Bagginsies

Hey all,

I have been using Deep Sky Stacker to stack my comet images. I have used the stack stars and comet before without problem, but for some reason this past few months, every time I stack now I get a slight star trailing as in the image below.

I decided to have a quick go at Y1 Atlas last night (knowing the Moon and weather were not on my side) just to have some data to play with and test, but ended up with the same star trailing.  

I don't know what could be causing this as all my light frames (60sec @ iso1600) are clean, when I stack it as a normal star stack the stars are pin sharp (comet blurs obviously, but this tells me that the tracking is fine), I have made sure the comet selection is good checking each one thoroughly, I have even reset to default settings. I used to just click, save and stack and it worked fine. Not sure what is going on now?

20200505 C2019 Y1 Atlas.TIF

I have a few pic's on here in various posts, but most are on @photoncass if you have Instagram. 

I use a 2" barlow that is x2, but it is what you call non-telecentric. This means the closer I have it to the sensor on the camera, the less it multiply's the focal length.  I also use a set of adaptors. This allows me to get enough 'in' focus. 

This sounds complicated, but to start with a standard barlow lens for your eyepiece size (not sure what it would be on yours? 2" or 1.25") should work fine (maybe see if you could borrow one before spending out any money?). The top of the forum has a link to the FLO webpage shop. You can find various ones on there.

Do bear in mind that using a barlow will slow your telescope down and mean that you need to do longer exposures or higher iso. To get real 'prime' astrophotography, it is best to get a scope designed with astrophotography in mind. I was looking at moving my mirror closer, but I would probably break something LOL I am looking at a PDS or Comet Hunter next.

Below is my barlow setup. I have a Canon t-ring adaptor, an svbony converter (eBay), an additional svbony extender (eBay) and the barlow lens itself taken off a revelationsastro kit. By attaching the barlow to the one converter I get about x1.5 magnification which allows me to fit the moon in shot. If I am imaging galaxies etc I use the second extender and get true x2 magnification.

I also recently cleaned my mirrors and then took a picture of Capella with a bahtinov mask showing good focus (see bottom image)

I have a Celestron 130 SLT which doesn't have enough 'in' focus, but it is achievable with a barlow lens. I also use Iso 6400 and the lowest shutter speed (30) in video mode on a Canon 60D until I get it focused on a star. I then put it into bulb mode at Iso 1600, for my 1-2 minute exposures. Without the barlow I cannot get focus.

There is a guy on Instagram @nightskydan who caught a good one last night going through The Plough. I was out last night and saw it, but my camera was pointing lower at the trees 🤣 

With the break up of Atlas, I decided to go back to comet T2 Panstarrs (don't know what it is, but I just love the idea of comets flying around the solar system!). Having learned more in this hobby (thanks all 🙂 ) I am getting better images as I go. My newest image is of Panstarrs. This seems to have stacked better and came out cleaner. I am now using flats and being more picky with what light frames I keep and what ones I throw away. Final image is 59 x 90 second lights, 10 x dark, bias and flat @ Iso3200 on the Celestron 130SLT. My best comet image so far and didn't take me so long in post processing.

I have also started to learn more about time-lapse video editing with my main success being figuring out how to keep the stars still when the comet is moving.

 Hope you are all well and staying safe! Enjoy! 👍

Was a bit of a dampener. I saw about 6 or 7, but only caught one (right hand side of pic). I am thinking just getting one in any frame was a good result 🙂  Loving the star trails!

I did have what looked like a good frame with a really bright one, but turned out to be an iridium satellite as it was in 4 of the 13 second frames before as a faint line! Fingers crossed for the next one!

Just packed up and noticed the secondary was completely fogged up so moisture was the problem!

Couple of questions;

I normally image with the scope on a concrete driveway, but tonight I stayed in the garden and had the scope setup on 3 blocks of wood (to stop it sinking in which worked fine), but with it being over grass, could this cause more moisture? 

I would have thought the main mirror would get more moisture as it was pointing upwards, would a fan at the back help this?

I am currently outside now taking my dark frames for M101. I have just tried to take 60 x 2 min subs @ Iso 3200. At first they seem fine with the histogram at about the 1st line (1/4 across), but on checking as I went through, they slowly get darker and darker until the histogram is on the left side?

What is causing this? Scope pointing upwards and moisture on the mirror? (There does seem to be a lot of moisture on the outside)

Sky is still clear! Camera is a Canon 60D attached to a Celestron 130SLT. I did exactly the same last night and got a great image of M51. 

Can't think what else would cause it.

As already said, great first image! You should be very pleased with that.

1 hour ago, Snooze said:

From what I have heard lately, it looks like the comet is disintegrating? I hope it survives till start of May so I can image it

I have seen an image on Earth Sky showing it has broken into 4 smaller fragments 😞 Not sure I can post the link here, but a google search should find it. 

Not the best images, but a big difference in the shape of the comet and I am no expert so not even sure what all the elongation of the tail really means. I was hoping it was getting bigger as it got closer to the Sun?

