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First try using the Star 71 - M31


Blazar

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Right...so its not great (IE the image), but I have learnt a lot from trying to do it.....6 lights, 6 darks and lots of light pollution in the back garden.

1) I really have to guide (the ASPA i did was naff, as I did not have finder scope).

2) I really need a remote shutter and some way of auto focusing (also need a better DSLR, or even a CCD)

3) I need to start saving yet again.... :rolleyes:

So here it is. be gentle lads....

med_gallery_27945_3370_13080802.jpg

It can only get better....right?

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Its a start....but thats all. just confirmed that for DSO stuff its going to take a lot longer. I think I might pause this side of it and get an ASI camera a just play with planetary and lunar for a while and save up the required funds for a guider and camera (use the ASI?) and then a decent CCD....going to take years ;-)

they were only 30 second subs as well at ISO1600, so hence the noise...if I could guide for a couple of minutes then i guess the signal will be a lot better...and I won't have trails!

Cheers anyway Gary.

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wow, that's a great image! 

Hi Blue,

Thanks for the compliment...but it really is not!  I do now however have something to aim for ;-) defo need to guide...its the only way to get the data to work with in the first place...and I think I have just figured that out....its great to talk about post processing etc, but if the data collected is pants, then thats what the final image will be....

So it has taught me a valuable lesson....Data is king.

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What camera are you using? I have a wired remote for a Canon that I can lend you. It's a cheap one but it does the job. Also have you tried the 'mirror up' mode? You basically push the shutter button twice, once to lift the mirror then again (after a short pause to let the camera shake settle down) to start the exposure. It does make a difference, particular on short exposures.

Adam

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Gary,

you have no movement in those stars! getting the data is the 1st hard bit, then knowing what to do with it is the second ! send over the DSS tiff....if you can?  I want a play at it! we are learning this stuff together which is pretty cool!

Also how did you do your ASPA without a finder scope?

What camera are you using? I have a wired remote for a Canon that I can lend you. It's a cheap one but it does the job. Also have you tried the 'mirror up' mode? You basically push the shutter button twice, once to lift the mirror then again (after a short pause to let the camera shake settle down) to start the exposure. It does make a difference, particular on short exposures.

Adam

Adam: the camera is mu daughters Canon 60D (I think it could be 600D) but i was just using the 30 second exposure setting.

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Its a start....but thats all. just confirmed that for DSO stuff its going to take a lot longer. I think I might pause this side of it and get an ASI camera a just play with planetary and lunar for a while and save up the required funds for a guider and camera (use the ASI?) and then a decent CCD....going to take years ;-)

they were only 30 second subs as well at ISO1600, so hence the noise...if I could guide for a couple of minutes then i guess the signal will be a lot better...and I won't have trails!

Cheers anyway Gary.

I use my ASI camera to guide, works great and I generally don't have to move the OAG to find a guide star as it is sensitive enough to guide off of very faint stars.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

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Gary,

you have no movement in those stars! getting the data is the 1st hard bit, then knowing what to do with it is the second ! send over the DSS tiff....if you can? I want a play at it! we are learning this stuff together which is pretty cool!

Also how did you do your ASPA without a finder scope?

Adam: the camera is mu daughters Canon 60D (I think it could be 600D) but i was just using the 30 second exposure setting.

I'll put a single frame / DSS tiff and my poor jpeg effort in google drive later ...

Didn't aspa, looked through polar scope hole, rough aligned, then tweaked alt and az adjusters til drifting looked OK ish ...

Call me Heath Robinson

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I use my ASI camera to guide, works great and I generally don't have to move the OAG to find a guide star as it is sensitive enough to guide off of very faint stars.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

Right, I think thats the way to go then...An ASI120MM-S and then get the Altair astro mini guider, so a total of £433.00. Thats do-able within a month or so, and then 'borrow' the wives windows laptop to play with it..

Thanks for the input D4N..

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Your welcome, PHD2 supports the ASI cameras on OSX too if that's what you have. I not sure if it supports the S version or not though so you would need to double check.

I actually use it in a virtual windows xp myself as the Ascom driver works slightly better and I need to run windows for Astrotortilla anyway.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

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D4N,

Yep i am a mac user...but have access to a Windows 7 laptop. Hopefully I will use that. Heard a lot about astrotortilla, but my head is spinning with so many other things to consider! I will have to make more of an effort to sit down and read stuff when there are clouds around! assume you use parallels as the VM hypervisor?

Will let you know how I get on!

Regards

Just found an image where the poster used PHD2 and an ASI120MM-S...so looks ok!

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I'm using VMware fusion to run windows.

Astro tortilla is great but I would recommend setting it up in the day as it can take quite a while and depending on how good your polar align and goto are you might not need it.

Oh and get the latest beta of PHD2 if you plan to use the ASI camera to guide as it fixes an issue with it.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Nice work Steve, I think the tracking looks fine to me.

I'm still without mount at the moment but would be happy to head out with you and pick this stuff up together, especially the polar alignment and guiding. I can bring my Lodestar X2 and guidescope as well.

i'm looking to place an order for a SX Filter Wheel and OAG so I can start getting used to OAG even if it's only with my Mallincam for now.

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Gary,

you have no movement in those stars! getting the data is the 1st hard bit, then knowing what to do with it is the second ! send over the DSS tiff....if you can?  I want a play at it! we are learning this stuff together which is pretty cool!

Also how did you do your ASPA without a finder scope?

Adam: the camera is mu daughters Canon 60D (I think it could be 600D) but i was just using the 30 second exposure setting.

link to Tiff and a Raw Nef single frame

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2QNGXiAfO_RSGVxalRWSnlJOVU&usp=sharing

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Nice work Steve, I think the tracking looks fine to me.

I'm still without mount at the moment but would be happy to head out with you and pick this stuff up together, especially the polar alignment and guiding. I can bring my Lodestar X2 and guidescope as well.

i'm looking to place an order for a SX Filter Wheel and OAG so I can start getting used to OAG even if it's only with my Mallincam for now.

well if this weather clears up then we can go for it...im sure we might even tempt Gary out as well with his 71...8-)

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Sorry for the thread hijack ...

just to illustrate how important processing is.

After being inspired by Blazars image, I had a go but was seriously underwhelmed !

post-21341-0-06912300-1412030605_thumb.j

Then Steve (Blazar) realised that there was probably some kind of image hidden in there somewhere and had a crack at processing it

post-21341-0-51089100-1412030720.jpg

Which further inspired me ... 3 hours of you tube tutorials and gleaning info from this site, not brilliant but it's a start  :grin:

post-21341-0-26308800-1412030878_thumb.j

Roughly ... levels, gradually adjusted in steps, then curves gradually adjusted in steps, then back to levels again adjusting  rgb individually

to get colour balance back on track and a slight contrast and saturation boost.

I feel like I've just taken the first step up a very steep mountain !

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