KernowBeard

20 hours ago, Scooot said:

Great shots but the second is awesome  

Cheers! I'm glad I managed to get the shot.

9 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

They are both beautiful images, well worth the effort you obviously put in.

Thank you! It certainly paid off.

2 hours ago, MartinB said:

Oh wow!  Fist pumping 100% appropriate.  Both images are superb but the wide field has been put in my "sublime" category.  Well done indeed!

Thanks Martin! It's easier to fist pump when it's dark and no one can see you!

2 hours ago, Philip R said:

Very nice images - plus I liked the Places Afar video on your website.  

Thank you Philip, glad you enjoyed it!

Jumping on the ever-so-busy Neowise train I've got some shots of it myself.  Living in Cornwall I'm quite lucky with the local skies but even still I ventured out to Bedruthan Steps. One reason is that it's darker and so it was a no brainer. Secondly I also wanted a widefield shot since the 'steps' are North-facing. I arrived around 9pm to make sure I got the spot I wanted and ended up staying there until 2:30am - if only I hand't forgotten the bleddy binos!

The first is at 200mm although I didn't realise the full extent of its tail! Bigger than I thought and so I could've framed it a little better but I'm still happy with it.

I remember seeing the first shot come up on the camera screen and fist-pumping the air in excitement! I also learnt how to stack a comet sequence in DSS as I didn't realise I had to. My first run-through of it returned a stretched comet.

It was shot on the Star Adventurer Pro at 200mm, f/6.3, ISO 2500 and 45s subs. Along with darks and bias frames. 

Before I got into taking dso images I was huge on widefield imagery. While I know my dso imagery has a way to go (though I'm still happy with it) I always knew that I was better at widefield. I've not posted on here in quite a while with any dso shots even though I finally acquired a tracking mount; I'm not entirely sure why I've not posted but I've definitely improved since then. Either way it was fun to go back to what I was, once, most fond of. 

So, here it is.

It is a stitch of 2 shots, one exposing for the foreground and one for the sky, both at 24mm. When the first shot came on screen I was back to fist-pumping again and this time joined by giddy laughter. Lots of "Wow" "My days" "Aha!" and "Getton!" Needless to say I'm chuffed to bits with this one. I do wish the ion tail showed more of its colour as it does in the first image but I'm glad to have caught it in this at least.

This shot is as follows:

Sky: f/3.2, ISO 4000, 45s exposure.

Foreground: f/2, ISO 2000, 120s exposure.

After this venture last night I think I will try and get back into nightscapes more, like I used to, as I forgot how much I enjoyed them. Part of the fun is the planning of the shot and travelling down/up to wherever it is I go. 

Clear skies.

On 20/05/2020 at 06:35, Advait Mehla said:

Thank you for the help! Unfortunately, my lens is a 70-300mm f/4.5 - 6.3 which sucks. I should probably avoid 300mm in that case because that would mean a lot less light entering. To top it off I live in bortle 8 haha. That adds another issue, because increasing the ISO too much immediately overexposes the sky like crazy. I have a combination of multiple crappy conditions, I suppose I will leave tiny and dark(relatively) targets like these for darker skies and not mess with them right now.

It might indeed be tricky then but may be worth a go; at least you'll know once you've tried.

On 20/05/2020 at 11:55, Shibby said:

Very impressive results for completely untracked capture! What was the actual exposure length of each sub? Must have been very short!

M106 was 15mins worth, NGC2403 was 10mins worth and M27 was also 10mins. I have now acquired a Skywatcher Adventurer so have been using that and getting used to all the new problems that comes with tracking!

8 hours ago, Advait Mehla said:

Hey, I know its been a while since you took these, but could you by any chance tell me some of the EXIF details, namely ISO, shutter speed and number of images stacked for these images? Also, what was the bortle of the skies, and was this on a prime lens? Would you recommend going beyond 200mm for these at the expense of aperture and shutter speed(I have 70-300 Nikon kit lens).

Thanks

Hi Advait,

The lens used was a 70-200mm Tamron f/2.8. I would for sure recommend a prime over a zoom just because you'll get better quality however you will then lose that use of different focal lengths. I'm pretty sure these were all shot at 12800iso, F/2.8 and I took around 300 for each. Increasing your focal length will mean less exposure times as the trailing will become apparent quicker, if the lens has an f-stop of 2.8 (or even less) then that'll help counter it; as well as your camera's iso limit. It's not often you'll get nice sharpness with a wide open aperture though so I'd recommend looking up lenses that are known to be sharp at those f-stops. The skies I shot under were Bortle 4 I believe.

Hope this helps!

