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Aussie Dave

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Posts posted by Aussie Dave

  1. The Lagoon nebula taken early May this year with a Tamron BBAR Multi C 300mm f/5.6 telephoto lens stopped down to f/8 and Sony a5000 on EQ6 Pro mount. This is a re-edit and heavily cropped just to show the nebula and surrounding area. Captured in less than ideal conditions from Mandurah Western Australia. The stacked image with this lens showed blue doughnut rings around medium to bright stars and was difficult to get rid of, I did leave some around the neb and lightened them a tad.

    95 x 30 seconds, ISO 1600, 50 darks.

    Stacked in Sequator, edited in PaintDotNet.

    15008062_LagoonNebulaAstrophotographyWesternAustralia.png.23c039ee935b1e00ee960fb09b1bc155.png

    • Like 4
  2. 3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

    I hope so - looking at my results I started when Jupiter was in Orion using webcams. Each year my gera and technique got better but Jupiter got lower and my image quality stayed more or less the same. Hoepfully over eth next six years both my skill and the seeing will improve together!

    I'm sure the planets could be moving northwards, they don't seem to be as high as last year.

  3. Well done Neil. I had a look at your first video and it's a good result for that type of seeing and at such a low altitude.

    For me in the south west of Western Australia and being near the coast, seeing for me is poor most of the time, however a planetary friend who lives about 70kms north from me and further inland away from the coast is getting very good seeing most nights now when there's no cloud. We have the luxury of waiting for Jupiter and Saturn to reach their highest and often don't start imaging if they are below about 65 degrees unless there's an early or late GRS or transit. Plus if seeing is bad, we often don't image at all.

    My last attempt 2 weeks ago wasn't so great and since this it's been nothing but cloudy nights and patchy rain. You're probably getting more clear nights now than us all the way down here 😄

    This was with the Saxon 8" Mak and Meade Telenegative 2x Barlow, fl 5000, f/24.6, ASI224mc as a comparison. You should be able to get similar Neil with more stable seeing near their highest elevation.

    1323016650_Jupiter-AstrophotographyWesternAustralia-DavidJohnson.jpg.24680321035aa3c086951141e86813a0.jpg

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 1
  4. A couple of areas captured near each other with a heaps of varying features. Taken on the 11th of July from Mandurah Western Australia.
     
    Captured in SharpCap, stacked in AutoStakkert 3, wavelets in RegiStax 6, stitched in Image Composite Editor, edited in PaintDotNet and Fitswork.

    ZWO AS174MM
    Saxon 8" Maksutov
    SkyWatcher EQ6 Pro

    359764805_19_41_29_pipp_l4_ap125720pFinal4c.png.e7a2ab01f46d45c013075f524ec2e795.png
    • Like 5
  5. Centaurus A Galaxy NGC 5128 aka The Hamburger Galaxy captured on the 18th of March last year with an 83% illuminated moon, conditions average to poor from Mandurah Western Australia. This is my second attempt at this galaxy, this time with a 6" achro frac. The first attempt was terrible with my previously owned C8i on it's alt az mount. I did have some slight drift and getting good collimation seems to be elusive with this older refractor. It also gives bad blue rings around brighter stars which is very annoying and difficult to get rid of.

    I've only been doing DSO astrophotography seriously for about 18 months when the sky allows and I'm no expert at this DSO bizzo but content with my progression so far, I'm always learning new things and enjoying it immensely.

    189 x 30 seconds, ISO 1600, 24 darks.

    Aligned and stacked in Sequator, edited in PaintDotNet and a rework tonight to tidy things up a little more in Fitswork. The second image is a 75% full res crop with less editing to try to bring out some central detail that's usually washed out.

    Sony a5000
    Antares 6" achromatic reflector, fl 990mm, f/6.6
    SkyWatcher EQ6 Pro

    162958554_CentaurusAGalaxy-DavidJohnson-APWAFitswork.png.06503d014c74ceb4856af54e14103608.png

    1315195297_CentaurusAGalaxyTest275pCropLATESTWIP.png.dcc347b5fe642dabad139d74858940db.png

    • Like 5
  6. 1 minute ago, Scooot said:

    Thanks Dave, it’s always hit and miss as to whether these HDR combinations turn out ok or not for me :) 

    Ha! funny you should mention that Scoot. I tried HDR for the first time on my Sony a5000 to try and get Earthshine but camera said No! I think it had something to do with the operator.

    • Haha 1
  7. Around midnight I captued the 100% illuminated moon with a Saxon 10" Newtonian reflector and Sony a5000.

    Then from about 3am I started on the partial lunar eclipse with a Sigma 70-300mm f/4 - 5.6 zoom lens. I tried a different exposure technique setting on the a5000 called High Dynamic Range with Dynamic Range Optimizer which didn't work out so well. The moon was much lower in the sky and I should've tested these settings before hand but quite please I got what I did. I almost deleted all the eclipse photos as they didn't look that great at full res but it was a last minute decision to put a 4 shot sequence in the corners of the full moon shot.

    PIPP used to pre-process 24 full moon photos, AutoStakkert 3 to align and stack, wavelets in RegiStax 6, edited in PaintDotNet with a final tweak in Fitswork.

     

    136194684_DSC02445_pipp_l4_ap1475100prs70pFinal.png.78e79853955022b17038df73cc5cdf56.png

    • Like 4
  8. Crater Clavius, Crater Maginus  the little Clavius (just below left of Clavius) plus some others from the 11th of July.

    Captured in SharpCap, stacked in AutoStakkert 3, wavelets in RegiStax 6, edited in PaintDotNet with a final tweak in Fitswork.

    ZWO AS174MM

    Saxon 8" Maksutov

    SkyWatcher EQ6 Pro

    Location Mandurah Western Australia.

