Getting fed up with the continuing cold weather and snow. Should be getting the first Wheatears at Norton, and Chiffchaffs singing in the woods, not to mention butterflies in the spring sunshine.
Maybe because it is cold again, the Siskins are back-one male and female so presumably the same birds as previously.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Comet Pan-Starrs
It was pretty clear for a time late afternoon so shortly after dinner I popped out with the camera in the hope of picking up the comet which would be well placed low in the west around 1900.
Cloud was building up as I drove out east of Stevenage to try and find a suitable vantage point, and it gradually got worse. The one remaining sucker hole in the west gradually vanished, and I even lost sight of the Moon.
Returned home around 1920 with nothing to show and yet again an evening drive failed to pick up any owls.
Cloud was building up as I drove out east of Stevenage to try and find a suitable vantage point, and it gradually got worse. The one remaining sucker hole in the west gradually vanished, and I even lost sight of the Moon.
Returned home around 1920 with nothing to show and yet again an evening drive failed to pick up any owls.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Amwell
Have not exactly done much in the way of birding this month-the weather has been dreadful. The only decent spring days are when I am working.
The Siskins have not been in the garden this weekend, I presume they have moved on. The local pair of Chaffinches are coming down regularly at the moment. Their behaviour is a bit strange in that we get occasional visits all through the year but it is only in Spring that they seem to visit on a daily basis. Nothing much else is happening-the Dunnocks are still present, the Robins are very territorial and there are perhaps two pairs of Blackbirds visiting.
Despite the poor weather I decided to go down to Amwell this morning. Not much chance of a singing Chiffchaff, and though Sand Martins have been seen I was not holding out much hope. Barry and Bill left shortly after I arrived which was not a good sign but I met up with Tony and Jay. Four Red Crested Pochards were present at the south end-three fine drakes, and there were also three Redshanks on the main island. One Wigeon seems to be lingering and there are still a few Goldeneye and Teal around. Raptors did not show really, one Kestrel, one Buzzard and a distant Sparrowhawk.
There are a few thrushes around still, mainly Fieldfare with a few Redwing, and the resident Mistle, Song and Blackbirds are very vocal (as are Water Rail and Cetti's Warblers). Still a few Siskins in the Alders.
The Siskins have not been in the garden this weekend, I presume they have moved on. The local pair of Chaffinches are coming down regularly at the moment. Their behaviour is a bit strange in that we get occasional visits all through the year but it is only in Spring that they seem to visit on a daily basis. Nothing much else is happening-the Dunnocks are still present, the Robins are very territorial and there are perhaps two pairs of Blackbirds visiting.
Despite the poor weather I decided to go down to Amwell this morning. Not much chance of a singing Chiffchaff, and though Sand Martins have been seen I was not holding out much hope. Barry and Bill left shortly after I arrived which was not a good sign but I met up with Tony and Jay. Four Red Crested Pochards were present at the south end-three fine drakes, and there were also three Redshanks on the main island. One Wigeon seems to be lingering and there are still a few Goldeneye and Teal around. Raptors did not show really, one Kestrel, one Buzzard and a distant Sparrowhawk.
There are a few thrushes around still, mainly Fieldfare with a few Redwing, and the resident Mistle, Song and Blackbirds are very vocal (as are Water Rail and Cetti's Warblers). Still a few Siskins in the Alders.
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Siskins
Had the day off yesterday to take mum out, and before we left I noticed a female Siskin on the feeders-there are not many spots round here that attract them and so rarely visit the garden.
Today she was back, along with a male, and they have been coming and going all day, along with the regular six Goldfinches. Also had four Blackbirds, a Great Tit, three House Sparrows and a Carrion Crow perched on the feeder.
The light has been very poor all day, drizzly rain and it is getting a lot colder.
Today she was back, along with a male, and they have been coming and going all day, along with the regular six Goldfinches. Also had four Blackbirds, a Great Tit, three House Sparrows and a Carrion Crow perched on the feeder.
The light has been very poor all day, drizzly rain and it is getting a lot colder.
