MarsG76

39 minutes ago, symmetal said:

Great image with fine detail in the galaxy, which makes it look like a 'Shredded Wheat' 🙂

I think you got your sums wrong on your f2 1280mm focal length scope though, which would have an aperture of 640mm or 25". 😉

Alan

 

Yes... I stand corrected.... thanks.

27 minutes ago, Elp said:

I do have a HS6 and tried Thor's Helmet last, you do lose resolution but gain in the pixel saturation. I've noticed at f6.3 there is far more detail but it's far dimmer so would require more exposure when using reduced.

Ah, so there is a trade off in resolution for brightness... I guess it depends what's more important for a particular project... speed or detail... either system has it's advantages and disadvantages. 

That is SO cool... the animation of the clouds definitely makes this the best earth based imaging work of Venus I have seen in a very long time...

Love the detail in the atmosphere... this image has a 3D look to it...

Excellent cloud detail... 

23 hours ago, Elp said:

Excellent result. I've tried imaging with the f6.3 and it's painfully slow... You've shown great dedication.

I probably don't need that much integration time to result in the same or similar results, but having a permanent telescope setup allows me to spend extra time exposing through each filter... plus the more subs I stack the greater the SNR resulting in less noise to deal with in processing...

I don't think that a C8 at f6.3 is that slow unless comparing to a f2 system like a Hyperstar or RASA with the same primary light gathering mirror... that said, those systems do collect photos from a much wider FOV so I'm not so sure that there would be more signal in an area that is cropped down to the same FOV as is the C8 f6.3 system... although a f2 system at 1280mm focal length would be a beast of a telescope but that would mean that the primary mirror is 2560mm, almost 101", in diameter.

23 hours ago, Albir phil said:

Not a failure as it stopped you wondering 🤔

A good way to look at it...

Hello All,

Sharing with you another image that I finished processing as I'm slowly going through my back log of exposures.
This is Centaurus A (NGC 5128), a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus 13 million lightyears away. NGC 5128 is one of the closest radio galaxies to Earth and is also the fifth-brightest in the sky, making it an ideal amateur astronomy target.
The galaxy is only visible from below very low northern latitudes but is best seen or imaged from the southern hemisphere.

This photo was imaged using a Celestron C8 and a QHY268M at f6.3 1280mm focal length.
Total integration time was 35 hours and 40 minutes, 48x300sec luminance subs through a neodymium filter, 27x120s red, 27x180s green, 27x300s blue, Hα:36x300s, OIII:31x600s & UV:21x1800s filters.

Why 35 hours? Because I spent 10.5 hours on exposing the galaxy through my UVenus filter as an experiment to see if I'll pickup anything more than the usual, aiming for a hint of it's (X-Ray) jets, hoping that there might be some kind of a UV remnant of them captured, but NO such luck... the UV data was extremely weak and all it added to the image was very faint deep blue highlights on a very small number of places... so subtle that the image would not be noticed as having anything less if I didn't expose the UV subs... I'm suspecting that the SCT corrector cuts out most of the UV light too... so failed but and experiment I'm glad I did because otherwise I'd be left wondering.

Thank for looking,
Clear Skies,
MG

Hello all,

Sharing another completed image in my back log of imaged data, this is IC 4592 also known as the "Blue Horsehead" Nebula, which is a reflection nebula which is lit by the star "Nu Scorpii" in the constellation of Scorpius.

Captured with a QHY268M camera through a Sigma 150mm f2.8 prime lens in LRGB color and Hydrogen Alpha narrowband on the nights between 10 & 17 June 2023.

The total integration time was 20 hours and 20 minutes.

Thanks for looking & Clear Skies,
MG

Hello,

Another image I processed from a quickie exposure after my observation session on 25th June... I located this globular cluster in the eyepiece in my 14" Dobsonian (among observing other objects) and it looked absolutely fantastic, so after I concluded my observation, I powered the C8 and decided to image this great specimen of an eyepiece vision.
After 12 x 300 second luminance subs, the winds really picked up, forcing me to end imaging with only 1 hour of luma data.
As I stacked what I had, I realised that I imaged this globular a bit over a year ago... completely forgot about it... and still had the raw RGB subs on the HDD from back than... so I aligned that data to tonights luminance resulting in this shared image. 

