Sergey S. @sergey@social.ssbx.dev

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There is a nice place called Potter Marsh Boardwalk, home for many birds, we saw bold eagle bathing there and then it flew to her nest with 3 babies over there. 1/2

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Day cruise to Kenai Fjords National Park, at some point we they started service "glacieritas" margaritas with ice from glacier. We saw whales and beautiful fjords. Listening to ice breaking into the ocean and seeing it is just priceless. 1/3

It's summer holiday for kids and it's time to have some fun with family. So for a change of scenery we went to Alaska. For me first impression typically comes from the airport, and Anchorage has the view. You are greeted with gorgeous view of mountain range and glaciers. Reality will sync in once you visit grocery store. Costco is your friend even if you don't have family, prices there are often way better. Then there is almost 24/7 daylight in summer. Here is report and pictures:

From our trip to Texas State Capitol while back.

I had an opportunity to experience Eclipse, it's definitely breathtaking event. However all my plans were thwarted by clouds, on a positive side, though we saw few things. It all started with me, forgetting intervalometer since I typically use small computer to manage session and it sat in the box, but because of clouds I decided not to go back and just enjoy the show. Though I was able to take few shots and I can call it success. One has more of a corona and another prominence.

Here is my progress on latest #astrophotography project. I've done 2 panels 4h on Horse Head and 3h on Orion Nebula. Processed with #siril and stitched in #gimp. Problems, overexposed Orion Nebula, I need to shorten my exposures, then add more data on Horse Head and pick something else for stitching, something with more precise star alignment, thinking about ASTAP. #astropic

I've always been fascinated with Orion constellation, it's definitely my favorite. I remember last year when I was shooting Orion using my trusty Canon and saw a glimpse of Horse Head Nebula I was excited. It was not much even though I shot for hours. Fast forward year, here is about 1 hour shot through L-Enhance using astrocamera. You can clearly see all. It's start of a new project mosaic 4 or 6 panels, 6 hours each, I am not sure how to do it, so I am learning. #astropic

I've learned that 4 hours is a really weird spot, essentially it's really close to 2 hours in terms of the data I get, maybe less noisier, but I typically need at least 6 hours to get visible improvements comparing to 2 hours of data. Here is M45 aka Pleiades with 4 hours. #astropic #astrophotography

Christmas, Road to Bryce Canyon.

Entirely unplanned target from last night. Seven sisters aka M45 aka Pleiades. I was thinking about Orion, however it was too low i.e. obstructed and clouds was supposed to move in soon. So I saw M45 at zenith, changed course and here is result.

We finally had some break in clouds and I was able to spend goo amount of time my target. However I picked wrong one because that nebula has emission and reflection pieces and I was shooting through a filter, that cut reflection part. This is Flaming Star Nebula 1500 light years away from Earth along with Letter Y Star Cluster, Spider Nebula and Fly Nebula. Really quick processing. #astropic

Unscrew 4 screws to get access. I think problem with it that they placed resistor which is too much for that battery and rest of the circuit, that what makes diode underneath this glass too dim(see red circle for resistor). What we need to do is to by pass it, see one of the blue lines, either one would work. My soldering skills aren't that great so I just soldered over resistor. WARNING it will void your warranty, do it at your own risk. That worked for me. Final result is in the picture.

Since I had no chance to see Geminids meteor shower due to clouds, I've decided to improve my polar scope illuminator. If you bought Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i star tracker, pro package comes with polar scope illuminator which is too dim, at least for my Bortle 7 area it's absolutely useless. Someone may say it's just bad unit, but trust me there are lot's of ppl having the same problem, so it's probably flawed design. #astrophotography Here how it looks and solution below: