PH-R

On 28/01/2022 at 23:06, geordie85 said:

A successful first light is always pleasing. I'd say by the looks of your stars you've fallen victim to some thin clouds.

Check your subs and see if you have any without, the end result will be much better.

Thanks Geordie85! Just checked now and I do have subs with high cloud. Will have another go with the cleaner data. 

Managed to get out last night, first of 2022, conditions were not ideal because of all the moisture around. I can't be picky though, considering we only get about 10 windless clear nights in the valleys in winter. This picture is the highlight of the night consisting of NGC 2024 - Flame Nebula and Barnard 33 - Horse Head Nebula in the constellation Orion. 10min exposures stacked for a total of 3hrs 20mins integration time. No flats or darks, only bias frames used. I was trying out 10min exposures.

On 15/10/2020 at 11:46, JeremyS said:

14th mag supernova and brightening. Info and finding chart here.

Thanks for the link, I will give it ago when I get some clear skies, forecast looking awful for the next week.

Really nice affect on the dust lanes, great image!

Skywatcher 100Ed 2.5 powermate, Zwo 224MC.

Mars Gain= 31 Exposure=0.015737

Uranus Gain=258 Exposure=0.058589

Thursday night here had some really good seeing so I decided to try some imaging again. The night was nearly a disaster when noticed my dew heater cables were unplugged when switching from Saturn to Mars! and the lens was full of dew. Explains why I could not get decent focus on Saturn 🙂  Once everything was dry again I began. I managed to image Olympus Mons on Mars this time so really happy. I then switched over to Uranus and after about 10 minutes of switching between eyepiece and camera I was amazed to see a bluish out of focus blob on the screen, tried focusing best I could and this is the result. I just need Neptune now for my set, can't wait!

Uranus at 200%, Mars at 100%

8 minutes ago, Craney said:

That's a neat way to display the 'Grand Tour'.

(Don't forget the Earth....   )

 

Hehe, I am going to need a longer selfie stick 🙂

CraigT82 has a Mars post and I can see clouds in his data, so I would say they are clouds.

With the addition of Mars my quest to image all the planets in the Solar system and our Moon took a step forward.

All the images were taken with the ASI 224MC apart from the 2012 Jupiter which was captured using a SPC 900.

Uranus is going to be my next target. Also I am claiming the Mercury transit as my Mercury for now 🙂  

I joined all the separate AVI clips into one large video using pipp. I then auto aligned the RGB in RegiStax and stacked the best 80%. Slight sharpen and warming filter in PS.

I prefer the following version. 150% and 100%

27 minutes ago, simmo39 said:

Not sure if this oned is better.

I much prefer the first image.

1 hour ago, Tommohawk said:

Very nice first Mars image.

Just one suggestion - if you run it through PIPP and ask it to equalise RGB channels you may get a nicer colour rendition with a whiter pole. My sensor is similar to yours and this certainly helps with my images.

Thanks Tom, I will try that out.

Managed to get a practice run in on Thursday night ready for the 13th. My first Mars so really happy. Used sharpcap, 2000 frames. Gain 33, Exposure 21ms.

Very nice, well done.

Great first attempt. I can see some drift in the stars, maybe try some deconvolution to adjust them?

M33 captured over 4 nights, 16hrs of data using 300sec subs, darks from library, mixed flats for an average and bias frames. Camera: Canon 600D. Everything put into Deep Sky Stacker and the resulting image processed in PS.

I used a video made by Scott Rosen on processing to help me process and I learnt some really powerful techniques to use in PS.  I think this is my best processed image to date, so I feel happy I have made some progress. Looking forward to reprocessing my old data armed with the new knowledge 🙂. 

10 hours ago, x6gas said:

My favourite galaxy!

I think the uncropped image is the better of the two - it kind of shows the galaxy off as the jewel it is...

I agree, really gives a sense of the vastness of space..

This was my second target I started collecting data on back in April this year. After my first attempt on M101 using 180sec subs I went for 300secs, which I think is much better for my set up. 

100Ed, Canon 600d, 300sec subs 98% 13hrs 35mins. I will look to add another 7hrs when I can.

Calibration frames used.

Crop + original:

Really good way of presenting your work. great images.

Very nice and sharp, almost like you are shooting through clouds on earth!

Excellent!

Upgraded my old EQ6 (non GOTO) to EQ6-R and Canon D10 to 600D and now I can do proper long exposure pictures 🙂

My first image is M101 11hrs 30mins captured between the 22 and 25th April 2020.

Obviously a lot to learn on the processing side. However, I am really chuffed with this result, especially considering I am using my good old gold Skywatcher 100ED (0.85 reducer).

Watching APT do an auto meridian flip was a sight to behold and very satisfying.

What I think I learnt, I should use much longer exposure times and higher ISO(gain) on faint targets like these. I could hardly see M101 without stretching sub at 180 secs ISO 800. I imaged M92 on my last night as a test at ISO 1600 and subs of 300 secs and the back ground looks great.

Fingers crossed for clearer weather tonight as I am hoping to start getting M51 data later on. ( we all live in hope 🙂 )

Full size plus crop attached.

Hi all,

I need to replace my shielded USB cable as it is not long enough. Can anyone recommend where to buy a good quality one. Also I noticed a HDMI port mini B I think on the camera. Could I use that instead and what are the pros and cons between the two standards?

Thank you.

Happy to get something last night after all this rain!

Now I just need Mars, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto to complete my set.

I was very lucky  between 12:30 and 13:00 then the showers started.