Vroobel

That's why yesterday I equipped my laptop with second internal 1TB SSD. Windows 11, all installed software and documents are kept on the main SSD, while the second one is only for the astrophotography purpose. Thankfully the 1TB SSD by Intel is 4.5x cheaper than the camera 🤣

Hi, 

I have the ASI678MC and finally my ASI224MC can rest on the Evoguide 50ED for purpose of guiding. I'm going to use the 678 with my Starwave 102ED F/11, they match perfectly to each other.

https://www.astropix.com/html/astrophotography/astrophotography-calculators.html#ispp

There are also Baader 2" UV/IR Cut and ZWO ADC in the path. 

The camera offers a lot of ROI formats. Because of a poor PA I had to use 2160x2160 for #3131 sunspot. It was moving across the field, but I'm happy of the result. Please be aware that it was only around 3/5 of seeing (a jet stream >20m/s). I still wait for the perfect air condition.

2ms exposures and only 30fps was enough to fill out my laptop's SSD transfer. 22 AVIs 5000 frames each one means over 400GB of data! That's crazy! 😁

Hi,

Another revision of the M31 taken previously. Only a brightness and contrast are corrected. The core of M31 seems a little bit too bright, but the general look in my opinion is better, than previously.

Hi,

Last night I had a plan to take some photos of the Pacmna Nebula. Unfortunatelly, I met some problem around Zenith, so I changed the plan and aimed my OTA on the Pleiades. I had an idea to not use any filter. I have read that a dew shield may protect the OTA from a side light, so I wanted to test it with a brand new Astro Essentials one.

Newton 9" F/5.5, no filter, Baader MPCC Mk III, EOS 6D mod.
150 x 60s + 3 x 20 calibration frames, ISO1250.

It was very hard to remove the Bortle 6-7 sky cast. I'm pretty proud of the effect, even if it's not perfect.

And here is, how the single RAW looks like.

Hi,

Picture of Mars, 20% of 5000 frames 31th September 2022 at 06:20 by SharpCap using Bresser Messier 10" Newtonian OTA reduced to 9" (F/5.5), Revelation 2" x2 ED Barlow and ASI678MC camera on my ATM EQ fork mount. Place of capturing: backyard in Liverpool, 53* 25' N. Bortle 6-7. Seeing: like usually in my location, 3/5. Stacking and sharpening performed with the AutoStakkert!, some cosmetics with Affinity Photo and Registax 6. Altitude: 44* 03' over horizon (Stellarium). I forgot: I used Baader UV/IR Cut filter.

Hi,

Hunt for the Pacman.

Hi again,

I'd like to replace my previous picture of Jupiter with the same, but in second revision: it's a little bit sharper after some cosmetic improvement.

My picture is a result of around 80% of 4500 frames (2.5 minutes in total) recorded on 30th September 2022 at 00:06 by SharpCap using Altair Starwave 102ED F/11, Baader Q-Barlow z2.25, ZWO ADC and ASI224MC camera on 1-axis driven SW EQ5. Place of capturing: backyard in Liverpool, 53* 25' N. Bortle 6-7. Stacking and sharpening performed with the AutoStakkert!, some cosmetics with Affinity Photo and Registax 6. The Stellarium says, that Jupiter was 35* 34' over horizon then, so quite low. Moons respectively from the left: Callisto, Europa and Io. 

Hi. 

I modified my EOS 6D there:

http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/filters.htm

I'm happy and you can see result here: 

Hi. 

I have an EOS 6D mod and the L-eXtreme. It's great filter, but strongly darkens the picture. I.e., flats with 1/2 ADU max without filter at all are set for 1/2000s, while with the L-eXtreme 1/80s. The 6D has big, 6.5um pixel and it's very sensitive in red, if moded. I use a Newtonian OTA with 230mm aperture that is quite big. I'm not experienced astro photographer, so cannot say too much, but I think it's very good combination. Here is my first result. 

It's 45x300s, ISO1250 + 3x20.

I'm going to grab a Pacman Nebula ASAP with the same setup, so we'll verify whether it's repeatable.

Hi,

This is test of my brand new ASI678MC camera with 2um pixel. Today (28/10/2022) was a cloudy day with around 2h of partly cloudless sky.  It seems like the pixel is just perfect for the 102ED F/11 lens, no Barlow at all!

The #3131 Sunspot has area around 450 mln km2 that is 3x the area of cross-section of the earth! 

Here is, how the sunspot looks (i hope they keep data of the old sunspot forever): https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions.html#3131

Hi,

It was a hard battle and I'm not sure why. I approached the data four times. Thankfully I had a backup on external hard drive, because after third attepmpt I removed entire folder. I'm sure that next time will be better.

Data collected on 01/09/2022.
79 x 150s, ISO1250, 3x20 callibration frames, crop of the full frame.
Newton 9"/1270mm, IDAS LPS-D2, Baader MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.

