Peter77

Wonderful image!

May I ask: The camera, is it fullframe or DX format? Asking this because I might want to try the same region with a DX 35mm F.18 I have to my Nikon D5300 (aps-c), and trying to figure out what the fov would be.

4 hours ago, davew said:

That's coming on a treat ! If you'd asked me if the 18 to 300 zoom was good enough to shoot the Milky Way I'd have probably said " Not really ". Shows what I know 🤔

That camera is very good at picking up the Ha isn't it ?

Do you fancy " Zooming right in " with the 35mm and see what you get or have you tried that already ?

Dave.

Hi,

Generally zoomlenses doesn't really have that "oumpf" when it comes to clarity and sharpness, however this zoomlens has gotten consistently good reviews. Also I think that the higher FR contributed further to the sharpness . It is just a slight tad softer fully wide open at F3.5, so it was lucky I forgot to open the aperture fully.

I've tried the 35mm F1.8 fixed lens also and even though it is a fantastic lens in all aspects, Miky Way is imho not the right target for that lens. In general I like it when MW shots are very dense and 35mm tend to open it up way too much for my liking. 18mm being on the border of too high IMHO, I'd like to try some of the rokinon / tokina 14mm and 12mm, I am sure that would be a real blast

And yes, the camera seems to be quite sensitive to Ha even unmodified. And that's good because I like to use it as a daytime camera too

And here is the final image including flats. Made the image a little cooler overall also.

Hi guys!

As the weather has been clear. I have taken the opportunity to do some shooting

Wanted to shoot another object, but since my AVX mount didn't behave well at 300mm FL (usually tracks well but could hear some strange glitches from the drivetrain tonight), I decided to go widefield instead.

I just love shooting the Milkyway and since I had to change plans and rethink, I decided, just for the fun of it, to try with 240 seconds at 1600 iso, just to see what I would be able to pull out.

And the result is very promising. Will shoot some flats tomorrow to complete the set, but I couldn't help to try a stack tonight and some postprocessing in PS. And let me tell you guys, it didn't require much postprocessing at all, just some enhancements here and there and also did some evening out on lightpollution. Even on the TIF that Deepskystacker spat out, I could see clearly the nebulosity areas.

Will do another complete stack tomorrow after shooting a bunch of stacks, but just wanted to share this spectacular image. 

Image data:

Nikon D5300 unmodified

Nikkor 18-300 @ 18mm F5.6 (forgot to change to lower fr)

ISO 1600

22 lights @ 240 seconds each

15 darks

15 bias

And the image..

Hi folks!

For various reasons I managed to get only slightly over an hour imaging time.

Pretty pleased with the result nontheless.

Equipment:

Nikon D5300

Celestron AVX mount

Nikkor 18-300 @ 135mm F6

Exposuretime 240 secs / image

20 lights out of which 15 got stacked

20 darks

20 bias

30 flats

Aaaaaaand... the image

Very nice especially for a first attempt! Looks crisp and natural!

What can I say. Not only is it a  beautiful capture of the Milky Way, but you also nailed the composition as such. Thanks for sharing

7 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I do like the processed version a lot, the pink nebulosity really shines

Thank you I just felt I maybe processed it too hard and since it's always fun to go back and reprocess the data with new learned insights and ideas, I might do just that some day. But overall happy

6 hours ago, kev said:

That image is REALLY nice!

 

Thank you! Always nice to get an opinion from another set of eyes. May I ask which version you prefer the most?

20 hours ago, SkyJamie said:

Yes i think the CG5 GT is the older version of your mount. 

I did some widefield's of the same area the other day using the nifty-fifty for 30 sec exposures, no guiding and the stars were sharp but i didn't consider going for as long as you did with no guiding so will definitely give it a try sometime

Yeah do so  Maybe you cannot go 240 or above seconds with 50mm but you don't know until you try, you can just try with an exposure for say 240 or 320 seconds and then analyze that frame and see how the stars look, if they look okay just fire away

I generally tend to not think "I cannot do this" but rather "What if I can?" which tend to open up much more possibilities   So give it a go and see what the result is. We're going to have clear weather in Sweden Sunday night so if the prognosis is true, I will probably go out and do another sequence

8 hours ago, SkyJamie said:

Nice one Peter

With no guiding and that wide FOV makes me wonder if i could do something similar on my CG5 GT, hmm...

I don't see why you couldn't  That mount is the predecessor of the AVX iirc? Should have similar capabilities, and also that low fl is very forgiving I even forgot to do a proper polaralign for this shot, just sighted in Polaris over the mount saddle.

Both images are absolutely fantastic. Composition, background, just everything is brilliant. Beautiful! 

Stunning picture, well done! Thanks for sharing!

Forgot to take flats, but shot some 20 darks and 20 bias.

10 x 240 seconds unguided

Nikon D5300

Celestron AVX mount

18-300mm lens @ 18mm F 3.5

ISO 400

Can see some vignetting due to no flats but overall nice picture. 1st one more or less straight out off DSS, other one postprocessed in PS. In retrospect I should not have shrinked the stars so much, because I like how "explosive" the image feels when the stars are so visible.

Might try another postprocess somewhere in between these two.

Taken 2 weeks ago. Pretty dark.

Have a nice day

One of my favourite targets. It is beautiful just as it is, with it's overall composition, but even more interesting when you take a look at the different types of stars in the clusters. We can see white/blue as well as orange/red ones.

