Blog Astro and Planetary Photography

19-10-2025:
At the moment way too many clouds so I'm digging into how to orientate in the night sky. Everything rotates and moves or wiggles so a real fixed base point is something imaginary and chosen in such a way that in humanities lifetime it has neglectable dynamics to it. 28 october I start with an introduction class in astronomy😃

28-08-2025:
Quite some things have happened. The new Explore Scientific Finder Scope that I bought proved to be be assembled wrong ending up not usable. The center point wasn't in the centre. I sent it back with explanation and asked for replacement with a properly centered centre point. To my unpleasant surprise I got my money refunded without any explanation. To be continued.
A few nights ago I finally got my telescope to shoot the Andromeda Galaxy for 5 minutes without any trouble. The crashes and errors of the Stellarmate Pro Computer are fewerAnd I got some 7 exposures of 5 minutes. But... with this magnification the set is quite receptive to tremors from cars passing by and walking around the scope so I could delete a few because of these tremors. Now waiting for another clear night with high Seeing. Also to be continued.

11-08-2025:
Last night I was out with the telescope and it gave me a lot of trouble as the WarpAstron WD-17 mount (again) had no clue to where it was looking. That caused the problem that when sent to an object in the sky it went somewhere on its own. Today I contacted the store where I bought it and the problem was acknowledged. But another thing was that the Stellarmate Pro crashed three times in one night. Knowing that it is a relative new computer I was not impressed and decided to wait for an update as they come on a regular basis. And tonight an update announced itself. Well... that was not so good... As I was only checking stuff from last night I decided to take the short time to update. The crashes from last night were reason enough to perform the update on the spot. The software was downloaded and installed and the Stellarmate told me to restart so the new version would be active... eh no... no network, Network error... ok not good but the Stellarmate has many entrances and one of them is directly connecting a monitor, mouse and keyboard, simply hard wired no fuzzy netbusiness. Monitor ok. Mouse dead and keyboard dead also... The whole thing is dead in the water. Ikarus who produces the Stellarmate has a very good backoffice with very good and fast support. Let's hope for the best as the support ticket has been issued. Oh and the Facebook User Group.
While writing this blog entry I added 2 support links for Stellarmate to the links menu.

Addition #1: The Stellarmate OS was updated from 1.8.9 to 1.9.0. And there is most probably the problem situated. Other users have not the offer of an upgrade, possibly it has already been pulled back...
Problem resolved. Jasem from Ikarus was on the line early this morning and by remote desktop he installed modules that crashed and vanished. Not the first time but I love the concept of the Stellarmate Pro so with this perfect support we'll get there... Only the hardwired mouse and keyboard are still inoperable.
Addition #2: If the mouse and keyboard are inoperable the USB ports are dead and that means that cameras and focussed etc also don't work... So it took Jasem another almost hour to figure out what else was wrong. But... the whole issue has been resolved!😃👍🏻

05-08-2025:
Finally came to calibrating my new finder scope with reticle. My choice was the Explore Scientific 8x50 90' Amici.
After quite some time not being able to center the scope right, I came to the conclusion that the eyepiece which is perpendicular to the scope and has to rotate for alignment had to be off. Rotating the eyepiece confirmed my suspicion... the centermarking is off center and the rotation isn't stable... So after a deep sigh an email is at the reseller in Germany.

01-08-2025:
Added a personal page about my encounter with Apollo 14 Lunar Module Pilot and 6th man to walk on the Moon: Edgar Dean Mitchell (menu Misc. Space & Links)

28-07-2025:
Added info about narrowband filters on the Hyperstar/Rasa. (Menu: Equipment - Filters)

27-07-2025:
Changed the menu. Glossary is now part of a new menu item 'astronomy'. Also added a new page 'Mapping the sky'.
This new menu items in 'Astronomy' just contain a few things about astronomical items worth knowing directly. The menu item itself brings you to Astronomy on Wikipedia.
Also added shops on astro items in the Miscellaneous menu item.

26-07-2025:
Added info to the page about Barlow lenses and Reducers.

