Embarking on a new aspect of astronomy - Spectroscopy

I've recently started imaging star spectra. This requires a diffraction grating to be placed in front of the imaging camera and processing software to calibrate the data.

Basic imaging is best done using a mono camera.

The equipment I use:

Telescope:              Sky Watcher ED80 DS PRO
Camera:                 Altair Astro GP-CAM3 290M
Diffraction grating: Paton Hawksley Star Analyser SA100
https://www.patonhawksley.com/product-page/star-analyser

Processing software: RSpec from Field Tested Systems
https://www.fieldtestedsystems.com my thanks to Tom Field for all his assistance getting me this far.

So here is my first analysis of Vega.

This is what the camera sees, the star Vega to the left, the spectrum to the right.

And after processing in RSpec.

The yellow line is professional calibrated reference data for the Vega class A0V star.
The red line is my data after being calibrated and corrected for the camera sensor response.

The dips in the curves indicate where elements in the atmosphere of the star are absorbing light. There is a large dip in my data around 7650 Angstroms that is not matched in the reference data, I believe that's probably due to the Oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.

ISS transiting the Sun

The ISS transited the Sun at 11:57:48 today.

This short video isn't great, the transit is incredibly fast and I should have used higher magnification. The transit is copied 4 times to lengthen the video and the frame rate reduced from 26 to 4 fps.

Maybe next time!

M106 and surrounds

Inspired by an APOD image from a few days ago, these are my first attempts at M106, the largest galaxy in the image. Two nights of imaging resulting in 1 hour 14 minutes of stacked images.

The sky is light this time of year so contrast is compromised.

In the image are:
M106 (23.68 million light years)
NGC4217 (60 million light years)
NGC4220 (58.4 million light years)
NGC4226 (383 million light years)
NGC4231 (340 million light years)
NGC4232 (340 million light years)
and
NGC4248 (24 million light years)

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

37 x 120s exposures.

Same image plate solved to showing the galaxy names

Strange Object Near Arcturus

While setting up and monitoring Arcturus a strange object came into view travelling Right to Left. It took me by surprise so I only videoed the second half of the transit. I've no idea what it can be, but it's about 7 ArcSec diameter travelling at about 68 ArcSec/Sec.

Update 21/05/2019. Almost certainly a balloon of some sort.

Time stamp: 17:39 UTC May 16th 2019

M13 - Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 2h 28m exposure

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

The latest image of M101 taken over 2 nights

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 1h 30m of 2m exposures.

 

Latest Whirlpool Galaxy - M51

The latest image of M51 taken over 4 nights

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 6h 22m exposures comprising:

34 x 3m 28s Lights & Darks
25 x 3m 39s Lights & Darks 
10 x 5m 54s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 34s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 49s Lights & Darks 

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements.