Rustang

Well done guys, great images 👏

42 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Seen those, and not sure how to "classify" them yet.

ASI178mc - £8.21 per mm2

ASI485mc - £5.59 per mm2

ASI183mc - £4.46 per mm2

ASI294mc - £2.69 per mm2

All of those can do planetary as well as DSO imaging, and size of camera contributes to speed of system.

Just for DSO imaging - Canon M200 is hard to beat, about the same price as ASI482/485 - £398 at B&H - it costs £1.19 per mm2

How would you say the Canon M200 would hold up against capturing Ha or would you just get it modified!? 

3 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

I looked at the Star Adventurer but decided to stick with either my HEQ5 or EQ5 to keep the setup the same and just swap the scope/lens. I always intended using the ASI294MC with the 135mm lens anyway so the cabling is the same.

I can recommend the Samyang lens, the 135mm F2 gives a good flat FOV for most targets and if you want to go wider they also do the likes of 14mm, 35mm & 85mm versions with the ED lens.

This is the FOV I got with my first try at NGC 7000 using the 135mm on the EOS 1300D. This is 220 x 30s subs at F4 & ISO 400 mounted on my EQ5, polar aligned but no counter weight (I didn't have one light enough) and just using sidereal tracking. I can't wait to see what the ASI294 can get on this target, now I have some proper darkness.

Thats a lovely image. I was looking at a second set up and the Star adventurer definitely suits that for now, obviously that limits me a little but I recon I can definitely get better images with some equipment upgrades. I've been pondering the Samyang 135mm for a while and will probably treat myself once I've upgraded the camera. I have also thought about using a OSC but I just really like the simplicity of a DSLR and lens and I've seen some super images with just that so will continue down that road for now.

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

It's interesting to see the wider view of the objects we image close up. I can just make out the Cygnus Loop in the bottom of your first image.

Over the Summer I got hold of a Samyang 135mm F2 lens and have just got the Williams Optics mounting ring from a Redcat 51 to mount it on. I've done a few imaging sessions with it connected to my modified EOS 1300D but now I can attach the ASI294MC Pro to the lens and put it on the HEQ5. The next clear night will be with this setup and going for the American and Pelican.

Yeah it's really cool seeing lots of targets in one image, and the simplicity of the set up is refreshing. I just need to look at improving the camera and len's over time to improve on the quality of the image but I'm really happy with the start of this setup and the Star adventurer has been great and I'm impressed with being able to do 5min long subs with it. 

43 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

Awesome stuff.

I picked up an F/4.5 300mm Photosniper lens on ebay (tair-3-phs) a while back and just got it prepared for the next clear night. 

My previous attempts with vintage lens always lead to disappointment in the end but I have high hopes for this one!

 

 

Yeah they can be hit and miss, my Pentax Takumar 135 f3.5 is the best one I've brought so far, probably should have brought 28mm version of that lens instead of the Hoya but they are cheap enough to swop about. 

Just started messing around with this basic type of astrophotography myself

I find the simplicity of it refreshing 😊

Cygnus at 28mm 

Cygnus and Cassiopeia at 28mm.

Now these are not the best but I'm really enjoying using the star adventurer and it seems more than capable of taking 5min subs! While this really isant the best camera and lens to be using, I've really found it fun to capture some wide field shots. I used my modified Canon 600D with a clip in Optolong L enhance filter and an old Hoya 28mm f2.8 manual lens which has some pretty bad coma. It was difficult to find infinity focus with the filter in place so after the first night trying it out I found where the new infinity focus was on a building in the distance during the day. The filter also made it harder to find and compose a target but I managed ok with some 10 sec test shots to help compose my image. I would like to get my hands on a Modified 6D at some point to really help sharpen things up and its definitely something I'm going to be continuing doing and hopefully really improve on.

Please forgive the noise they are only 35min and 1hr stacks, stacked with dark's so I wouldn't  zoom in on them anymore! 😊

5min subs at approx f3.5 iso 800 Bortle 6

9 hours ago, PESKYWAABBIT said:

Thanks guys, with those recommendations I bought the 1.25" filter bundle, probably the largest purchase after a car I've ever made.

