Elbasso

Received the ridiculously expensive L-Ultimate today and matching filter drawer. I sincerely hope my nebula images will improve ridiculously much as well 🤣

There's a massive difference in quality when moving from a zoom kit lens to an actual scope. As already mentioned, go for something with ED glass and a good focuser. The 72ED might be a bit heavy for the mount as you'll also need a field flattener. A 60/65 doublet or triplet will work but will only give you a bit more focal length. 

That said, you'll be amazed how good things will look, even if you need to crop your pictures a lot. Dithering (during capturing) and drizzling (during preprocessing) will help a lot in this scenario. 

Hi from København 

My attempt at the rather small (in my FoV) M 101:

• TS-Optics 60ED (360mm), AZ-GTI with 120mm guide scope
• No filters, standard (unmodified) Canon EOS800D
• Two nights (May 12+13th), 112x 120s, ISO 800
• Stacked, drizzled and processed with Siril, finalized with Photoshop

I was quite happy how M 51 turned out, given the modest specs of the gear and software used:

• TS-Optics 60ED (360mm), AZ-GTI with 120mm guide scope
• No filters, standard (unmodified) Canon EOS800D
• Single night (April 21st), 57x 150s, ISO 800
• Stacked, cropped and processed with Siril, finalized with Photoshop

That's a very nice image Paul.

Could you share a few details around the gear and settings used?

Cheers!

Bastiaan

Just received 2 packages within the same hour 🙂
Happy days.

On 29/01/2023 at 10:12, Astrocarms said:

First picture of M31 at the end of 2021 using basic tripod with Nixon D5200, I can’t remember settings, but processing wasn’t great and out of focus

Second attempt at start of 2022 after purchasing sky watcher  star adventurer 2i D5200 I think it was 20 x 120secs, processing in Photoshop 

 

Third attempt at the start of this year with new setup, eq6-r, 1600MM pro, asiair, guide scope and dew heaters. L 6 x 300 secs, RGB 10 each x 300 secs, taken over 2 nights, stacked and processed in Pixinsight, only just got it so a lot can be done to improve but happy with results so far! Planning to give the elephant trunk nebula in HSO a go when the next clear night arrives in Wales

That's a fairly dramatic improvement. Amazing photo!
Also a fairly significant improvement in gear and software 🙂

My first ever Horsehead attempt.

- AZ-GTI in EQ mode, TS-Optics PhotoLine 60 mm f/6 FPL53 Apo, no Flattener, Canon EOS 800D (unmodded)

- 58 x 60s, including calibration frames

- Pre-processed in Siril 1.2, finalized with Photoshop.

2 hours ago, AstroLearnerWill said:

As a relative newbie, my approach to the hobby has been to:

1) take some images

2) realise where an improvement can be made (there are always improvements or something new to do)

3) make the changes / spend money / optimise

4) rinse and repeat

 

I went through such a journey this week and learned why you shouldn't have six cables all sporadically sprawled across an active mount & telescope (HEQ5 + SW 80EM).

(I have three 5m data cables heading to my laptop, three power cables, plus dew heater cables)

A loud bang and a bright flash later I find that the power cable to my Canon coupler had completely blown off.. 

 

Needless to say, I have a Pegasus power box advance on order..

 

Dang it. That's not cool.

I also have 5 cables hanging around and expect something to go wrong at some point.... If only myself tripping over the cables in the night when I re-position my mount if my house gets in the way of a new target.

Think the Pegasus is a cool addition to any set-up though. They're just so friggin' expensive.

That is really nice 🙂

I'm jealous as I was up most of the (very clear) night from Sunday to Monday here in Denmark and saw no northern lights 😞

Ah well, all the more reason to book a trip to he far North!

Fear not. I think that everyone who has taken up this hobby was totally overwhelmed at first. YouTube and this site are your friend. I'm positive you'll master the basics before you know it. 

Welcome! 

Very cool. I was literally just looking at my moon pictures from last year and thinking it's time to give it another go. 

Now I'm certainly going to do that to check if I can spot the impact. 

That's one awesome image! And as others mentioned as well, haven't seen this target before. 

Not sure I'll ever be able to afford a RASA rig myself but one can dream (and in the mean time enjoy these incredible images). 

I almost exclusively do deep space AP so GOTO is more or less mandatory. 

4 hours ago, AstroKeith said:

That would be me! We discovered we lived a short walk away by chance a few months ago.

IPA can be problematic. If the lens is real dirty, then it needs either a) a really good soak and rinse, or b) multiple goes, each time reducing the contaminant.

