SteveNickolls

Hey Nigel,

Way to go-you got a the mention on the Astro Imaging Channel for your mosaic-great going! Light under a bushel :-)

Cheers,
Steve

19 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

We have reached the 100 pages with this thread now, its almost impossible to find previous information now without spending an hour or 2 looking through it all.

And still not a further word from Admin/Mods, do you think they have fallen asleep? Such a shame not wanting to help us advance Alt-Az imaging when it is so popular a thread.

Not to end on a sour note-100 pages is grand going!

Cheers,
Steve

You've really captured a lot of colour and detail in your Christmas Tree Nebula/Cone Nebula image Ian, your camera is sensitive in the red.

Nige, I do admire your mosaic - do keep it growing!

Cheers,
Steve

10 hours ago, Shaun_Astro said:

And REALLY need a coma corrector

Hi Shaun,

Well done with the images, If you try out StarTools for your processing you can bin the image and help hide the eggy stars quite a lot and as Nige mentions also use the software to repair coma affected stars :-)

Cheers,
Steve

5 hours ago, Shaun_Astro said:

and have finally got a reasonable image with my DSLR and a 58mm lens on a Star Discovery mount

Hi Shaun,

Thanks for the post and image-well done, I bet you are well pleased with it :-)

I'm intrigued how you are finding your mount, I understand it has dual encoders allowing you to manually move the pointing without affecting alignment? Essentially an big step improvement on the Synscan Alt-Az I'm using. Have you tried to get longer exposures from the mount yet? With the Synscan I have been able to get 60 second exposures for objects well placed with regards to field rotation to the East and West. Beyond 60 seconds (I've tried at 70) the build limitations of the mount start to be noticed easily and a lot of exposures can't be used because of trailing. You do get a lot from the SkyWatcher equipment for little outlay. Recently I've been experimenting with a 85mm f1.8 lens on the mount but some nice clear nights would be good to have to be able to report something back :-)

Good luck in the future and keep those posts coming in! We have a good bunch of enthusiastic people contributing to this thread all proving you can image with an Alt-Az mount.

Best regards,
Steve

Thanks Ken for showing what perseverance can bring, or is it a warning not to repeat as it is so difficult? I have an old 9.25" stored away and often wondered if it will ever see the light of day. Is your 'scope able to take a Hyperstar?

Cheers,
Steve

1 minute ago, Filroden said:

Debating the merits of setting up tonight. There is really high cloud that is not forecast to shift. Although I can see stars clearly I've found even the slightest haze creates really difficult gradients that obscure faint fuzzies that I end up throwing away all the subs  I had hoped to add more subs to both my Flaming Star Nebula and Rosette Nebula as both have under an hour of data. I also wanted to dust off the SCT and have a pop at M1.

I'd say have a go and see how it turns out Ken, there's really not much to lose. There's been so many poor nights of late so take the chances as you can. I've also set up (like I did last night but fell foul of cloud) in case it stays clear-ish later. I'd like to play with the 85mm lens and its f values then again imaging the Rosette again without the semi-apo filter would be worth doing. We've had clear sky all day but it's clouding over now.

Good luck.

Steve

19 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

but I have to agree with Ken that your 'black' sky may be taking away some of the fainter stuff.

Hi Ian,

Ahh, you know my perchant for dark backgrounds even when they shouldn't be there. I'll have more plays with ST's and see what other rabbits it can pull out of the hat :-)

Best regards,
Steve

Just now, Filroden said:

Another nice Rosette. You've got good colours there but you've possibly lost some of the faintest details by clipping the blacks. However, with only 50 minutes of data you probably had to fight the noise levels! How did you find the filter? The stars look good so I'm guessing it's worked well.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for this. I'm finding StarTools' modules can perform near miracles with even iffy data, even to making colours much brighter/better than they deserve to be and cleaning up the background too which is my pet 'thing'. I'm pleased with the filter for it's light pollution reduction capabilities and if I had more opportunities I would want to do a comparison without the filter. I have yet to use it with the achromat teelscope for its full capability, just a question of not many decent nights right now. With the Rosette I'm aiming across miles of urban light pollution which the filter is taking out judging by the darker RAW's. At ISO 800 the histogram was showing a peak below a quarter but a clear disconnect from the LHS edge. In February last year I imaged the same target with the camera through the telescope (500mm) and found the target filled the FOV, at 300mm it is better proportioned. There was greater detail in the more magnified shot. 

Cheers,
Steve

4 hours ago, The Admiral said:

On 1/3/2017 at 18:54, Nigel G said:

I don't think so, the 3rd image to come from the camera was the Heart and soul nebula which was high altitude approximately 80°  still had lighter subs than those of later dates.

Anything is possible though, that could be a contributing factor.

Cheers 

Nige 

Coming along well with your modded camera Nige.

80° . Good grief, what sort of exposures were you using to keep field rotation in check?

Ian

Blimy Nige,

I'm being far too conservative (again) with altitudes and exposures, thanks for showing the way.

Cheers,
steve

Hi everyone,

You know what they say about busses, so here's my attempt at the Rosette Nebula from the 2nd January. Taken using the Canon 600D DSLR on the StarWacher Synscan Alt-Az mount. x97 thirty five second light frames at ISO 800 plus x50 bias and x50 flat frames. No dark frames. The frames were stacked using DSS and processed using StarTools. The lens used was set at 300mm at f/5.6 with a 2" Baader semi-apo filter (making its first outing) connected by an adapter to the lens.

Cheers,
Steve

3 hours ago, happy-kat said:

but that looks ever more lens front heavy bias and unbalanced.

