Dart Frog's Astrophotography

Hello again! Just a quick update on the region that appeared in the Sun couple of days ago. It's named 2706 and it just produced some serious spots! I see around 10 spots there :D Location: Warsaw Synta 6" with dobsonian mount Samsung Galaxy S7 6mm eyepiece with IR-cut baader filter (+virtual filter) close up view:

Hello again! Nice blue sky did not let me leave the Sun alone, I had to spy it and it's new region! :p Unfortunatelly solarham.net still does not show region number :/ it turned out nicely anyway! Synta 6" on dobsonian mount Samsung Galaxy S7

Good morning! Last night I pointed my telescope at the constellation of Leo again, in hunt for its triplet! These galaxies are easy to find, I got them in frame on 1st try! This time I also got 3rd galaxy in frame, but after a while, it moved out of the picture, that's why it's so grainy... I will definitely take another try on Leo, I want the whole triplet in 1 picture and in nice quality! Also in like a week or two I'll try taking pics of the Black Eye galaxy, so stay tuned! ISO: 1600 Exposure: 100x30s Location: Warsaw

Ayyy! Today, before going to school for 2/3 part of my trail exams, I took a quick look at the Sun! Here are the results :) As far as I know this region does not have a number yet. I'll tell you what number it is as fast as I know it! Localisation: Warsaw Filters: ND-5, baader IR cut + virtual filter for better visibility

Hello there! Yesterday night was nice and clear! I put my telescope in the garden and looked into sky map for something interesting. After a couple of tries on Cigaro and Bode's galaxies (could not target them) I moved onto Leo and I got it on 1st try! I took ~hour of exposure. Unfortunatelly, I lost focus a bit and the photos were taken towards very light polluted part of the sky so it's not perfect... Also, that chinese 128 gigs sd card broke, taking away 2 mins of exp, not a big loss, but it also took flat frames which is bad.... anyway, I will be revisiting leo for sure! Iso:1600 Exposure: 71x30s (after removing bad frames) Location: Warsaw 10 darks No flats (rip) I also applied a filter to it so it's a bit better looking :)

Hello! Last night was very clear! I decided to put my telescope out on paralactic mount, I also found out I can barely fit it in my small garden, so now I can take pics more comfortable way (I don't have to be right next to my telescope all the time). I tried multiple objects waiting for Whirlpool Galaxy to get from behind the building, I hit M109, Black Eye Galaxy and some other galaxy (I don't remember the name) that was pretty close to Black Eye Galaxy, but all these were too dim. Once Whirlpool showed up, I immediately pointed my telescope at it, luckily I got it right in the middle of frame on the 1st try (it's hard for me to target something right above). As it was so high, the seeing conditions were great! I took ~1 hour of exposure, in 30 second photos, then I also took new dark frames and flat frames. Today in the morning, I stacked it up and this is the result! I hope you like it! :D I am very happy with it, tho I didn't get any color, I'll try longer expo...

Hello there! Today when I was coming back from school, I checked solarham.net to see if there are any spots on the Sun... and there are! A lot of them in fact! Once I got home, I immediately out my telescope out (with ND-5 filter of course) and tried to take a pic of them. I also tried looking thru the eyepiece this time (I had problems locating the spots on the camera screen) and it looked amazing! I started with 25mm eyepiece, then moved to 10mm one and finally to 6mm. It turned out that phone+eyepiece setup worked better than DSLR.... I'll probably buy myself barlow lense so I can take pictures of solar system objects in higher resolution. After a little bit of editing (removing dust, putting higher contrast etc.) this is the effect I go :) 6mm eyepiece + Samsung galaxy S7 automatic settings

Hello! In Last post I said I will try catching ISS again soon and I did! Today, for the first time I tried catching it thru my telescope and I succeed! As for the first time I think it turned out great! Of course it's nothing like the other pics of ISS but still good for begginning! :D Those are two best frames I got :) Camera: Canon 1300d (not phone! Turns out I get similar quality and zoom with DSLR on full res as with my most powerful eyepiece and phone!) ISO:1600 Exposure:1/1600s Location: Warsaw Here are two best frames and reference picture from mobile app Star Walk 2 (very useful!) Here is worse frame, but it shows structures of the solar panels nicely:

Hello everyone! Last time I decided to finally start my youtube channel about SCIENCE! It will be mostly astronomy still, but I don't wanna limit it only to that :) There also might appear tutorials/vlogs about astrophotography, might be worth subscribing! :D There are alread 2 vids waiting for you: one about spring equinox and one about Tiangong-1! Hope to see you there! Link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIWevJ2me2PtsDKfpxrN5sg Also: I would try catching ISS thru telescope today, but 20 minutes before it passing, clouds came and now whole sky is covered with them :/

Hello! Today, I caught ISS! In the picture, you can also see Orion basically touching the horizon and also Pleiades on the right. This picture is made out of 3 pictures: two parts of ISS and also part with me in here as I wasn't fast enaugh to set everything up that so I can take it in 1 pic :/ ISO: 400 Exposure: 2x30s ISS, 1x30s me Location: Warsaw Thre was another appearance of ISS on my sky around 11:16 PM but over very light polluted area of the sky and also very low... I might try to catch it again tomorrow! maybe I can get the whole thing in 1 shot!

The weather from the morning stayed the same! :D After the Sun went under the horizon, I put my telescope out once again, Venus and Mercury were on the western sky! It turned out, I had to carry my telescope almost 200 meters! Otherwise, the buildings were hiding the planets :/ also, my dslr had to small zoom in the telescope, so I had to use this old, bad method... holding phone in front of eyepiece :p It turned out pretty well! (at least for Venus) I've been waiting to see Venus again for like a year... I'll probably mod a small webcam soon so I can catch better, more stable pics ;) more planets are coming to the night sky soon! Eyepiece: skywatcher 6 mm Phone (camera): Samsung Galaxy S7 (I don't have anything to mount it in front of eyepiece so I just held it in my hands) Mercury (a bit out of focus): Venus: Venus going down just a bit above the horizon:

Today, I woke up and I've seen bright light behind the window... It was white building in front of my home illuminated by the Sun shining in the cloudless sky! I got up and took my telescope out for a moment. It was snowing yesterday so there was snow everywhere adn it was very cold... I managed to catch small sunspot on the Sun :) note: these pictures aren't oriented to have north of the Sun at the top! ISO: 100 Location: Warsaw

Hi again! As I said yesterday, Moon was just first target! Last time I've also taken brand new photo of Orion Nebula (m42) and I finally sniped Whirlpool Galaxy (m51)! Location: Warsaw so light pollution is like "Hi there you little astrophotographer!" And of course clouds like to invade me out.of no where sometimes... Smog also makes LP much worse... but I managed to take some pics anyway ;) 10 mins exposure of M51 and 25 mins exposure of M42. ISO 1600. Next time I will try to use flat frames as well as I was told that it removes vignette caused by bjg sensor. Whirlpool pic was taken yesterday and Orion Nebula pic 2-3 days ago. M51 M42

Hello! Today, as the weather was nice for me I had an opportunity to take some nice pics :p first target: The Moon! I played around with focuser a bit snd I got this: it's a bit dark originally but you can always bump lightness later :) Here you have whole pic and a close up on mountains :) Localization: Warsaw

Hello again! It's been a while since last post due to bad weather and me being sick during blue super moon... but yesterday there was like 30 minutes window of cloudless sky and I took some more pictures of Orion Nebula :) unfortunatelly, accidentally I took them in .jpg instead of raw but I got somthing out of it anyway. ISO is messed up due to that tho... adding what I took yesterday before clouds came back and also material from my previous M42 shooting got me 6:30 mins of exposure, not much and I was shooting only 30 second exposure pics but if tonight I will have some nice weather as well, I'll try setting longer exposure per photo. I also auto-adjusted it in samsung gallery as it gives more detail to the picture. Taken in front of the building I live in.