25 lights x 90 sec each

20 darks

20 flats

30 bias frames just 'cos they're easy to grab

TS Optics 115mm triplet apo

Celestron AVX

Nikon D5300

And yes, the picture..

42 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Very nice, to stop dew/frost get a camera lens dew strap powered off a small 5V battery bank..

Alan

Yes, dew heater solutions will be amongst my future purchases

Hello,

Was out testing a Nikkor 35mm on a Nikon D5300 mounted to an AVX mount.

Aimed at dense region and fired off 29 shots before everything frosted over completely, along with 20 darks. Stacked in DSS and postprocessed on Photoshop.

Had the lens wide open at F1.8 and exposed 30 secs/image unguided ofc.

I kind of like it. Good lens also.

Agree with you regarding this winter. We've had about 4 clear nights since the end of November in Sweden. I'm not even angry anymore, I just laugh at it.

Thanks for sharing the pic. Good one.

TS optics 115mm triplet apo

Nikon D5300 in prime focus

Single shot 1/125 @ ISO 125

Decreased lightness a bit in Photoshop

Sharpened slightly so not entirely as shot but almost.

On 15/01/2020 at 22:04, cletrac1922 said:

Venus is covered from think layer of CO2, caused by greenhouse effect, due to volcanic action on the planet

The brightness of Venus is caused by the sun reflecting off this CO2 layer

Due to this think CO2 layer, we are not able to see the surface of Venus

The attached pic taken during the transit of Venus in 2012, with camera of my android phone to the eyepiece, hence not good image

That day, our club had a public viewing on the foreshore of the goldcoast

I left my ED80 on EQ5pro mount as visual, while other club members imaged ever 10 to 15 minutes

The entire transit lasted about 8 hours

 

To be honest, I think this is a very good image

Throws in a link aswell:

Was recommended by an observer, regarding solar filters, that glass filters of high quality was the best. I should say though that I have no experience with the Baader solarfilm that was mentioned earlier, so might be a good option as well.

I've heard that this line of Astrozap glass filters is good. You have to know the outer diameter of the tube though so not only the aperture.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/index.php/cat/c61_Solar-Filters-for-white-light.html

Also, if you're in the UK you might want to consider a UK retailer such as FLO because of the shipping cost. Not sure what Teleskop Express would charge for shipping to the UK?

But atleast it should give you an idea what to look for.

10 minutes ago, JOC said:

Take advice on what to get - you can get some that screw onto Eye pieces, but they are considered unsafe.  Best plan would be to check any solar based purchases for safety by asking questions on SGL before spending any money.

Rest assured, I would never buy a solarfilter that screws on the eyepiece. I didn't think that such were sold to be honest. No, what I intend is of course the kind that is fastened over the objective.

Would not want anything to shatter inside the scope because of intense heat buildup (diagonal, eyepiece) now would I!

The one accessory I could think of, that really would add another dimension in the use of the scope, would be a solar filter.

I myself is planning to get one. When observing DSO and planets, one pretty much knows what to expect.

The sun is dynamic and a living object that can be different from one time to another. Also it might double the chances to use the scope. It can be a clear day but a cloudy night. So that is my suggestion.

The BST Starguider eyepieces as earlier mentioned, are also highly recommended. Very good quality for a good price.

Best regards.

Agree about the glare. Tried to photograph it with phone through eyepiece and this is what I got. 100x mag if I remember correctly. Will try with a moonfilter next time observing. I think the the side facing us was almost fully sunlit that time.

1 hour ago, Simon Dunsmore said:

Thanks Peter, 

I'll take a look and report back 

Good luck

Also, I forgot to mention: Before I start with adjusting the lat/az knobs, I sight in on Polaris over the mount saddle. Kind of like sighting with iron sights on an old rifle. Hope this makes sense?

Then I put the scope on and balance in RA/DEC etc. And then I proceed with the process described earlier. I use a 38mm (21x) eyepiece in the beginning when star aligning. And carefully align so that I have align star i center and same with calibration stars.

It is not 100% polar aligned but fairly close. The whole process takes some 5-10 mins if you have the routine. And when I slew to objects when done, they're almost in the center up to 100x mag eyepiece. Also good enough for 30 sec exposure time imaging.

So all I'm saying is: Don't fork out £300 on a polemaster just yet as I think you don't need it. You would also need to hook up computer with sharpcap etc making it not so spontaneous anymore. Instead get the location and time settings both on handcontrol and alt/az knobs as exact as possible. Check your lat/long coordinates f.ex in google maps.

10 mins and you're up and running. Always try to find ways to make it simple And, most important, have fun and enjoy

On 12/01/2020 at 22:40, willcastle said:

How do you try and ensure a comfortable viewing session? 

 

Short answer: Eeeh, what? I don't.

Sometimes If I know just about what I will be looking at, I adjust the height if the tripod so that the focuser/eyepiece part will come in an okay position. Adjusting the tripod so that the scope when paralell to the ground sits in a chest level position is usually good enough. Yet when doing this, I end up chosing targets that makes me kneel at the eyepiece and thats just how it is sometimes. Usually I can rotate the focuser part to make sure that the eyepiece comes in an okay position anyway.

I don't use an observing chair. The more equipment I have to haul out, the more it ruins the grab and go feeling.