Wesley's Tool-Box

Jupiter is on the top of the list of the stuff I wanted to photograph with Canon SX50 HS because it's relatively big and bright. However, light pollution makes it hard when it's not separated far from the Sun. Luckily, spending vacation in the southeastern coast let me have the opportunity.

I made two series of photographs, first taking fast shots of Jupiter. Then taking longer exposure shots to capture the Galilean moons. Each of the series were stacked using RegiStax 6.1.0.8, and then ultimately put together to form the picture you see above.

Jupiter: 1200mm - ISO 250 - 1/125s, 25 photos stacked
Moons: 1200mm - ISO 3200 - 1/10s, 5 photos stacked
Time: 2013-08-17 04:00 KST
Location: Ulsan, Korea

The photos below are samples of the cropped originals of Jupiter and Galilean moon shots.

Proving that the prediction data from CalSky is pretty accurate, I was able to capture the International Space Station (ISS) making a pass in front of the Sun using my Canon SX50 HS with my hand-made sun filter yesterday afternoon. My dad was watching the phenomenon with binoculars next to me, but the transit only took a little more than a second, so neither of us were sure of observing it until the proof was found in the captures. A total of three photos contained the silhouette of ISS in the backdrop of the Sun.



Clicking the above shows the Sun (30 frames from the observation stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8 ) and ISS captures composed into one in its original resolution.

Clicking the bottom shows the original frames of the capture.
Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 1200mm - ISO 250 - 1/1600s
Time: 2013-08-16 16:50:38 KST
Location: Near Bomunho Lake, Gyeongju, Korea

There's been a lot of fuss (again) about the "Supermoon" that was supposed to come up during the night because the Moon was at the closest distance from the Earth for this year. Well, this is it. It was rather cloudy all day, so I was worried I might not get any good shots. Thankfully, the clouds thinned out from time to time and allowed me to grab enough photos. Remember to click on the photo to see the full-resolution version.

Canon SX50 HS - 2013-06-23 23:11 KST - 1200mm - ISO 80 - 1/60s - 12 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

One of my old-time friend was intrigued with the Saturn photos that I took with Canon SX50 HS, and he wanted to see what Moon would look like with it. This is my answer. The camera takes really big photos of the satellite, so I'm showing just a crop (click the image for the full picture). Even the small craters are easily distinguishable. The power of the superzoom never ceases to amaze me.

For the record, this was taken with my first daughter Celine. She loves looking over the sky with her dad. Half of the photos used for stacking were taken by her.

Settings: 1200mm, ISO 80, 1/60s, 22 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) holiday week is closing, but the weather cleared up and I had the opportunity to snap some photos of the full moon. The $40 toy telescope acting as a makeshift zoom lens for iPhone 4's camera worked okay and reveals lots of details. Enjoy!