The Night Sky February

With January out of the way it’s time to focus on February. The year moves on slowly but surely and now the longest feeling month is out the way it’s time to settle back into the joy of astrophotography again.

The Night Sky is a curated list of deep sky objects, planets, noteworthy events etc throughout the night skies of January in the northern hemisphere.

I split all the Deep Sky Objects up by focal length based off of a Full Frame image format such as the Canon 5D. But I will give equivalent focal lengths also in the likely case you’re using a different camera.

You can use the links here to quick jump to a section:

Deep Sky Object
Planets
Moon Phases & Name
Events
Video

With that all done, let’s begin!

ZWO ASI 533mc Pro Review

In fact I almost feel like the square sensor makes framing and composition that much easier.

The ZWO ASI 533mc Pro Is a cooled, one-shot colour dedicated astronomy camera. Featuring an extremely sensitive sensor and two-stage cooling. This camera costs just over £1000 and can help take your astrophotography to the next level.

Taking the step up to a dedicated astronomy camera can be daunting and if you’re looking at getting the ZWO ASI 533mc Pro as your first camera, or your second or third, this article is for you. Within I’ll be sharing my thoughts and feelings about this cooled one-shot colour astronomy camera.

So let’s get going!

The Night Sky 2023: January

So back by popular demand is my The Night Sky Series. The Night Sky being a curated list of deep sky objects, planets, noteworthy events etc throughout the night skies of January in the northern hemisphere.

You can use the links here to quick jump to a section:

Deep Sky Object
Planets
Moon Phases & Name
Events
Meteor Showers
Video

With that, let’s begin with Deep Sky Objects

Imaging The Pelican Nebula

It was a fun session imaging The Pelican Nebula. This emission target has always escaped me and I’ve not had a good photo of it to date.

That has now changed.

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED Review

“What’s more impressive is at this price point the glass used is FPL-53 glass. That’s some of the best quality glass used in amateur telescopes.”

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED Review

The Skywatcher Evostar 80ED Doublet Refracting Telescope. A solid entry in the range from Skywatcher, and I’ve had the pleasure of using this telescope for over half a year now.

80mm aperture, 600mm focal length. Natively f/7.5, not slow by any measure but a little slow for deep sky work. If you buy the dedicated matched reducer flattener which is 0.85x, you’ll get f/6.3 – almost half a stop faster. I use a 0.8x F/R which gives me f/6 bang on (that’s 420mm focal length) – exactly half a stop faster.

ZWO ASI 533mm Pro Review

“Another benefit that I enjoy greatly with the ZWO ASI 53mm Pro is the absolute lack of amp glow. It really doesn’t matter if you’re taking a 30 second image or a 30 minute exposure. There isn’t any amp glow in your images.”

ZWO ASI 533mm Pro Review

A couple of years ago I reviewed one of my favourite cameras. The ASI 533mc Pro. Since then, ZWO have released a mono version of the same camera, and they sent me one for review.

With this article I’m going to focus on my thoughts and feelings after using this dedicated monochromatic camera.

ZWO ASI 183mm Pro Review

A monochromatic camera (mono) is often referred to as a gold standard camera for astrophotography. I had the urge to use one again, so I got my hands on a ZWO ASI 183mm Pro for review. This camera was sent to me from First Light Optics for review.

I’ve had the ZWO ASI 183mm Pro for some time now in order to get a good handle on the camera and its qualities. In this article I’ll be sharing my feelings about the ASI 183mm pro.

Continue reading “ZWO ASI 183mm Pro Review”

Cleaning Telescope Optics Quickly And Safely

Cleaning telescope optics is a question that gets thrown about a lot. In truth cleaning our optics isn’t something that needs doing all that often. In fact over-cleaning them could be detrimental to their health. So clean the telescope lenses or mirrors only when they begin to get really bad, or begin to affect image quality. In this article I’ll share my workflow for how I treat my telescope lenses, filters, camera sensors and camera lenses.

It’s A New Year!

What an interesting year 2021 was. I almost made an episode of The Night Sky for every month (11/12 achieved. Not too bad). I also made a few reviews, tried out some kit and you seem to enjoy it and continued to enjoy what I create.

With 2022 now upon us. I decided I want to try and give the website a bit more attention this year, and focus on more production quality and improving my videos more. Of course I will do as many imaging vlogs as I can as well.

To that end I have ben considering my options with the sky available in the garden and really I’m now torn between whether to get myself a ZWO ASI 533mc Pro to keep, or do I get a wide telescope and a bigger sensor. So many decisions.

Last year also I feel was one of the worst for astrophotography. I don’t recall having that many clear skies. This issue was exacerbated by the fact the mono camera made it a bit longer to get a workable image. I’m not sure I’ll be revisiting mono again – at least not for a long long time.

So I’ll be focusing on getting another OSC camera. I’d like a mirrorless camera also, but one that does have a very shutter in order to not disturb the neighbours. If you know of any, please let me know!

I also want to do a bit of set dressing for the videos. As much as some enjoy the plain walls in the garage. It could do with a bit of sprucing up. Maybe some nice lighting in the back.

Either way I hope to blog more, raise my production quality and add more value to you. I started this to document my journey, along the way it has evolved into wanting to deliver value and entertainment. So in 2022, my goal is to enrich you more.

Here’s to a successful New Year.

I wish you the best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour.

Wait, that’s The Hunger Games.

Clear skies everyone, keep looking up and keep them cameras clicking.

Fixing The Website

Well! What a chore that was. No other way to put it – that was a pain in the neck! I recently changed website host and ended up losing my website. Not for the first time either!

To put it simply, it turns out the website (the thing you’re looking at) isn’t the same as the domain. The domain is the www.astrofarsography.com part. So when the domain was changed, the website stayed with my old host.

The issue? I couldn’t get into the old host’s website builder. So I had to go deep into website databases, coding, and the files that makes up the very foundation of my website.

That took a long time, and I also have The Bloodstone to thank on Twitter for spending a lot of time walking me and talking me through things, as well as the customer support from my new host.

It’s going to take some time to rebuild certain areas of the website. Some photos may be missing or weirdly sized. I’m working on getting through the backlog so please bare with me!

If you find something wrong then please bring it to my attention. Until then, clear skies everyone.

Keep looking up and keep them cameras clicking.