FenlandPaul

2 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Nothing leaps out, lovely image, great star shapes, super.

Was that with no calibration files too?

Thank you.  I did darks and flats as well, which I've found I definitely need to do with this camera / lens combo on anything remotely deep-sky-y.

This is my second attempt at a widefield emission nebula, this time the California Nebula.  

For those interested: 201x 45s exposures at ISO800 with a modded Canon EOS450D, Samyang 135mm lens at f/2.8, all on a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer tracker. Processed in DSS and PS and cropped.  I'd initially had about 50% more subs than that but some were ruined by cloud and others by my youngest son putting the back garden light on!!

I'd really appreciate any feedback / tips - keen to learn more about this amazing craft!! 😀

Thanks, Paul.

Thanks to those who provided some feedback.  Managed to capture some flats today and added them to the stack, as well as working on the edit a bit more to remove some of the gradients.  Much happier with this!  Still some noise and parts that I'm not happy with, but the difference from the flat fields was remarkable!!

21 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Hi Paul, this is great first photo! I have some very modest experience and I'm sure  others will add to it. Here are mine 2cents:

 

For the vignetting: yes you need flats, especially in large DSLR sensors to compensate for the uneven illumination. It's very easy - just put a T-shirt over the camera lens, point to a cloudy sky in daytime and shoot with the same focus and aperture in aperture priority. Just 4-5 frames will do which can be added to the stack in DSS.

The noisy-ness looks more like light pollution to me. There is little you can do apart from moving or buying more gear (filters).

One thing that can help right away is to wait until the area of interest is near the zenith -less air means less glow from the LP. 

The edge of the frame is always going to look worse - even the best lenses have aberrations near the edge and stars are very sensitive.

 

Clear skies!

 

Thank you!  Appreciate that..  Flats sound like a no-brainer then and I should get out this weekend and make some.  The target started off at around 65 degrees and was climbing throughout the session, so it sounds like moving or filters are the next steps there!

22 minutes ago, Seelive said:

Flats are arguabley more important that darks if you are suffering from significant vignetting (and are much quicker to obtain than darks). As you used a fixed camera lens then, since the optical alignment won't change (and assuming you haven't sprayed everything in dust since taking the images), you can still create them after the event and then apply them.

 

Thanks - yes, it's a 135mm prime lens.  This sounds like a job for this weekend!  Thank you for the feedback.

SORRY MODS - I put this in the wrong section.  If it's not too much trouble to move it either to "getting started" or the widefield imaging section, that would be great.  So sorry.

Hi all, I managed what I'd call my first "proper" attempt at going deep last night, with a shot at the Double Cluster, Heart Nebula and a bit of the Soul Nebula.  Would really appreciate some constructive feedback on this; it's delighted family and friends, but if I'm going to improve I need an expert eye!

I took 208 45s exposures, at ISO800 on a modded Canon 450D with Samyang 135mm lens at f/2.8 (ish), mounted on a Star Adventurer.  Urban / rural transition skies (medium-sized village about 8 miles from Cambridge). Same number of darks (just left the camera running after packing up).

Stacked 95% of them in DSS.  Then processed in Photoshop trying to adopt the approach of Trevor Jones (from Astrobackyard YT channel), but I am quite new to PhotoShop so I find that part a little challenging.

Things I like:

- I've actually captured it!

- Generally I've managed to get the stars reasonably small, at least compared to some fairly hideous Pleiades shots I've done through my 420mm frac before!

- There's a bit of colour in the double cluster stars

- Sitting inside by the fire with a glass of wine while the camera ran! (you can't do that in astro-landscape work!)

Things I don't like:

- the vignetting.  Should I have done flats?

- the image still seems a little noisy to my eye.

- the stars in the double cluster aren't very impressive.  Had hoped for something crisper there.  Is that too much to expect from this setup when it's towards the edge of the frame?

- not as much detail in the nebulosity as I'd hoped for.  How much of that is expectation vs experience?

