#dwarfii — Public Fediverse posts

Towards the end of last night I decided to shoot M45 - The Pleiades. For me this is a very special cluster because it has almost the same story associated with it across the entire world. Almost everywhere in the world it is some variation on seven sisters being chased by a man (Orion). This consistency is unique in the myths and stories associated with the stars, and the sort of thing that makes amateur cultural anthropologists overly excited.

Here I have used two similar telescopes, but with different filters. The blue one was shot using a basic light pollution filter, and the green with an Ha/OIII filter. The overall exposures are similar (50-59minutes), and the post-processing is similar. The green one was shot on a #DwarfII, and the blue on a #Dwarf3.

The different orientations are because I had packed up the DwarfII, expecting clouds that had appeared earlier to build up, whereas what actually happened was they dispersed. So I set it out again, but only in Alt/Az mode rather than EQ.

#Astronomy #Astrodon #astrophotography #Snapseed #M45 #Pleiades

I've written a bit more of a long-form post about my #astrophotography post-processing procedures.
https://rdmasters.lympago.com/2025/08/adventures-in-astrophotography-post.html

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Dwarf3 #DwarfII #DwarfLab #Snapseed

I've written a bit more of a long-form post about my #astrophotography post-processing procedures.
https://rdmasters.lympago.com/2025/08/adventures-in-astrophotography-post.html

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Dwarf3 #DwarfII #DwarfLab #Snapseed

I've written a bit more of a long-form post about my #astrophotography post-processing procedures.
https://rdmasters.lympago.com/2025/08/adventures-in-astrophotography-post.html

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Dwarf3 #DwarfII #DwarfLab #Snapseed

I've written a bit more of a long-form post about my #astrophotography post-processing procedures.
https://rdmasters.lympago.com/2025/08/adventures-in-astrophotography-post.html

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Dwarf3 #DwarfII #DwarfLab #Snapseed

I've written a bit more of a long-form post about my #astrophotography post-processing procedures.
https://rdmasters.lympago.com/2025/08/adventures-in-astrophotography-post.html

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Dwarf3 #DwarfII #DwarfLab #Snapseed

Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.

First up let's look at what I got the #DwarfII to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, #C63 the #HelixNebula . What I got surprised me greatly.

Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the #Dwarf3 and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband #OIII / #HII filter.

Both were post processed in the #StellarStudio and finished in #Snapseed .

I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #BackYardAstronomy

Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.

First up let's look at what I got the #DwarfII to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, #C63 the #HelixNebula . What I got surprised me greatly.

Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the #Dwarf3 and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband #OIII / #HII filter.

Both were post processed in the #StellarStudio and finished in #Snapseed .

I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #BackYardAstronomy

Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.

First up let's look at what I got the #DwarfII to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, #C63 the #HelixNebula . What I got surprised me greatly.

Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the #Dwarf3 and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband #OIII / #HII filter.

Both were post processed in the #StellarStudio and finished in #Snapseed .

I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #BackYardAstronomy

Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.

First up let's look at what I got the #DwarfII to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, #C63 the #HelixNebula . What I got surprised me greatly.

Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the #Dwarf3 and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband #OIII / #HII filter.

Both were post processed in the #StellarStudio and finished in #Snapseed .

I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #BackYardAstronomy

Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.

First up let's look at what I got the #DwarfII to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, #C63 the #HelixNebula . What I got surprised me greatly.

Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the #Dwarf3 and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband #OIII / #HII filter.

Both were post processed in the #StellarStudio and finished in #Snapseed .

I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #BackYardAstronomy

@buddhawilliams well, I've had an exciting time with my clusterfudge. Firstly my final one just kept closing when I went to check on it, so, unlike the Titanic, was unsynchable.

So I quickly entered up another, well as quick as I could, on another tablet in case my first one wasn't stable because of the Beta Dwarf App. Phew, got that done.

Then my DwarfIII tried and tried to calibrate, but it looked like something was wrong with the focus, so @rdm found the option to reset the 0 point for the second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!

