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MarsG76

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Everything posted by MarsG76

  1. MarsG76
    Possible that it's caused by a out of FOV bright star, but more likely it's from a street light. At one point during the tracking the scope was angled where a street light was in that direction and about half of the subs had this flare every night. I had to remove the dew shield from my SCT because there were slight wind gusts which were caught by the shield and caused a bit of a vibration, ruining subs.. as you can imagine that at 2000mm FL it doesn't take much to render a sub unusable... I have dew heating which controlled the condensation on the corrector but external light flaring does (and did) occur frequently in the past when I removed the dew shield.
  2. MarsG76
    Thats disgusting behaviour... what a some dishonest people are doing is, after this oil leak issue has been shown to have been very common, they're palming off the oil leak problem onto unsuspecting buyers and getting the QHY268 series that doesn't seem to have the oil leak problem. They knock off a few hundred dollars from a new price and just go and get a new QHY which happens to be a few hundred dollars cheaper. Looks like cleaning it is your only option... if you're handy with small/jewelers screw drivers than it doesn't look like a difficult job... Look up "Windy City Astronomy" on YouTube, he goes through cleaning this kind of oil leak on one of his videos. Problem is that this oil leak has returned for a number of astroimagers who had it cleaned or cleaned it them selves, so it might return, that said, I'm sure that there is a limit to how many times it will return.
  3. MarsG76
    That sounds like a good plan, just be careful about how much space you create between the OAG and the camera as there is a limited amount of distance that you'll be able to pull out of the OAG before using extenders (which is not ideal).
  4. MarsG76
    Yes I BIN2x2 my 120MM mini.... As far as imaging goes, I dont see my self going back to guide scope again... once the OAG is setup as running... and thats not that hard to do one you do it a few times... takes care of flexture and you're guiding at the same focal length as imaging. One important thing to note is make sure the OAG is parfocal with the camera, half the problems in not finding a guide star was that the OAG was not in exact focus, limiting to the brightest stars if not completely eliminating seeing any of them.
  5. MarsG76
    I'm using a ZWO120MM mini with a OAG on my C8 at 2032mm focal length, and I don't remember having a situation where I didn't find at least one guide star within the search area. On my 500mm focal length refractor, I don't think I ever seen a starless field.
  6. MarsG76
    Do it... and tag me on your posts about it.
  7. MarsG76
    Now this looks like a experiment calling out for attention... have you got a 3D printer? If so, print the mask and give it a try.
  8. MarsG76
    Yes thats true... although if a Takahashi has this issue than it must not be a big deal... chromatic abberations are definitely of no concern when imaging with a mono camera and the telescope is refocused for each filter.
  9. MarsG76
    I think you nailed it... thanks for that link.... Images in the link definitely resemble what I was seeing... and I think that I didn't see this phenomenon before because I was focusing at a lower resolution image BIN 2x2 or 4x4... now I did it at BIN 1x1 with the 1:1 view centered in the frame and it all became curly. I did a experiment today and again I saw the culrs but not at BIN 4x4. Nice work.
  10. MarsG76
    Definitely not oscillations.... I think Vlaiv is on the money...
  11. MarsG76
    I installed version 4.00 and used it as a test session tonight during the full moon and I'm happy to say, no weird adverse bugs showed up in about 5 hours of use... thank you for your hard work.
  12. MarsG76
    Looks round and completely normal.
  13. MarsG76
    Theres nothing visibly obvious...
  14. MarsG76
    Hi All, Has anyone seen this phenomenon while using a Bahtinov mask for focusing... for some reason my diffraction spikes are curly! There was no scope/mount vibration that I could detect, no other obstruction in the optical path such as dew, dirt or anything other than a UV/IR filter. No trees or other obstruction in the line of sight. There was a little bit of haze in the sky and the 88% full moon was about 25 degrees toward the east from the star I was focusing on at the time. Also these curls rotate with the rotation of the Bahtinov mask... So unless the curls are some kind of a negative moon phase reflection, I'm out of ideas at this time. The diffraction spikes on my SCT are straight, so this seems to be happening on my BOSMA Beta-RE 80mm refractor, but I haven't seen this happen before tonight. Camera is a QHY268M. This has not stopped me from focusing on the star, and doesn't look like this effect is present in my test subs exposures, but I'm very curious to what could be causing these curls. Clear Skies, Mariusz
  15. MarsG76
    A UV/IR Cut filter will definitely improve guiding... but heres an idea I've had and tested with consistently improved guiding results... I'm now using my IRPass685 filter on my ZWO120MM mini guide cam instead of the IR cut filter and my guiding seems to have consistently improved by around 0.2" RMS.
  16. MarsG76
    Hi Wim... I'd love to add Ha if weather would permit...
  17. MarsG76
    Hello All, Sharing with you the last of my 6 pictures that I imaged across the 8 clear nights that I had between 21 April and 7 May. This is NGC 3521 is a flocculent intermediate spiral galaxy located around 26 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Leo. I think that this is a nice looking galaxy but unfortunately the end resulting image turned out quite soft, a lot softer than I was hoping for after seeing my initial subs. The stars are looking a little bit bloated and fuzzy, but I know that I didn’t have condensation problem on the corrector plate or the camera sensor, so I’m suspecting that either (and most likely) the focus was slight off or the bubble of dust that is surrounding this galaxy is obscuring the hard details… I’m leaning toward focus (or seeing) being the biggest problem because the stars are fuzzy and I had tighter stars in the past at this focal length. I’m going to have to re-image this galaxy in the future, perhaps revisit it next year. Imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera on a HyperTuned CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image for all of the LRGB filters was 12 hours and 1 minutes. Exposures: L:14x600s @ FW:31 & L:6x600s, L:8x900s, R:12x120s & 7x180s, G:12x180s & 6x300s, B:12x300s & 7x600s, Hα:16x600s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 Clear Skies, Mariusz
  18. MarsG76
    Flocculent Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Leo - NGC3521