I hope this is worth it, sorry for the cloud cover! 😂☁️

It will be worth it! 👍

Thanks, yeah forgot to mention that 👍

11 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Nicely done, looks great  

Cheers 👍

So after two false starts and lots of waiting, my Crescent nebula HOO project is complete. I'm really pleased for many reasons, the new scope is great and it seems Ive finally got the flatterer at pretty much the correct distance as my corner stars are the best Ive ever had!. The new Baader ultra narrowband filters have really helped and so has the now 20 min subs. I finally feel Ive progressed forward with the new camera and the quality of my imaging. Its also been a real pleasure to process as I finally have no horrible vignetting to deal with!

WOZ73 with dedicated flattener guided on my HEQ5 PRO

HA - 4hrs 40mins (3.5nm)

OIII - 4hrs (4nm)

Bortle 6 skies

No calibration frames. Stacked in DSS and processed in PS.

Very nice 👏👏

17 minutes ago, geeklee said:

Fantastic news @Rustang and cracking image 👍  Really clear detail in the crescent - good luck with the OIII.

Cheers, hopefully tonight will stay clear then il be good to go so 🤞

Focus is now sorted on the WOZ73 so thanks everyone for your help on my previous thread, the focus aid in APT worked a treat! 👍 No more just eye-balling it, Ive booked myself into spec savers!! 😊

I'm really looking forward to getting some OIII now to create a HOO image but this is 4hrs 40mins of 1200 sec subs captured last night using my QHY-9 mono and 3.5nm ultra narrow Ha filter which has really proven to be worth the buy. Along side the new filter, now I'm capturing 20 min subs the noise is just so much better so really happy. The corners are a little bright as its only a quick edit and this image has no calibration frames!

3 hours ago, PESKYWAABBIT said:

Really like this Russ, can really see the different colours and temperatures of the stars I was talking to you about on Saturday. 

Thanks mate 👍

47 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Great colours in there - great work. 👍

Thanks 😊

What they all said and more! 👏

Never tried this before, didnt know if it would work but seems to have, just need to smooth out the trails next time but the camera took a while to load each sub! It also includes two meteors! Taken a Bodiam Castle last night, approximately an hours worth of subs - Fuji XT2 16mm f2.8 iso 1600.

A definite improvement. 50mm f2.8 on Cygnus 17 x 1min subs stacked with darks

Looks very nice to me 👍

Right, let's try and do things properly 😊

The postman brought me exciting times ahead, or clouds, which ever way you won't to see it! 😁😊

Thanks guys, a Star Adventurer should be with me today, exciting times head 😁

It's certainly not going to win any awards but its my first half hearted attempt at the Milky Way, I wasnt even going to bother posting it but what the heck!. I was way to busy enjoying just looking up to be honest, its not the best of framing and I dont have a small tracking mount so this is just a very short stack of 5 sec subs. Taken in Bortle 4 skies in Somerset with my Modified Canon 600D and Nikon 50mm at 2.8.

Has it given me the Milky Way bug?, it certainly has so I think a Star adventurer will be on its way soon

3 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

Some hands on.

We don't use apt but have found is that using a focusing mask (FM) doesn't give you best focus using a camera lens or -particularly the cheaper doublet- refractors. E.g. on our old Takumar and Tair lenses, the green and blue agree and focus well, leaving the red out of focus. A FM will therefore give a red halo around stars. Our 72ed is different in that it has the red and green in sync, giving blue halos.

Conclusion, the FM will give you the strongest two out of three colours.

The trick is to compromise. Use the FM mask to get close, then using a mid brightness white star, look -use your eyes- at the halo around the star. Focus manually until whatever halo you have disappears. It's a tiny amount.

Reflectors fare better and the FM gives perfect focus; mirrors are perfect apochromats.

Worth a try?

Cheers and HTH

It seems that my SW80 ED DS Pro was Ok with my mask focusing but the WO Z73 not so much so will try all that's been mentioned and see how I get on when ever the next clear night is. On the plus side I'm really pleased with the results now I'm taking 20min subs so still looking forward to future results.