Hals

It's going to be nothing fancy but I'll finally have an observatory. It will be a lift off roof initially but I will convert it to a roll off next spring when the weather turns. Started on the pier, I've gone for a Todmorden pier on cost grounds. Purchased the blocks, dug out the base and concreted in. Built the pier, fixed with bolts and adhesive. It's as solid as a rock. Next step is to fit the pier adapter, brake disc type for my HEQ5, after I've drilled out bolt holes in it. The paving slab is only there because I was using it to stand on as the garden was soaked after a lot of rain. Pier faces North with the picture facing South. I have good views all around apart from some trees in the South which can't be helped.

Cheers, Pete.

NGC6992 The Eastern Veil Nebula. Unmodded Canon 80D via William Optics Star 71. x25 180 sec subs plus calibration frames. ISO 800. Stacked in DSS, processed in PS.

29 x 300 sec subs, x10 darks, x10 Bias, no flats. 150 PDS with unmodded Canon 80D & Altair Quad-band filter. Battling with next door's security light all session so happy with the result.

A cropped LDN 1265 captured over two sessions, one night 88 x120 sec subs with Quad band filter and the other night 40 x 120 sec subs unfiltered to get the star colours.  Darks, flats and bias on both sessions. 

Great feeling capturing something for the first time isn't it ! 

26 x 240 sec subs, darks and bias, no flats. ISO 800 Canon 80D via SW 150/750 PDS,  Altair Quad band filter, 97% Moon. Slightly out of focus plus needs much longer integration time but I'm happy as a first go on this target.

I foolishly tried to image the Wizard Nebula during the recent 94% full Moon, DSLR even with a Quad band filter the result lots and lots of noise, likely caused by over-processing too. Plus I was a tad out of focus...It's a learning curve for sure, but a fun one.

RIP. A legend. 

6 hours ago, Erling G-P said:

I had a go at some noise reduction with Topaz DeNoise:

Excellent ! Much better cheers !

IC 1396 Elephants Trunk Nebula. 24 x 180 sec subs, with calibration frames. WO Star 71, Canon 80D with Altair Quadband filter. Poor seeing and warm temperature but it has been the only clear couple of hours I've manged to catch so far this month !

Superb 👍 

Beautiful star colours and the dark nebulosity in the background gives it a magical almost 3D look. Very well done.

On 01/08/2020 at 11:07, badgerchap said:

Time, practice and learning are more important than kit. Even naked eye astronomy can be massively rewarding if you can learn about what you're looking at. Don't be intimidated by the incredible shots you see on here and elsewhere - as impressive as they are, they're no substitute for losing yourself among the stars of an evening.

This 👍

Never ceases to amaze me what can be captured from your own back garden, today's images rival and surpass the images from the "great observatories" that I grew up looking at. Just think what will be do-able in another twenty years. Truly wonderful.

Both are excellent bits of kit. The Samyang will give a wider view at 135mm to the Redcat's 250mm. As far as I can see that's all that's in it, personal preference.

Nice one Stuart. Funny thing is I've noticed this effect but only during one imaging session. I've had many since with no changes to the equipment barring slight focus changes and my stars have been all ok, displaying no artifacts.

You need something like this...

Restacked and it's definitely the K-S clipping that's caused it. I used Average this time and it's much better and wow, that is one fast moving comet. Even taking 30 x 4 second shots the movement it showed in this short time has really surprised me. Thanks again Kyle Allen for pointing me in the right direction. 👍

Cheers Kyle, I believe I did use K-S. I will restack and see what happens !

Mods, I've posted this in the wrong place, could you please move to the Imaging - Widefield and Special Events & Comets section ! Thanks.

Definitely need a filter for this one. This an un-filtered two and a quarter hours of integration time. 45 x 180 sec subs with calibration frames. Very noisy trying to pull any real detail out of it. 

Imaged our transient friend last night and the coma shows a strange artifact. Obviously something with my scope but really annoying. I can process it out but it's got me stumped. Second pic is a crop of the autosave.tif after stacking, pre-processing.

Fantastic work. I'd be extremely happy if that were mine. 

Lovely. The Samyang 135mm f2 is a wonderful lens, I haven't seen one bad pic from anybody who uses it.

Stunning !!