20-07-2025:
Added page about Bahtinov masks.
Fixed a flaw in the menu structure. Astro album flow.
Added album International Space Station.

19-07-2025:
Added a page about Astrophotography books and literature. In the tab Photography.
Added a page for images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Under tab "Misc. Space & links".
Added bits of info on the Planetary Camera
Added bits of info on the Deep Sky Camera

07-07-2025:
I am still studying the Stellarmate. It is a complicated piece of machinery, a full fledged computer with many apps. It therefore needs a lot of data to set and the one thing I can recommend is to list all your specifications of scopes, cameras focussers rotators.... I put them all in the notepad in my Mac. In that way I always have all data at hand on my iPhone and iPad which comes in very handy as the Stellarmate uses the iPad as the front end terminal, the iPad itself does nothing else but be the front end. It is also my external planetarium but the Stellarmate also brings its own which in fact is connected to the controls.
Slowly the days are getting shorter and we finally enter The Dark Side again!
Tomorrow is my birthday and my partner got me the so far missing but very much needed Flat Panel to make the flats enabling me to get rid of the vignettes and dust specs.

30-06-2025:
'Seeing' was new to me when I switched from simple to serious astrophotography. "Seeing' determines the condition of the atmosphere and how good you can see through it or how it disturbs your vision. On a hot day the air trembles which can be seen by the naked eye and specifically on top of an asphalt road. When hot enough it can even create a mirror effect. When the air is movingthex density varies. Thicker air breaks light in an other way then thin air does and when both mix the vision becomes unstable. Stars are stable lights but with a bad seeing they get a myriad of colours in a very short time span and look like they shimmer. They don't... what you get to see of the star is through that mix of densities making it look like shimmering and looking red, green, yellow, orange, blue and white like a disco ball.

29-06-2025:
The page about exposure time, gain, full well, read noise etc is finished. I have put the terminology in the glossary as well and to prevent double work I made links from the terms in the glossary to their positions in this new page so you get to the rest of the information that is related.
As the nights are way to short and astronomical darkness is not reached at this time of the year I am spending time in further getting to know all the theory behind astrophotography. It is very much more than I thought but bit by bit I am getting there. Once having all that sunk in you have to find your way around in all the software to discover which item sits where and how all the interfaces work. And those screens are PACKED with data... Luckily the Stellarmate Pro contains and combines all you need.

Oh yeah almost forgot... the problem of the confused slewing on 14 june... Well that was quite stupid of me. Of course it was me but I just had to get a hold on what was happening. It is all about where the mount thinks it is. So having that orientation right is the next thing to get clear. Example: when you are anywhere on the planet but not at one of the poles you have all 4 directions north, east, south, and west available. On a pole you have only one... Take the north pole. The only way you can go is south. So go ten meters south... go either left or right being east or west as long as you want and then go 10 meters north. You are the pole again right where you started. so when you slew the scope while passing the celestial pole and you stop and then start slewing again the north button will return the scope on the earlier track and the south button will let it continue as it goes on to the south like you let it pass the celestial pole putting it on a southern track. The same goes for passing the meridian and the east and west button do the same for their directions. Now that all sounds logical huh? But when pressing the same button as right before and the scope goes in the opposite direction because it passed the pole or meridian... you are, well I was, like "huh????"

28-06-2025:
Added a page about exposure time, gain, full well, read noise etc. Still under construction.

26-06-2025:
Added a page under 'Photography' regarding the configuration to assemble in order to get an object fitting in your frame to your desire.
I am working on a page about exposure time, gain, full well, read noise etc. so stay tuned!
14-06-2025:
As you can see in the left column it is the middle of the night. Coming home from the Bussloo Observatory I setup my gear to test the polar alignment again after having had contact with Stellarmate this morning. They will remotely track my moves to find out what is wrong. BUT... this time I finally succeeded. Well... that is to say that I finished aligning very accurately according to the Stellarmate. I even got an accomplishment award from it for being so precise. Only the first photo I took... was like nothing had happened, Star trails all along 😳. Another try: slewing to Andromeda. And the mount went mirrorwise to the opposite position of the meridian. Probably a mirror setting, Why would you do that mirror wise 🙄? I had had it by now so I ordered the computer to park the scope. Also that went wrong as it slewed to a position that I had never defined. And the mounts handset was all confused as well so I had to log into the Stellarmate to pull the whole damn thing out of the mud and get the mount going again.
I really like the Stellarmates concept but boy... be prepared for lots of trouble.
For now... leveling my toes and nose 😴

