very well done Martin, fantastic first effort, better than mine, i`m contemplating a canon 1000d in the near future, how easy are they to use ?

Thanks very much. After a few trials and tribulations I think I have now just about just about got my routine down to a fine art (well not the guiding bit as the clouds won't let me play). Because of LiveView focussing is very easy when centred on a bright star and taking exposures I use AstroPhotography Tool which does all the work. If I can do it then anyone can really, it's certainly much easier than using the old Mono CCD camera that I had for a short while.

Clouds, clouds, clouds.................not had the scope out in weeks. Desperation is now setting in.:(

Well last night the clouds dispersed and I set out to finally test my Skywatcher Synguider. What a trial that turned out to be and I'm still not sure what I'm doing. I managed a couple of 10 minute subs and the resulting image shows reasonably tight stars but that's the strange one....I'm not sure whether or not I got the synguider sending guide signals to my mount. I've just reread the manual and I didn't do anything like it says in it.....I didn't even get as far as the Autoguiding mode. I just locked on a star in the FOV using the manual/Re-lock option and that's it.

I assume that the Synguider wasn't sending any guide commands to my mount because I wasn't in the Autoguiding mode so how the hell did I manage 10 minute subs and keep pretty tight stars.

Anyway, here's the guide test image....ignore the Amp Glow, that's another problem I need to overcome.

10 minutestest by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Back to the drawing board and hoping for some more clear skies.

Great shot Martin, not too 'fussy' if that makes sense !

By 'unguide'd do you mean you just used manual RA or literally just point and shoot ?

Paul

Hi Paul, by unguided I mean that I didn't use a guide scope and camera just my ED80 and Canon 1000d. What I did was polar align the mount and set tracking in EQMod to sidereal. Then I slewed to 3 stars surrounding M81, syncing each star in EQMod before finding M81. Then just fired away. I use TheSky6 software to find my targets, this together with EQMod really makes finding and tracking targets really easy.

Forgot to say, the M101 shot above was my first using my Canon 1000d following it's filter replacement mod carried out by Andy Ellis at Astronomiser.

Last night was clear skies.....yippee!!! I managed a couple of hours setting up and imaging so I went back and had another look at M101. Here's my attempt, actually only the second image that I have finished so I'm very happy that I seem to be making a little progress. Anyway, here it is

Messier 101 The Pinwheel Galaxy by ashworthacca, on Flickr

8x600 secs at ISO800 with 2x600 secs at ISO800 Darks, stacked in DSS and processed in PS

Yesterday was my 40th Birthday, was drunk as a skunk but a clear night meant that I was out imaging until the small hours......I'm suffering today.

Anyway, I managed this.....NGC6995 The Veil Nebula

NGC6995 The Veil Nebula by ashworthacca, on Flickr

I don't know how I managed to set up my kit!!!

Here's M13 Great Globular Cluster in Hercules from last night's drunken extravaganza.

M13 Great Globular Cluster in Hercules by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Again around 20x180 secs lights and 5x180 secs darks, stacked in DSS and processed in PS.

Here's the widefield version of the Veil Nebula, no cropping whatsoever.

Veil Nebula widefield by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Last couple of months have been just too busy, no observing or imaging whatsoever but things are quietening down now so normality will be restored................hopefully.:p

It looks like I've finally sorted my sensor glow issue. Just waiting for a Remote Shutter Cable to come from Andy at Astronomiser and will give it a test.....but I'm now confident that using APT's Liveview trick was causing the issue. The cable shoould solve it.

Tried to get out last night, set up my kit only for the clouds to roll in.....blumming Met Office forecast wrong again.:mad:

Well, the cable arrived from Astronomiser this morning and I've just run off a few test shots in APT and it works. Sensor glow with just USB attached and using virtual long exposure control, disappears when using the shutter release cable.

Looking forward to starting imaging again now.

Work and bad weather....well more like snow, snow and more snow have meant that I haven't done any imaging for ages. A little observing on clear night with my big bino's have served to offer some comfort and I'm now considering another OTA just for observing.

In the meantime I have done a bit of reading and came across a superb tutorial on levels and curves by MartinB HERE See post #2.

I had a very quick play on the Veil Neb that I took on my 40th Birthday back in August and came up with this which I think is a great improvement.

NGC6995 The Veil Nebula by ashworthacca, on Flickr

I'm going to start again and spend a little more time following the tutorial because I was amazed at the colour and nebulosity that I achieved over my first attempt.......I thought I was using levels and curves correctly...I wasn't.:D

Saturday 11th December 2010

First time out with my QHY5 guide camera and I had a nightmare. Just wouldn't calibrate and kept getting this error

"phd guiding RA calibration failed star did not move enough"

Well after great help on this thread HERE I finally managed to get it up and running and took about 30 5 minute subs of M45 The Pleiades. Here is the result, I'm really struggling with the processing but the guiding seems to have worked.

M45 The Pleiades by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Onwards and upwards from here I hope!

Here is another processing attempt at M45 using PixInsight to calibrate and stack then do all processing.

M45 by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Still pretty poor but at least I am getting some practice in with PixInsight. Can't for the life of me remove the gradient in the top right corner though even after running it through DBE a few times.

Last night had it's ups and downs. I posted a thread last night telling everyone how foolish I had been.......well heres the post

"Ever since I've been imaging I've used EQMod and TheSky6 software. I set my location etc in EQMod and automatically thought that would be the default settings in TheSky6.....it's not.

After I polaraligned I would slew to a nearby star and it would be quite a way out. I would manually move the scope to get it in view then slew to another star and so on. Eventually after a few stars I'd get the scope to slew pretty accurately.

I've now put the correct location and time etc into TheSky6 and the first slew was nearly perfect, second slew spot on and I'm now imaging m31 which appeared bang in the centre first time."

I honestly can't believe what an idiot I have been.....doh!!

The upside was that I think my guiding is working pretty well and I grabbed half a dozen 10 minute subs of M31 that showed no star trailing whatsoever. Intrigued by what data I had captured a did a quick and dirty process and here is the result.....I am going to revisit this and take more care with the final version.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Onwards and upwards........

Right, it's been a few months since I updated this blog. been toying with the idea of changing to CCD from DSLR but for the last few months have been persevering with my modified Canon 1000d. Here's a few images taken over the last few month where I have been playing quite a bit with my Astrotrac and Canon lenses.

Flaming Star & Nearby Star Clusters by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Messier M82 The Cigar Galaxy by ashworthacca, on Flickr

M81 & M82 by ashworthacca, on Flickr

NGC7000 North American Nebula by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Heart Nebula IC 1805 by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Cygnus widefield by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Gamma Cygni Widefield (Sadr) by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Cygnus Widefield with Nifty Fifty by ashworthacca, on Flickr

The last few months have not been ideal but I have used the time to get used to the foibles of using Canon lenses....the Canon f/4 at 200mm is not the best with coma problems at the edges.....and the astrotrac. I have also managed to get my guiding working pretty well with 15 minute+ subs now possible. I have purchased a HA filter for my Canon 1000d (eos clip) and hopefully will get some use in the coming weeks.

Some more images

Heart Nebula IC 1805 by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Cygnus widefield by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Gamma Cygni Widefield (Sadr) by ashworthacca, on Flickr

Cygnus Widefield with Nifty Fifty by ashworthacca, on Flickr

hi great shots i love the wide field shots ,one day i to will get great shots like these i hope