I'd really appreciate any help.  I'm mostly interested in astro-landscapes, but I'd like to become reasonably competent at widefield DSLR deep-sky this at the same time!

Thanks

Paul

Great image Jordan, what a great composition. I have the same setup outside right now taking subs of the Heart and Soul nebula. My first time using the modded 450D in anger!

👍 love some star trails, especially when they're light-pollution-free!!  Great to see.

Great shots Andy.

Wish I could rewind to then. It was Neowise and the NLC season that really got me out experimenting with the dslr. If could I apply to them what I’ve since learned!!

Also I’d welcome any guidance on whether this should sit in this section or the Photography section. 🤷‍♂️ 

I had an enjoyable couple of hours yesterday evening at Swavesey Priory on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens.  Swavesey lies exactly on the Greenwich Meridian, so I switched hemispheres a few times.

A gorgeous bright, long Taurid fell just to the upper left of the Plough as I was taking the static shots, but unfortunately it seems to have done so during the interval between each frame - d'oh!

Would love any constructive thoughts and comments - still new to this so any pointers are helpful.  Details at the bottom.

Star trails: 16x180s exposures ISO200 on Canon 6D with Samyang 14mm at f/4. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop and blended in Sequator

Fixed stars: 8x30s exposures ISO800 on Canon EOS100D with Samyang 16mm at f/2.8.  Edited in Lightroom and blended in Sequator

1 hour ago, davew said:

Lovely star trails with tons of star colour and a good composition. Can you tell I like it ?

The other one surprises me as I've thought about shooting through bushes but always assumed it wouldn't work. You've changed my mind so I'm going to try it out now.

Cheers,

Dave.

Thanks Dave. Very kind. Ideally I’d have been a bit more “under” the lock, but I got as far out over the drainage channel as I dare given it was dark and I was by myself!! I was pleased with the star colours though given the strong gibbous moon.

Shooting through the bushes was just “have a go”! I think it helped having a short focal length lens (I was using a 14mm Samyang) so focus was straightforward. The breeze blurred out some of the twigs unfortunately, but it’s a composition I think I’ll enjoy playing with. I did a portrait version as well, which I think on reflection has a more pleasing line to draw the eye.

Basically what I’ve learned so far is: just give something a go!!

I spent a magical night of solitude at a nature reserve near my home in the Cambridgeshire Fens.  The moonlight glistened off the ripples in the lakes and draped the trees in a lovely silvery hue.  I captured this star trail shot in front of an old lock gate that kept the floodwaters from the River Great Ouse out of the former gravel pit workings that have now been handed over to wildlife.  I also found this lovely fallen tree trunk that extended out into one of the lakes with the stars of Aquila, Delphinus and Sagitta overhead (would love to get a shot without the moonlight to show the Milky Way arching upwards).  I'm new to this landscape stuff, but I'm finding it a really enjoyable way to spend an evening!

Thank you Iain.  That’s who I’d thought of but didn’t want to presume!!

My sister-in-law has been asked to write a piece for VisitCairngorms on stargazing in that part of the world and why it’s so good there.

I suggested it would be a nice idea to have some quotes from some actual Cairngorm-dwelling astronomers for it.  If you’d be happy to have a short chat with her (remotely, of course!) please would you DM me and I can put you in touch?  She is passionate about the positive impact that the natural world can have on our wellbeing and I couldn’t think of a better outplaying of that than a night under the stars!

I think there’s a copy deadline of this Saturday so ideally in the next day or two.

Thanks in advance!! 

Paul

@davew just wanted to say a big thank you for the YouTube link above.  His channel is a goldmine!! 

8 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Explain. Should Save to the memory card immediately, to a PC in a couple of seconds ?

Unless you have the camera's Noise Reduction switched on in the Custom Settings, which doubles the exposure time ?

Michael

Thank you - 450D now reading out beautifully!!  🤦‍♂️

3 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Explain. Should Save to the memory card immediately, to a PC in a couple of seconds ?

Unless you have the camera's Noise Reduction switched on in the Custom Settings, which doubles the exposure time ?

