Nigel G

A possible target for the test could be M17 Omega nebula, around the same altitude as Saturn in the southern sky atm. I took this during the full moon last night and it was close to the target, because of the moon I could only get 15s exposure at 400 iso and only 30 minutes worth before the faint clouds started to arrive. Nige.

I think there's 4 there, on my mobile there's none there ☺ now the colours I was trying to decide what colour I wanted it to be ?, for me it's the hardest dso to process so far, getting the colour the same as you can see is blooming hard, I spent ages on colours. The little box in the bottom left of one is a copy paste mistake, I only noticed after I had closed startools ?. Nige.

I stand corrected, after processing all 4 M31 images I find a little more detail as more subs are added. Few, I thought I was running out of room for improvement. The 4 images . No1 = 40 x 45s during quite poor seeing. No2 = 120 x 30s during good seeing and low light pollution . No3 = 120 x 30s plus 40 x 45s during full moon. No4 = everything 120 x 30s + 80 × 45s . There is a small difference between them , a bit more detail on the outer spirals, I find M31 a difficult dso to process. I get a lot of noise to deal with even after stacking 200 subs. I think this is due to the camera and sensor limits rather than the scope. Nige.

Canon eos 1200d unmodded. Nige.

Looking at this image and my attempt it looks like I have a shed load of noise, what is going on, my image shows far more apparent nebulosity which isn't on other images. Is that noise ? Have I hit a brick wall? I have been experimenting with M31 . I have 60 minutes of good 30s subs and 60 minutes of mixed 45s ( some have quite heavy light pollution some have moon light interference some are good) I have stacked 4 different sets of images. 1st , 1 hour of 30s........2nd 1 hour of 30s plus 30 minutes of street light polluted 45s.........3rd 1 hour of 30s plus 30 minutes taken with full moon up........ and 4th everything stacked 2h exposure. I still have to process the 2 hour image but there's hardly any difference if any between the images already processed,. Have I reached the limit of my camera or scope ? I notice the central 30% of my images seems to be good in detail but outside that a quick loss of detail. Camera or scope or both ? At the moment I can't seem to improve my images, have I come to the point where upgrades are needed? I'll post the M31 images once completed. Nige.

A good idea, certainly should gather some useful information, something like orion neb although that's a few months off yet, 30 minutes of subs limit ? Although light pollution in different areas could play a part in the result. Plus aperture. Still a good idea and worth trying. Nige.

Modern software and digital images makes editing easy these days, It's really quite difficult to get an image with its true colours and shades though ☺

I had a chance to get about 1 hour 40 minutes of subs on the North American nebula with the 55mm lense a few nights ago, nice clear sky's but before 1am so street light pollution had to be delt with. The subs were 120 x 30s the rest 45s , plus 30 dark frames and the usual bias. Star discovery mount, Canon eos 1200d with standard lense at 55mm, iso 1600 f5.6 with a converted flowerpot dew shield ( which worked great ) DSS and StarTools. I have posted 2 images, one with the stars reduced. Taking into account the camera is the cheap end of the dslr range and you can't get much cheaper alt az goto mounts this has turned out pretty good. I think I need to add a half decent 200mm lense to the collection. When I see the size of this nebula I realise it would take around 8 to 10 images from the scope stitched together to get the whole picture. Nige.

Aperture mask for my scope , wouldn't that reduce the field of view? I just looked up aperture masks, now would I need to make a hole as big as possible for my scope? ie missing the secondary mirror and supports. also the scope cover cap has a small cap on it about 2.5 " diameter would that be of any use ? Talking of aperture what would a good setting be with camera lenses for dso's, higher or lower value. I set mine on lowest value for this image. I like the dew shield flowerpot ☺I had a simular idea last night with a small lightweight resin pot. Nige.

Last night I had nothing to do but worry and the sky's were clear. So I decided to try my camera and 55mm lense on the mount. Starting around 11pm I thought I'd get 2 or 3 hours subs on ngc7000 wide field. I aligned the mount with the scope then swapped to the camera. The first thing I noticed was not one sub was unusable , I took a couple of quick 10s to get my bearings. Then a couple of 45s, no visible trails but quite a bit of street light pollution, not as bad as with the scope though. So I dropped the subs to 30s. Every sub was good, the only trouble was they started to fade in detail after about 20 minutes? I thought it must be dew on the lense, a quick check and no dew? What the heck. Look up you fool it's getting cloudy ? So this image is only a tad over 20 minutes exposure with dark and bias. DSS and StarTools. Canon 1200d 55mm lense F 5.3 1600 iso on alt-az mount. There is bags of potential for wide field imaging. I'm hoping tonight will be better to add to the data. The forecast is good. With a couple of hours subs I think much more detail will come. Another thing I noticed was the rotation appeared to be much less ( impossible but ) The stars are smaller and the field bigger probably making the rotation less obvious. Normally when I scroll through the raw images there's a very apparent field rotation, with these I could see no rotation but there is only 25 minutes total imaging time. I have cropped about 20% around the image. The second image has had a touch of noise reduction and contrast . Nige.