Hi,

The L bracket can be moved to bring the camera and lens closer to the mount head and the ball head moved closer on the L bracket to the mount arm to reduce the forces acting on the set up. I did wonder at first about the ball head being able to cope with a long lens on the camera but it easily holds the camera firm and allows for precise alignment. I recall it's rated at holding 8kg. These posts do show how inventive we all are. I guess it's whatever works for us.  And on that note I do rather like Nige's 'two gun' approach, that's serious firepower and has balance. 

I know a balanced set up should maximise the life of the mount. I recall Joseph Ashley mentioning that he used to like having his telescope and camera set up bottom heavy as it seemed to help with tracking. When I use my telescope and camera the whole assembly is certainly back heavy and I always felt it added some inertia against small wobbles that a balanced set up would not cope so well with.

Cheers,
Steve

happy-kat,

Here's my way of mounting the Canon camera, I use an L bracket and a ball joint to provide very accurate alignment with the finder scope. I use a quick release plate too. The attachment piece between the camera hot shoe and finder scope works very well. I've found there's no re-alignment needed at each session as I dismantle only the quick release plate separating camera from the L bracket on the mount. I haven't experienced any issues with balancing the camera and that's even been when using the 75-300mm lens shown.

I have recently purchased BYEOS so can control imaging from the laptop set up in the kitchen overlooking the imaging spot. I've also sent off for cables to extend the length of the hand controller wire to the mount. I will then have the ability to nudge objects to get best framing. I've found BYEOS to be very useful enabling multiple stacking of Live View to better see fainter objects in almost real time. BYEOS also means I get to keep a watch on each downloaded frame so don't get caught out by dewing or clouds anymore. Oh, for a touch of low tech I add a hand warmer beneath the camera lens using an elastic band and it has kept dew away.

Here's to clear, dark skies.

Cheers,
Steve

3 hours ago, Filroden said:

However, on closer inspection my stars were terrible; looking almost like crow's feet. I'd taken the images at f2 (one stop in from open) but I think I will have to experiment and maybe drop back as far as f4 and then maybe take a similar number of subs but at 15s exposures. So I have no images to show for the night but I'm getting closer!

Sorry to hear of this trouble Ken, I haven't yet been able to try out my Canon 85mm f/1.8 and the semi-apo filter to see what I can get from the local light polluted sky. It was clear for a few hours here last night and I spent the time experimenting with my new laptop and BYEOS and the camera/finder scope set up. It has all come together well and I need to stack and process last night's imaging (of M81/M82) as I did some comparison light frames with the semi-apo filter attached to the camera (I have an adapter). Hope to post the differences soon.

Good luck imaging tonight if the weather is agreeable.

Cheers,
Steve

Well done Nige, good images and I love your experimentation. I must have a play in DSS and see what changes it may bring.

Best Regards,
Steve

So where is all the clear sky? I'm all set up outside but the stars are being hidden by the cloud. Don't think I can wait much longer for clear skies although I'm going to have to of course.

Right that's it I've succumbed to the Christmas cider, first up (or rather down) is a nice bottle of Rattler at 6%.

Cheers,
Steve

1 hour ago, schmeah said:

British sarcasm is way too subtle for most of us yanks to fully comprehend. Now stop making fun of me ? And Merry Christmas all!

Derek

No seriously Derek, it's meant in good part. Merry Christmas to you.

Cheers,
Steve

Well the mount is outside and ready for later use if it all stops clear as forecast. Good luck to all able to image tonight, we are owed some good skies. 

Like Ken I'm going to do some experimentation tonight but not so adventurous as a mosaic (though I did grout some mosaic earlier today)-

1. See how BYEOS operates using just the camera on the Synscan Alt-Az mount.

2. See how a mains camera charger fares in place of a battery.

These both involve my pet hate-cables, into the imaging set up. Now what to image it has been so long...

Cheers,
Steve

4 hours ago, The Admiral said:

You might live to regret making that offer 

If I did win big Ian it would give me nothing but pleasure to order several such mounts for us all to use. 

Fingers crossed now.

Cheers,
Steve

8 hours ago, schmeah said:

Agreed. But let's say for the sake of argument that such a mount could  track and guide as well as a premium GEM of the same price and had an accurate derotator that would allow perfect alignment of subs without sacrificing any of the chip/FOV. And being alt-az it would not require a meridian flip nor accurate polar alignment. Why would anyone not prefer such a mount over a similarly priced  GEM?

Thanks for this Derek. If I ever win large on the national lottery everyone here will receive one and the derotator unit. 

Happy Christmas All.

Steve

35 minutes ago, Filroden said:

Now I just need a clear night

Excellent piece of equipment there Ken. I heartily concur regarding the need for some clear night skies. Getting stir crazy watching those clouds. 

Cheers,
Steve

Lovely images Nige, well done indeed. So looking forward to doing some wide field of Orion later this month (weather permitting). Amazing what can be obtained using quite few exposures-that's great!

Thanks for posting,
Steve

Good luck Nige in this, can't wait to see the results. Here's to some clear, dark skies.

Steve

4 minutes ago, alacant said:

The clusters look amazing in your composition. Hope you don't mind, I'm learning colour balance ATM. I took the curves down a bit. Probably way off now! Clear skies.

Thanks for your interest. No worries altering things :-)

Cheers,
Steve

2 minutes ago, Filroden said:

I can't believe you've got two such good images in under 10 minutes. Nicely captured and processed!

Thanks Ken, I was surprised to see actual colour in M81 and M82 after just ten exposures. I did push the exposure time a little beyond the field rotation guide and seem to have got away with it thanks to the small FL involved. StarTools is excellent for processing galaxies.

Cheers,
Steve