台灣合歡山獵星之旅

[willis]

社長 and I arrived 合歡山 yesterday. We must express our heartfelt thank to Henry that he helped us to do the transportation and accommodation. In addition, we lent us two HEQ5Pros to us. This is crucial important to us, as the weight we need to ship to Taiwan is much lower. One more point I would like to mention is that we found a Taxi driver to drive us around this week. Originally I want to hire a car and drive by myself, which is always the way I do when I go aboard. However, 社長’s suggest is right! The road in the mountain area is very rugged and difficult to ask for help when needed. So, found a tour guide Taxi driver can save money & convenient.

Our base is around the 清境 area. Since there are much visitor recently, we stated in 觀星園 for one night. Afterwards, we will move to 清境農場. The altitude is about 2000m. It was a long day! Both 社長 & I slept for only 2 to 3 hours before we went to Taiwan. So we took a bit more rest before we went to 小風口 (about 2800m). Anyway, the weather yesterday was foggy & haze. We don’t expect too much last night. It turned out that we have occasionally clear skies after 2:00am. It is on and off anyway! Time is limited! When 社長 was taking a rest in the Taxi, I took a few Milky way shot. At about 3:00am, the clear sky suddenly came out & we started to work! Poor me! The sky became too bright at about 4:00am and we were running out of time. I am too inexperience & sucked finally!
The photographic details are following:

Modified Canon 40D
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm f4
ISO1600
30s

[Lewis]

[willis]

It is raining now!!! Not just rain, but thunder & lightning Good grief!

[Lewis]

可以影閃電.

[willis]

Totally unexpected! The weather last night was so dramatic!!! It started with rain, lightning & thunder. After the rain stopped, the sky was clear! We ran up to a site called 武嶺(3275m) at once. In the middle of setting up the equipment, terrible fog came. 社長 & I were punished to stand & wait! In the midnight, the sky was clear again. We started the setting again. There were terrible people around & they used torches!!! Anyway, the sky was unstable until 3:00am. I was on the point of giving up, but finally I got everything work!!!! These are my M31 & Double Cluster! I found that when I use the auto Noise reduction in D40, there is a dark band in the lower part of the images!!! Good grief! The lucky thing is that it didn’t cross my DSO. Otherwise, it wasted my time. I posted the both cropped & un-cropped versions here. I will not use this function in the coming night, unless I fixed the problem.

APM-TMB 80/480
TV 0.8X
LPS-P2
HEQ5Pro
LVI I
M31: ISO 800, 600s, single frame, No flat frame, No dark frame (There was a satellite crossed my photo!!! I will make it again!!!)
Double Cluster: ISO 800, 300s, single frame, No flat frame, No dark frame

[benben88]

Good photos, waiting for more

[Lewis]

Amazing.

[willis]

The night before last night was very disappointing. While Savio got no problem with the setup, my guiding got 3 to 5 pixel error. I reckon it is due to the guiding scope. The aperture is 40mm and the focal length is 240mm. However, the small aperture limited the guiding performance. The response of guiding is slower. Anyway, my guiding error is large.
Last night the error is still big, but I found that after processing with DSS, the result is not that bad. See these:

APM-TMB 80/480
AstroTech zero power flattener
Modified Canon 40D
M31: 5x4mins
North America Nebula: 6x6mins

[Lewis]

It seems that the contrast of m31 is not good enough, it's the problem of ISO or DSS.

[社長]

他昨晚拍了些滿意的，靜待佳音

挺辛苦的，來了台灣6天，每一天晚上都晴朗，而且每天都比之前的好，每天都要拍到天亮才離開，沒有一天休息，昨晚看到的銀河，是橫跨整個天空超過140度呈弧狀的，由於海拔高的關係，星點從視平線以下即負仰角已能看到，基本上整夜都是清徹無雲的，所以我設定好LVI導星後便走回車上小睡，一小時後才回來看看，而這裡最特別之處是可能這裡植被充足，至今沒有高山反應。

現剛從武嶺回到清境觀星園，稍事休息後再處理今早的戰果。

[Lewis]

他昨晚拍了些滿意的，靜待佳音

挺辛苦的，來了台灣6天，每一天晚上都晴朗，而且每天都比之前的好，每天都要拍到天亮才離開，沒有一天休息，昨晚看到的銀河，是橫跨整個天空超過140度呈弧狀的，由於海拔高的關係，星點從視平線以下即負仰角已能看到，基本上整夜都是清徹無雲的，所以我設定好LVI導星後便走回車上小睡，一小時後才回來看看，而這裡最特別之處是可能這裡植被充足，至今沒有高山反應。

現剛從武嶺回到清境觀星園，稍事休息後再處理今早的戰果。

Willis, 社長,有沒有用WIDE ANGLE影全天, 應該會十分美麗.

By the way, will you two going to take the Eagle Nebula?

[社長]

Eagle Nebula.....

不一定，最後一晚，反而想多拍一些星野照。

近三十年愛好者生涯來說，從來沒試過這樣瘋狂的，7日6夜的旅程，至少5個晚上(甚至今晚第6晚)都晴天，每晚晚飯後上山，拍到天亮才下來睡覺 - 很累的

連民宿老闆也說這段時間很奇怪，早上天晴、下午起霧、傍晚下雨閃電、晚上山上天晴，和常規的七月份天氣剛好相反。

有沒有興趣冬天約Xiaoer, David等一起來?

[Henry Wu]

恭喜您們於合歡山連續好天氣
這才是夏季於台灣高山上觀天文的好時機
我也於今天由大溪地長途搭飛機回抵台北
此次 7/11 於大溪地也看到完整的日全食

[社長]

謝謝 Henry 這次細心安排，沒有小強司機我們會很辛苦的，而你借的兩台赤道儀也幫了我們一大忙，昨天才跟 Tina 通過電話，她說我們是否在山上拍得太開心，忘記了她呢　

你的頭像是否要改改了，例如改為手持600mm鏡頭攝星的造型

有沒有大溪地的風土人情照分享一下？

[willis]

It seems that the contrast of m31 is not good enough, it's the problem of ISO or DSS.

The exposure time of this M31 is not long enough. In order to pull out the color & the details, I over process it. Last night I got longer expsoure on M31. The S/N is higher. u can see the difference in details, especially the inter-stellar dust.

APM-TMB 80/480
Astrotech zero power flattener
LPS-P2
HEQ5Pro
LVI I
ISO 800, 4x600s, No flat frame, No dark frame
DSS, PS

[willis]

Another product I made last night, M13. This DSO is very small under 480mm focal length.

APM-TMB 80/480
Astrotech zero power flattener
LPS-P2
HEQ5Pro
LVI I
ISO 800, 9x360s, No flat frame, No dark frame
DSS, PS

[willis]

Eagle Nebula.....

不一定，最後一晚，反而想多拍一些星野照。

近三十年愛好者生涯來說，從來沒試過這樣瘋狂的，7日6夜的旅程，至少5個晚上(甚至今晚第6晚)都晴天，每晚晚飯後上山，拍到天亮才下來睡覺 - 很累的

連民宿老闆也說這段時間很奇怪，早上天晴、下午起霧、傍晚下雨閃電、晚上山上天晴，和常規的七月份天氣剛好相反。

有沒有興趣冬天約Xiaoer, David等一起來?

恭喜您們於合歡山連續好天氣
這才是夏季於台灣高山上觀天文的好時機
我也於今天由大溪地長途搭飛機回抵台北
此次 7/11 於大溪地也看到完整的日全食

Not necessarily good weather condition in 合歡山. On the way we go to our imaging site 武嶺 (3275m), we can see that there were fogs & clouds. However when we go beyond about 3200m, the fogs & clouds are just under our legs. See the clouds photo from the very beginning of this post. Truly that “Altitude does matter”. The bad weather just happened below certain altitude. So going up is the way. But every night we experienced some Acute Mountain Syndrome (AMS). The weather is cold & we need to work overnight. In fact we have been worked for 5 over nights already!!! Very exhausting!!!

[Nebulas]

英仙座的双星团的表现太棒了 。


恭喜 Willis.

[willis]

英仙座的双星团的表现太棒了 。


恭喜 Willis.

It is not very good. I need to practise more. Thanks anyway! I wish there will be fine weather before the summer holiday ends.

[sharkfin]

不知道什麼月份去合歡山 / 清境觀星園比較適合呢

本來四月初去日本, 因天災要改行程,
不知到台中清境觀星園觀星是不是時候