Astrobirding 2012-02-05

I got up early to capture comet Garradd again. After a few test shots, I noticed that my mount was tracking very badly despite careful polar alignment. Even with just 25 seconds of widefield exposures, more than half of my images were unacceptable. Here is a stack of just 3 images at ISO1600 with my Canon Powershot SX120 and EQ-1 mount.

Here is another with a satellite crossing.

I also tried to image M4 before the sky turned blue.

As the sky slowly brightens, I switched to my 102mm mak-cass and captured Mars and Saturn. Seeing wasn't great at all.

After the imaging session, I decided to observe a bit more. I waited until the sky brightens. Saturn is still visible on the scope even though I can no longer see it with my naked eye.

When I'm done with astro, I went to Angono, Rizal for a short hike up to the Angono cave as an exercise. Unwilling to lug around stuffs, I only brought a camera on my belt, a small monocular in my pocket and hand-carried a bottle of water. On the way, I managed to photograph some birds: Black naped oriole, white breasted wood swallow and a long-tailed shrike. Here are the images from the hike.