    1291420853_19_10_57_l4_ap17692316stFinal_2Lunar.png.f0e38f3b3c7995dedaea5fca9b112fe2.png

    • Like 9
  9. There's the 2.5x PowerMate 1.25" Gina which I had for quite a while. There wasn't much difference I found from the PowerMate to my 2x Barlows which I have quite a few of including a couple of ED Barlows although conditions here aren't often great, plus I think the planets are very low in the sky for you there and will be for some years. You won't see a vast improvement, it will be minimal at best. I ended up selling my 2.5x PowerMate recently as it wasn't getting used. I'll just stick to my better quality Barlows for when seeing conditions are good or better while the planets are high in the sky here in Australia or not bother with them at all. I can not justify the new prices of them. If you were to buy one try and pick up a nice used one, at least then if you're not happy with it you can re-sell it and get your money back.

    • Thanks 1
  10. Jupiter at 9:48pm last night. Conditions good Mandurah Western Australia. Finally some decent seeing! This is the best I've captured this season from the South West of WA.

    Captured in SharpCap, Stacked in AutoStakkert 3, wavelets in RegiStax 6, edited in PaintDotNet.

    Image was resized in RS6 to 200% with the Mitchell filter, edited, then reduced to 80% of that size. I find this much better than using Drizzle in AS3!

    The second image is only a 2 image gif to try and work out what's noise and what's actual gas cloud detail and gifs are not the best way to show this. Each image was about 197kb in size and the two image gif is now 99kb. I'm rethinking my capture settings to try and get the best faint detail while reducing noise. I've dropped gain on the non cooled 224mc to 180, adjusted exposure to around 60 frames per second and dropped the time of the recordings to 2 minutes instead of 3 minutes.

    ZWO ASI224MC
    Saxon 8" Maksutov, fl 2500mm, f/12.5
    SkyWatcher EQ6 Pro

     

    2012826305_Jupiter2ndJuly2019-DavidJohnson-AstrophotographyWesternAustralia.png.e2cea0e24ff61df683590339daae4a3a.png

    418475618_Jupiter2imageGIF-DavidJohnson-APWA.gif.df420300d7a7cb0a58f40e0c09caa978.gif

    • Like 23
  11. Was it easy? I have heard the Mak's* tend to be a pain in the @+$€!

    * especially the Meade ETX series, as one has to remove the rear assembly, to get to the collimation screws.

    It seemed too easy Philip but being my first time, it still took about 15 minutes and looking through that pin hole stuffed my eye up for some time. No back plate on mine, only rubber oval plugs that hide the primary mirror adjustment screws and hex screws. If I knew what I was doing, it's a 3 minute job or less on the Saxon.

    I have to collimate my Celestar C8 SCT too and that has the back plate that needs removal first, but that job's for another day.

    I forgot I had this collimating EP. I just can't figure out my laser collimator.

  12. I  did my first telescope collimation tonight on the Saxon with a collimation eyepiece.

    post-40030-0-45580000-1444411004.jpg

    post-40030-0-43487900-1444411044.jpg

    Who would of thought that this cheap looking piece of plastic could be so helpful. A very handy piece to have in your case. Much easier to use than a laser collimator from what I could work out.

    At first glace I could tell the primary mirror was out, quite noticeable. Being my first time collimating, I fumbled my way through it, adjusting each of the 3 screws until the dark shadow of the secondary mirror was centered as best I could. I would say it's now 90% better than what it was looking through the collimating eyepiece.

    Hopeing to get out soon to test and see if the star coma's have gone.

  13. Called it a night, fingers started to get numb and dew forming on grass.

    The EQ6 Pro performed faultlessly. I only did a rough polar alignment, no star aligment. It did have some slight drift which is to be expected, but very acceptable. That surprised me.

    I started the brief viewing session in light polluted backyard with the William Optics SPL 12.5mm 1.25" and finished with a Meade QX Wide Angle 26mm 2" EP. What I did notice was that there was some star coma, all pointing the same way so the Saxon will need a slight adjustment. Will test again on a warmer night as I don't think the mirror cooled down enough and the temperature was still falling.

    Found 2 larger star clusters and a very small faint fuzzy. Sorry I can't give more info on what I saw. I still have my L plates on.

    Overall I'm very pleased with the Saxon.

    Time for a hot cuppa!

  14. That's cheered me up a bit then (admittedly at your expense!) as I always assumed places like Western Australia were so dry that dew wouldn't form. 

    Nice scope btw - I've only had an ETX for a Mak, but its high power views were really rather good. 

    I've had the ETX70 frac and ETX90 Mak Osbourne, both nice little scopes but I'm high magnification obsessed atm with scopes. Still trying to get a 5mm EP or slightly less that performs well. Atmospheric conditions do play a big part there.

  15. Michael you gave me that little push tonight with your first comment to get it all out. It's the first time I've used the EQ6 Pro since buying that too. So... if it all goes belly up, you're to blame :p

    I still haven't worked out how to polar align or remember any star names. I'll just hunt a little. I still haven't seen a galaxy yet, That's high on my list of things to see.

    Orions not up yet either, I really wanted to check that large neb out, it's been too long. There will be many better nights to test my gear.

    Visual tonight is with a William Optics SPL 12.5mm 1.25".

  16. Dewshield about 2 inches too short :/

    Set up took about 40 minutes, Scope cooling down atm. I was hoping to get some moon shots tonight but the moon's not up until early am. Not sure I'll be out for that long.

    post-40030-0-22555900-1444134645.jpg

    Do you have dew in west Australia?!

    Yes we do at times Osbourne and quite bad. Now it's warm days, cold nights. Anything that outside and not covered get's wet.

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