    From the album: Deep Sky Astrophotography

    NGC 3521 is a flocculent intermediate spiral galaxy located around 26 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Leo. Imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera on a HyperTuned CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image for all of the LRGB filters was 12 hours and 1 minutes. Exposures: L:14x600s @ FW:31 & L:6x600s, L:8x900s, R:12x120s & 7x180s, G:12x180s & 6x300s, B:12x300s & 7x600s, Hα:16x600s @ HCG:62/OFS:25

    © Mariusz Goralski

  19. MarsG76
    I think that it's a good quality image, although it does need more subs... more data (and dithering subs) will remove the noise and color mottle. That said, I love imaging with my C8, (same specs as the 8SE) and the 8SE, or any 8" SCT will have it's challenges and limitations. One is the coma at the edges which needs to be cropped off. The other problem is the fact that with 2032mm (or 1280mm with a 0.63 reducer) needs very clear skies for it to perform at it's capable resolution, otherwise the images will be oversampled and soft with bloated stars. Personally I always BIN 2x2, and if my seeing is worse than 2" I just don't bother, or image with my refractor at 500mm. But when the seeing is good, 1" or better, the details that the 8SE is capable of capturing is fantastic. So to answer your question... NO the 8SE is capable of considerable better quality images.
  20. MarsG76
    Beautiful M51 with which to end the galaxy season.
  21. MarsG76
    Yup, I think you got it.... that is so awesome.
  22. MarsG76
    Hello again from down under... This is the second last object image that I have imaged during my clear and moon less nights I was lucky to have been graced with... When I was exposing The Eagle Nebula, I imaged it through all of my narrowband filters, S2, Ha, O3 and HBeta... The first image I processed was predominantly using the standard Hubble palette SHO method (with HBeta only used for star color), but a while ago I found that using a color configuration of Ha, O3 and Hb as RGB, actually delivers colors which are very close to natural looking... with the added benefit of cutting through light pollution, allowing much longer sub exposures than with broadband RGB and potentially capturing fainter matter with more contrast. This image was taken with a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera and tracked using a "hypertuned" CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image was 12 hours and 45 minutes. Exposures: Hα:17x600s, OIII:17x900s, Hβ:17x1200s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 Clear Skies, Mariusz
  23. MarsG76
    Hello Fellow lovers of Astronomy, As clouds have returned, I'm continuing in processing my captured data of the 6 DSO objects I imaged across the 8 clear and moonless nights I was lucky to have recently. The images attached are of the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) and the Antennae Galaxies (NGC4038 & 4039) through LRGB filters... The Antenna galaxies were a last minute choice when I got ready to image the Sombrero and realised that my observatory hut still obscured it, so I though that I'll spend a couple of hours on the Antennae through the same filters before moving onto the Sombrero a bit later on in the night, and perhaps score a bonus image to add to my collection. The Antennae Galaxies ( NGC 4038/NGC 4039) are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are currently going through a starburst phase, in which the collision of clouds of gas and dust, with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. The total exposure time of the Antennae Galaxies through all of the LRGB filters was 5 hours and 9 minutes. Exposures: L:15x600s @ FW:31, R:17x120s G:15x180s B:16x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 And the total exposure time the Sombrero image for all of the LRGB filters was 6 hours and 14 minutes. Exposures: L:17x600s & 15x300s @ FW:31, R:14x120s, G:12x180s, B:13x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 Both pictures were imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera. Clear Skies, Mariusz
  24. MarsG76
    The Eagle nebula - M16 (HαOIIIHβ Narrowband)

    From the album: Deep Sky Astrophotography

    The Eagle nebula (M16/NGC6611) in the constellation Serpens exposed through narrowband filters at Hα, OIII and Hβ wavelengths to emulate natural colors as those narrowband wavelengths are closely corresponding to the RGB wide band. This image was taken with a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera and tracked using a "hypertuned" CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image was 12 hours and 45 minutes. Exposures: Hα:17x600s, OIII:17x900s, Hβ:17x1200s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 The color channel assignments are HAlpha, OIII and HBeta as RGB.

    © Mariusz Goralski

  25. MarsG76
    Antennae Galaxies - NGC4038 & NGC4039

    From the album: Deep Sky Astrophotography

    The Antennae Galaxies ( NGC 4038/NGC 4039) are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are currently going through a starburst phase, in which the collision of clouds of gas and dust, with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. Imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera. The total exposure time of this image for all of the LRGB filters was 5 hours and 9 minutes. Exposures: L:15x600s @ FW:31, R:17x120s G:15x180s B:16x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25

    © Mariusz Goralski

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