A huge thanks to Xeni Jardin and BoingBoing.net for featuring us and the photos, and especially for you kind words yesterday!
Showing posts with label 1200mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1200mm. Show all posts
March 13, 2013
March 12, 2013
On remembering to blog
Hi all. Sorry about the hiatus, there's always a reason, or at least an excuse.
So we got back from Mount Tongariro day before yesterday, with sore muscles, some scratches in rather intimate places and about 4,000 shots of the sky and environs. These will take a while to process and upload, but for now, take my word for the awesomeness of the trip!
Here's where we were, on the ridge as shown in this map:
View Larger Map
So we climbed up from the hut, and that hurt. But once we got there and got the tents up, it was click click click all night. The pics are coming.
In other news:
What's this "Air and Darkness" thing?
Since Val won a photo competition, he's decided to push the photography a bit, with a view to the future, so he came up with a name for it (inspired by Harry Dresden no less) and so we get A&D:
.jpg)
Or maybe should be called ADD :)
Anyways will go back to collating thousands of photos now, post again soon (yeah right).
Quick Edit with a resource:
Light pollution on Google maps
So we got back from Mount Tongariro day before yesterday, with sore muscles, some scratches in rather intimate places and about 4,000 shots of the sky and environs. These will take a while to process and upload, but for now, take my word for the awesomeness of the trip!
Here's where we were, on the ridge as shown in this map:
View Larger Map
So we climbed up from the hut, and that hurt. But once we got there and got the tents up, it was click click click all night. The pics are coming.
In other news:
What's this "Air and Darkness" thing?
Since Val won a photo competition, he's decided to push the photography a bit, with a view to the future, so he came up with a name for it (inspired by Harry Dresden no less) and so we get A&D:
.jpg)
Or maybe should be called ADD :)
Anyways will go back to collating thousands of photos now, post again soon (yeah right).
Quick Edit with a resource:
Light pollution on Google maps
January 10, 2013
2013, A New Committment and an Early Tragedy
Hey Folks, anyone heard from Bill? Last I saw him he was making a tinfoil hat and muttering about twin satellites ... he also wants me to call him "Fox" for some disturbing reason.
Seriously tho, welcome to the new orbit, the 43rd since I arrived here :D
To try and improve my photography, and maybe to get something awesome going later on, I am starting to ramp up on the photography again ... to whit, I will be posting a picture a day this year - not necessarily taking a picture per day, but posting one. So here's the first nine, it's a Flickr link, sorry.
From here I will be posting from Flickr as I upload.
And now the tragedy ... Just before Xmas I bought a new compact camera for my telescope shots, just after Xmas I dropped it :( It's knocked the focus/lens assembly out of true, so if anyone knows how to get the lenses out of a Canon IXUS 120, please let me know :(
Seriously tho, welcome to the new orbit, the 43rd since I arrived here :D
To try and improve my photography, and maybe to get something awesome going later on, I am starting to ramp up on the photography again ... to whit, I will be posting a picture a day this year - not necessarily taking a picture per day, but posting one. So here's the first nine, it's a Flickr link, sorry.
From here I will be posting from Flickr as I upload.
And now the tragedy ... Just before Xmas I bought a new compact camera for my telescope shots, just after Xmas I dropped it :( It's knocked the focus/lens assembly out of true, so if anyone knows how to get the lenses out of a Canon IXUS 120, please let me know :(
January 3, 2013
Happy New Orbit!
One more revolution about the sun completed! Well depending on when you start I guess :) It's 2013! Last year contained the worst apocalypse ever, and we're moving on :) So, as I started last year, here's the Flickr set for 2012. containing the shots I liked from last year, heavily focussed on stuff posted here!
Enjoy!!
- Val
Enjoy!!
- Val
November 13, 2012
Baader, Filthy Cameras and CHDK
Just done the first camera tests with the new, home made, Baader solar film on the end of the scope ... encouraging!!!
