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Everything posted by KevinPSJ
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From the album: Quick snaps to go with visual observing sessions
Got lucky on our second night of aurora hunting! First stop on our Northern Lights organised tour was in the suburb of Brekka south of the city. Taken using Google Pixel 6 in 'Night Sight' mode with (automatically set) 6s integration time. The aurora was visible to naked eye - with a hint of green colour too. The colour and the full extent were revealed nicely when imaged with my phone.© Kevin Hurley, 2024
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Quick snaps to go with visual observing sessions
Images added to a gallery album owned by KevinPSJ in Member's Album
Here's an attempt to capture single short exposure high ISO images of things I've located for casual observing - usually first time locating something. -
Jupiter, Io's shadow, Great Red Spot and Io. 2023 Dec 01, 1825UT
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
Skywatcher 150P Canon 600D 2x barlow, live view 5x. Captured with Backyard EOS - 2000 frames per final frame of the animation. Processed with pipp and then selected best 10% for each final frame in autostakkert. Used pipp again to generate the final animation. Io is actually in the image as well, roughly at 3 o'clock from the GRS with the shadow at 9 o'clock© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
Images added to a gallery album owned by KevinPSJ in Member's Album
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jupiter_and_io_GRS_Tv1160s_800iso_20231130-pipp_autostak_startools.png
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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flaming_star_nebula_60min_iso800_200mm_f6_20231117_05h00m_startools_1.png
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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- takumar 200mm
- canon 600d
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Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
Images added to a gallery album owned by KevinPSJ in Member's Album
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
Best 10% of 600 frames captured with Liveview 5x using Canon 600D (astromodded). Processed with PIPP, Autostakkert 3 and Startools.© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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- canon 600d
- lucky imaging
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Jupiter and Ganymede, 2023 November 24, 23h00m GMT
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
Best 10% of 2400 frames captured with Liveview 5x using Canon 600D (astromodded). Processed with PIPP, Autostakkert 3 and Startools.© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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M16 M17 Takumar 200mm SMC, 22.5 min total using Canon 600D @ ISO800
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
Same image as previously but stretched and proceessed in Startools differently.© 2023 Kevin Hurley
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M16 and M17 Eagle and Swan Nebulae. Canon 600D with Takumar 200mm at f/6 ISO800 22.5 min
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
© Kevin Hurley 2023
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- takumar 200mm
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I struggled with processing my DSLR shots for a long while - could not eliminate noise despite taking plenty of dark frames. Looking on-line here and other forums it seems the recommended approach to reducing noise (walking noise especially) is using dithering. Unfortunately I don't have a goto mount - just RA clock drive. It seemed like this technique was out of my reach. Both necessity is the mother of invention as they say so I thought I'd at least try and see if it's possible to dither manually. Turns out it's hard but not impossible. My routine now involves setting up a sequence of lights in Backyard EOS - usually something like 30x40s for prime focus work with my Skywatcher 150P and Canon DSLR 600D. Then once the sequence starts, I suspend every 4-5 subs and put my eye to the finderscope and my hand on the dec slow motion or the RA control. Carefully I nudge the scope so the stars move by a very small amount - first north, then next time west then east then south and so on. It's tricky if you are pointing at a patch of sky with only a few dim stars in the finder scope view but I'm getting better with practice. It is easier with a wider field of view - last 2 sessions I used a Takumar 200mm f/4 and it was almost easy compared with the prime focus sessions. The main benefits are (a) I don't "waste" time taking a lot of darks and (b) satellite trails completly disappear. The downsides are (a) need to stay at the scope the whole time - no opportunity to go inside while the sequence is running and (b) lots more time squinting through the finderscope and hoping I didn't nudge too far If you look at my gallery then all of my recent images were taken without any darks. There're not amazing by any stretch but I feel like I'm getting consistently better signal to noise from the end product and I've eliminated the streakiness and walking noise issues from earlier images I've taken. Compare: 30 x 30s subs @ ISO800 (with 10 x 30s darks) and Canon 600D at prime focus with 15 x 60s subs at 800 ISO and no darks but with dithering Little bit tricky to find a target I can directly compare - there are sort of similar subjects but with different focal lengths. I'll definitely be trying the Pleiades later in the year as I've not managed to get a good image of it yet that isn't spoiled by too much noise