#astrodon #LeecesClusterFudge #astronomy #SmartTelescope #DwarfII #DwarfIII #dwarflab #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #Astrophotography #LCFCatalogue #BackYardAstronomy

@buddhawilliams well, I've had an exciting time with my clusterfudge. Firstly my final one just kept closing when I went to check on it, so, unlike the Titanic, was unsynchable.

So I quickly entered up another, well as quick as I could, on another tablet in case my first one wasn't stable because of the Beta Dwarf App. Phew, got that done.

Then my DwarfIII tried and tried to calibrate, but it looked like something was wrong with the focus, so @rdm found the option to reset the 0 point fhe second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!he second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!

#astrodon #LeecesClusterFudge #astronomy #SmartTelescope #DwarfII #DwarfIII #dwarflab #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #Astrophotography #BackYardAstronomy

@buddhawilliams well, I've had an exciting time with my clusterfudge. Firstly my final one just kept closing when I went to check on it, so, unlike the Titanic, was unsynchable.

So I quickly entered up another, well as quick as I could, on another tablet in case my first one wasn't stable because of the Beta Dwarf App. Phew, got that done.

Then my DwarfIII tried and tried to calibrate, but it looked like something was wrong with the focus, so @rdm found the option to reset the 0 point for the second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!

#astrodon #LeecesClusterFudge #astronomy #SmartTelescope #DwarfII #DwarfIII #dwarflab #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #Astrophotography #LCFCatalogue #BackYardAstronomy

@buddhawilliams well, I've had an exciting time with my clusterfudge. Firstly my final one just kept closing when I went to check on it, so, unlike the Titanic, was unsynchable.

So I quickly entered up another, well as quick as I could, on another tablet in case my first one wasn't stable because of the Beta Dwarf App. Phew, got that done.

Then my DwarfIII tried and tried to calibrate, but it looked like something was wrong with the focus, so @rdm found the option to reset the 0 point for the second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!

#astrodon #LeecesClusterFudge #astronomy #SmartTelescope #DwarfII #DwarfIII #dwarflab #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #Astrophotography #LCFCatalogue #BackYardAstronomy

@buddhawilliams well, I've had an exciting time with my clusterfudge. Firstly my final one just kept closing when I went to check on it, so, unlike the Titanic, was unsynchable.

So I quickly entered up another, well as quick as I could, on another tablet in case my first one wasn't stable because of the Beta Dwarf App. Phew, got that done.

Then my DwarfIII tried and tried to calibrate, but it looked like something was wrong with the focus, so @rdm found the option to reset the 0 point for the second target to my immense surprise. I had no idea it was THAT resilient!

Hope yours is going well too!

My Dwarf 2 has settled on the VDB 102 reflection nebula for much of the night and the Great Winter Solstice-ish ClusterFudge is underway!

#astrodon #LeecesClusterFudge #astronomy #SmartTelescope #DwarfII #DwarfIII #dwarflab #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #Astrophotography #LCFCatalogue #BackYardAstronomy

So to continue with highlights from our #astrophotography expedition to Gingin, another subject I had some fun with was Sandqvist 149.

Yes, I'm aware of its other, more popular name but let's let the discoverer have some kudos, huh?

This is a dark nebula, a star-blotting-out mass of dust that looks like a crack in the sky. You can see some stars in front of it which gives me a sense of three dimensionality to the usual flatness that I get of looking into the infinity of the night sky, and gives perhaps the sense that it is a dust cloud there, not a crack in reality.

The image on the left I took with the #dwarfiii - 60 second exposure, with a gain of 80, and stacked 40 of them.

That's coming to us straight out of camera, and I'll do some post to it sometime.

The image on the right was taken with the #DwarfII with shutter 15 and gain 80, for about 330 frames - and is the first time I've used a stellation mask.

I think that they look a bit silly - because stars don't look like that and it's a really artificial sort of prettiness that's a bit kitsch to me. Sorry to everyone who uses them - I mean they can look pretty, I admit...but for me they're usually meh.

I thought it would be funny to use one for a dark object.

#Astrodon #AstroPhotograhy #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DarkNebula #Sandquist149

So Astrofest is done and dusted for another year. For the first time since the early 2000s (when we did model rocket displays) we were volunteers. This time we were running one of the telescope pods - the Smart Telescope pod, which, unlike the other pods, was not limited to a single target. We were all over the sky, making the most of the ease of control and versatility of these fun devices.

