FaB-Bo-Peep

Absolutely stunning!

These have got to be the best I've ever seen, simply stunning!

Wow, amazing! 🙂

Simply stunning! 🙂

Love the colours. 🙂

Thanks and you can indeed, I experimented with the exposure length at the beginning of the session and settled on 120 seconds so by far the majority were that, however I chucked everything into Deep Sky Stacker, (probably not the best idea but it appears to work), so there was a few 30 secs, 60 secs, 90 secs and even a single 180 secs thrown into the mix.  Deep Sky Stacker ended up rejecting some of course but based on what I had thrown in the total exposure time would have been around 30 minutes.  ISO was 1600.

It must be about 5 months since I last managed a telescope session , (the clouds have been relentless), but the other night I managed a quick session and thankfully all the equipment worked without a hitch. This is around 30 minutes of data of the Orion Nebula with the smaller Running Man Nebula just above it. I cannot get a good view of this from my back garden so moved into the front, unfortunately in doing so I left behind the old style streetlight that has plagued me over the years, (but my filter copes very well with), only to find myself trying to shoot in the direction of a newer LED streetlight, (which my filter does not cope so well with). I would normally sit in the warm controlling everything from my tablet but found myself standing beside my telescope, shielding it from the light, (it was very cold to be standing still, oh what a hobby!). 

I've undoubtedly overdone the colours in this one but I'm a firm believer that there is no right or wrong as 99% of it is down to artistic licence and I do like colourful images.  Capturing the data is tricky but so is processing it and as I tend to muddle through with very limited knowledge, it's very hard to know when enough is enough in terms of tweaking.

Anyway, given the short total exposure time and the fact that my filter is of limited use against LED lights, I'm still fairly pleased with the end result but would really like to try this again from a darker location.

Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.

OVL Field Flattener.

All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.
Images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in StarTools and Gimp.

New equipment and the chance to use it straight away, that's unheard of!  Absolutely fantastic and a most promising first light. 🙂

Simply stunning!

That's a piece of art!

Thanks Peter, I am again amazed by what the 72ED and standard DSLR can achieve from my light polluted garden, (especially given my very limited processing skills).

Here we have a total of 78 minutes, (26 x 3 minute exposures), of the North American nebula. This is a tricky target for me but I'm happy with how it came out. Once again this is taken from my light polluted back garden.
Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.
All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.

Here we have a total of 51 minutes, (17 x 3 minute exposures), of the Eastern Veil nebula .

I've tried this target previously but felt that the end result was not worth sharing. This time however there is much more detail visible and I am happy.

Once again this is taken from my light polluted back garden.

Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.
All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.

You are very kind thanks Jeremy, it's quick, grainy and cheerful, (right inline with my approach to astrophotography), but most importantly, it's pleasing to me 🙂

Here we have a total of 57 minutes, (19 x 3 minute exposures), of the NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula. I think this definitely could have benefited with more exposure time but with the British weather and short nights, I'm happy to have achieved any kind of image.  This is another target that I've never tried before and one I will undoubtedly be revisiting.  Again taken from my light polluted back garden.
Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.
All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.
Image stacked in DSS and processed, (with my very limited knowledge), in StarTools and Gimp.

I'm sure someone with better processing skills could extract even more from the captured data so here's the FTS file straight out of DSS to have a play with if you so desire.

Pacman-DSS.FTS

13 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Get to 4hrs of data then noise will improve greatly , if you can dither then do so ,did you do any calibration frames ?

 

As you correctly say, longer data acquisition time would improve the result but I had to stop as it was getting light.  I'm pretty sure I set the ASIAIR PRO to dither every 4 frames but now I think about it, I don't remember seeing it do so on the guiding graph so I might have messed that up, (but I usually do dither). I used darks but have yet to take any flats.

1 minute ago, bottletopburly said:

Did you use Startools recommended settings for DSS ?

Yes I'm pretty sure I set all those correctly thanks as I had an issue when I started using StarTools on my new PC and it was down to the fact that I had not done so.

I'm sure someone with better processing skills could extract even more from the captured data so here's the FTS file straight out of DSS to have a play with if you so desire.

Andromeda-DSS.FTS

Here we have a total of 45 minutes, (15 x 3 minute exposures), of the Andromeda Galaxy. This target is always a challenge in terms of position from my garden and I had to pause image capture while it cleared multiple obstructions. I can't believe how much fun this portable system is, it performs well, (for widefield images), and is an absolute joy to setup and use, (at this stage I'm not sure I'll ever dust off my larger 250PDS Newtonian again).  Again taken from my light polluted back garden.
Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.
All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.
Image stacked in DSS and processed, (with my very limited knowledge), in StarTools and Gimp.

Here we have a total of 68 minutes, (17 x 4 minute exposures), of the Pacman nebula. It requires a bit of imagination so I've helped out with an outline on the second rotated and cropped version. The exciting thing here is that this is the first real image produced from my recently completed portable mount setup and I pushed the guiding and successfully achieved 4 minute individual exposures with no visible trailing of the stars. Still in my light polluted back garden at the moment but everything is now ready to break free and venture out to darker locations 🙂

(72ED + 7D + AZ-GTI + ASIAIR PRO + LPRO),

While the conditions were far from perfect and it was not too long before the inevitable clouds rolled in and stopped play, at long last I managed to do a bit more testing with my friends old Canon 7D camera. This image, (and the cropped version), are the result of around 45 minutes worth of data and while the clouds and lack of true darkness were trying to spoil my fun, at least all the equipment functioned flawlessly this time. I think the increase in mega pixels over my existing camera is definitely showing a visible improvement especially when zooming in and cropping, so I will be buying the 7D. 🙂
Equipment info: Skywatcher ED72, OVL field flattener, Optolong L-Pro filter on an EQ6-GT, all controlled from my ASI AIR Pro. Image stacked in DSS and processed, (with my very limited knowledge), In StarTools.

So a friend has upgraded his DSLR and I'm trying out his old Canon 7D, (18MP), which should offer a significant upgrade over my current Rebel XS, (1000D), 10MP. 

However between the clouds, struggling to set the 7D up in the same way as my XS, and the very limited hours of any kind of darkness, I made lots of progress in terms of setting things up but achieved very little in terms of usable frames.

This image, (and the cropped version), are the result of just 4 minutes worth of data, yes you read that right, 4 minutes! (2 x 1 minute and 1 x 2 minute exposure), which I stacked just for a laugh as a memory of the evening. By the time I took them it was getting light so the fact that anything is visible at all is most encouraging for the next test session with the 7D which will hopefully be under less challenging conditions.

Skywatcher ED72, OVL field flattener, Optolong L-Pro filter on an EQ6-GT, all controlled from my ASI AIR Pro. Image stacked in DSS and processed, (with my very limited knowledge), In StarTools.

🙂

Thanks, I'm struggling to get the spacing on my field flattener correct so the nice stars at the edges are courtesy of Startools wonderful "repair" module.  I believe I had the ASI Air Pro set to dither every 3 frames but might reduce the interval and will certainly check how many pixels it's moving. I think I got a bit greedy and over stretched the data at the start of processing. Flats and more data would definitely improve things as you say but in terms of data acquisition , I always struggle to keep my scope pointed at any one object for too long as there's so much to image and so few clear nights. 🙂

This is a total of 54 minutes, (18 x 3 mins), of data of NGC6960 - The Western Veil / Witch's Broom Nebula. This is another target that I have never looked at before. Taken with my ED72 and Canon Rebel XS, (1000D).  Filter was an Optolong L-Pro, all controlled through my ASI Air Pro.