SteveNickolls

The thread will go where the individual contributors take it. There's no pretence. One thread extoling the trials, tribulations and successes of alt-az mounts is a breath of fresh air and inspiration to many.

Cheers,

Steve

I'm not going to throw my wrong equipment away, the images are as real as is the effort taken to get them.

Steve

Hi Herzy,

You're really going to need a computer to do any stacking and post processing work. Are you saying you don't have a computer at all or just not a computer running on a Windows OS? I don't know whether DSS or ST runs on any other platform. I have never tried other software to help you further here-sorry. 

It is known that these lightweight mounts will often need a short few minutes just after star aligning to 'settle down' to then track ok. Whenever I have used my mount (a SkyWatcher Synscan alt-az) it has worked just fine after alignment but then again I don't rush things swapping diagonal and eyepiece for camera so I maybe give my mount the settling down time it just needs and I never know.

Cheers,
Steve

Hi Herzy,

Thanks for the post and your image. We're all still learning here but I notice you have a f/14 telescope which will make for less bright images taking much longer to get an image, and there's the possibility that in that time your local light pollution and/or field rotation will do their best to prevent you getting a good image. As a very very general rule of thumb 30 seconds is around the upper ability of these alt-az mounts to track for imaging purposes. The Admiral put me on to a good read, "Astro-photography on the Go" by Joseph Ashley which is specifically written for using short exposures with light weight mounts. Its ISBN is 978-3-319-09830-2. Also what camera are you using Herzy?

This page explains about the various frames-http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/faq.htm

I use Deep Sky Stacker for stacking and then StarTools for image processing. DSS is free, you can try out StarTools for free but to save images you would need to pay the fee for a licence key.

HTH

Cheers,
Steve

Cheers Ian,

Yes, I need to be much more adventurous with StarTools but it's very early days and so much to take in. Here's hoping we all have more clear dark nights to practice in!

Steve

Hi,

Here is my first attempt at imaging the Rosette Nebula/Cluster. It was taken on the 2nd February 2016 using a SkyWatcher Startravel 102mm refractor on a Synscan alt-az mount. There are 62 light frames (each of 30 seconds at ISO 1600), 53 dark frames and 50 bias frames making up the image. My camera is a Canon 600D. There would have been more light frames but...rain stopped play. Images stacked in DSS and processed using StarTools.

Cheers,
Steve

This closer image resulted from messing more in StarTools!

Hi, they are two lovely images which you should be proud of. Good to know the number of exposures, duration and ISO you have been using. I often think of DSS and StarTools as the perfect marriage, by that I mean they work together to a common end but don't necessarily make it easy to know what they are both doing in the background to help the other!

It just shows what can be achieved with an alt-az mount. Keep up the good work.

Best Regards,
Steve

Hi Steve,

Love your set-up! I haven't thought of using an LED finder with my bins - yours sounds great! Which make/model is it?

Cheers,

Wayne.

Hi Wayne, Thanks for your message. The red led finder I'm using on the Apollo's is a 'Sky Surfer III LED-Fiber Pointer' from Baader Planetarium. It has a variable intensity red dot control as I have found some others are just 'on' or 'off' and can be too bright. I originally bought mine years ago together with a purpose made L bracket from 'Scopesnskies. Depending on how you Internet search you either come up with  http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/binocular/red-dot/tripod-bracket2.html (currently out of stock) or http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/binocular/red-dot/tripod-bracket.html and in stock :-) Best to ring and check!

Cheers,

Steve

Is it wrong to be in lust with those Vixens?. How much for the whole rig in the image?.

He he no it's not wrong to lust after them but I had to wait until I was 60 and a certain lady in my life bought them for my birthday. Certainly an arm and a leg (or two) cost-wise but I have poorly eyes and I find binoculars are better for me than telescopes for viewing so not the excess it may appear.

Cheers,

Steve

Here is the pair of Vixen 81mm's (BT81S-A).

Cheers,

Steve

Hi ghostdance, I don't think I could properly use the binoculars without the finder. I use my bins on a tripod and the combined bracket and finder make everything so much easier to locate. Some of the combined brackets/finders on the Internet do not have a variable intensity red led like mine do so they can be too bright in use also right now some vendors don't have any in stock. I've found that mounted on the Tracker 4 tripod I can view up to the zenith.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Steve

I seem to use my binoculars for virtually all my observing nowadays (a case of two poor eyes propping each other up). Here is a photo of my Helios Apollo 15x70's, I use them with a one piece bracket and red led finder and a Vanguard Tracker 4 heavy duty tripod. They are my mainstay and despite the heavy tripod are quite movable.

And my two Pentax binoculars the 10x50 and 20x60-

For my 60th my dear wife bought me some Vixen 81mm binoculars (BT81S-A) that stand on the Vixen SXG-HAL 130 tripod, fork mount and plate which can have their eyepieces swapped to give magnifications of between x19 and x48 and varying FOV's. M45 looks magnificent through them at x19. I must get to take a photograph of these binoculars next time I use them.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Lee, glad you have things working now. As you've found the two S@N files contain conditional action script allowing detection almost out of the box. There are other conditional action scripts out there depending on what you want to do. I found that after a while detecting the first meteor trails and checking everything worked that I wanted to reduce the number of screenshots taken (to preserve some hard drive space mostly). More recently with 'The Admiral' I have been looking at the initial parts of a number of signals showing increasing and decreasing frequency, but that's deeper down the rabbit hole. Others are keen to record both the screenshots and audio. Some wish to send off their data to the Radio Meteor Observatory (RMOB). A lot of the learning is trial and error and I would say have fun experimenting, making mistakes but learning all the time and reading up as much as you want as meteors are a fascinating area of astronomy. You will produce your own data and compare with others and do this 24/7 regardless of the weather and in the comfort of your own living room. No more only being able to observe one night in five anymore and light pollution doesn't matter.

Initially Spectrum Labs can come over as very detailed (which it is) and this can be daunting but later it turns into a very flexible tool that you can use to explore detecting meteors with. The manual that comes with the software is a good start. I don't think you ever stop learning and I have come to regard meteor work as the most rewarding part of astronomy I have done, it's certainly the most cost effective by far :-)

Here are some links you might enjoy reading-

http://www.popastro.com/meteor/index.php

http://www.imo.net/ The IMO have a very useful pdf of showers due in the year.

http://www.dmradas.co.uk/Downloads.html

There's also a lot of SGL threads which you might find interesting too Lee, we are all learning together. Let us know how you get on.

Best of luck,

Steve

Thanks FLO for this-have added as a favourite.

Best regards,

Steve

Just got me a pair of Pentax 20x60 PCF WP II's-bring on that Moon. Cheers, Steve

Helios Apollo 15x70's

Opticron Imagic TGA WP 10x50's

Currently the Apollo's are the main use binocular on a Vanguard Tracker 4 heavy tripod and red led dot finder. The Opticron's replaced a pair of cheap Meade 10x50's that had done years of sterling service.

Cheers,

Steve

Yes, good aren't they!

Enjoy.

Cheers,

Steve

Thank you for all you have done: your inspiration, books and 'Sky at Night's' remain as your legacy.

Steve