@leece and I had three DwarfIIs, there was a pair of Seestar S50s, a Unistellar EVScopeII, and even a Vaonis Vespera II (which is a work of art, as well as being a stunning telescope).

We even had someone doing it oldschool with a guide mount and a DSLR with a very beefy lens!

We started the afternoon with sun and moon viewing - made challenging with the sunlight on our screens. After, one of the S50s continued with the moon for the rest of the night, while the rest of us went on to other targets, including 47 Tucanae, the Cat's Paw Nebula, C65 (The Sculptor Galaxy), The Lagoon Nebula, the SMC, the LMC, and even a random star that someone had the coordinates for tattooed on their arm!

We were on our feet pretty much from 2:30 when we set up to 10:30 when we finally departed, and talked to the public almost non-stop from about 4pm. We answered questions about what these weird looking devices were, and why people were not looking through them, what they could do, how much they cost, and which were the best. This last one was a tough one, as we own one brand, and there was another brand in the same price bracket right next to us :) We were fair, though, and highlighted the pluses and minuses of each. And explaining, many times, that we were not selling them.

Early in the evening Leece did duck off to watch the Astrophotography competition awards, as she had been shortlisted. And, to her surprise, she had just sat down when they announced the winner for the Night Sky Friendly Lighting category - with her image of the rising galactic core over a resort near Bindoon taking the prize!

It was a fantastic, if exhausting experience, and one we look forward to repeating in Feb 2026.

#astronomy #astrophotography #ScienceEducation #Astrofest #PerthWA #Astrofest #Astrofest2024 #Bindoon #DarkSkyAlliance #DwarfII #SeeStarS50 #Unistellar #Vespera2

So we headed down to the beach in the hopes of the Kp index going up and granting us an #aurora but it is not playing ball tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

While waiting, though, we thought we'd run our #DwarfII scopes. I targetted a little #OpenCluster called #NGC6451, or The Tom Thumb cluster.

All sorts of fun stuff going on around it.

#Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophotography

Very early and cold but clear of smoke and clouds, #Comet #tsuchinshanatlas looking great before sunrise this morning in #PerthWesternAustralia

Straight out of camera for you this morning we have I think probably about 15 frames on the left and just one frame on the right. The frame on the right was taken later, just before it became a mug's game due to that naughty Sun coming up like a bully in the playground.

Shutter 5 gain 60 as I recall.

#DwarfII #dwarf2 #astronomy #astrodon #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereastronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography

Very early and cold but clear of smoke and clouds, #Comet #tsuchinshanatlas looking great before sunrise this morning in #PerthWesternAustralia

Straight out of camera for you this morning we have I think probably about 15 frames on the left and just one frame on the right. The frame on the right was taken later, just before it became a mug's game due to that naughty Sun coming up like a bully in the playground.

Shutter 5 gain 60 as I recall.

#DwarfII #dwarf2 #astronomy #astrodon #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereastronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography

Very early and cold but clear of smoke and clouds, #Comet #tsuchinshanatlas looking great before sunrise this morning in #PerthWesternAustralia

Straight out of camera for you this morning we have I think probably about 15 frames on the left and just one frame on the right. The frame on the right was taken later, just before it became a mug's game due to that naughty Sun coming up like a bully in the playground.

Shutter 5 gain 60 as I recall.

#DwarfII #dwarf2 #astronomy #astrodon #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereastronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography

Very early and cold but clear of smoke and clouds, #Comet #tsuchinshanatlas looking great before sunrise this morning in #PerthWesternAustralia

Straight out of camera for you this morning we have I think probably about 15 frames on the left and just one frame on the right. The frame on the right was taken later, just before it became a mug's game due to that naughty Sun coming up like a bully in the playground.

Shutter 5 gain 60 as I recall.

