Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M33 Triangulum Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH


A small break in the weather finally allowed me to complete my M33. The difference from my first attempt with only 15 RGB frames [https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH] is really amazing.

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/5.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
  • IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
  • Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
  • Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.
  • 70 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 45 x 600s each red, green and blue filters

Total exposure time of 34 hours.

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qmBPdK


It’s Andromeda season! My latest attempt at m31, with a nearly 15-year-old SBIG ST-8300M camera. I’m amazed at how this camera is still ticking along, but I think it may be time for an upgrade soon. lol!

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the 0.73x CR Reducer.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
  • IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
  • Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
  • Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition and PixInsight for image processing.
  • 66 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 30 x 600s red channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s green channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s blue channel integrations

26 hours total exposure time

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Posted inElectronics & Retro Gaming Photography

TurtleCam Weather Station and Web Cam

Now broadcasting from Cascais, Portugal.

The webcam and weather station are based on Raspberry Pi systems running motion and weewx. They are currently running the Rasberry Pi v3 12MP camera, and a few cheap i2c based sensors for measurements – a BME280 for air pressure, a MCP9808 for temperature, and a Si7021 for humidity.

The weewx setup uses the Belchertown skin and gets the radar data from windy.com. The weather station currently broadcasts to awekas.com, weatherunderground.com, and windy.com.




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