Meluhanz

17 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Here we are...

The Trapezium region is saturated on the linear stack so no detail can be recovered. This is normal and we all have to shoot short subs to fill it in. I'd learn more about basic processing before learning how to do that, I think. Mine has a smaller saturated region in the final image because I stretched so as to minimize the problem.

I did a so-so cosmetic repair of dark patches which should be dealt with by using flats. You do need flats!

I put it the northern hemisphere way up!  

Nutshell: More subs. Flats. Tweak the guiding.

Olly

Thank you!!

8 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

There is an awful lot more to processing than contrast and brightness. 'Stretching' is the most important of all.

You could post your linear (unprocessed) stack for members to try in their various workflows.

Olly

That would be amazing if anyone can show what I can do with the images. Here you go..... 

Light_Stack_8.zip

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Very nice.

I've a feeling though that there's far more information in the image just begging to come through; go easy on where you think the black should be:

Go for something more like this perhaps:

 

Cheers and HTH

Whoa, that looks so nice!

I haven't figured out the imaging tool yet. So far, my journey has been trying to get the mount, focal and camera back focus.  My head is reeling as I see all the imaging software's folks are using for processing. It looks like an all-new skill set to acquire!

3 hours ago, 900SL said:

What gain did you have on the ASI 183 camera? Where are you taking images from (what Bortle class of light pollution?)

Orion can be a good target for a beginner but can also be challenging, as it has a very bright core which tends to overexpose in long exposures. With more experience you can take two sets of exposures, one short and one long, and combine after stacking. Guidance online of course

Be aware that your focal length and rig is pushing the capabilities of the Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i, I had one of these for a short time but sold it, as the periodic error (up to 50 arc sec) meant that exposures over 250mm focal length / 30s duration were poor, with egg shaped or trailing stars, blurred detail etc. Once you learn the ropes with your current set up  I would recommend going to a guided goto mount, like an AM3 or HEQ5 Pro.

You will see this repeated in astro: The Mount  is the most important component in astrophotography  

The gain on ASI 183 was set to 270. Totally light polluted city backyard - Bortle class (8-9).

Interesting, i read some of the threads saying - "longer exposures produce better pictures than many short exposures". So, I was attempting to get the longest exposure on the current setup. As you mentioned, I couldn't not exceed 30s in the current setup. I will attempt smaller exposures and correct the focus.

Eventually when I want to have a mount that can support my Celestron 8se, but this has been a black hole for $.

Thank you!

Hello Friends,

Thank you, this forum has been very educative and patient with me.  I finally have a setup that can click decent pictures. 

• SVBONY SV503 Telescope, 80ED F7 Telescope OTA with Focal Length 560mm
• SVBONY SV193 Focal Reducer 2 Inch 0.8X Field Flattener
• ZWO asi183mc-pro-color
• Star Adventurer 2i Pro

Images:

• Light - 50 images with 30 second exposure
• Dark - 10 images with 30 second exposure

Question : All I did with the image was stack the images with ASI deep sky staking software and did a few adjustments on the contract and brightness. Should I really explore photoshop softwares? Does it make a big difference?

And please feel free to critic the image, i'm learning and all inputs are welcome!

Thank you again for your time and patience!

There is plenty to learn. Frankly, all the reading did not teach me what I learnt in last ~7days.  Focal length, pixels, back focus, FOV, .......

My first ever amateurish picture of M43 with all mismatched tool set, I know it is far from perfect but was happy to see this come to life.

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

The Star Adventurer is a light, portable mount intended to carry cameras and lenses.  Even if your reducer works, your focal length will be about 800mm, a thoroughly telescopic focal length requiring a thoroughly telescopic mount. Why not buy a used prime focus camera lens, an adapter to fit your camera, and try that on the Star Adventurer.? You cannot expect it to track at 800mm, unguided. My £6000 Mesu mount could not do that.

Olly

I soo want to use the ASI 183 camera that i bought.

The Star Adventurer Pro manual read that a max payload of 11 pounds, so my thought was it can load even my Nexstar 8SE to try it out along with the Orion StarMax 102mm.

My last resort will be to use my Canon EOS 600D with my 18-55mm lens

11 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

The Celestron f6.3 focal reducer is specifically intended for f10 SCTs, and may not work so well with a Maksutov.  See this thread here:

Skymax 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain with Focal Reducer - Cats & Casses - Cloudy Nights

"Try with what you've got" is a good policy, but you may get better results with a small imaging refractor.

oh ooh!

So, here is another attempted setup to get some pictures of Orion and/or Andromeda. 

- Orion StarMax 102mm with Celestron F/6.3 Reducer Corrector

- using ZWO ASI 183MC Pro

- mounted on Star Adventurer 2i Pro

Open to any advice or suggestion while I wait for clear skies.

On 29/12/2023 at 03:05, michael8554 said:

d connecting my very old DSLR (Canon eos 600D), but capture very faint objects and i noticed there was focus issue"

Your 600D is an excellent camera to start with, and is often used with these telescopes.

You have to attach it with

23 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Regarding the imaging of the deep sky with this setup, I would not invest in any accessories to make this possible because the scope and mount are fundamentally unsuitable and will remain so. Like many other people I set about converting my alt-az SCT for deep sky imaging, spent a lot of money and never took a presentable picture with it.

Regarding planets, note that 'cropped resolution for imaging planets' does not alter the resolution in any way, though it will probably allow you to run a faster frame rate.

Olly

This is kind of heart breaking. My amateur brain was bigger telescope, better for viewing and better for photos

Thank you all for responding. Learning focal length the hard way. I got a adapter so I can connect the camera directly to the SCT, but as mentioned above, the telescope does not seem to be a great fit. The telescope view is soo zoomed in that I cannot get a good field of view for the camera. 

Well, before i give up on it, i've ordered a focal length reducer/corrector. 

My plan B is to revive the old Orion Starmax 102mm equatorial telescope and try my ASI camera with it.  

I have been using Celestron nexstar 8se for a little while and I enjoy viewing the planets and few constellations.  I enjoyed the view that I wanted to capture them. Tried connecting my very old DSLR (Canon eos 600D), but capture very faint objects and i noticed there was focus issue, blamed it on the DSLR and bought a ASI 183MC pro (on marketPlace - impulsive shopping).

Now, the videos and online forums i see that the camera is directly connected to the telescope, but this ASI did not have a connector that gets to the telescope, I could use part of the dslr's t connector to make it fit like below:

First problem: Though I can see the planets/stars clearly through the lens, when I replace it with camera, it totally out of focus. In this case, the Jupiter which was clearly visible with its moons appeared like this - 

I did kept adjusting the focuser turning it for every pic until I got something decent 

Finally

What am I doing wrong here? I was expecting the astro camera to capture what I see through the lense, maybe more.