Hard to focus on the old star, but once you get in there the same rig I use for lunar shots seems to be doing the biz :)
You can check out the 5 test shots here :D
Oh what the hell, here's one to get you started ...
Bill ... where's yours?
Hard to focus on the old star, but once you get in there the same rig I use for lunar shots seems to be doing the biz :)
You can check out the 5 test shots here :D
Oh what the hell, here's one to get you started ...
Bill ... where's yours?
June 10, 2012
June 9, 2012
20 plus 40 is 60 ...
Took the new Camera out for a blatt tonight, to the satellite farm just out of WW. Liking it so far, have to keep away from the stupidly High ISOs tho ...
More on this as it develops .. meanwhile, 2 shots up on teh Flickr
More on this as it develops .. meanwhile, 2 shots up on teh Flickr
June 6, 2012
Calamity, Cameras and Transit
May you live in interesting times, goes the Chinese curse. And boy have I been appreciating that curse recently. First there was the break in and loss of the 20D ... I've already told that story here, so you might know of it already. So .. the 60D arrived! We'd had it for four days, then I fell 4 meters off a cliff. Carrying it. I and the camera got a dunking in freezing cold water.
The good news is that 48 hours in the hot water cupboard with some dessicant revived the camera. And it seems to be as good as new. What a relief! The weather and other environmental factors (scumbag moon) have prohibited me from starting up the star shots since the weekend, but I hope you will follow me on this journey of exploration.
Anyways ... on to today. Today being of course, the sixth of the sixth, transit of Venus time! We had clear skies this morning, for a little while, then clouds came rolling in to obscure 1st contact on the transit, with patchy clouds we got a small viewing around 11:30 this morning, we saw Venus halo'd against the star, and then it rained.
And rained.
Hopes were dashed, until around 4pm, the sky cleared right up and we got some beautiful stuff then! Just as Venus was approaching egress, we finally started seeing some awesome stuff!
This is shot with the new camera and the awesome solar observing rig we hand built for the occasion. Venus is the dark circle at the bottom and the other blotches that look like dirt on the ccd are actually sunspots :D Added bonus there!
Hopefully gfkBill will post the shots he managed to get as well, but all in all, a good day :D
And here's that solar observing rig :D
April 14, 2012
1 Star, 2 Star, Red Star, Blue Star
Both of us here at 1200mm have kids. Mine are in their mid to late teens now, while Bill's come in a little younger than that. As parents, it's natural and normal to want to pass your passions, knowledge and wisdom on to your children. Unfortunately they stop listening to you at age 11.
Enter Findlay Books with the solution .. beginner astronomy eBooks for the newest astronomers .. the strategy being "get em interested early and your work is halved!"Joy Findlay has written and self-published a series of 6 eBooks, all dealing with the things that little astronomers need to learn, shapes, colours, numbers and letters and things of that ilk. The "Rocket Boy, my First Reader" series are wonderfully presented books, utilising some of the most awesome astro-stock images to teach these beginning concepts to the smallest star gazers of them all. The colours are bright and cheerful, the pictures are fascinating and eye catching, if you're looking for something to get your daughters and sons into space, this is an awesome start!
The series doesn't attempt to make the people reading the books feel stupid either, after looking through 1200's promotional copies I had to go look up 2 of the nebulae used for myself! I personally really enjoyed this series, and it would be something I would heartily recommend to anyone with young kids.Available on Kindle Colour and anything that supports it, and at 0.99c/1.99c a download, well worth it :)
You can grab the download links here:
http://findlaybooks.com/myfirstreader/index.html
Last Year, all in one place!
Since losing the DSLR a couple of weeks ago, and missing some awesomely clear nights to boot, I have been slightly at a loss for photographic stimulus :( Once the moon crescents up a bit, I will be playing some afocal games with the IXUS however :)
In the mean time, I gathered my favorite astro shots from 2011 into a Flickr set, they have mostly been on here before, as it's a set about the blog shots, but if you wanted to go have a peek at how my shots were looking last year, feel free!
