Moonshed

We have come a long way in the last few decades, technology has transformed the way we view and image the night sky. Sometimes though when I am watching yet another YouTube tutorial on how to use this or that software and taking copious notes I wonder if it’s all worth it. However, when I look at the image of the The Whirpool Galaxy I have just taken I have no doubts at all. But there are times when sitting out in the frosty garden at 2am and trying to get everything to work as it should I again wonder if it’s all worth the effort. The 3 technology advances that have benefited me the most: 1) The laptop/tablet 2) The GOTO mount 3) PoleMaster An Honorable Mention goes to APT,a good old workhorse!

Thank you for the advice, it is very much appreciated. I can see that I have had two problems here. The first is that I was planning using my Canon 1100D and by the time I was able to see Mars above next door’s trees it was already past opposition and I discovered my trusty DSO capturing Canon was not the right camera for Mars. The delivery for the ZWO took 2 weeks and by the time I had got the hang of it and a clear sky my first attempt was Nov 15th, a month past opposition. Secondly, you talk about seeing conditions and here they have been dreadful, Mars wobbles about on the screen and squashes in and out, seeing the polar caps was impossible. Had it not been such an opportunity I would not have bothered trying under those conditions but glad I did. Although not great I am nonetheless pleased with the result. I thought about it and finally decided to show my best image here in the hope it will encourage others to have a go even though conditions may not be perfect. Thanks again for the advice, I will keep trying! Yes, I do know this image will not win a gold medal 😂

Glad to see that you are now able to easily find M31, it’s quiet a sight isn’t it? Of course the other “must see” object just has to be the M42 Orion Nebula. Even though it’s only a colourless patch of mist it’s amazing to think you are looking at a star making factory. Blows my mind. Clear skies!

As you have already discovered an RDF is not particularly helpful when trying to locate feint DSOs such as M31, you really need a Finder scope and I see that you have already ordered one. Happy hunting!

Hi Reggie Great pictures! I am also using a ZWO ASI224mc with a Celestron 2x Barlow but with an 8inch/200mm Celestron. My images are nowhere as good as yours and I would appreciate it if you could let me know the software you used to capture, stack and process your images. I used FireCapture, Autostakkert and process in Registax and finally Photoshop. I have a sneaky feeling your images are so much better due to your processing skills, something I obviously need to master. Keith

Hi Steve, I am also surprised at how quickly Mars is reducing in apparent size, every day lost to poor weather is painful! I do not know what is causing that effect on your image but others will undoubtedly come to your rescue. As for your camera stopping to work could it have been that when you slewed over to the moon the cable got snagged and maybe pulled out of the connection just enough to fail. Just a thought, I’m no expert. Have you managed to get it working since? The moon cannot do any damage to your chip, it is after all a common object to image.

I would suggest another good target for you would be M31 the Andromeda Galaxy, it’s our nearest spiral galaxy and fairly easy to find using the Square of Pegasus as a guide. M31 is a good object to practice getting your eye in and one of the most well known objects in the northern hemisphere sky. I wish you well in your new hobby and hope you find it as enjoyable and rewarding as we all do.

When enlarged it looks as though you are looking at a beautiful green faceted gemstone from directly above. Great picture! Well done. 👍

Sounds like that could be a good idea, should be interesting.

I absolutely see your point of view because that is the way I started out in astrophotography after many years of just observing. I began astronomy around 1960 and astrophotography in 1990 with the scope I still have and an old Canon AVI film camera. I would go star hopping through the scope referring to a star wall chart and doing my best to focus looking through that little through-the-lens camera viewer the size of my thumbnail. I would use the whole reel, 36 exposures, and vary the focus and exposure with ever one of them hoping that when I got the developed photos back two weeks later at least one of them would be reasonable. It’s surprising after a while how many did come out right. Yes, it was difficult and demanding, but as I said it did teach me how to navigate my way around the night sky. The technology we have today has revolutionised astronomy and opened it up to a much wider base than it ever could before. How many members do you think SGL would now have if astronomy had never gone digital? I’d guess very few.

Good point, mine is a dedicated shed, named by the grandchildren as “Moonshed” hence my screen name. As I have got older, I think everybody does? I have found it invaluable.

2. Tablet. Where would we be without our ever faithful tablets/laptops? Without them we would be back in the dark ages of astronomy, manually star hopping to find our target. No Polemaster, no looking at the image on screen, no image processing, no stacking, no GOTO, the list is endless. (Shudder). I remember those days, everything was hard work, but I learned a lot about navigating my way about the night sky.

The wheels are essential, I scoot around from laptop to scope to mug of tea with legs in a blur. One night I’m going to overdo it, crash into my scope and send it flying onto my laptop which collapses the table and spills my mug of tea into my lap. That’s the night I retire to a dark room and don’t come out for weeks.

Focusers, of course! It has become so automatic to just press the buttons I don’t even think about it anymore. I have already changed my mind about my list twice! There is no point having a Bhatinov mask if you are focusing manually because every time you touch the focus knob you have to wait 2 weeks for it to stop vibrating.

