Holy Haleakala!

To coin a phrase from one of my heroes!

I did it, I got a star!! Well 2+ stars, binary system.
I have honestly spent years with this no-budget Astro-odyssey trying to get one, tonight I did.

For my single digit readers .. this is Acrux, one of my favorite stars, one of the brightest in the southern sky, a complicated binary star system.  11 shots, stacked in Photoshop - one of the first shots to utilise my new stacker tool set I am writing - and 321 light years.  It's noisy, fuzzy, flared and a boring shot but gorram it, it's my first star!

Enough rambling! Get to the picture!

Next attempt: M42!

BunchOLinks™

Latest Images from Mercury: Bright Peaks, Swirling Craters and Weird Terrain

BlackFrame NR - Noise reduction using Black frame method

NASA Blueshift » [Blog] Weekly Awesomeness Round-up – 4/19/11

"Earthshine" Discovered: The Search for Earths Twin Just Got Easier - StumbleUpon

NASA - NASA's Hubble Celebrates 21st Anniversary with 'Rose' of Galaxies

"Zapping Enceladus": Saturns Electric Link With Its Moons - StumbleUpon

Australian outback time lapse | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Slacker Val is Slack

I should post bit of a journey post today, since I have added a couple of tools to the process recently, and a technique or two as well, but it's early, I'm at work and I left my links at home, so here's some pictures instead.

KTHXBAI

Nebulinks

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr"Darwin's Extraterrestrials" - A New Theory for the 'Great Silence'

STEREO sees an ethereal solar blast

Go Speed Racer! - Thanks to Chris Mac for this one :D

Also, you guys are aware I have a FB Page too right? Just Look Up!

Nebulinks Toinght

The Crazy Design of NASA's New Mars Rover [Mars]

Beautiful Spirals!
Roving!

Dark Matters

What I want to be when I grow up

and that's about it for tonght folks, it's late, I'm tired and sleep calls ...

Three Tests

So, tonight I was committed to developing a new piece of zero-budget kit.  Using a pill bottle, craft knife and of course, gaffer tape, I believe I may have just created a mount for my camera that will work on any telescope lens.

Myself, and of course my beautiful latino assistant, got the mount cut, filed and then tested on the scope.  The skies cleared, just in time, and the test was a success .. although for one lens I bodged the focus.  Here's the aforementioned piece of kit, the one on the right is the actual mount, the one on the left is the remains :)  It's a pill bottle from the chemist, most recently used for holding antibiotics, now a valued piece of gear :)  Lens goes in one end (the one without gaffer tape) Camera goes in the other.

And here's what it let me do.

6mm Lens

9mm Lens (sorry about focus)

25mm Lens

So!  This is a good thing, oh such a good thing, and so simple! Been staring me in the face all along!
Huge thanks to Fabiano for the assist tongiht (and the company too!).  I will be trying to borrow Bill's 15mm soon :D

NebuLinks this Morning

Electric Propulsion,  Quantum Teleportation, Weta's Apes, Collection of Space Missions, Cold, Lonely and Beautiful., Vintage Nasa., Old Shuttle Stuff.

Nebulinks for today

Orion is looking GOOD.from the WISE data, meanwhile there's some stone cold science going on down south, I really want to do this!

Also, this is just beautiful ...