NGC 6752, also known as the Great Peacock Globular or the Pavo Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster in the constellation Pavo.
It is the fourth-brightest globular cluster in the sky, after Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae and Messier 22, respectively. It is best seen from June to October in the Southern Hemisphere.

Imaged using a 8" SCT at f6.3 (1280mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera.

The total integration time for this image through all of the LRGB filters was 4 hours and 12 minutes.
Exposures: L:12x300s @ FW:31 used as luminance from last years R:20x120s G:19x180s B:19x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 data.

Thank for looking,
Clear skies,
MG

Hi all,
Sharing with you my last processed image as I'm slowly going through my aquired data from the last month.

This section of sky, located in the constellation of Scorpius near the star Zeta Scorpii, and looks like a silhouette of a wolf or a werewolf creature in long exposure photographs hidden in faint nebulosity. This nebula is known as the Wolf Nebula or the Fenrir Nebula from Norse mythology but officially known as SL 17 and lies very close to GUM 55 and "The Dark Tower" in Scorpius and not a popular object among amateur astronomers. 

The dark nebula region in the photo is a type of dense interstellar cloud and dust in space that obscures the light from the background stars creating the shape of the "Wolf". The reddish sections are Hydrogen Alpha emissions, populated by many stars of differing types and colors as seen in the photo.

I exposed this photo across multiple nights, from 18th - 23rd June 2023, from my backyard that is under a Bortle 4 semi rural sky through a C8 SCT at f6.3 using a QHY268M astronomy camera.
The total integration time was 23 Hours and 34 minutes in HAlpha, SII and OIII Narrowband for the nebulosity and through RGB filters for the star colors.

Clear Skies,
MG

Not for $30 per photo to enter...

15 hours ago, Jim L said:

The voice of experience, perchance?  🤔

Yes, I experienced hearing that Americans enjoy a probe or two... 😉

On 17/06/2023 at 20:43, 900SL said:

What about Alien abduction? I've heard on good account this is a real and present risk for the American astronomer at dark sky locations. Or will a chupacabra bite your neck? Interested bystanders need to know!

Aliens tend to do a lot of probing... and from what I hear... many americans would enjoy that...

On 19/06/2023 at 11:49, Jim L said:

Almost stepped on this handsome fellow at an observing site. He was buzzing away but I never heard him because I had earbuds in listening to a podcast. Fortunately we parted friends.

[Word Removed] that for a joke... I can't stand snakes and it makes it that much worse living in an area which has Red Bellied Black, Eastern Brown and Tiger snakes... the eastern brown [Word Removed] is one of the deadliest snakes on the planet and this sucker chases you if it has a bad day... get bitten by one and be alone or more than 15 minutes from help and you'll probably be unconscious unable to breathe as it's venom effects your nervous system... the Tiger is very deadly too although it will not chase you.. BUT those [removed word]'s are camouflaged and people get bitten when they're near one or step on one... The red bellies avoid confrontation and slither away, but will bite if trapped or stepped on... if a healthy adult gets bitten, their day and week will be ruined but most survive, although advised to get anti venom.... 

not mentioning spiders... Funnel Webs, red back, white tips oh my....

14 hours ago, Neil_104 said:

Such amazing colours in this area - stunning images! I'm having a go at Antares and M4 myself at the moment - I get 2 hours imaging time per night of this target atm, that's the time it takes to appear from behind next door's house, to disappearing behind a tree 😂 But the extra challenge makes the final result mean so much more.

Two hours os better than nothing and it sounds like those 2 hours are when the area is in the best location in the sky for imaging... looking forward to seeing your version of this colorful region.

Hi all,

Just a quick post sharing my resulting images after I spent clear (and mostly moonless) nights during May and first half of June exposing close up images into the wide field of Rho Ophiuchus nebula complex that I imaged June last year through a 150mm Sigma prime lens.

I've added a inset image showing which part of Rho Ophiuchus nebula complex has been magnified.

These images were exposed with a QHY268M CMOS camera through a Bosma 80mm doublet refractor at f6.25 (500mm focal length). The luminance channel had a Neodymium filter to cut out sky glow.
 