#DwarfII #dwarf2 #astronomy #astrodon #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereastronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography

Very early and cold but clear of smoke and clouds, #Comet #tsuchinshanatlas looking great before sunrise this morning in #PerthWesternAustralia

Straight out of camera for you this morning we have I think probably about 15 frames on the left and just one frame on the right. The frame on the right was taken later, just before it became a mug's game due to that naughty Sun coming up like a bully in the playground.

Shutter 5 gain 60 as I recall.

#DwarfII #dwarf2 #astronomy #astrodon #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereastronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography

Today is International Observe The Moon Night!

https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

#ObserveTheMoon #astronomy #Astrodon #PerthIsOK #astrophotography #Moon

#DwarfII
100*1/1600@0 Postprocessed in #Snapseed

Today is International Observe The Moon Night!

https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

#ObserveTheMoon #astronomy #Astrodon #PerthIsOK #astrophotography #Moon

#DwarfII
100*1/1600@0 Postprocessed in #Snapseed

Today is International Observe The Moon Night!

https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

#ObserveTheMoon #astronomy #Astrodon #PerthIsOK #astrophotography #Moon

#DwarfII
100*1/1600@0 Postprocessed in #Snapseed

Here is a lesser-known nebula: #NGC6820, and the open cluster #NGC6823 .

This shot covers about 1 degree by 1.5 degrees, and is the result of about five hours of data collection over the course of three nights, using two #DwarfII smart telescopes.

1 hour's worth is without any filters, 1 hour is with a Svbony CLS light pollution filter, and 3 hours with a OIII/HII filter.

Then I fed the 1237 frames into #Siril and started crunching numbers. 72 frames were not usable, leaving me with 1165. These I stacked, and then ran through the "Hubblematic" #HubblePalette emulator and DSA Star Reduction scripts. Finally I did some additional reprocessing and smoothing with #GooglePhotos.

Most images of the area cover the cluster, rather than the rather large area of nebulosity that surrounds it, and just concentrate on the (admittedly very pretty) nebula around the cluster. This shot covers a much wider field, and even it does not show the true extent of this faint but magnificent region.

#Astrometry by Astrometry.net .

#astronomy #Astrodon #Astrophotography

Last night we had an unexpected gap in the clouds after coming home from the drive-in. (Wolverine and Deadpool - good solid ultraviolent fun. Hugh Jackman is having a ball.)

So I targetted the Helix Nebula - NGC7293. I was aiming for 500 subs, but the clouds rolled in and I only got 380.

Still, a pretty planetary nebula, and one that is uncommonly large as far as these object go, spanning 20-odd arc-minutes.

DwarfII, 380x15s@80, Dwarf UHC filter, post processed in Snapseed and Google Photos. Astrometry image by astrometry.net .

Center (RA, Dec): (337.561, -20.965)
Center (RA, hms): 22h 30m 14.739s
Center (Dec, dms): -20° 57' 54.016"
Size: 2.42 x 1.36 deg
Radius: 1.385 deg
Pixel scale: 2.97 arcsec/pixel

#astronomy #astrophotography #dwarfII #Snapseed #GooglePhotos #nebula #HelixNebula #NGC7293 #C63 #Movie #deadpool3wolverine

After departing the Gravity Discovery Centre, we went back the Gingin Roadhouse, where we had a motel room booked. Just across the road is a small layover area, so we took the car across with our DwarfII telescopes, and played the "how long can we shoot before the clouds roll in" game.

Why did we take the car all over 50 metres down the road? So that we'd have somewhere warm to sit while the telescopes did their thing.

I shot two targets - NGC300 aka Caldwell 70 or the Sculptor Pinwheel Galaxy and NGC55 (Caldwell 72) or the String of Pearls Galaxy.

I only managed 180ish frames before the clouds rolled over us, but I am very happy with both results.

I also put the Theta on the roof of the car...

#DwarfII #astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #Snapseed #gingin #NGC300 #NGC55

I've been watching #Eurovision2024 , which, being in Western Australia, means getting up at 2am for a 3am start. This does mean I get to do some cool #Astrophotography in the early early morning. (Not a combination of #hashtags commonly appearing together, I am sure!)

Three nights ago, I got a nice, but short shot of #NGC7293 - the Helix Nebula - only 100x15s at the end of my shooting time.

