Night Sky photos with digital compact camera

Posted on 25 November 2012 by Admin

I have a 12MP, 12x optical zoom digital camera, Canon PowerShot SX200, and I wanted to see how well that fits to shooting constellations and stars. This camera has manual settings as well. (camera review)

canon powershot sx200 is-275x207

I was going after the Jupiter. With Stellarium, one can easily find Jupiter’s location at any given hour.

stellarium-000

It had been cloudy for many days, but luckily at least some sky became visible last night. The photo below is without any zoom applied, showing wheather conditions (cloudy and with light pollution). Stellarium is used to identify the stars and constellations.

powershot1

The photo details (EXIF info from Irfanview tool)

  • ShutterSpeedValue – 2 seconds
  • ApertureValue – F 3.40
  • FocalLength – 5.00 mm
  • ISO Value – 1600

The next photo of Jupiter is taken with maximum zoom. For better results, the camera settings would need to be optimized. However even with these first photos, even some weak stars leave their marks on the photos 🙂
powershot2

The photo details

  • ShutterSpeedValue – 2 seconds
  • ApertureValue – F 5.30
  • FocalLength – 60.00 mm
  • ISO Value – 1600

The next photo of Moon is also taken with maximum zoom (one day later). Not bad for a compact camera.

Moon-powershot

The photo details

  • ShutterSpeedValue – 1/403 seconds
  • ApertureValue – F 5.30
  • FocalLength – 60.00 mm
  • ISO Value – 80

Results

Taking into consideration the wheather conditions and that camera settings were not optimized, I’m quite satisfied with results. Definitely it is worth to try to get better pictures later.

Tips

  • There are several “night sky” tools available for android phones making it easier to find the planets and stars.
  • To minimize vibrations, it was better to use 10sec timer instead of 2 sec.

How about Cameras with 24-zoom

I found this page, where the quality of the photos are much better than I could get (and would get). See the Jupiter and Moon photos here. Those photos are taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ150.

And how about Telescopes?

I do have an entry level telescope Meade ETX70AT (link to info)

etx70at

And using the same camera attached to ETX70, I got a photo of the moon. (Again, a lot of adjustments could be improved. In any case this photo has much more pixels than the moon photo above.)

Moon1

However, for “real” photos, a better telescope is needed (one of my dreams). Then one can take photos like these in the LX200 gallery

LX200gallery

And perhaps you might find surprises! For example see page “Explosion on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers” which was taken with LX200GPS. The video is great.

Posted in Audio and Video, Hobbies and Other Interests, Science | Comments Off on Night Sky photos with digital compact camera

Stellarium, tool for Night Sky views

Posted on 25 November 2012 by Admin

Stellarium is THE program for Night Sky. It can show the constellations, stars, planets etc. For the realistic view, it has settings to adjust the light pollution, and settings that limit the weaker stars from seeing. And it is multilanguage.

stellarium-001

Posted in Basic Tools, Recommended Free Tools | Comments Off on Stellarium, tool for Night Sky views

Quaterly Threats Reports, by McAfee

Posted on 23 November 2012 by Admin

McAfee is producing quaterly threat reports which are very informative and summarizes the latest “threats”.

McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2012 McAfee-threat-report
McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2012

I have not found any good page which presents these reports. However, they can be found at the “View All Publications” page. Also it might be possible to find link to the latest one at their GTI page.

Examples from the report

McAfee-ransomware

McAfee-data-breaches-made-pubilc

Posted in Security Incidents and Cases, Security Threats, Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Quaterly Threats Reports, by McAfee

Security short film “Companies like yours”, by Deloitte

Posted on 22 November 2012 by Admin

Deloitte has published a well done short film. Worth to look!

Companies like yours

“Deloitte supported the creation of a short film to illustrate the complex topic of cyber security and help organisations understand the huge impact a cyber attack could have.”

deloitte-film

This video has also been mentioned at the Cyber Resilience Partnership Conference.

Posted in Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Security short film “Companies like yours”, by Deloitte

PbD, Privacy by Design concept

Posted on 21 November 2012 by Admin

http://privacybydesign.ca is the main place for Privacy by Design concept.

“Privacy by Design (PbD) represents a significant shift from traditional approaches to protecting privacy, which focus on setting out minimum standards for information management practices and providing remedies for privacy breaches, after-the-fact.

Advocating privacy as a core requirement of systems, right from the outset, it is a proactive approach to privacy protection which seeks to avoid data breaches and their attendant harm. “

privacybydesign

There are 7 PbD Principles:

  1. Proactive not Reactive—Preventative not Remedial.
  2. Privacy as the Default Setting.
  3. Privacy Embedded into Design.
  4. Full Functionality—Positive-Sum, not Zero-Sum.
  5. End-to-End Security—Full Life Cycle Protection.
  6. Visibility and Transparency—Keep it Open.
  7. Respect for User Privacy—Keep it Individual and User-Centric.

The PbD concept complements the other information and material existing around Privacy. For example, see the recent ISO Standard 29100 “Privacy Framework”.

Material to look

Links

Posted in Security Management, Security Standardization and Practises, Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on PbD, Privacy by Design concept

Ransomware included in Top 5 Security Predictions for 2013, by Symantec

Posted on 21 November 2012 by Admin

Ransomware

Symantec has published report/whitepaper “Ransomware: A Growing Menace“.

This malware is highly profitable, with as many as 2.9 percent of compromised users paying out. An investigation into one of the smaller players in this scam identified 68,000 compromised computers in just one month, which could have resulted in victims being defrauded of up to $400,000 USD.

The message states that in order to unlock the computer, “a fine” must be paid using one of several prepaid electronic money schemes. The fines can range from €50 to €100 in Europe, and up to $200 in the US. (from blog)

ransomware2

Ransomware links

 

Top 5

Ransomware has been listed as one of the top 5 threats, see Top 5 Security Predictions for 2013 from Symantec:

  1. Cyber conflict becomes the norm
  2. Ransomware is the new scareware
  3. Madware adds to the insanity
  4. Monetization of social networks introduces new dangers
  5. As users shift to mobile and cloud, so will attackers
Posted in Security News, Security Threats, Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Ransomware included in Top 5 Security Predictions for 2013, by Symantec

Money Behind the Malware, and security training tools by Sophos

Posted on 19 November 2012 by Admin

Sophos can published a good information for learning more about malwares today.

For example, the document on Exposing the Money Behind the Malware: How cybercrime works and what to do about it (direct link to pdf)

  • It introduces concepts like Pay-per-click fraud, Fake security software, Ransomware.

Also, it is worth to look also the related videos on their Anatomy of an Attack page (see videos column), and on other their pages:

How to utilize this in a training program? What is needed in general for a training program? Well, Sophos also have general training material at their IT Security Training Tools page, which is also worth to look at.

Posted in Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Money Behind the Malware, and security training tools by Sophos