michael.h.f.wilkinson

After some issues with flats, I finally managed to process the data I got a few nights ago on the area around M86 and M84, using the Meade SN6 and ASI183MC. The background still shows residuals, but this is as good as I can get these data. Despite all the issues, I am pleased to have captured a load of fuzzies all in one go. I count at least 18, but there may be more. As ever, more data are needed, and I need to get my processing chain in order Tweaked the curves a bit, as the above version seems a bit dark on other monitors I have:

Looks like the effect you get when an achromatic refractor or camera lens is not in focus. If you use e.g. a camera or smartphone, the fact there is nothing in the centre to focus on can cause this lack of focus easily. Add some post-processing that most cameras and smartphones throw into the mix, and you can easily get such effects

Made some slight reprocesses of yesterday's mosaic, to brighten the image, and tweak the saturation Brightened: and saturation pushed a bit:

There are some 6" F/4 scopes around, but they are fiddlier in terms of collimation, and will show more coma, so a coma corrector needs to be factored in. I am using a 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newtonian, which has shown real promise in the last few days, but I do use a Vixen GP-DX mount, which is a pretty solid beast. Haven't ironed out all the issues with the set-up, but provided you have a solid mount, DSO imaging with a 6" Newtonian is doable.

Shot a 8 pane, 75 Mpixel mosaic of the moon this evening, using my Celestron C8 and ASI183MC camera Clicking for full resolution recommended

Managed to get a quick shot with the C8 and ASI178MM camera. Nothing special. but glad to get anything in the increasingly hazy conditions

Managed to take the APM 80mm out into the garden for a little sun-spotting. Grabbed 1000 WL frames and 2000 Ca-K both with the ASI178MM. Stacked 250 of the best in AS!3, sharpened using ImPPG, and postprocessing in GIMP. WL, grey scale: WL, pseudo colour: Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo-colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo-colour: Some hints of proms, but I didn't have time to fire up the H-alpha kit. But, hey, we have a spot!

Slight tweak to the colours It depends much on the monitor which is best, I feel

Struggled with issues with flats, so the results are not quite the way I would like them, but this is the best I can do for now, using a total of 5 hours on the Leo Triplet. Need to suppress the background noise better, and get it a bit flatter, but I am getting decent detail in the galaxies. All data obtained with the ASI183MC and Meade 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton

What scope and camera did you use?

Superb shot

I already have the power settings set to "never". It almost seems as if even on mains power, Windows is still looking at the battery settings.

Astro Pixel Processor beavering away at over 3 hours of data from the region around Messier 86. Hopefully I can get a bit more of Markarian's Chain on Sunday evening. Fingers crossed. What is a bit annoying is that APP stalled overnight over one sub that was wrecked due to Windows somehow going to sleep, even though the power settings are such that it should NEVER do that. This morning Windows also suddenly went into hibernation or sleep mode while processing. Does anyone know how to stop this. Furthermore, can APP be told to simply discard a file and proceed? At the moment it is a bit like watching paint dry, whereas if it had worked overnight I would probably have my first results already. Oh, well, at least it is just one sub that needed to be discarded, not 50 % like the night before.

Shot with my Canon EOS 80D and 100-400 mm L IS USM zoom

The optical tubes are essentially the same. I do not have an autofocuser, it is just a manual rack-and-pinion type. It is not necessary (but handy). The focuser simply takes the place of the 1.25" visual back of the scope. You can also attach the Vixen flip-mirror to a 2" visual back, and I think Meade produces a 1.25" flip mirror that attaches directly to the scope. Your svbony 205 has tiny pixels, I see from the manual (just 1.4 micron), which means I would use it without Barlow, for optimal results. You will only need to capture a small region of interest of the entire 8 Mpixel area. That should increase the speed of capture and further processing.

To show my set-up, which shows the C8, focuser, flip-mirror, filter wheel and camera

I use AutoStakkert!3 for stacking, and Registax 6 for wavelet sharpening. BTW, can you tell us what camera you are using? Getting the planet on the chip can be a real pain, and a flip-mirror is hugely useful, in that you can centre the planet in the EP and flip up the mirror, and it should at least be on-chip

Very interesting thread. Might well have a bash at imaging these galaxies, just to see what I can come up with

I have a Celestron GP-C8 (same optics, but with Vixen Great Polaris EQ mount), and it has been my main scope for almost 25 years, so it must be doing something right. Your scope should be able to get great planetary shots with a suitable camera. This is one of my first shots with a Philips Toucam-III, under pretty horrible conditions. I used a 3x Meade TeleXtender (similar to Barlow) With practice, and a better camera (ASI120MC) What camera do you have, and how are you attaching it to the scope? Early shot of Saturn More recent shot Early shot of Mars More recent Note that the optimal focal ratio for planetary imaging depends heavily on the pixel size of the camera. F/25-F/30 was ideal for the Toucams and planetary cameras with 5.5-6 micron pixel size. F/16-F/20 is best for the ASI120MC and ASI224MC, which have 3.75 micron pixel size, whereas the ASI178 and ASI183 cameras work best between F/12 and F/16. Note that all the above images are the result of stacking the best frames out of a long sequence of images. On the moon you can capture parts, stack each sequence, and then combining the individual images into a huge mosaic (Click for full 100 Mpixel size)

I got these two from Bortle 5 skies. Provided you have enough data Canon EOS 550D (modded), APM 80mm F/6 triplet with 0.8x reducer, 4 hours of data ASI183MC, same optics, 2.5 hours of data You can capture quite a lot of the nebulosity if you have loads of data

Here's my take on combining them with some pushing of saturation

6" F/5 Schmidt Newton with ASI183MC

Very nice indeed. I have been trying the same target, also using APP for processing, with a touch of FITSwork and GIMP added. The thread is here: The reason I get more of the H-alpha in M82 is simply that I am using an ASI183MC, so more like a modded DSLR

On March 22, I had several problems getting the mount tracking properly, and only 9 out of 25 60s subs were usable before I switched to another target, and got some decent data. Just out of curiosity I stacked these 9 subs, and was pleasantly surprised with the result Quite noisy, of course, but still a lot of detail visible

I notice much depends on the monitor. On my desktop machine the first is fine, on the laptop and mobile phone the second is definitely better