Hi happy-kat Thanks for the info. I have downloaded it and started to play around with it. I can see that it does in fact process planets as well as DSOs and ASI cameras as well as DSLRs. It is a tad complicated and I will need to get the hang of it in order to determine if it is worth buying, I expect it is. Thanks again. Keith

I note that an observing chair has already been mentioned three times and I have to agree it makes a world of difference. I use a typist chair as it is fully adjustable. Good old Amazon! Sketch pads! Who would have thought? But I do understand why. Dew Heater bands for SCTs, yes they are essential, for me it was a toss up between including that or the Bhatinov.

JUST FOR FUN Cost is not a consideration. Name up to three accessories that you consider your best buys and why. (I am hoping to pick up a few good ideas here as a bonus)) To start you off: 1) POLEMASTER. Due to my age and various aches and pains I am no longer able to look through the mount’s Polar Axis Finder, so no PA. This means I am unable to get timed subs to stack. Game over for astrophotography. PoleMaster not only saved the day it is incredibly accurate and takes only a few minutes. No more kneeling down and cranking my neck round trying to peer up and through the tiny polar axis finder, what a nightmare that thing was! It was not even accurate. My subs are a lot longer now due to accuracy of PA. 2) FLIP MIRROR. After buying a ZWO ASI224MC camera I had a major problem trying to find Mars. My Telrad red dot finder was as spot on as I could possibly get it but with Mars even covered by the red dot it would not appear on screen. I have spent as long as 45 minutes trying to find it, talk about exasperating! Using the mount’s GOTO was even less helpful. The Flip mirror was amazing! After placing Mars in the Telrad, a quick look in the flip mirror eyepiece, a couple of minor adjustments on the hand controls to centre Mars in the EP, flip the mirror to camera and there it was on the screen. Takes under a minute from start to finish. A joy to use. 3) BAHTINOV MASK. How disappointing it is when after a night’s observing and recording AVI’s or taking subs, we discover that the images are a little out of focus. A little here is as good as a mile. That’s a wasted evening. Trying to eyeball a planet, star cluster, galaxy or nebula and get the focus bang on is no easy task. Not anymore! The Bahtinov mask removes all the guesswork and delivers perfectly focused images every time. And it only costs a few £/$. A great buy! Well, that’s my three, what’s yours?

And what is it you have taken?

It’s just the way it is with astronomy, if it can go wrong it will. Only a couple of weeks ago I got ready to get some decent images of Mars using my new ZWO camera. I had to move all my gear from my dedicated shed in the back garden where I leave it all set up and ready to go and move it all to my front garden from where I could see Mars. I have never had to do this before and it was quite exhausting moving it all it by bit, too heavy for one big lift! I had the dew heater plugged in two hours prior to observing, had it PoleMaster PA aligned to perfection, had it focussed with the Bhatinov mask, had it two star aligned, dew shield fitted, laptop up and running on the table and I was ready to go! The sky was clear, no moon, everything was perfect. Found Mars and centred it on the screen, perfect, and just as I was setting up FireCapture to start recording I was suddenly flood lit! My neighbour has a security light that comes on at a certain time each night, and I had forgotten all about it, never took any notice to be honest. I could not bring myself to ask her to turn it off, she suffers very poor health and would be in bed by then. I was a tad disappointed. C’est la vie! Keith

I have always used PhotoShop to process my images as I happened to have it but see that many members use StarTools. I checked out their site and it all looks good, I like the idea of a program that is exclusively designed for astrophotography. Having had a good look at their site and also other sites that review it I have not been able to find out if it is only suitable for DSLR cameras or if it can be used with other types such as my ZWO. It also appears to me to be purely for DSOs, I see no mention of the moon and planets and would like to know if handles these objects as well. Any info would be much appreciated. Keith

Stevenson166, I really do not consider you have anything to apologise for, you have done nothing wrong, some people can just be a bit grumpy at times that’s all it is.

I’ve been imaging for two hours, started with Jupiter just to see if it was on or not, defo not, too low, then over to Mars. It was wobbling about a bit but if anything slightly better than it’s been for the past week. I’m interested to see how it comes out .

Hi John, I would call that a success then as you have indeed captured star trails. The image can be made more interesting if you are able to centre on Polaris as all the star trails will then form parts of concentric circles around it. You can experiment with different exposure lengths and different ISO settings to get the best effect. I wish you well in your new hobby, it can become very addictive! 😀 Keith

Well done Thorney that’s a great start, a picture of the Pleiades to be proud of at this stage of the game with this being only your second attempt. I know that some members with years of experience will be able to give constructive criticism and offer good advice, but the best I can say is stick with it and enjoy an amazing hobby.

I have a Celestron 8” and like all SCTs the corrector plate can mist over at times and ruin observations. I have a Revelation Dew Heater I purchased 4 years ago that usually does the job. Sometimes though, like last night, it is not up to the job. After around 2 hours the corrector plate was something like 20% misted over. I do keep a hairdryer close to hand for removing condensation from the Telrad and when desperate will use it on the corrector plate for a quick fix, but worry this will cause turbulence within the tube. I take my scope out of the shed and switch on the dew heater at least an hour before using it. Last night was colder than it has been, about 4C I think. I didn’t use the dew shield but even when I do it doesn’t necessarily stop any misting. Does anyone have a solution? Do I need to add another Dew Heater or are there more powerful ones I don’t know of?