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Comets, space stations, and planets without own category
 C/2011 PanStarrs L4
C/2011 PanStarrs L4
Comet C/2011 PanStarrs L4 at dusk. Colors have been adapted to remove twilight sky background. Taken on: 2013-03-26, 20:05 UTC+1
Exposures: 2000 x 2 s at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
First ISS
First ISS
The international space station ISS passing over The Hague (distance to the station is an estimated 500km). Captured using serendipituous manual chasing on 2 out of 6000 frames.
Taken on: 2013-04-18, 22:33 UTC+2
Exposures: 6000 x 2 ms at f/20 with 24 db gain
Post-processing in The Gimp
Better ISS
Better ISS
A better attempt, with shorter exposure times. Stacked the last three frames where ISS was largest, passing almost overhead.
Taken on: 2013-06-08, 01:25 UTC+2
Exposures: 3 x 500us at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Three perspectives of ISS pass
Three perspectives of ISS pass
Succeeded to capture ISS on many frames during a single pass, and combined a handful of frames for each of the three perspectives.
Taken on: 2013-08-04, 04:05 UTC+2
Exposures: 3 x 300us at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Composited in MS Paint
Uranus
Uranus
Not strictly speaking a small world, but it sure appears so at a distance of 3 billion kilometers :) Taken on: 2013-09-03, 03:00 UTC+2
Exposures: 5000 x 50ms at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Waning Gibbous Venus
Waning Gibbous Venus
Taken almost exactly at sunset, but elevation was still only about 10° altitude. Taken on: 2013-09-05, 20:32 UTC+2
Exposures: 10000 x 500 us at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
ISS in Galileoscope
ISS in Galileoscope
Fun project: Simply plug camera into Galileoscope, record video, point hand-held at ISS. Taken on: 2013-10-23, 19:29 UTC+2
Exposures: 10 x 1 ms (of about 6000 hits) at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Crescent Venus in Galileoscope
Crescent Venus in Galileoscope
My first crescent view of Venus, taken at dusk through some cloudiness. Taken on: 2013-11-23, 17:27 UTC+1
Exposures: 2400 x 5 ms at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Another Venus Crescent
Another Venus Crescent
Patient attempt to image Venus crescent with the 8" Celestron despite almost complete cloud cover. Taken on: 2013-11-30, 17:45 UTC+1
Exposures: 300 x 2 ms at 24 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Thin slice
Thin slice
Thin Venus crescent two weeks prior to inferior conjunction Taken on: 2013-12-29, 17:30 UTC+1
Exposures: 3000 x 1.5 ms at 5 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in Registax
Venus crescent 5 hours after inferior conjunction
Venus crescent 5 hours after inferior conjunction
Shortly after sunset at about 2° altitude. Disc 0.4% illuminated Taken on: 2014-01-11, 16:58 UTC+1
Exposures: 300 x 10 ms at 1 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in PixInsight
Bird and Venus inferior conjunction (animation)
Bird and Venus inferior conjunction (animation)
Shortly after sunset at 1.4° altitude. Taken on: 2014-01-11, 17:03 UTC+1
Exposures: 15 ms at 1 db gain
Unprocessed frames combined into animation
Bird and Venus inferior conjunction (static)
Bird and Venus inferior conjunction (static)
Venus at 1.4° altitude and 0.4% illuminated, shortly after sunset Taken on: 2014-01-11, 17:03 UTC+1
Exposures: 15 ms at 1 db gain
Single frame post-processed in PixInsight
First Mars image
First Mars image
Looks positively glowing Taken on: 2014-02-04, 04:25 UTC+1
Exposures: 1000 x 20 ms at 14 db gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in PixInsight
First Mercury image
First Mercury image
Took the opportunity while Mercury is at comfortably 10° altitude about 20 minutes after sunset. Taken on: 2014-02-03, 17:51 UTC+1
Exposures: 1000 x 12 ms w/o gain
Custom stacking in HALCON
Post-processing in PixInsight

Unless otherwise stated, all astrophotos were taken with a Celestron CPC 800 XLT (8″ f/10 SCT) using a Flea 3 camera (FL3-GE-13S2-C).