SteveNickolls

Hi Ian, Thanks for your post regarding the image with and without dark frames. I've had a day questioning what I do and seeing the effect of not using dark frames was one of them :-) Cheers, Steve

That's very helpful to know Ken, it will certainly make imaging a lot simpler with the Canon and free up time for the important light frames :-) Regards, Steve

So do you have dark frames arranged by temperature to use off the shelf Ken? Cheers, Steve

Good going nige, well done. The cerise hue in the first image comes across brighter on my hudl but both are very good indeed. I fancy attempting this target but no way could I stay awake till the birds wake up. Good for those who can. Good luck to all who image tonight. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Thanks for this, I have tended to take the dark frames sometime during the imaging session to have the same temperature and the bias and flats the morning after. I agree though that taking the dark frames sometime before imaging is a good idea to make best use of the night time for taking light frames and will put it to use tonight if conditions improve-cheers :-) Steve

Hi Ken, I can't imaging how good your NGC 7000 will be after x200 more light frames, very good luck with the project :-) Thanks too for showing the rest of us that it can be imaged. Yes it is quite low down as an object right now, from here it's ranging from 16 degrees at 10.30 PM to 27 degrees around half past midnight. Thanks too for your comment on the M57 images, it has me seriously wondering if I should bother taking dark frames as they do take up a lot of valuable imaging time of a night time. Decisions, decisions. Hmm SGL is acting odd saving things today... Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Thanks for posting the two versions of NGC 7000, you have been busy. Have you any plans for further imaging the object? I was tinkering with the idea of trying to image either this nebula or the cocoon Nebula tonight if it is clear and the wind drops here. I was just posting Ken notifiaction of yours came in. I attach my coffee-paint scheme colour chart showing the light pollution to be contended with here. I have also been experimenting with omitting to use dark frames in DSS to see what happens. Please find below two images of M57 using the same x16 sixty second exposures but the first with x50 dark,bias and flat frames and the second image without the dark frames. There certainly seems less background stars and some of the red stars have stayed red and not turned white. Stacking in DSS and processing using StarTools. First with darks- The second without- Cheers, Steve Canon EOS 600D 5to80s.pdf

Not me, not me. I leaves all moi tractors in the barn. Cheers, Steve

And how absorbing window shopping can be-there's reading all the reviews, the comparing and finding out from others the up's and downs, and getting the best price before coming to your decision. Enjoy every moment of it Nige. Cheers, Steve

Hi Nige, Regarding getting a refractor it's really what you feel you can 'put up with' in terms of CA and field curvature with cheaper OTA's. I have the f/4.9 102mm Startravel from SkyWatcher, it came with the mount and was a snip from FLO at £289. You can get the 80mm Startravel but same issues. StarTools will help moderate the purple halo caused by the doublet optics, see my images. Now I know I like imaging I'm saving up for a 'better' refractor which will give me sharper stars, I'm contemplating the f/5 Espirit 80ED Pro with the field flattener but it will cost a fair bit and is a heavy beast that should just be carried by my existing mount. There were a lot of others I considered and discounted along the way. Have a look in FLO. Can't advise on a reflector, sorry. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Thanks so much for your post. I like your image of M56 and with NGC 7000 it shows what is possible from 45 second exposures, well done as a proof of concept for us all to try. Your Kenyan blend was a good choice btw :-) It's one of the troubles with Alt-Az imaging-you need a low enough object to work with field rotation but that means you image through the worst of the atmosphere. Nonetheless were getting decent results from modest equipment. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ian, Well done you should be proud of that image, I compared it to one on Wiki and yours is better! You have everything in. Are you proposing to add more frames another night? What do you use Lightroom specifically for can I ask? Cheers, Steve

He, he a pleasure Ken you are obviously a man of great taste, both of coffee and paint. Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Yet I forgot to mention light pollution, it's bad here you can usually see stars to Mag 4.3. I made a series of exposures of the night sky on a moonless night from 5 to 80 seconds, it resembles a colour chart from Dulux in their coffee range :-) Unless your frames are whited out you should still be able to pick out signal fram noise but it will degrade the detail. Wouldn't it be great to have darker skies. Here's the colour chart! Canon EOS 600D 5to80s.pdf Cheers, Steve

Hi Ken, Lovely image of M5 you have :-) Sorry you had so much trouble getting any decent frames of M13. I'm intrigued at your 9.25" SCT and what it can do. Good luck imaging tonight. Cheers, Steve

