M4 2007-08-08

During last night I connected a Canon EOS 400D camera to my C8 SCT to check the images that can be obtained from Majadahonda. As a first test, I pointed the telescope to M4 (Cat's Eye) Globular Cluster in Scorpio (Mag. 7.5). The following picture shows the result of an exposure of 1 minute in the focal plane with the histogram modified to reduce the light pollution.

NIR Summer Experiences

During my summer holidays in the Pyrenees, I have made some experiments combining visible and NIR images taken with a modified 3M digital camera. As chlorophyll reflects very well the NIR radiation, my intention was to verify this phenomena using the same filters that we use for astronomy. The selected target was the vegetation of the hight mountain terrains to show how it invades the different altitude levels. The following pictures show together the visible and the NIR infrared images to better appreciate the differences.

M63 2007-07-14

The following picture is a 5 min. exposure image of the Sunflower Galaxy (M63). It was taken from ESAC around 1:00 GMT of 2007-07-14 with the Meade DSI camera and a C8 SCT with a 0.33 focal reducer. The central part of the galaxy and its structure is clearly visible but the diffuse area is only apparent because the low contrast caused by the poor darkness in ESAC.