Starship Asterisk*

Changing flights from Texas to Toronto and driving for a few hours to escape from the cloud, we finally reached Ayer's Cliff.
Multiple exposures were used to create this HDR solar eclipse image and hope you enjoy it.

20230814 Venus Conjunction

On the day of conjunction, I used a long sunshade to avoid my telescope being toasted by the fierce sunlight.
The seeing was quite good in the morning and I tried my best to process the images but still didn't find any hints of the full ring.

20230801 Thermal and Visible Venus

See Venus in multiple dimensions:
1. Angular size change between 9th July and 1st August.
2. Phase change between two days in visible light
3. NO phase change in thermal IR.

I spent some time setting up both visible and thermal instruments to capture Venus this afternoon during the daytime.
The comparison between both images is very interesting and hope you like them!

The thermal Venus images are taken by the instrument below: 16” f/4.5 Dobsonian + lensless Infiray T3 Then stacked and processed images from the videos. Initially, I thought the image was out of focus, but after moving the sensor in and out, I found that it was actually in focus. Although Venus is i...

I've completed the 2023 first full cycle of the moon phases, in thermal wavelength (8-14um). 202301ThermalMoonCalendar.jpg 202301ThermalMoonCalendarC.jpg 202301ThermalMoonCalendarC2.jpg Here are the animations: White hot https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQ21lNZH6dM Rainbow palette https://www.youtube.c...

After one whole month of data collection, the thermal change of the lunar cycle has been finally captured.

White hot animation: Rainbow false color animation:

Not sure if this is the first amateur thermal image of the International Space Station.
I am so excited to capture the heat of ISS more than 530km away.

I took my first thermal lunar image at the beginning of 2023. I continue capturing the photos daily as long as I can see the Moon. This is the final result. I cannot continue the series because the Moon becomes too low and too close to the sun. The equipment is my DIY 12" F3 Newtonian and a the...

Three days of heat change on the Moon
Click to view the animation.

I captured another set of thermal images the next day and the stitching result seems even better. I hope you like them.

20230101 Visible vs Thermal Moon There are 2 interesting facts from the images: 1. The lunar maria in optical light are darker areas, however, they absorb more visible light, so they get warmer and emit more LWIR light in the thermal image which looks brighter. 2. At the terminator line, both visibl...

20210526 HDR lunar eclipse

Tian He Station animation

https://youtu.be/jd3Y8f9AS8A

20210423 My best ISS, just 2 days before Crew-2

More images / animations here:
http://hkastroforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38219

20210423 ISS 2 days before Crew-2

More images/animations here:
http://hkastroforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38219

Copyright: Wah!
The sunspot AR2740 is swimming in the granulation sea.
A typical light bridge can bee seen inside the sunspot.

The best of the best!

Just want to share some old 2011 total lunar eclipse photos with others.

Total solar eclipse 2017 final version

Isophotes mapping of the total solar eclipse

That girl looks so unreal just like painting.
Why is the reflection brighter than the body?
I hope to see the untouched photo, 100% cropped is fine.

Total Solar Eclipse 2017