Hi again! It took a while since last post but I am currently on holidays on canary islands (spain). Once I come back, I will make small Moon animation/gif. Today, which is january 19th, I had oppurtunity to catch earthshine again. It turned out great! :D Today, same as yesterday, earthshine was visible even with naked eye! I couldn't take photos yesterday as I forgot to take my DSLR when going for a walk in the evening :/ also, this time I played with lightroom a bit :)

So, this time it was planned pretty good :p I set my alarm to 3:30 am. My dad helped me put the telescope out. Jupiter was bright and Mars was almost not visible at all. The sky was so clear that I could see Orion Nebula a bit with my naked eye. Setting the planets as sharp as possible was hard... after photographing I felt that in my muscles... This it the picture I got, without barlow I won't get any better planets probably :/ and to use barlow I need my mirror to be higher. ISO etc. does not rly matter here as it depends on the moment.

Happy new year! At midnight, when I went outside, I took my camera and tripod with me. 98% Moon was glowing on the sky. Just when fireworks went off, there was huge hole in the clouds that was revealing Orion. I took 5 seconds exposure photo amd got that effect! That was the picture I wanted to get that night :) Location: 51.81N  19.31E ISO: 800 Exposure: 5 seconds

Hello! Today, I woke up and I've seen COMPLETLY cloudless sky! :D I put my telescope in front of the building and took a photo of the Sun. I did not check if there are any sunspots before taking the pic. I got home and plugged my Canon EOS 1300D to my PC to get the photos into Deep Sky Stacker for some editing. It turned out I caught sunspot 2692 and a plage ! Plage is bright part of Sun's atmosphere. I veryfied it with solarham.net  .     ISO: 100      Location: Warsaw

Even clouds couldn't stop me! When I was walking my dogs, I noticed some cracks in the clouds and Moon getting thru them! I went straight way home and got the telescope into the garden. It turned out that it was worth it! Next time there will be clouds, I would pay more attention if Moon is trying to get thru. The main problem was timing, I had to switch exposure time very fast and often keeping in mind 2 seconds of timer (I set it so telescope does not shake after clicking the trigger). In fact, I think I took one of my sharpest Moon pictures for now! It was a bit overexposured in one place but I fixed it with Deep Sky Stacker :)          ISO: 400    Location: Warsaw phase: Waxing Gibbous 84% Close up view on south pole. I also tried to catch eartshine besides big phase, no luck there unfortunatelly :/

Here are two photos of Moon, one from 26th of december and the other one from 27th. The phase on 26th was 54% and on 27th 64%. This phase is called Waxing Gibbous :) synta 6" on dobson mount, Canon EOS 1300D. Of course, near Warsaw's border. ISO and exposure time doesn't really matters as it depends on exact moment and place :/ I also tried catching earthshine, but with no success... Earthshine is earths light reflected on Moon which makes the unlighten side visible a tiny bit. I will try using something like a coronograph to hide lighten side next time (idea I got today, not sure if it's gonna work)  54% 64% Earthshine catch try: if you look closely you can see it, but it's not what I want to get :/

Hi again! On december 26th, from capital of Poland, Warsaw,  I took that photo of Orion Nebula! :D It's 6x30s of exposure and 13 dark frames. Would be more, but others were a bit unclear :/ The ISO here is 1600. I used synta 6" on EQ-5 with one axis motor and Canon EOS 1300D. Edited in Deep Sky Stacker, paint.net and mobile version on Light Room :)

Hello there! On this blog, I will be posting my tries on astrophotography! If you want to support me, you can do that on my patreon (link will appear soon)! I also have gaming youtube channel over at youtube.com/c/dartfrogyt/  :) For now, I will upload some of my past photos.  This is how clear sky is on my plot  Northern lights 1st attempt  same attempt, just a photo earlier  Orion  another Aurora Borealis  and another one this is probably the best one I took  another Orion  Jupiter with stripes and Big Red Spot, took holding phone in front of eyepiece  1st out of 3 Super Moons  Saturn, just as Jupiter, taken with phone in front of eyepiece  Ring Nebula (old DSLR, first attempt) Andromeda Galaxy (old DSLR, first attempt)