I was wondering nebula filter would fit and be of benifit , and whether a LP filter would be of benifit while the street lights are on before 1am.

I have found a solution to adding filters . A piece of 1.25" plastic waist pipe ☺slotted and sleeved around the nose of a t ring fits nice and snug into the drawtube the end thread on the nose is now available for use ☺☺ first and second pics is the idea, the last is fitted and focused. A 5 minute job ☺

Op went well and no infection found ☺they have removed part of the lower intestine, I think it helps having a sister who is a theatre nurse and a brother in law who is a consultant surgeon, not that it should but it does. I mount my camera via a home made thingy. this is the camera,,,, homemade thingy,,,,, draw tube setup and attached at focus distance. . I have no threads to attach threaded filters etc.

I wish I could say all is well BUT Unfortunately mum is now in theater, she has to have a stoma. It's quite a bit worse than expected. Keep the thread alive with your image's, ideas and suggestions and I'll be back to catch up. Nige.

I'm not sure but think I have the same trouble with attaching the focal reducer as I would with filters sadly. I am looking at 200 to 300 mm lenses for my camera, just looking at costs and quality , I'm going to give it a go with my 55mm lense. I have a camera mount for my mount ☺

It's something I had thought about but come up with problems, main one being I cannot fit anything in front of the camera due to having to cut the focuser already. I also looked into making a wedge but that would disqualify for the no eq. However a wedge is possible, but would my synscan work or need reprogramming, then as people have pointed out you will still be limited by the az capabilities. Guiding would be needed. I do happen to have a guide camera but no scope. But this would put me well over weight for my mount so a no go. I think the best way for now is to remove the 1 inch section of draw tube that protrudes into the main tube and be very particular about what subs are kept. I know I can improve some there. Also stop being impatient and focus more on one target rather than getting greedy trying to get 2 or 3 in a night as Happy-kat as already pointed out to me ☺ One problem I have with the star discovery is I don't think I could use any filters ( nebula or LP ) because of the modifications. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

Thanks for all your well wishes, Mum's in for tests after having very bad pains and loosing quite a bit of blood, looks like it's diataviculitus, don't know if I spelt that right but waiting for scan to see the extent of the problem. I am aware of the condition as I very nearly lost my longest and bestiist friend to it a few years back. Mother has caught this nice and early so fingers crossed. Thanks again, I will catch up on the posts this evening ☺☺

Hey guys. Sorry for not contributing, my mother has been taken into hospital, I will catch up on posts later on. But for now I have a mother who needs her son. Nige.

I'm not sure really, I think there's big room for improvement without costing hundreds and I'm on the hunt for improvement. I'm fishing for info, my thoughts were if suggestions were leaning towards refractor then a change over to refractor was the way to go, if reflector then hold on for a while and do the modifications I think mine needs, I would like to keep a 6" rather than a 5" but the only 150 light enough for my mount is the one I have which is far from ideal although it gets fairly good results. The 150pds is 4.9 kg without camerase my camera is 1 kg . My weight limit is 5 kg the 120 star travel and 130p-ds are both 3.9 kg and within limits with camera attached for now do modifications and keep searching for the bargain. . Nige.

Thanks for your replies, I'm learning ☺ I'm thinking the 130p-ds, do you think I would be wise to get a coma corrector and can I use a coma corrector with a dslr? Will a coma corrector be of benefit when using an alt az mount . So many questions, maybe not the right place to post but as it's for use on the alt az mount imaging dso's this seems the right place, Nige.

Herzy, thanks for explaining, that helps a lot ☺ Nige.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about flattners or where to put them or CA, need to research a bit.

Just seeking people's opinions , Star travel 120 refractor or 130p-ds reflector for imaging on alt az. Both F5 scopes. I'm interested and still un decided, would love to fork out on a triplet refractor but not enough funds. Nige.

Nice, that definitely qualifies imagine what a scope could see ☺. If only we had good dark sky's around here. Thanks for sharing Nige.

Ha ha ha ?nice, and thanks ☺I must read through the universe post when I get home later, and see if I can prove M31 is less than 13 billion ly away ☺