Nikon D60 Shuttercounter and Exif format

Wondering how many clicks you made with your D-SLR camera? Well it's easy as your Jpeg picture has this data embedded. Just use a exif viewer/reader (exchangeable image file format) and open a most recent jpeg picture and you will find out. I'm personally using software from Opanda eg. Iexif 2.3 exif reader.
So, and how many I currently have: 39904.... see below

Airplane in front of moon

Picture is changed, so passengers are little more confortable :)

Moon and airplane

Lucky shot when airplane crossed the moon. Picture taken with iPhone 6 afocal on Orion XT12 60x magnification.

Moon with iPhone 6

Picture of 98.5% moon taken with iPhone 6 - afocal on Orion XT12 with 60x magnification.

Moon 98,5%

Almost full moon. With 98.5% this picture was taken with Dobson Orion XT12, Nikon D60 with Barlow x2 without moon filter and edited using CS4 - unsharp mask.

ISS April 10th

ISS April 10th, 2016. Next to first quarter of Moon.

Theory vs Practice

Solargraph sun's orbit compared with theoretical path of the sun.

Moon stacked using CS4

The result below is from Avi taken with ASI224PC on Orion 12" and edited using stacking option, automatic allignment and automatic blending.

Issues with RAW and Photoshop?

Digital camera's are using RAW format but this is not a common or universal standard. Every camera manufacturer has his own format eg. Nikon .neff - Canon .CR2,..

If you buy a new camera and/or using older versions of photoshop (CS2,3,4,5) it's possible the RAW format will not be recognised. For that Adobe made a more universal format, DNG (Digital Negative Specificication). Adobe created a DNG converter which has most recent RAW formats integrated and with this new format, photoshop older version's can still be used. 

For the link of DNG Converter see my blog page usefull links.

More Double Rainbows

This evening, April 12th weather conditions were perfect for double rainbows. Sun low above the western horizon and eastern horizon dark with rain. Pictures are taken in Aarschot and Averbode around 19h45 local time.

Solargraph

Even the fact my solargraph can was damaged by a football :) the picture is bright and clear...great result. Period from december 21,  2015 untill april 14, 2016.

Globular Cluster M3 - ASI224MC

Yesterday, April 10th, clear sky and low humidity (55%). Telescoop 12" Dobson with ASI22MC was set up observing Jupiter, Moon and others.

Also M3, a globular cluster of magnitude 6.3 was observed and pictures were taken. Using RegiStax to stacking the avi movie up to 86 frames and the file was editing with CS4.

Sunspot AR 2529

After deassembling the focusser on my Orion XT12 I could reduce the focus point for my Nikon D60. Before it was always necessary to install a barlow x2 to reduce the focus point. The picture below is thus the first picture taken without barlow x2. The picture was taken in RAW and edited using CS4 (curves & levels spectrum).

Credit SDO/HMI 

Meeting @Sterrenjutters - Lecture by Dierick Dominique

Yesterday, April 8th, I went to Koksijde, "De Sterrenjutters"  for a lecture from Dierick Dominique about the use of DSLR in astophotography.  About 25 people attend this meeting, mainly members from De Sterrenjutters.
From presenters experience the use of reflexcamera's is a very good alternative for CCD camera's except if you are a scientist.

Koksijde - Duinenhuis -Home of Sterrenjutters

Good examples were shown using DSLR Nikon D810a. Any other DSLR would fit for use when modified by taken the filter out sits in from of the CCD/CMOS chip.

In his opinion best results within a reasonable budget are realised using a modern guiding system (Skywatcher EQ5/6 Celesteron, 10micron, ..) and a refractor telescoop. He was not in favour of reflector telescoops type newton, ritchy c, matsukov, ..

Sun dog - Koksijde - Duinenhuis

If choosing refractors a good choice would be APO triplet refractors 80/100/120/150 with flateners.
Software for editing picture are also discussed ... Maxim, Nebulosity (not for Nikon), photoshop.

At last calibration of pictures are discussed : bias, darks, flat frames and how to stack pictures in photoshop.

Moon Jan 16, 2016 - 125frames

Using RegiStax6 stacking avi movie from moon on Jan 16th, 2016. Movie was shot with ASI224MC camera on Celestron D70/400. Total frames used 125 and picture was edited by CS4.