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Double Cluster
I have had a play with the Perseus image, producing a crop of the Double Cluster which is more pleasing. The main thing is to try and get rid of the orange sky, and do something about the odd colours with some of the stars. The brighter ones in particular have a purple/magenta cast which is dealt with simply by turning the saturation down. All this does is produce a large white or grey star, but it does look a bit better. A minus violet filter would be better in the longer term, or even better a true apochrmatic lens. Some 'stars' are pure red or aqua-these may be hot pixels or random noise. Stacking multiple images and dark frame subtraction would be needed to deal with these. However I am pretty pleased with the results.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Stars
Last month I mentioned that I had purchased a small tracking mount at Astrofest-
http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16582&cat=306&page=1
I had hoped to try it out when we had the recent asteroid DA14 flypast, but we were completely clouded out. As the Moon was high in the sky I then had to wait for a dark period, and last night looked promising. My intention was not to produce pretty images but rather test the various parts of the system, from the mount to camera and lenses. Since I had not actually done any long exposure imaging since 1997 (Hale Bopp) when we were still using slide film and had only undertaken a few quick exposures from the garden with my digital slrs I needed to understand the capabilities of the gear.
We used to go out to a spot near the village of Cromer, and i had found a spot on the map which looked good, but when I got out there at around 1930 I felt it was still a bit too close to Stevenage and drove further east to a spot near Haultwick where i found a nice farm track well away from any lights. Unfortunately due to the mild weather, it was a bit hazy with large areas of patchy cloud drifting slowly over, and I was still close enough to town to see that the sky was still a bit orange. However it would do for the tests.
Setting up was pretty quick, and the IPhone app enabled rapid and accurate polar alignment. I had taken the Zeiss 100mm lens, and based on the garden tests stopped it down to f2.8 to reduce vignetting and blue halos around bright stars. The camera was set to iso 1600 and manual exposures of 30 and 60 seconds. The noise reduction was switched off as I wanted to see what the sensor would deliver, and in order to keep things simple I made no attempt to produce dark frames or flat fields for the same reason.
The only clear area of sky was Perseus low in the west, so I set up to get the Double Cluster and the area around alpha in the same field. A 30 second exposure looked ok suggesting 60 seconds would work, but the stars were not sharp-the tripod had shifted slightly on the soft ground. After getting the polar axis set up again I tried 60 seconds which looked much better.
Cloud was building up so I then concentrated on the Orion region which was now a bit low down. All subsequent exposures were marred by cloud and contrails but I was able to get the Orion Nebula and belt regions in between the gaps, but the haze produced brighter skies and slightly bloated stars.
Subsequent processing has been kept to a minimum. Apart from trying to get levels adjusted to bring out the fainter details all I have done is get the background reasonably neutral ,and there has been no attempt to enhance the images up by sharpening or noise reduction.
All three images are crops. The double cluster is going reasonably deep but faint stars are difficult to distinguish from the noise. The belt crop is interesting as it shows faintly the emission nebula NGC 2024 next to the left hand belt star, and a faint patch to the north is the reflection nebula M78.
So a couple of things have been learnt. The location I found would be pretty good on a clearer night provided the western sky towards Stevenage is avoided. Otherwise I would have to travel a considerable distance further east and north. The mount is more than capable of tracking for many minutes with the 100mm lens and would probably handle substantially larger lenses-the 300mm f2.8 will be tested. The 100mm lens certainly works well at f2.8. Due to noise and dynamic range I would not want to set the camera to more than iso 1000 in future particularly if exposures of several minutes are attempted and it would certainly be beneficial to produce multiple images and stack them, as this will enable me to go a lot deeper. Dark frames and flat fields will also help.
The drive home was a bit of a let down as I hoped to pick up one or two Barn Owls.
http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16582&cat=306&page=1
I had hoped to try it out when we had the recent asteroid DA14 flypast, but we were completely clouded out. As the Moon was high in the sky I then had to wait for a dark period, and last night looked promising. My intention was not to produce pretty images but rather test the various parts of the system, from the mount to camera and lenses. Since I had not actually done any long exposure imaging since 1997 (Hale Bopp) when we were still using slide film and had only undertaken a few quick exposures from the garden with my digital slrs I needed to understand the capabilities of the gear.