13-06-2025:
It is 02:03 when i'm writing this. Polar alignment finally came to life but the next hurtle announced itself: the procedure as described in the manual doesn't work and the screen items are different. To be continued...

12-06-2025:
Problems with polar alignment were not solved. Affter an update of the Stellarmate OS last night it didn't connect anymore and the app just stated that the network gave an error. This morning I had another session of help with Jasem from Stellarmate. He found out that after the update the whole Ekos program was gone so he reinstalled that. So that was solved but the polar alignment still has issues. Hopefully the night will be clear but Metno weather app is positive on that so hopefully another try this night.
I don't give up easily on the Stellarmate. Its concept is brilliant and it is still relatively new so I will get there eventually.
One thing is certain though: Stellarmates support is top notch!

03-06-2025:
This morning I got online help from Stellarmate to solve my problems with aligning my telescope with the celestial north pole. One of the problems found is that I had my optical train wrong as I defined the wrong telescope. Quite stupid so I'm asking myself where I went wrong. Anyway... all should be fine now. Last night I was doing another attempt and though I encountered that aligning problem I also saw that my autofocus was reacting to and correcting the shifting focus probably because of a decreasing temperature.
Next problem: somehow the exposure parameters do some strange things when they are saved after being changed.

25-05-2025:
Added info about filters and about solar photography and re-shuffled menu items in better order.

24-05-2025:
Added information about Solar Photography in 'Understanding the sky' and added its own page under 'Photography'. But also decided to postpone the start with solar photography after having studied a view very elaborating videos and having read some more information. Wise decision me thinks...
Also added content to the page about my planetary camera.

21-05-2025:
Started looking into solarphotography. Quite an extension to the investment allready.
Also my Stellarmate Pro finally functions with my home network and found a software update. I hope that this helps solving my problems with polar alignment.
Also added to the glossary.

07-05-2025:
Added a page set for troubleshooting in the Equipment menu.
And added a page about focussing in that new set of pages.

06-05-2025:
Achieved autofocus last night. Cuiv was talking about the donut shaped stars of his Newtonian and I realized that an SCT has that same phenomenon so I started digging in and found the 'Donut Buster' in the Stellarmate. That combined with the findings of Cuiv to select very fine steps in focussing in order not to pass the point where the donuts form I finally got the Stellarmate to focus.

Regarding polar alignment: in VNR goto 'tools' select Ekos select polar alignment and then 'options' and you see the selected data sets. BUT... you have to activate them so click 'apply'!!! This made the message that Astrometry couldn't start disappear! So now the Stellarmate could start solving the first plate. And so it did for 45 minutes before I shut it down... Can't be that plate solving takes this long. So... I got some progress.

I will create a menu item containing various problematic processes mainly regarding the Stellarmate Pro and how I addressed them.

01-05-2025:
I am getting a bit closer to really use the Stellarmate Pro Computer. I can focus using the EAF-motor and achieved focus with both my planetary and deep space cameras. What works but does not come to an end are autofocus and polar alignment. Autofocus keeps focussing and adding points to the graph but it keeps going although it has reached and passed focus many times. polar alignment keeps stranding after solving the first plate with the message that astrometry couldn't recognize where it is... where ever I point my telescoop...

Quite frustrating but I am no quick quitter. So I found this page.
It's not directly all that clear to me though so I'm still biting and chewing... At first I thought the tables with star data had to be downloaded but that doesn't concur with why I bought the Stellarmate: it has everything on board. So while reading I found that it does have everything built into EKOS. So why does it still not solve the plates....?

25-04-2025:
I have added a link to a page that shows the rise and set times of celestial objects. Find it under '(Space)Weather'.