This is a result of around 80% of 5000 frames recorded on 29th September 2022 at 21:44 by SharpCap using Altair Starwave 102ED F/11, Baader Q-Barlow z2.25, ZWO ADC and ASI224MC camera on 1-axis driven SW EQ5. Place of capturing: backyard in Liverpool, 53* 25' N. Bortle 6-7. Stacking and sharpening performed with the AutoStakkert!, final cosmetics with Affinity Photo. The Stellarium says, that Saturn was 20* 06' over horizon then, so very low, even if it was its highest position. Titan is visible under the planet.

Hi,

My picture is a result of around 80% of 4500 frames (2.5 minutes in total) recorded on 30th September 2022 at 00:06 by SharpCap using Altair Starwave 102ED F/11, Baader Q-Barlow z2.25, ZWO ADC and ASI224MC camera on 1-axis driven SW EQ5. Place of capturing: backyard in Liverpool, 53* 25' N. Bortle 6-7. Stacking and sharpening performed with the AutoStakkert!, final cosmetics with Affinity Photo. The Stellarium says, that Jupiter was 35* 34' over horizon then, so quite low. Moons respectively from the left: Callisto, Europa and Io. 

I found a fun playing with layers.  

Before I performed the first picture of Jupiter, I tried it with Saturn. It was much lower (around 19 degrees), so the picture has lower quality. 

Starwave 102ED F/11 + Baader Barlow x2.25 + ZWO ADC + UV/IR Cut + ASI224MC. Ratio of the Barlow is x3.3.

To be honest, it would be better. The ADC often requires opposite order in the light path than the producer suggests. My configuration was: Starwave 102ED F/11 -> Baader Barlow x2.25 -> ZWO ADC -> UV/IR Cut -> ASI224MC, so ratio of the Barlow was unfortunatelly x3.3, that was too much. I checked it later in daylight with photos of distant object. Now, with the ASI678MC I hope to forget about the Barlows.

Hi,

Apart from the astrophotography of DSOs I also have some plans related to planets. My plans are based on Altair Starvawe 102ED F/11 (1122mm) on the SW EQ5, ZWO ADC and several cameras. This picture of Jupiter was taken on 29th September using the ASI224MC. Now I have a brand new and never tested ASI678MC camera with 2um pixel matching the 102ED F/11, so I don't need any Barlow, but we will see what the future holds.

Respectively from the left: Callisto, Europa and Io.

.

Hi,

Today I bought the StarXterminator plugin for my Affinity Photo. It's awesome! 😲

Thanks  

Two other revisions of the same scene: stacked respectively in Siril (OSC_preprocessing script) and in DSS, stretching in Affinity Photo. I don't know, why the Sirlil made it like in SHO, but it looks also interesting. Previously I used the HLVG plugin, so it removed too much green from details. Now, the last is better. 

Thanks

Not entirely downtown, it's around 2.5 miles from the very city center (from Lime Street station). Far enough to have Bortle 6-7 sky.

Hi all, 

I'm happy to share my recent success that is a photography of the Eastern Veil performed last night on my ATM equatorial fork mount described wider there:

So, it's 45x300s, ISO1250 and 3x20 of calibration frames. Subs are taken with modded EOS 6D attached to 10" Newtonian OTA (reduced to 9") with Baader MPCC III and Optolong L-eXtreme. An Evoguide 50ED, FF, 850nm IR Pass filter and ASI224MC worked as guider. Seeing was around 3.5/5 last night. Please bear in mind the 1270mm focal length and around 1 arcsec/pixel scale, it is very demanding setup. Both stacking and basic post processing made with the Affinity Photo. 

There is still small problem with back focus that I have to correct next time. 

https://astrob.in/9u0s15/0/

3 hours ago, Louis D said:

Did it filter out any unwanted artifacts to make up for the green cast?  I'm guessing it's cutting into the red as well as the IR to cause this color shift.

The only unwanted artifact was the pinkish cast at the ASI224MC cam without the filter. 

Today I realised that I have also 2" Baader UV/IR Cut filter which already landed in my 2" barrel. I'll report a difference ASAP. The small one was bought just for a guiding purpose and I used it for planetary imaging unnecessarily. 

Hi, 

I can confirm that the SvBONY UV/IR Cut filter brings the green cast. 

This is picture taken during poor seeing with Starwave 102ED F/11, Baader Barlow x2.25, ASI224MC and the filter. The scope gives rather pure images with no extra cast. 

I already checked what I can see through the 102ED, a BV with x2 OCS and 9mm Abbe Orthos (249x) on Jupiter surface. It was of course more than through the Vixen using the same configuration (202x). Seeing wasn't good then, so I couldn't use Fujiyama Ortho 7mm (321x) for Jupiter, but I did it for the Moon. It was unbelievably sharp view, lot of black darkness and detailed surface, with the same average seeing. And everything with no CA at all! Unfortunately I was sick, so didn't look at the Moon too long.