Nigel G

Just run it through photo shop express to adjust exposure and contrast, I will re process this later as it was rushed by an impatient me at 3am ?

Well after a tough night thinking about light speed and distances and trying to understand our Universe ☺ ( you'll know what I mean if you saw last night's post.) During which the clouds were beginning to clear I managed to get just over 30 minutes of subs before the cloud became to much on a target I've been waiting for since I began imaging. Seeing was quite poor with light cloud passing randomly but I was being impatient, the fact is the object is in a prime position for imaging now and I'm away for 4 weeks next weekend. Plus a whiskey or 2 gave me a bit of stamina. This needs longer time on during good conditions and will get it eventually. Also I had a quick try at imaging M27 with a barlow but quickly gave up,,,,,, tracking and exposure needed is behond the capability of my mount ☺. Good thing is it only took a few minutes to work that out. M 31 Andromida galaxy less that 13.7 billion light years away. 40 x 45s at 1600 iso light, 10 dark and flat plus bias. Star discovery 150p canon 1200d. DSS and StarTools. Poor seeing. Nige.

It was a few months ago now but my first ever stack of a dso was M 101 the pinwheel galaxy with a canon eos 1200d and Star discovery 150p goto alt az. 20 x 40s lights darks and bias, stacked and processed in DSS , ( didn't know how to use startools ) I was shocked to see the result, much much better than I had ever expected thanks to the members of SGL especially the No eq dso challenge posters. Nige.

Ian, I am planning to do a mosaic image but have no idea where to start, what software to use etc, to be honest I haven't started researching yet. The sensor needed a light brush with wire wool ☺..... a sensor brush ☺job done . Nige.

Thanks guys. Next image I'm very pleased with considering the relatively short exposure time. Field rotation was getting quicker as I was taking these, by 3 am the scope was very close to touching the tripod at a high altitude and the sun was getting closer . With the strong breeze, maximum exposure was 45s after a hour or so only 30s was possible, 50% I had to delete . Even so my patience paid off I think. Nige. NGC 7000 part 2. 55x45s and 20 x 30s light, 12 x 45s and 12x30s dark, flat and bias. Star discovery 150p, Canon 1200d, DSS and StarTools.

I'm planning to add to the images, the first image is with the street lights on, I'm trying to get NGC 7000 after 1am to loose the street light pollution, that gives me a max of 2 hours before its too light. Nige

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to set up the scope for some imaging. Last night I managed to get some subs on 2 DSO's. The first being M 52 and the bubble nebula, the second is another part of NGC 7000 the florida section I hope ☺, it's stacking as I write. M52 was taken before local lights out at 1am, 7000 was after lights out. I struggled a bit with a fairly strong breeze and getting to light by 3 am. As a result I got less than a hours subs on each but enough. I'll post the second later when processed. M52 and the Bubble nebula. 75x30s + 10x45s light. 10x30s +10x47s dark. Flats and bias. Star discovery 150p. Cannon 1200d, DSS and StarTools with a final touch up with photoshop express. Nige.

Thanks Ian, I will have a look this evening.

Herzy, unfortunately ngc 7000 will not fit in my 150p field of view, it will take 3 or 4 images stitched together to get the whole nebula in, which is my aim to do. My field of view at prime focus is not much bigger than a full moon. Good luck at the observatory I hope the conditions are good for you, I'm looking forward to seeing the lagoon nebula. Nige.

Ian, I have never cleaned the sensor before so all info very welcome, I will try with an air puffer first, hopefully that will work. I just checked the sensor with a magnifying lense and can see the offending dust particals, 4 of them, also there's a large amount of dust settled around the surrounding area. I guess I need to try and suck them out too. Thanks Nige.

When your not tracking try to follow the object as best as possible, DSS program will automatically align the images for you when stacking. After stacking you will need to process the image with Photoshop or StarTools or another processing program. The image you get from stacking will not look all that good but the data will be there. Good luck Peter, looking forward to seeing some images Nige.

I have just noticed on a photo I took of Ben Nevis Mars and Saturn the smudges that are on the ngc7000 image, so the camera sensor chip must have a couple of smudges on. at least I know where to start attempting to clean. Nige.

Peco. As your mot tracking Im sure that wIll be allowed. Nice Image not tracked . Did you stack multiple frames? If so how many and how long exposures. Stacking multiple 5 to 10 second frames In dss will give good results. You might need a couple of hundred frames on faint dsos though. Nige.

Nice Steve, This is a great image, it's one of my favourites, it looks like it belongs on the forward view of the US Enterprise in Star trek. it's good to be able to continue during the summer months, last week in Scotland I had to wait until 12.30 am for it to be dark enough to grab a few shots of the sky, an hour later it was getting light again. Nige.

Steve If I can line up the same then I will add to the collection and experiment with different stacks for sure When the mount is on form I can get 90 second exp on this dso with about 75% keep rate, hopefully a good clear Friday or Saturday night will come soon.

Neil. Not on this image, sometimes I do sometimes not but I have never seen these before, I will have to check the secondary mirror and camera chip.

Its a little quiet here atm so here's an image I wasn't going to post until finished but that could take a while waiting for the right conditions. Last night when it finally got dark I wanted to get a short tester of another area of NGC7000, so I took only about 30 minutes or so exposure. It's more or less what I expected to see except the 3 or 4 odd smudges, I'm not sure whether they are on the camera or scope but they don't appear to be in other images of ngc 7000 , any ideas? My next late session will be to capture this with at least 1.5 hours exp. This was a quick test to make sure I was getting the right part so rushed through StarTools too 45 × 30s + 5 × 45s light 12 dark 50 bias. DSS, ST . 150p alt az goto. Nige.

Steve and Ian, a couple of great nebula images there, I am a fan of the nebula's . Nice and clear, good stars well done guys. Waiting for some clear sky's now. Nige.

OK ☺ now I see what you mean, thanks for explaining ☺. Nige.

I'm heading for West coast Scotland today for 2 weeks, so scopes packed away, Keep up the great work guys, I hope to see some more images posted when I return, I m taking my camera and tripod just in case I get the chance to grab a few shots from a dark site. Shame someone hasn't designed a goto mount which works on a heaving yacht ☺☺☺that would be something special. Nige.

wxsatuser, To be honest I don't understand what you mean, ( histogram peak on the back of the camera ) & ( clear gap between histogram tail and histogram origin ) At the moment this is foreign to me, but I need to understand. I think I need to do some research ☺ Nige.

Ken. There's a good improvement there, sharper , more details and better colour. Nice ☺ I'm going to look into pixlnsight with improvement like that. Nige.

I stacked the 5 x 90s, with much the same result as trying to cheat with duplicates. Just not so bright, this has surprised me, not much detail loads of noise, or maybe the light from the nebula but no sharpness. Nige.

I'll give it ago ☺.