But a) cant be done in situ. The fluid will seep round the lens and get into the intra lens space and/or the back surface.

So b) is the usual method. One keeps going until it looks 'good enough'. However multiple cleanings is to be avoided if possible as each can cause a scratch etc. Each 'go' if not done expertly may only remove say 50% of the dirt, and so after clean 1 it is 50% dirty, after clean 2 - 25% dirty, after clean 3 - 12.5% dirty, etc. 

Then there is the choice of cleaning solvent. This depends on the dirt! Pure IPA for instance won't lift some non-organic smears. Often a water/IPA mix is used. Each technician has their own favourite ratio. I usually use 90% IPA, 10% water and one drop of pure soap per 100ml. IPA is slow to evaporate and so a wet drag with a lens tissue is needed to finish. Drag the tissue slow enough so that the fluid line evaporates as you go. Should leave no smears! However with a lens in a cell, down a dew shield this is almost impossible.

Sometimes Acetone is needed for stubborn first/stains. Again a wet wipe works, and the acetone evaporates really quickly leaving usually no smear. Acetone can be excellent for spot cleaning an otherwise clean lens.

With a lens in a cell like in this case, one can often be chasing out dirt or grease from the very edge. Often the lens clamp ring is plastic, the edge of the lens has been blackened with paint, or the paint on the inside of the dew shield is soluble in the cleaning fluid (especially with acetone)

I will give Laurence's lens a quick first attempt to judge progress, but I suspect the lens may best be removed for a proper clean. Rubber gloves or finger tips and a proper removal tool are essential. Plus mark the orientation of the lens and any spacers used.

I used to be Technical Director of an optical manufacturing company and learnt from the shop floor technicians who were aces. I must have done 100's of eyepieces and scope since and am 'proficient' but still learning. My most challenging clean was a 150mm AstroPhysics objective that a friend bought to a star party having never ever been cleaned and looking like frosted glass. He was trying to resolve the 'Pup' and getting no where of course. I cleaned it perfectly for him while being watched by a crowd of anxious onlookers. The real challenge - we were at the Texas Star Party in the middle of a mountain desert!

For me smears are just fun, its grit that scares me!

Thank you so much for that outstanding description. It's highly appreciated! 

I think both look great. In the end, it's just a subjective thing. Personally, I would reduce the stars in the second image a bit to let M 31 take center stage. Again, there's no right or wrong in my opinion (with these 2 variations) 

I would be very happy if you could share if the professional was able to clean the lens and how this happened in the first place. 

Cheers, 

If you stick a camera on the scope, make some pictures or a video and stack the images, you can see a lot more. 

It's basically why I started to get into astrophotography as I was often frustrated with the underwhelming experience though the eye piece. 

5 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Stellar Mira 90 triplet , 294mc and a skytech l pro max filter

Thanks. Data Quality makes good sense now 😂

Jupiter and Saturn will be very small when observed through your 6 inch scope. But, with the right focus AND good seeing conditions, you should easily be able to make out Saturn's rings and some bands on Jupiter. 

Have a look at this awesome post so you get a better feel for what to expect. 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

5 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Pixinsight is a bit of a love hate thing for me. My fault for not processing more often. I get the hang of something then forget what I've done. Now I'm having one of my can't remember days and can't get M31 right. Getting too much cyan in the outer region and blown out core. Anyone wanna give me a poke in the right direction. 

Here's my problem image in tiff format, I'll post the raw stack and alt version in the next post because of file size limits. 

M31 too cyan.tif 505.83 MB · 2 downloads

That is some quality data you've got there!

Could you share a few details on the gear you've used? 

This post is pure gold for anyone thinking about buying their first scope. Love it! 

Ha! AstroBackyardust posted a video which basically shows the setup I mentioned:

2 hours ago, PatrickO said:

Will NINA work with any (or most) modern mounts and cameras? Is the mount doing the tracking or NINA. 

Thanks 

I realize I didn't fully answer your question. 

First off, you'll need to have a goto EQ mount or star tracker. The Star Adventurer Gti for example. If you hook that up to e.g. a computer running NINA or raspberry pi running StellarMate, these programs can be used to tell the mount where to point. The mount can then slew to the target and start tracking. 

The software can also be used to set exposure length, ISO, etc. for your camera. So it's can function as an intrervalometer. 

When starting off with a DSLR, I wouldn't go with the newest models. They typically  produce very large files which can be slow to work with. More importantly, they might not yet be supported by the various software and hardware components. 

All in all, a setup with the mentioned Star Adventurer Gti, a 200-300mm (zoom) lens and a modest Canon DSLR with aps-c sensor will get you a long way.