Nigel G

As I have run out of images to share, I was just browsing back in my photos from my beginning in December and January, I took a single image of an open cluster, I can't remember ex time but would guess a 30 - 40s, while trying to enhance the image I kept getting what I now know as vignetting but didn't at the time, anyway I kept trying and this image kept coming up with quite a deep redish tone,, reading up a bit about the cluster I found it had a different description, the Rosette neb. Did I capture this nebulosity or a bad case of vignetting ? Here it is with star trails and all ☺ I had forgotten about it. Nige.

Is that the 130p flex tube, they look like a good possibility, only a single secondary mirror support, not sure about camera mounting. With a flex you have the option to have the primary mirror closer to the secondary to allow better prime focus? The main issue with my star discovery 150p is the fairly thick secondary mirror support, there's 4 of them and they are about 3 mm thick also the draw tube at prime focus is a good inch and a half into the main tube. This causes so much interference with the images. I think it's my biggest problem, it is a visual scope though, even so as I said before the images I have are way beyond anything I expected I was looking at the 130 or 150pds designed for imaging, much better duel speed focuser and thin mirror supports. The primary has been moved closer to the secondary to achieve better prime focus.. I have been enjoying the research, as I am in no particular rush will continue gathering info from here and around the interweb ☺ As Paul has the 130p it's got to be worth a go as long as the camera can be connected. Why not ☺But remember don't under estimate the power of the dark side? Nige. Waiting for a clear night .

I have read making every photon count, and I want to get everything I can out of my current mount I possibly can without spending silly money, a year or 2 or more I might get an eq, IF I get an eq it will be a 5 pro which will take any scopes I have. refractors seem to get better results on the exposure times, and every bit as good if not better images, I would like a slightly wider field of view to be honest. I know nothing about refractors and a little bit about reflectors. In a few months I maybe able to double the budget. I'm in no rush to buy, just starting to get people's options on different scopes ☺☺ Nige.

Guys, I have been thinking a bit, Do I get a refractor? I think a refractor would improve my imaging as my 150p scope is not really ideal for photography. My 200p would be fine on a eq5 , that's in a year or 2. Or do I get a better reflector designed for imaging. Any suggestions? Reflector or refractor and which one below £200 I know it's not the right thread to post this question but it's for an alt az mount and I thought this the best place to ask. Nige.

Nice images Ken, I paticularly like the nebula, there's a lot of potential there. I wonder if lots of short exposures would work, 20 seconds or so. The keep rate also goes up to nearly 100%. 90 seconds is a good one, I tried to get just 5 x 60 second to add to my 30s and gave up after 10 attempts. My mount was lazy last night though. Nige

A bit of a tough session last night keeping only 150 frames of about 350, deleted so many subs cause of star trails, not a lot of breeze, the mount was being lazy last night. Finally finished at 2.30am after a quick video capture of Saturn. I'm finding it a bit challenging capturing and processing these faint fuzzys, I might try shorter exposures, also different exposure lengths in same stack. I was reading about adding short exposure to get core details and longer to get wide detail. Worth a go I think. Targets, The Sunflower galaxy and M88 M91. Sunflower 60x30s 1600 iso. M's 90 x 30s. Both 40 dark 12 flat 50 bias.DSS & StarTools. Nige.

That's the one, great effort Ian, Well done. Nige.

Well I removed an extra 30 fames and left out the flats, there's a lot of stacking artefacts as I don't want to crop out the tiny fuzzys It needs a clearer night for it. Can't do much to this. I counted 14 possible galaxy's though ? Nige.

I don't generally have a problem with focus, I think it's just an accident when changing the battery. I focus on Jupiter's moons as I gives me a quick look at the giant ☺ Another go tonight, hopefully a bit better seeing.

I had to change battery's after about 40 frames and I moved the camera slightly, I didn't want to move the scope so I couldn't re focus on anything , atm I'm using Jupiter's moons for focusing, there was nothing in the frame to do a live view focus. All very faint, and yes there was a little high level cloud for the first 45 mins so I tried to use that time taking darks, there was a whisper of cloud from time to time after midnight. Nige.

Wuppmupp. Very nice, you've picked up the nebulosity around the star in Pleiades, both good clear images. Well worth sharing. Look forward to seeing some more. Nige.

I'm not that happy with this image, I'm going to check through the subs , not sure the flats have helped much, and I think focus is out a little. Still there's a number of dso's visible. But a huge amount of improving to do. It's about time I had a failure though, been lucky in previous images. Maybe I can get more out of it though, I'll have another try later. Nige. 130 x 30s 1600 iso, 50 dark, 20 flat, 50 bias, 150p scope. DSS + StarTools.

Morning all, DSS stacked 130 of the 180 frames, I didn't check through the frames I just run them all, might be a gamble, will soon see. on the individual frames I was picking out up to 10 faint dso's , some will be lost in stacking as they were near the borders. Wife just bought tea to me in bed so drink up and get manipulating ☺ I hope it's a fairly good one. Both tea and dso. ☺

Going to bed now, after 180 lights 50 dark I'm leaving it stacking over night hopefully a good image to work with. Zzzzzzzz

That's a nice clear image Ken, I have never tried stacking without darks or bias, I'm going to try that, see how it turns out. I have a South facing garden with good views from ESE to SW. I also control from armchair in my conservatory the Area 79 observatory ?, named because of all the rocket making and testing that has gone on in past years. ☺ Nige.

Tonight's forecast is for clear sky's, I have a plan, I'm going to concentrate on one bunch of targets in that amazing Virgo galaxy cluster, I will try to centre NGC 4438 in the frame. I've got the bug, I'll be out until about 2am ☺ Next few nights are looking ok, I've just got over a cold and eager to get clicking, I also have a few mornings which I don't need to get up early, so definitely some very late ones coming up. ?2 weeks time I'm sailing up to West coast Scotland, shame I can't set up on the yacht as twill be all nighters, will have best bins with me though. During the summer months I get used to lack of sleep and being up all night sailing, I tend to wind the work down too having at least 2 months off in total. Summer I would choose to sleep day time if people would let me fit there bathrooms over night hehehe.

Steve, nice work, all the time put in is definitely worth it with images like these. Ian, it's looking great, Some of these images considering how small the field of view is contain a huge amount of stars, until you see this with your own eyes it's hard to appreciate just how many there is above our heads. I give a big smile when developing an object within or close to the Milky Way with StarTools. Thousands of star's appear. ?and that's just from a tiny piece of sky about a thumbnail or so at arms length. Well done chap's Nige.

Nice Ian, stars look good considering the cropping, hardly noticeable can you not heal the stars in ST, This is another one to add to the list, I like the amount of dso's possible to capture ☺

I was told that DSS will remove satellite meteors and airplane trails so I leave them in now and it does ☺ I tried stacking rotation of stars around Polaris with my roof in the shot as a reference, 3 hours of continuous 30 second shots, camera on fixed tripod, DSS result was a fine image of Polaris and my chimney, no other stars at all in the image so DSS removed everything that was not bolted down ☺☺ I did get the image I was after using another photo stacking program. Nige.

2 very good images Ian, M88 does have a bunch of interesting objects, and M5 another fantastic cluster image, well done, With images like those, are you sure your using a alt az mount ☺☺☺☺ keep it up Ian , great stuff. I posted a couple of images on FB and one of my fellow astronomy friends who has an eq goto mount said " those are to good to be yours" my reply was " that the best complement you could give" Nige.

Now for another image, taken last night, dew started to build up after 60 frames time was 1.40 am so called it a day. Leo trio 68x30s @ 1600 iso 25 dark 16 flat 50 bias with 150p . Needs more subs again, might add to it tonight if it's clear. Nige.

Adapter made and waiting for t ring ☺ Nige