yuri became the first human to journey into outer space, in Vostok spaceship & that was 12th April 1961.

Thank you Google for reminding me.

Another rookie mistake ... ?

2011-04-09T00:48:00.003+08:00

I have not been lucky lately with the night sky when rolls & royces of clouds strolling in from every direction with no signs of breaking away. Back when I first got the mount, I knew that I have to get a half pier one day. And that day was this week, when I had the shop nearby fabricated me one.

I was at the shop just now & the half pier fixed pretty much allrite with the tripod base. Folded it down & started counting down for the time for the next thing in plan : Polar Alignment.

The lady at the shop then asked me whether I'm going to need more counter weight. I am certain that I wont need one at the moment; as far as I am concern I only have a relatively small OTA of a setup. Even with the finder scope, camera & FF/FR it wont even reach a hefty 10kg. The point is, with my current setup I only use 1x5kg counter weight and that is not even extended all the way down the rod end.

Only then I was being informed that one of her clients had a similar setup like I do, and this chap came back for his third counter weight, as he was unable to achieve a system balance without another counter weight! It's only then I was told that this chap had his counterweight rod being cut short for some reasons.

Ain't this (cutting the counter weight rod) is a rookie mistake in setting up equipment for astrophotography?
Yes, I guess so. Correct me if I am wrong, please!

c l e a r s k i e s

Fluke Frontyard Setup

2011-04-02T20:24:00.001+08:00

It is now the matter of luck in getting a cloudless night in KL, the scope is now readyfor the first light. Attempts of standing by outside with the setup has not been fruitful except for the part of catching the mozzy bites.

It has been cloudy overcast nites since, I need clear skies!

Rookie Mistake on Equatorial Mount Setup

2011-03-25T11:36:00.006+08:00

Now that I own my first Equatorial Mount, EQ6 pro. Yeay!

(Megrez 90 APO refractor is on it's way now, yup it's a William Optics. The wait is just killing me again!)

Anyway, reading through the EQ6 pro manual helps me around with the basic stuff. The curse of cloudy nights got me striked out for the first couple of weeks, with no chance of trying to point my camera mounted on top of EQ6 to the clear skies.

Come to the time when skies are clear & I was out on my first alignment attempt! I encountered an ERROR. An error that I knew would've happened if my imaging setup is not pointing to the correct direction at Park position. As far as I am aware of, I have done everything correctly. I pointed the mount to the polaris (or close to it), everything is levelled and balanced. It should now be "roughly polar aligned".

On my first attempt to polar aligning my EQ6 pro outside, I experienced the followings. I chosed for a single star alignment, and scrolled thru a list of available stars to point from the hand controller. All the stars in the list at the given time are below the horizon!

Being a rookie, it only struck me later that this is a pretty basic mistake I did when I first enter my Lat/Long coordinates!

Instead of keying in the Longitude of 101deg 38.6mins EAST, I only keyed in the numbers and left the default direction without realizing it was at WEST. With this mistakenly keyed into the Synscan, the EQ6 read my gazing point as if I am somewhere in South America!

Click Here to proceed to Rookie Mistake No 2

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-23T23:04:00.001+08:00

Now it's time. Support the Earth Hour 2011, educate our young on how important every little thing we do to help the mother nature by turning off unnecessary lights. We are doing this by the little; because we know that every great things began with these little baby steps.

Planetarium Negara Malaysia present an open day and light pollution campaign on Saturday, March 26th 2011. Be there or be square!

Also, the WWF Malaysia chapter will be in Sunway Pyramid .....

" WWF-Malaysia invites members of the public to stand together with the world in a global celebration of the one thing that unites us all - our living planet. From its inception as a single-city initiative in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global movement where hundreds of millions of people from every continent join together to acknowledge the importance of protecting our planet. Earth Hour 2010 was the largest voluntary action for the environment in history with lights going out across 128 countries and over 4,500 cities worldwide.

Come celebrate Earth Hour 2011 on Saturday 26th March 2011 at the Oasis Boulevard, Ground Floor in Sunway Pyramid. Look out for our team at the WWF-Malaysia booth. "

Read more here.

We at the infinitesubconscious.blogspot.com support the Earth Hour 2011.

Clear Skies!

Astroweather Panel

2011-03-22T15:16:00.002+08:00

This is as good as it can get for those who wants to plan with their activities. This chart indicates the relevant parameters which mainly is essential to planning stargazing activities such as cloud cover, seeing, transparency and several other. For as long as I have been using this chart, it is pretty close to what the actual is. So I'm gonna be keep using it as long as it is still available for free. :)

How to read this chart / Need to understand the legends used ?
Click Here

Clear Skies!

Rasa Sayang

2011-03-17T19:02:00.001+08:00

On the 26th December 2004, a huge 9.1 RS underwater earthquake were recorded. Atjeh being the worst hit vicinity due to that has recorded a painfully high number of deathtoll overnight. It was not the earthquake that triggered the numbers; it was the tsunami. Rebuilding Atjeh however have seen various hands from around the world helping them to build their life back after 8 months.

As a token of remembrance to the helping hands, comforting words printed in various languages has been constructed as a commemoration by the Atjeh people to the helping nation.

March 11th 2011 recorded another underwater earthquake of 8.9 RS that rocked Japan. Siren may have warned some that the big wave is coming, but deathtoll after a week of search & rescue operation have recorded over 10,000 of missing & dead people. Added by the nuclear plant disaster due to the quake, we can only pray for mercy.

Look Up!

2011-01-20T13:54:00.001+08:00

Feels like going for a stroll in the park? Seek no further than the Forest Research Institute Malaysia in Kepong. One of the amazing phenomenon in this whole world is this champor tree crown shyness! There are two places in the world that this happen, and one of it is HERE!

Think Big?

2011-01-18T22:56:00.006+08:00

1. Remember how your science teacher taught us how big the Sun is? Look for our Sun within the remapped illustration of Milky Way. It is barely a smear within one of the galaxy's arms.
2. There are thousands (if not millions) of galaxies out there in the space.
3. There are not enough light to define how big is the whole universe, and thats when they define the dark matter.
4. Do you still think you are that big?

The Milky Way Remapped

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars ?

2011-01-16T23:05:00.008+08:00

Here are some of the images of the night wonders captured in 2010, using Canon 5D Mark II (un mod) with either Canon 24-105mm f4 or 15mm Fisheye f2.8. Startrail images are composed of multiple shots and post editing includes stacking it with a free software from http://www.startrails.de/.

On board Ensco 106 in West Belumut, South China Sea, Malaysia.

Kampar, Malaysia. Geminids meteor watch.

Teluk Kemang, Malaysia. Geminids meteor watch.

The night in Kampar, Perak was my darkest night with the least of light pollution I have ever been on with a camera. I have enjoyed every moment of it especially when the clouds weren't there.

The year 2011 will include the leap towards a more serious astrophotograpy using astronomical telescope with a proper tracking mount. Stay tuned!