Hi All, Last night I attempted taking 60 second exposures of M56 and M57 with my Synscan Alt-Az mount, partly to see if the mount could do it and to try and compare the resulting image of M57 at 60 seconds from one taken in April at 30 seconds. I've never observed or imaged M56 before so it's a nice small globular cluster to add to the astronomy log. All the frames were stacked using DSS and images subsequently processed in StarTools. The mount proved able to provide images with sixty seconds exposure albeit with different percentages of frames acceptable to use by DSS; for M56 11/11 frames (100%) and for M57 16/29 (55%). First M56 from x11 light frames at 60 seconds ISO 1600 plus 50 dark frames, x50 flat frames and x60 bias frames. Equipment used, a SKyWatcher Startravel 102mm f/4.9 refractor, Synscan Alt-Az mount and Canon 600D DSLR. Secondly M57 from x16 light frames at 60 seconds ISO 1600 plus 50 dark frames, x50 flat frames and x60 bias frames. Equipment used, a SKyWatcher Startravel 102mm f/4.9 refractor, Synscan Alt-Az mount and Canon 600D DSLR. And one of M57 taken in April this year using the same equipment, ISO 1600, x50 dark frames, x50 flat frames and x50 bias frames. On this occasion x51 light frames of thirty seconds each were used. The sixty second image shows more detail and is sharper despite taking a shorter amount of total exposure. As Ian has pointed out to me in a PM the different star colours in the sixty second image could reflect saturation or perhaps just old StarTools :-) I would heartily recommend everyone with an Alt-Az mount to try longer exposure frames where the object can take it (field rotation effect) and see what a difference it can make. Cheers, Steve

You've some really nice stars there Wappmupp and a great first try. I think globular clusters and even open clusters by their nature of being points of light can be well imaged with not so many exposures. Sometime I'd like to improve my stars as the telescope I currently have suffers from 'star bloat' a lot but that's ok while I'm learning the ropes. Good luck in your future imaging sessions. Cheers, Steve

He he wish I had the resources to stay up so late 'erm I mean so early Nige. Looking forward to your images. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Nige, Ian and happy-kat. Nige- couldn't agree more about the mind blowing number of stars in what, looking up with your own eyes, is a tiny area of light polluted sky-absolutely brilliant. There's the last half verse in a poem by Ralph Hodgson, 'The Song of Honour' that's appropriate- I stood and stared; the sky was lit, The sky was stars all over it, I stood, I knew not why, Without a wish, without a will, I stood upon that silent hill And stared into the sky until My eyes were blind with stars and still I stared into the sky. Cheers, Steve

At the end of April I took 40 second ISO 1600 exposures of three objects in the Cephus/Cassiopeia region. The equipment used was my SkyWatcher Startravel 102mm f/4.9 refractor, Synscan Alt-Az mount and Canon 600D DSLR. The first is a two for one image of the Fireworks Galaxy NGC 6946 and nearby open cluster NGC 6939, x98 light frames, x50 dark frames, x50 flat frames and x50 bias frames. Stacking in DSS and subsequent processing in StarTools. And a close up of the galaxy with better colour- And the Pacman nebula NGC 281 using x96 light frames, x50 dark frames, x50 flat frames and x50 bias frames. Stacking in DSS and again subsequent processing in StarTools.- Cheers, Steve

Thanks indeed for posting this video cuivenion , very interesting to view the objects 'warts and all'. Cheers, Stev

Hi Nige, I've used flat frames twice now and made them the morning after imaging. I bring the telescope with camera still attached and mount indoors, leaving everything as it was outdoors so the optical path is as it was outdoors. The objective cap is taken off the tube. I fit two flat ironed tea towels across the objective and fix in place with an elastic band. I make sure no creases etc. For an even illumination source I open a new page in MS Word to get a white screen up on the monitor and place the OTA a few inches from the monitor screen. I change the camera to Av so it chooses its own exposure level. I use the same ISO setting as the light frames. Temperature is unimportant. When I did this today I noticed it darkening towards the periphery of the Live View screen so I take it there is some difference in the illumination across the shot when I image objects. I took x50 exposures (I think they were 1/50th second each). Hope this helps. Cheers, Steve

Hi Nige, when the Moon moves out the way and we have some clear sky there's a lot of nebulosity around the constellation of Cephus to have a go at. Good luck too imaging M57 in Lyra. Thanks too Ian for the kind comment. Btw did you find using flats improved the resuting images? Cheers, Steve

Well despite almost a full Moon last night I had a go imaging M92 and M57. There was a gusting breeze here and I found a number of satellite trails and some cloud had also affected a few of the frames. The images were all taken with the SkyWatcher Startravel 102mm refractor and Synscan alt-az mount and Canon 600D DSLR. The frames were stacked using DSS and further processed using StarTools. M92 x45 Thirty second light frames at ISO 1600, x50 dark, x50 flats and x50 bias frames. M57 x41 Thirty second light frames at ISO 1600, x50 dark, x50 flats and x50 bias frames. DSS was happy with 88% and 80% of the light frames taken. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Nige, I'm quite chuffed seeing as the moon was almost full last night. Never expected to capture the areas of nebulosity. Cheers, Steve