11-04-2025:
My very best shot of the moon so far... I'm getting thru to the heart of my guidance computer. Added it in its album. This one is for you dad... Happy 99th birthday where and when ever in the universe you may be...😢🤗

03-04-2025:
Back from my 16th Aurora trip in Fiinland where I have been digging in deeper in the Stellarmate computer regarding focussing. The upcoming nights seem to be clear so I'll go practice the focussing system.
And maybe get a lucky shot😁

13-03-2025
Recovered from flu/cold I went outside with the full scope for the first time. Mainly to find out all that comes to going out with it. Smooth here and a struggle there and a reasonable shot of the Gassendi crater on the north shore of Mare Humorus on the Moon. To be honest... a lucky shot. I had to find out how the electronic focuser works. The photo is in the gallery 'Earths Moon', so here is a small sample of it.
The Stellarmate Pro computer is definitely no toy but a full blown computer and grasping its concept and structure isn't very easy. Nevertheless i'm getting there, just have to take the time as I not only have to get its system into mine but at the same time I have to get a grip on the whole phenomenon of serious astrophotography.

06-03-2025
Coughing is declining and energy on its way back. Not there yet but hope to get out with the scope in the upcoming nights.

02-03-2025:
Beautiful sky. Scope outside and... eh... ill... coughing my lungs inside out 😖 energy of a municipality civil servant😵‍💫


This blog will contain anything related to photography of celestial objects except Aurora Borealis. Aurora blogs.


23-02-2025
Over this weekend I have been quite occupied with setting up the structure of this section of my website beside the other story of redecorating the house...
The clouds are overwhelming again the upcoming days so that gives me time to get to learn all about the Stellarmate computer and the WD-17 mount and its own electronics.


17-02-2025
First time out with my brandnew Celestron EDGE HD 800 OTA, Aluminium dewshield, Celestron .7x Reducer, Celestron Twistlock Di-electric diagonal, Atmosferic Dispersion Controller and Baader Hyperion Mark IV Zoom Oculair 8-24. And that all on a ZWO TC40 Tripod and a WarpAstron Warpdrive 17.

Just to keep things simple to start with 🙄😬🫣

Just visual to set my first steps after having watched some 20-30 hours of videos. I'll keep this short but first I had to roughly align the stack to Polaris. Not easy with a finder scope without a reticule to visually place Polaris at the right vector from the Celestial North Pole.
I knew that I had no idea how well the finder scope was aligned with the telescope but having the same star in both scopes at the same time it isn't to difficult to align the finder scope after having the dispersion corrector removed as that shifts the object over your field of view.

I did get to see Jupiter with the banding and its 4 biggest moons, man are they bright objects😎. Then I switched to the Orion Nebula which was hard to distinguish to the untrained eye in a Bortle 6 environment, but... I did get to see it!. My third object was Mars. Nice to see where Elon has to end his days😈. In order to get to Mars the mount had to perform a Meridian flip which was awesome to watch the telescope dance as that was being executed.

A strange thing was that after removing either the reducer and/or the dispersion controller my view was totally gone. I was looking out of the tube of the telescope thru the corrector plate (big glass window on the front) having the secondary mirror in my bigger upper left corner. Subject for an email to the wonderful vendor in Amstelveen: Ganymedes.

The last thing I did was defining the positions 'home' and 'park' before putting the whole stack to rest.


27-10-2024
I shot Saturn last night.

Reactions on specific astrophotography groups were bad news and good news. First of all... the sky wasn't clear last night. Humidity was quite high and in the few minutes I was out my tripod already got damp so I was a bit concerned about the front of my lens getting that too but it stayed clear. Anyway... highly humid air obstructs any astro related objects so this planetary shot can be done with better result. But that was not the good news I was referring to. So... the bad news... My equipment, method and software are good for astro but totally not for planetary. Again a whole new field of photography and again a steep learning curve. The more I'm getting into this the more I realize that I have to contemplate if I really want this to the level I strive for or accept what I can get with the stuff that I've got. And who knows me, knows me... this is going to be complicated...