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Veil Nebula - 20 x 60s @ ISO800. Takumar 200mm f/4 SMC and Canon 600D (modded)
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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North America Nebula. Canon 600D with 200mm Takumar 15 min @ ISO800
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
North America Nebula in Cygnus. Canon 600D (astromodded) with a Takumar 200mm f/4 lens at f/6. 15 min of lights at 800mm. Skywatcher EQ3/2 mount with clock drive. No darks - 15 x 60s lights and 10 x flats. Used hand-controlled dithering (4 dithers), small rotations of the slow-motion dec controls and pausing/slow slew of the RA control© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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M101 with SN2023ixf. 44min @ ISO800 F/5 Canon 600D
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy with Supernova SN 2023ixf. Taken on Friday night 27th May around midnight. Setup: skywatcher 150p with Canon 600d at prime focus. Mix of lights - 24x45s subs, 3x60s and 35x40s. 20 flats. EQ3-2 with RA clock drive. Dithering by hand! I experimented with most performing random dithering in RA and Dec using the slow motion control for Dec and the hand controller for RA with eyeball via finderscope. Worked out pretty well as the noise seems significantly improved compared to my previous attempts.© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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- m101 - pinwheel galaxy
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Beautiful image! 2 hours of 6s exposures - that's 1200 subs to process! You must either have a monster of a PC or boatloads of patience. Either way this is extremly impressive and goes to show that long exposures aren't the only way to skin the cat Or jellyfish in this case.
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I have a skywatcher 150P with RA motor drive and I can get quite pleasing images from my scope. Looks like your optics are very similar to mine but I have an EQ 3-2 mount which looks to be sturdier than the EQ3 that comes with yours. I'd definitely not spend any money on a camera before you have followed @Rallemikken's advice and tried it out using something borrowed. I think you should be able to get 20 - 30 s exposures with some patience and luck. Have a look at my gallery - all taken with my Skywatcher 150P (750mm focal length) - either using a astro-modded Canon 600D or a Nikon D3200.
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Amazing - something to aspire to! 2000 X 60s is an incredible total integration time and the resulting image does justice to all that effort!
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The risks of a nippy Zenith...
KevinPSJ replied to Vic&Al's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Couldn't decide whether to react with 🤣 or 😥 because it's a bit of both. Thinking about braving it tonight to image Mars and I'm sure it won't be any easier for me! -
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
Ganymede shadow transit - 2022 Dec 8, 20h59m. 3 Moons visible - Io Ganymede and Europa (left to right). Taken with Skywatcher 150P, barlow x2 and Canon 600D using 5x liveview recording. Lucky imaging used best 10% of 2000 frames. Processed with pipp, autostakkert3 and startools. Camera settings: ISO1600, shutter speed 1/500s, x5 liveview recording. Original filename: jupiter_Tv1500s_1600iso_1024x680_20221208-20h59m23s-loop01_7_AS_P10_lapl6_ap15_conv_startools.png© Kevin Hurley, 2022
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Jupiter with Great Red Spot and shadow transit of Io. 2022 Dec 08, around 9pm UK time.
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
8 lucky image stacks (10% of 2000 frames) taken over 20 min using Canon 600D (astromodded and using x5 live view recording), x2 barlow and Skywatcher 150P. Software: pipp and autostackert3. Imaging details: ISO1600, 1/500s shutter speed, F/10. jupiter_Tv1500s_1600iso_1024x680_20221208-20h40m27s-loop01_000002_pipp_1_AS_P10_lapl6_ap16_conv_pipp.gif© Kevin Hurley, 2022
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Not the best quality - image jumps around a bit and I didn't get all of the disappearance of mars but posting this since it's such an interesting astronomical event!
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Planet andLunar images
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