My second JCB image came out much better 🙂 Same settings, but I think the extra light as the Sun had not long gone done in the West helped.

Inspired by a YouTube video from Nightscapeimages I had a go at light painting the JCB last night. Not too shabby with a standard 18-50mm kit lens. 10 x 13s images F4.0 @ Iso1600 for stars and 3 x 13s light painted on JCB F7.1 @ Iso 400. Stars stacked in sequator and all images blended in Affinity Photo as per YouTube tutorial.

Also took a quick picture of Taurus, Orion, Venus and Pleiades with my GooglePixel3a. Hope everyone from SGL and FLO are well! Stay Safe!

I was out on the 8th getting some data, but the moon was very bright, so hoping for Monday! Will be gutted if this one fades 😞  Not sure why I got the lines out of both sides of the stars either. 

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Throw your biggest aperture at it as soon as you can, looks like it’s dropping fast :-((

Peter

 

Next good clear night here without a moon is Monday! Hope it will last till then? Fingers are crossed? 

Managed just over an hour of data last night of the Comet Atlas (64 x 60 second : Iso 1600 : 10 x dark : 10 x bias and for the first time 10 x flat!). Stacked it in DSS with the comet and stars tracked. It gave the stars a little bit of movement as well for some reason (to be honest I like the effect!).

I have also seen on here it may be breaking up and might have peaked in brightness? I do hope not, was planning on more of this over the next month.

Just glad I got it 🙂

Thanks for the comments 👍 I do like to edit my images as little as possible to try and keep the natural look.

Managed another last night with slightly different settings (did get a little aberration back this time though);

21 x 40 sec frames @ Iso 800 : F8 300mm. I also used darks and bias this time (10 of each). I also had a tiny thin layer of cirrus reflecting the moon by the looks of it?

No, I found it very smooth. The video was a lot of tracked photos and each was tracked for 30 seconds.

Whe using the slt mount I always had the legs all the way in for extra stability ( I am very short, hence Baggins, a hobbit LOL) and you can hang a weight to the bottom of the tripod if needed.

Your biggest problem will be wind. If it is windy a weight will come in handy.

Hope this helps.

As the title says 🤣

Managed to get 11 x 20 sec frames @ Iso 1600 : F7.1 135mm. No darks or bias, stacked in deep sky stacker. Have been struggling with aberration on the standard lens, so quite happy with this as it came out fairly clean.

Couldn't make out any nebulosity and the clouds didn't help either! 

I have used this mount to attached my Canon 60D directly (tilted 90 degrees like you say). I didn't do any long exposure stuff with it due to field rotation with an Alt Az, but you can do short exposures with tracking (some good info online and here about Alt Az tracking). To get the most exposure time with a camera on Alt Az, East and West targets are best (gives the longest time without field rotation).

I carried out the normal Skyalign (point at 3 bright stars) with the camera attached and it aligned well enough.

As for star trails. If you are going to point the camera at Polaris for star trails you don't need any tracking (unless I am missing your idea here?). A tripod would suffice. If you are using the slt mount, you will need to turn tracking 'Off' in the hand controller anyway for star trails.

My first video timelapse, tracking with the SLT mount. (I tracked Alderbarran)

Set my scope up on Alnath with the 60D last night. I was out to image the moon, but thought I would quickly try the ISS (planned on nothing as I know it is a very hard target!). I had a look online about tracking by hand, but due to having an AVX mount that has fairly sticky RA and Dec, I decided I would try 1/6000s ISO6400 (had the Barlow on (x2) so F10 I think) and see what happened; I had the camera set to take pictures with the intervalometer button held down, but fat fingered it in my excitement as I wasn't 100% it would pass close to the star as predicted and it did perfectly!! Only caught a frame just as it was leaving (top left). 

My first image of the ISS and to be honest a very poor one, but so happy I actually got it in the frame......the start of a new challenge 🙂

Not forgetting my moon 🙂

Looking forward with fingers crossed that it does brighten up to naked eye! Now that would be great for another timlapse 🙂 Nice vid!

9 hours ago, Erling G-P said:

Very nice, and damn, that thing is moving!

Just curious; for the 'comet tracked' image, with stars as trails, did you make that using the comet stacking in DSS ?

Yes, I used the comet only stacking in DSS for the star trails and for the picture with the stars and comet tracked I used the comet and star stacking selection.

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Well done, I've still got a couple of time lapses of it waiting to be processed, need it to start raining so I get time to do it 😂

Dave

I think it was one of yours I saw a while back. Super clear time lapse of a comet. It is what inspired me to try it myself 👍

Hopefully get mine that good one day 🤞

Managed to image the comet last night and used the data to make some images and also managed to make my first time lapse of a comet 🙂 

Total Exposure 1 hour 36 minutes
64 x 90 sec light frames
Iso 1600
15x dark frames
15x bias frames
Celestron 130SLT (Prime)
Celestron AVX mount
Un-modded Canon 60D
Class 4 Bortle skies
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Final edits in Affinity Photo