Wesley's Tool-Box

City lights and lack of star tracker doesn't mean I couldn't try harder. Zooming in four times more, extreme ISO setting with shorter shutter speed was used to counteract the movements of the stars. Stacking more photos also helped.

In the end, the Andromeda Galaxy became definitely more visible. It now vaguely looks like an ellipse instead of a faint blob.

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 192mm - ISO 6400 - 5s - f/5.6
Time: 2013-12-15 22:09 - 22:14 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea
18 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

Taking photos of constellations with SX50 HS continues with Andromeda as the target. This one is next to the W-shaped Cassiopeia, so it's easy to spot. With the use of long exposure and filter, the stars making up the constellation nicely shows up in the photo.

Even the faint Andromeda Galaxy can be seen, although it's nothing like the spectacular photos you see in other places. If I were to try to duplicate that sort of feat, I would need to go out of the city and use a star tracker.

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 48mm - ISO 1600 - 15s - f/4.0
Filters: Baader M&S applied
Time: 2013-12-14 23:51 - 23:57 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea
8 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

When I look outside the window of my apartment in the city with a million people, stars are hard to spot. But the camera can see much more than that for me. Of course, the light pollution still prevents seeing really dim stuff, but it does capture what I would be able to see with my naked eyes in a remote place.

To make best use of the situation, I have to point the camera high up. The lower part of the sky simply drowns in ambient lights. The photo of the constellation Boötes here spans altitude from 34 to 56 degrees in the eastern sky. Even after adjusting the curves and levels settings, the sky below 45 degrees simply doesn't get dark enough. Meanwhile, faint stars all the way to magnitude 9 can be found here and there, but only up to magnitude 7 can be spotted consistently.

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 48mm - ISO 400 - 15s - f/4.0
Time: 2013-12-13 06:07 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea

In testing long exposures with my SX50 HS, the camera caught something I didn't expect - an airplane taking off to the skies. The wings have blinking lights attached, and the streak left by the airplane ended up having periodic dots next to it. That's something you can't expect in the streaking stars. Speaking of stars, the brightest streak belongs to Jupiter.

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 24mm - ISO 80 - 120s - f/3.4
Time: 2013-12-11 21:23 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea

While I made an unsuccessful attempt to photograph Tiangong-1 space station transit the Sun, I noticed some big sunspots. Sunspots like these cause solar flares, which have been prevalent in the recent months. This particular group of sunspots shown here is called AR 11899, of which the biggest one is casually referred to as "Sunspot 1899". It's about 4 times the size of the Earth. If you click the picture for the full look of the Sun, you can also spot AR 11903 near the middle.

Settings: 1200mm - ISO 250 - 1/1000s - f/6.5
Time: 2013-11-23 13:22 KST
Location: Seoul, Korea
10 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8