Michael

Hmmmm, that’s a very good point. Will need to check that out because it is taking roughly twice the exposure time to read out to PC. Will report back when home!!

I’m hoping I can tap into some of the amazing expertise on here, and my experience is SGLers are usually excellent at helping people spend money wisely!

Over the last 4 months or so I have had my Astro-mojo restored via simple DSLR imaging and landscape astrophotography.  I’ve also really enjoyed doing nighttime and daytime timelapses.  But I have limited imaging equipment at the moment, so I’m looking to make some purchases.  I’m selling on my (much loved, but currently underused) visual kit and hope to build a versatile imaging setup that’ll help me to progress with Astro and also daytime time lapses.

My interests lie in wide field (incl Astro-landscapes) and deep sky.  I’d like to be able to dabble with some lunar as well, but I’m happy if this setup can’t handle planetary at this stage.  I’d still like to do some visual, but am happy to have less firepower for that for now.

Conservatively, my budget is £1,800.  I could stretch to £2,000, but want to do this in a cost-neutral way so it will depend on whether I sell all the kit I’m expecting.

So here’s what I currently have, after selling my visual kit:

• Canon EOS 1000D (standard)
• Canon EOD 450D (modded)
• Samyang 16mm f/2 lens
• Altair Astro Starwave 70ED
• Skywatcher Star Adventurer pro pack
• SW AZ5 

One things that bugs me about the 450D is the readout time, which seems to effectively halve my imaging time. [FIXED - SEE BELOW!!]

So I’m interested in combinations of kit, mostly used, that might accommodate my requirements, including:

EQ mount

Fixed lenses (got my eye on the Samyang 135)

Alternative scope(s)

Alternative camera (original 6D?)

Or alternatively a method to narrow things down!!

Very grateful for any thoughts!!

Thank you all for your kind comments. In case anyone’s interested, here’s the clip from the local BBC news programme, Look East.  

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that most of the equipment on display had nothing at all to do with the image I captured!  I was asked to get as much cool-looking kit out as possible for the magic of TV!!  Unfortunately, as my wife pointed out, it meant that when I said that all I used was the kind of everyday equipment that a lot of people have lying around their house, I was standing in front of my OOUK VX12L!!  Oh well.

And finally, because I don’t think it comes across very well in this, the people in the UK who are really driving all of this work and research are the members of the NEMETODE network (nemetode.org) and SCAMP (https://ukmeteornetwork.co.uk/SCAMP/) - really they should have been the ones on this!

34km/s I'm told!!

11 minutes ago, Paul M said:

So this is the actual body illuminated by sunlight and not illuminated by burning in the upper atmosphere? Don't that make it an asteroid? 

So the best analogy is that of skimming a stone on a lake.  It started to burn up, but then rebounded back into space.  So it's not solar illumination (at only 1cm diameter, would be too small for that to be picked up with my 16mm lens).

Early last Tuesday morning the DSLR I’d set running all night in the garden and just before 5am captured a long streak, from one side of the 70 degree field to the other.  I initially dismissed it as a fast moving satellite (the exposure time was 30 seconds so it was going at quite a clip).

Anyway, it turns out it was a earth-grazing meteorite, and that apparently only a small handful of these have been accurately documented before.

Last night, out of the blue, I was contacted by a researcher from the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and, along with an actual expert in the field (thank goodness!), was interviewed for a slot going out this morning. Dr Denis Vida is founder of the Global Meteor Network of video meteor cameras and he’s been one of the people analysing the images captured across Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

So I just heard Justin Webb trailing the piece with “And as is 2020 weren’t already perilous enough, we’ll hear about a meteor that grazed the Earth.”

I think it’s amazing that chancing amateurs like me are able to contribute to real science, even if accidentally!

For interest, here’s the image I (fortuitously!) took, along with a trajectory that was calculated by Dr Marco Langbroek (the red bit is apparently the amount that my observation added to the recorded trail).

Lovely images.  I’ve not tried light painting but I really like the effect!