Clear Skies,

MG

3 hours ago, russ said:

My little 60mm Tasco was what got me hooked on the hobby in 1982. My parents initially followed that age old advice of buy a good pair of binoculars instead of a cheaper telescope. So I started with a pair of Swift 7x50. They ended my interest instantly. Then I got the Tasco and hooked. I'm sure going back to it now it would be horrendous but I thought it was the business at the time and it wiped the floor with any pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binos regardless of brand or price. That part I would still stand by now. 

I agree that there is more to be seen in the 60mm scope than binos, but there is still something great about the wide views in my Olympus DPS-1 on a clear night, something about looking through two eyes make the views very glassy or crystal clear and contrasty under my bortle 4 skies. 

5 hours ago, Peter_D said:

Yes, I agree that he should have differentiated between new 60mm refractors and vintage 60mm refractors. I've had several 60/700 or 60/900 refractors from the 1970s and they've been good performers on the Moon, double stars  and brighter DSOs. 

So you think that the TASCO 49TE 60mm frac was with better optics and built than the white 60mm TASCO reviewed by Ed?

5 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

When I stack exposures in Deep Sky Stacker, it creates a 'master' version of all the calibration files that it used (in my case a 'masterdark'.tif, a 'masterflat'.tif and a 'masterdarkflat.tif').

My questions are whether I can;

a) use *just* these master files as the calibration files in future DSS stacks (rather than loading up all the individual calibration .fits files), and

b) use them in other stacking software (such as Affinity Photo) - again instead of using all the individual calibration files.

I have tried it and it seemed to work - but I'd like confirmation that I'm not doing something daft (what with AP being a dark art and all 😉 )

Thanks

 

Ady

Yes to A)... I compared stacking with the master files and individual files in DSS with the same results... at least I couldn't see a difference when pixel peeping...

And I'd say NO to B), I tried using the DSS generated master dark in Nebulosity and my stacks came out severely blacks clipped... so No to at least Nebulosity.

I only half agree with his analysis of that TASCO refractor... when I was a kid, I had the TASCO 49TE... similar to the one he talked about, except red not white and 900mm focal length... advertised to have 320X magnifications.
I remember seeing the moon through it, few clusters, nebulae, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus etc.. and they were all exciting to me.... even when pushing that refractor to the max magnification of 320X!!! Yes the views of the moon, Jupiter and Saturn were dim and blurry... Jupiter no more than a yellow fuzz ball, but I could make out craters and the large rings of Saturn quickly rifting through the FOV. Even though looking at all of those objects looked better at 64X, much brighter and sharper, to the young me it was the thrill of seeing a huge Saturn, and was sort of like a challenge. I was most definitely NOT a hobby killer for me.... quite the contrary... actually the reason why to date a small fortune was spent of the gear and I have a small observatory...

I'm not saying that I'd recommend this telescope to anyone, just that it's not a hobby killer for someone who is young, starting out and doesn't have unrealistic expectation... but I do have fond memories of spending nights outside with that TASCO even though compared to what I'm seeing now through the eyepiece, the views were quite rubbish at anything more than 64X mag.

+1 APT

Hello and welcome to SGL... even if your visits might be infrequent.

Hello All,

Sharing with you my imaging results from March 2023, the "Statue of Liberty" nebula (NGC3576) and NGC 3503, both are in the Carina constellation and very close together in the sky.

The "Statue of Liberty" integration time was 22 hours and 15 minutes, where as NGC3503 proved to be considerably fainter so I had to spend more time in imaging it to get a workable SNR.. even after a total of 33 hours and 38 minutes, the noise level was still quite visible.

Both images were exposed through a C8 SCT at f6.3, with a QHY268M, Baader filters and tracked using a hypertuned CGEM mount.

Clear Skies,

MG

6 hours ago, Sandygo said:

Hi all,

Just signed up after reading so many posts I was directed to from Google!

I have already bought a modified Logitech pro 4000, 10m pc control cable, Celestron zoom lens, Bahtinov mask and some vibration pads. Oh and bought the Celestron gps unit which cost a fortune!

Looking forward to trying it all out should be receiving the scope tomorrow.

Welcome, another member to see how deep is the astronomy rabbit hole?