We used to go out to a spot near the village of Cromer, and i had found a spot on the map which looked good, but when I got out there at around 1930 I felt it was still a bit too close to Stevenage and drove further east to a spot near Haultwick where i found a nice farm track well away from any lights. Unfortunately due to the mild weather, it was a bit hazy with large areas of patchy cloud drifting slowly over, and I was still close enough to town to see that the sky was still a bit orange. However it would do for the tests.
Setting up was pretty quick, and the IPhone app enabled rapid and accurate polar alignment. I had taken the Zeiss 100mm lens, and based on the garden tests stopped it down to f2.8 to reduce vignetting and blue halos around bright stars. The camera was set to iso 1600 and manual exposures of 30 and 60 seconds. The noise reduction was switched off as I wanted to see what the sensor would deliver, and in order to keep things simple I made no attempt to produce dark frames or flat fields for the same reason.
The only clear area of sky was Perseus low in the west, so I set up to get the Double Cluster and the area around alpha in the same field. A 30 second exposure looked ok suggesting 60 seconds would work, but the stars were not sharp-the tripod had shifted slightly on the soft ground. After getting the polar axis set up again I tried 60 seconds which looked much better.
Cloud was building up so I then concentrated on the Orion region which was now a bit low down. All subsequent exposures were marred by cloud and contrails but I was able to get the Orion Nebula and belt regions in between the gaps, but the haze produced brighter skies and slightly bloated stars.
Subsequent processing has been kept to a minimum. Apart from trying to get levels adjusted to bring out the fainter details all I have done is get the background reasonably neutral ,and there has been no attempt to enhance the images up by sharpening or noise reduction.
All three images are crops. The double cluster is going reasonably deep but faint stars are difficult to distinguish from the noise. The belt crop is interesting as it shows faintly the emission nebula NGC 2024 next to the left hand belt star, and a faint patch to the north is the reflection nebula M78.
So a couple of things have been learnt. The location I found would be pretty good on a clearer night provided the western sky towards Stevenage is avoided. Otherwise I would have to travel a considerable distance further east and north. The mount is more than capable of tracking for many minutes with the 100mm lens and would probably handle substantially larger lenses-the 300mm f2.8 will be tested. The 100mm lens certainly works well at f2.8. Due to noise and dynamic range I would not want to set the camera to more than iso 1000 in future particularly if exposures of several minutes are attempted and it would certainly be beneficial to produce multiple images and stack them, as this will enable me to go a lot deeper. Dark frames and flat fields will also help.
The drive home was a bit of a let down as I hoped to pick up one or two Barn Owls.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Smew
Went down to Amwell this morning. Expecting a mild late winters day, it was rather cold and cloudy. The pair of Pintail that have been present a few days were a long way off at the back along with most of the snipe. A pair of Wigeon still remained-I assumed many had departed now that Spring is around the corner, but later on around 20 more appeared. Still a few Goldeneye around.
Walked over to the main hide with Mick where we were able to get reasonable images of the drake Pintail-the female had fallen asleep.
Apart from a calling Cetti's warbler, not much else was happening so we went up to Tumbling Bay where the three Smew could be seen together n the distance. Leaving Mick I walked up and found a suitable spot where i could get some photos. Unfortunately they proved to be a bit flighty and I was not able to get all that close. Two red heads accompanied the drake, but a third remained on it's own and always seemed to avoid the others.
Still a lot of Siskins around in the alders and Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Song Thrushes are singing.
Walked over to the main hide with Mick where we were able to get reasonable images of the drake Pintail-the female had fallen asleep.
Apart from a calling Cetti's warbler, not much else was happening so we went up to Tumbling Bay where the three Smew could be seen together n the distance. Leaving Mick I walked up and found a suitable spot where i could get some photos. Unfortunately they proved to be a bit flighty and I was not able to get all that close. Two red heads accompanied the drake, but a third remained on it's own and always seemed to avoid the others.
Still a lot of Siskins around in the alders and Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Song Thrushes are singing.
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