Last night, as clouds rolled in, I started on that target earlier, but had to compete with light pollution close to the horizon. Still, I was able to get some decent images, even with the clouds, scoring another 178x15s.

So today, after a bit of post-processing of both images, I decided to manually stack them in #Snapseed. If you are working with cleaned up images, this is surprisingly simple - provided you are working on a tablet, not a phone! The end result was still not fantastic, but a definite improvement.

#DwarfII Postprocessing in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos

#photography #astrophotography #sun #dwarfii

#photo of the #eclipse my son took today using his #dwarf2 telescope.

#photography #astrophotography #sun #dwarfii

#photo of the #eclipse my son took today using his #dwarf2 telescope.

#photography #astrophotography #sun #dwarfii

#photo of the #eclipse my son took today using his #dwarf2 telescope.

#photography #astrophotography #sun #dwarfii

#photo of the #eclipse my son took today using his #dwarf2 telescope.

#photography #astrophotography #sun #dwarfii

#photo of the #eclipse my son took today using his #dwarf2 telescope.

More #astrophotography from the weekend in #Bindoon . This time we have #NCG3324 and #IC2599 .
300x15s@gain 80 with a #DwarfII and an OIII/Ha filter. Post processed in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos .

#astronomy #space

We are home again from our trip out to #Bindoon for some #Astrophotography .

This is one of the targets we spent a lot of time on - 300 subs in this case.

This is Centaurus A , aka "The Hamburger #Galaxy", or #Caldwell77, or even Arp 153.

Mentioned in Halton Arp's "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies", it is partially obscured by a ribbon of interstellar dust, resulting in the distinctive hamburger-like appearance.

Shot on a #DwarfII, 300 frames @ 15s gain 80. Post processed in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos .

At 25'x20' this is a reasonable target for the Dwarf, which has a 1.3 degree FOV, and a 4k resolution.

Horsehead Nebula #IC434. Taken with a #dwarfII 400x15s@gain 80, UHC filter. Post processed in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos

#astronomy #astrophotography

@futzle
As @Steveg58 said, I have something similar in the #DwarfII .

I have heard excellent things about the #Vespera as well, and those are stunning images.

My one is considerably more down-market, but @brindy , they both handle all sorts of light pollution. The review that sold me on the DwarfII was a guy in Toyko city shooting Andromeda from his apartment!

The Varonis units are the premium devices in the field. At the lower end you have the ZWO Seestar S50 and the DwarfII.

My take? If you can afford it, any of the Varonis units. If you cannot, the S50. But if space, portability, and setup time are factors, the DwarfII.

Last night's session with my Dwarf II smart telescope I got a pretty reasonable image of the Horsehead Nebula. Maybe it would have been better if I'd remembered to fit the UHC filter to block the light pollution but that's a challenge for another time. This picture is built from 618 fifteen second exposures with gain 80 and processed in Siril. #dwarf2 #dwarfii

Last night's session with my Dwarf II smart telescope I got a pretty reasonable image of the Horsehead Nebula. Maybe it would have been better if I'd remembered to fit the UHC filter to block the light pollution but that's a challenge for another time. This picture is built from 618 fifteen second exposures with gain 80 and processed in Siril. #dwarf2 #dwarfii

Last night's session with my Dwarf II smart telescope I got a pretty reasonable image of the Horsehead Nebula. Maybe it would have been better if I'd remembered to fit the UHC filter to block the light pollution but that's a challenge for another time. This picture is built from 618 fifteen second exposures with gain 80 and processed in Siril. #dwarf2 #dwarfii

#AbsoluteTechNet Tuesday evenings at 1900 Eastern. Nets last up to, but no more than 2 hrs. Tonight’s Topic: #Astrophotography // Net Info: https://www.absolutetech.org // See Ed’s (KS7ROH) work here: https://linktr.ee/edjstroh & Roy's (KI7PKL) QRZ page w/ images taken w: the #DwarfII here: https://www.qrz.com/db/KI7PKL // You can listen to this #AmateurRadioNet via livestream - linked on the net’s main website (first one listed above). #hamr #HamRadioNets #KE0FFTnets #DigitalNets