Articles on L'Arciere Celeste

Testing the REEGO Pro 2 collimator with MO.R.

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 11:21:30 +0000

The REEGO Pro 2 is a high-level universal collimation tool, designed for those who want to go beyond laser and Cheshire and achieve a truly accurate alignment of the entire optical system. It is particularly suited to Newtonians, but it also proves useful on other optical configurations (which, however, I have not had the chance to try), and in particular for checking the centering of refractor optics.

Tecnosky CARBON Series Newton 200/800 astrograph

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 21:49:13 +0000

During my talk at Luca Fornaciari’s Astro Pub in January 2025 I had stated that I had never tried Newtonian telescopes for astrophotography.
A few days later, Giuliano Monti of Tecnosky contacted me to suggest I test their Newton 200/800 CARBON Series: a classic telescope with a 200 mm parabolic primary mirror and an 800 mm focal length, which provides an F/4 focal ratio.

Flat Killer 20250 the Review

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 14:34:00 +0000

A few months ago (April 2024) I was contacted by Alessandro Roso and TS Italia Astronomy to try out a new flatbox.

The matter seemed interesting to me right away, since the acquisition of flat fields for an accurate calibration of images has always been one of the most debated topics in the world of astrophotography.

Correcting bias drift through overscan calibration

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:01:50 +0000

Image calibration is a crucial step during the pre-processing of astronomical images; this short article takes a closer look at the calibration of cameras that suffer from the phenomenon known as bias drift, thanks to calibration using the overscan area.

Beloved Flat Fields

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:13:22 +0000

Calibrating astronomical images is one of the key steps to achieving a quality result, and one of the most important steps in this phase is the application of the flat field.

During my PixInsight courses all over Italy, one question, unrelated to the use of the software but of fundamental importance for image calibration, is: how many ADU should I make my FLATs?

The M@H (Messier At Home) Project, in collaboration with MSI Italy.

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 22:36:19 +0000

As a city astrophotographer, in a city of the Po Valley — a region that suffers from one of the worst levels of light pollution in Europe — my first goal has always been to find clear, dark skies from which to shoot my images.

Playing with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 23:03:51 +0000

Anno Domini 2020, December: media all over the world take an interest in a rare astronomical event — the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.

Conjunctions between these two planets recur at intervals of about 20 years, but this one had a special feature: at the moment of closest approach the two planets would be just over 6 arcminutes apart.

Color ZWO ASI 6200 test

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 01:00:53 +0000

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Many of the astrophotographers of my generation, after passing through analog photography, approached digital astrophotography for the first time thanks to CMOS sensors.

Only a few, in fact, could afford the first cooled CCD sensors for astronomy: they were expensive, small and difficult to use, reserved for professionals or advanced amateurs.

Verifying the linearity of image sensors: going beyond linear regression.

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 21:14:11 +0000

One of the most debated and least understood issues among non-specialists is the so-called linearity of electronic image sensors.

CCD and CMOS imaging sensors should possess one fundamental characteristic if they are to be used for scientific purposes or even just for advanced astronomical imaging: the sensor’s response to light must be linear.

Optolong L-eNhance filter test

Sun, 22 Sep 2019 13:51:06 +0000

Light pollution: the Nemesis of every urban and suburban amateur astronomer.

Whether you are a visual observer or a photographer, one of the greatest obstacles to your passion is undoubtedly the rampant phenomenon of light pollution.

The colors seen by visual astronomers? Mere illusion

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 21:56:55 +0000

Here is the video of the Conference held together with my friend Lorenzo Comolli (http://www.astrosurf.com/comolli/) about the possibility of seeing the colors of astronomical objects during visual observation at the telescope.

The title, deliberately provocative, says that the perception of colors is, in large part, due to an “optical illusion” caused by the physiology of the eye and the mechanism of vision.

The Astro Imaging Channel: Challenge nr 1

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 20:56:08 +0000

On Monday June 22nd 2015 The Astroimaging Channel proposed an image processing challenge (read here) based on a set of RGB images of the Markarian chain.

This was the challenge:

1. Gradient Removal while preserving star color.
A few months back, I wanted to try imaging my blue channel high up in the sky. It didn’t work out as planned and I have a terrible gradient through the image. I’ve been able to get rid of the gradient, but it leaves a bad color cast through my stars. The challenge is to remove the gradient and preserve the star color.

Modeling comet Lovejoy 2013 R1

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 11:16:15 +0000

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Recent observations of comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy showed the presence of characteristic structures in the vicinity of the jet fake comet’s nucleus.
Such structures can be explained by the presence of collimated jets of gas and dust emitted from the surface of the comet nucleus.

This article attempts to interpret some observations in order to create a kinematic model of the comet’s nucleus.