Now I just have to get Bill to do the same, although his Flickr was a barren, featureless wasteland with tumbleweeds rolling across it until recently, it now has some VERY nice stuff up there, go look!
April 2, 2012
April Skies
Well here we are in April already. I apologise for my lack of activity of late, lots of things happening around my life at the moment, including injuries, physiotherapy and notably, a burglary. Which, it has to be said, sucked. They got my telescope lenses and our camera.
So Bill is doing awesome work with the tracker at the moment, I wont be shooting for a while :(
Dear Canon NZ, any chance of a free 5D? Mk II will do, I'm not greedy!
In other news, the Hike to the Stars event we all planned and spent money on camping gear to organise was totally cancelled due to the worsening weather, so we're thinking October/November now, or possibly a smaller expedition will happen later, anyone whose interested should watch this space!
Anyways, on to the skies this month, as that's supposed to be the purpose of this post.
Jupiter and Venus will be visible early in the evening sky this month, after being a pair of drama queens last month. Mars is still out and about and getting dimmer and smaller as we pull away from it. Saturn, that beautiful gem, is up in the northern sky and Titan is well visible about 4 ring-diameters from the planet, an awesome site and if you want to see it, come over, and bring your own lenses because I no longer have any :(
The usual suspects are around this month, Crux, Orion, Scorpio, both Magellanic clouds (see Bill's awesome photos),
Mercury makes a good looking morning sky appearance this month, rising due east 2 hours before the sun in the middle of April, in the beginning of the month, it's "only" 95,000,000km from us!
As usual I will be updating the 1200mm Calendar with what I can find this month (Google-Fu pending of course). Speaking of Calendars, I have added some calendars to 1200mm's including: Cassini's tour of the Saturn System,
Oh and the blog got it's 10,000th page view this week! YAY!
Anyways ... keep looking up guys!
Interesting and/or Awesome things!
So Bill is doing awesome work with the tracker at the moment, I wont be shooting for a while :(
Dear Canon NZ, any chance of a free 5D? Mk II will do, I'm not greedy!
In other news, the Hike to the Stars event we all planned and spent money on camping gear to organise was totally cancelled due to the worsening weather, so we're thinking October/November now, or possibly a smaller expedition will happen later, anyone whose interested should watch this space!
Anyways, on to the skies this month, as that's supposed to be the purpose of this post.
Jupiter and Venus will be visible early in the evening sky this month, after being a pair of drama queens last month. Mars is still out and about and getting dimmer and smaller as we pull away from it. Saturn, that beautiful gem, is up in the northern sky and Titan is well visible about 4 ring-diameters from the planet, an awesome site and if you want to see it, come over, and bring your own lenses because I no longer have any :(
The usual suspects are around this month, Crux, Orion, Scorpio, both Magellanic clouds (see Bill's awesome photos),
Mercury makes a good looking morning sky appearance this month, rising due east 2 hours before the sun in the middle of April, in the beginning of the month, it's "only" 95,000,000km from us!
As usual I will be updating the 1200mm Calendar with what I can find this month (Google-Fu pending of course). Speaking of Calendars, I have added some calendars to 1200mm's including: Cassini's tour of the Saturn System,
Oh and the blog got it's 10,000th page view this week! YAY!
Anyways ... keep looking up guys!
Interesting and/or Awesome things!
March 5, 2012
January 31, 2012
Southern Skies in February
So, what to look forward to this month?
Straight up early in the month, the moon is full on the 8th, which unfortunately coincides with the peak night of the Centaurids meteor shower.
The moon then proceeds to last quarter on the 15th and is new again on the 22nd.
Early in the month, Both Jupiter and Venus will be visible in the west, during the early part of the evening. With Saturn and Mars rising later in the evenings, towards midnight. These planets will continue their dance around the skies this month.
Orion is very visible this month, so some awesome M42 opportunities will be able to be had, 1200mm is thinking of a stack for that one, through the scope on AstroCam 2 :)
The Seven Sisters (Pleiades/Matariki) is also hanging around and is stunning even through a small pair of binoculars.
The 1200mm crew is planning our first star party of 2012 on February 8 to attempt to pierce the full moon's glare and see some Centaurids from the meteor shower.
And finally, there's another small meteor shower (Gamma Normids) starting up on the 25th of February, that will peak in March.
Straight up early in the month, the moon is full on the 8th, which unfortunately coincides with the peak night of the Centaurids meteor shower.
The moon then proceeds to last quarter on the 15th and is new again on the 22nd.
Early in the month, Both Jupiter and Venus will be visible in the west, during the early part of the evening. With Saturn and Mars rising later in the evenings, towards midnight. These planets will continue their dance around the skies this month.
Orion is very visible this month, so some awesome M42 opportunities will be able to be had, 1200mm is thinking of a stack for that one, through the scope on AstroCam 2 :)
The Seven Sisters (Pleiades/Matariki) is also hanging around and is stunning even through a small pair of binoculars.
The 1200mm crew is planning our first star party of 2012 on February 8 to attempt to pierce the full moon's glare and see some Centaurids from the meteor shower.
And finally, there's another small meteor shower (Gamma Normids) starting up on the 25th of February, that will peak in March.
January 15, 2012
Astronomy Illustrations of the 1800s
Pop over to Retronaut for the goodness. Is as awesome as pirate monkeys!
Went out for a timelapse last night as it was clear(ish), lens promptly fogged up - my fault for not following my own procedures ... give that man a cone. Will see what i can salvage and post.
Also, for a tickle. Here's what happens to a Flickr account when The Bad Astronomer notices you :)
Click to visit the aforementioned Flickr account, the shot he noticed was here. Of course I did tell him about it :D
Went out for a timelapse last night as it was clear(ish), lens promptly fogged up - my fault for not following my own procedures ... give that man a cone. Will see what i can salvage and post.
Also, for a tickle. Here's what happens to a Flickr account when The Bad Astronomer notices you :)
December 24, 2011
Love, Joy, a new star in the East... must be Christmas!
Christmas Eve down under, and an early morning wake-up call for the boys was rewarded with some great views of Comet Lovejoy. Initially we were disappointed to hop out of our beds and convene at Val's house, only to find the horizon cloudy - then realised there was a pretty glorious comet sitting above said clouds. Cue rush for cameras!
I think we both probably ended up with one decent shot each as we were about half an hour too late to avoid the sun making it's presence felt. Nevertheless it was well worth the 4am alarm, and should reward early risers for a few more days. The wise men can't be far away...
[Val]
Urrrrgh, yeah, what he said about the 4am thing. I got a couple of good shots, unfortunately, my best one was my first one, making it hella out of focus. Oh, and Bill, traditionally a comet appears when a prince dies, rather than when one is born ;)
I think we both probably ended up with one decent shot each as we were about half an hour too late to avoid the sun making it's presence felt. Nevertheless it was well worth the 4am alarm, and should reward early risers for a few more days. The wise men can't be far away...
[Val]
Urrrrgh, yeah, what he said about the 4am thing. I got a couple of good shots, unfortunately, my best one was my first one, making it hella out of focus. Oh, and Bill, traditionally a comet appears when a prince dies, rather than when one is born ;)
October 26, 2011
Tweet F**king Tweet!
Well as you can see on the left there, the blog now has it's own twitter feed. So if you'd like to follow it, we here at 1200mm would appreciate it :D
This is of course part of one of my erratic drives to do more with this space. There's some new things coming, hopefully soon.
Also, gots a little piccy from the Bill tonight ... our trackers are on their way! w00t.
This is of course part of one of my erratic drives to do more with this space. There's some new things coming, hopefully soon.
Also, gots a little piccy from the Bill tonight ... our trackers are on their way! w00t.
April 27, 2011
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!
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!
April 21, 2011
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
KTHXBAI
April 20, 2011
Nebulinks
Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr"Darwin's Extraterrestrials" - A New Theory for the 'Great Silence'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!
April 19, 2011
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