Just seen someone's selling this little gem on gumtree for £85, ota only. I'd get it myself if I had a mount and such for it 😅

On 08/12/2019 at 23:35, assouptro said:

Yeah, well done! 
there are a few who don’t guide but not many that don’t track! 
you can definitely see the dust lanes. 
what camera and lens did you use?

cheers 

Bryan

Thank you!

Would love to be able to do all the tracking and 'proper' setup but that will probably be a ways off from now. 

I use a Nikon D750 with a Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 lens.

On 09/12/2019 at 00:04, tooth_dr said:

I really enjoy your untracked images. Lacking in colour yes but not lacking in any of the detail. Superb. 

I'm always rather surprised by the amount of detail I'm able to pick up with this method. I think the goal is to capture all the messier visible from my location, though some might not prove so easy!

Been a while since I've been out with my advance setup due to weather and mainly observing when the chance to go out arises. 

Always wanted to have a go at M31 and this time of year is perfect for it., so here it is:

Now, compared to some of the images I've seen recently posted on here of M31, mine pales in comparison. This is due to the setup differences. My one does look rather good on phone screens however

Having no tracking capabilities does hinder what you can do. This was taken with around 400ish 2.5 second exposures whilst battling with patchy clouds. (As well as darks and bias too, no flats).

Overall though I'm extremely happy with the result, I wasn't expecting as much detail as is present, it probably helps that my camera lens is fairly fast. 

When the next clear, moonless night comes around I think I will get some more data and see if I can improve it further.

Clear Skies.

On 27/07/2019 at 15:59, John said:

Congratulations on your 12 inch dob - great scope with loads of potential.

For collimation I now rely on a cheshire eyepiece / sighting tube which I find accurate and simple to use.

For finding, on my 12 inch I use a 9x50 right angled finder alongside a Rigel Quickfinder which is similar to a Telrad. I find those, plus a good start chart, very effective finding tools. I also have a low power / ultra wide angle eyepiece as an additional aid to finding.

So I think the Telrad or a Rigel Quickfinder is a great investment for such a scope to use in conjunction with an optical finder.

Cheers John, seems like a solid setup to go for, quite like the look of the QuikFinder due to the height of it, less neck craning! 

On 27/07/2019 at 16:29, Paul73 said:

Yes Telrad And finder scope.

There are loads of other bits and pieces, but getting it pointing in the right direction is a priority.

One of these will be on your shopping list at some stage:

https://www.365astronomy.com/Lacerta-Dual-Speed-1-10-Microfocus-Upgrade-Kit-for-Skywatcher-Crayford-Focusers.html

and one of these light shrouds. It keeps out stray light (and spiders):

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/AZ-1305.html

Then you’ll want to look at dew heaters......

The best accessory is a smart phone/tablet and SkySafari Pro.

Paul

PS. Like the carry handles. Very simple solution.

Funnily enough I've looked at that exact webpage for the focuser upgrade so I'll probably go for that in the near future. And of course a light shroud, I don't know how I didn't remember one of them! 

Cheers for the replies guys!

Hi all,

I recently acquired a 12inch Dobsonian and was wondering what sort of things people would recommend I get for it.

I've got 3 different eyepieces which is plenty for now (all decent quality 2 inch). I'm looking into getting some sort of adjustable chair for comfier observing. It has a red-dot finderscope on it but I do have a regular 9x50 scope I can attach to it if need be. I've seen people raving about Telrads, so wondered if it'd be worth getting one of those instead. Also one of my eyepieces is 38mm 70 fov, would it be a good idea to use that in conjunction with a Telrad or the red-dot finder as apposed to using the 9x50?

One thing I know I need is a collimator for obvious reasons.

Something I have done is bought some carry-straps (seen below) to help with lifting the damn thing!

Any help would be appreciated!

I decided to get up and head out around 2:30ish this morning to capture M8 and M20. Having never even seen these two objects in a telescope before I was excited to finally see them; even through the 200mm lens.

I was rather surprised at what a single 2.5second shot could get (pictured below). After seeing that I realised I was in for a treat considering how bright and big they were in the picture, compared to galaxies that I've been imaging so far.

There was some high clouds but very thin and hazy so it didn't ruin the session. I ended up imaging until the Sun's light became apparent.

The final shot, processed in DSS and Post in Lightroom + some extra tweaks in Photoshop. 600 2.5second shots, darks, bias and flats. Equipment in signature:

Very, very pleased with this one and I'll definitely be going out again when the moon has decided to go away once more. Seeing the final stack reveal itself in DSS had me feeling like a kid again, observing through my telescope!

Clear Skies!

15 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Have you tried a lorde Y mask it might cut less light and show the spikes clearer.

I hadn't even heard of that until now! I've looked into it and it does seem to be much easier to make with the same, if not more, effect. My friend recently invested in a 3D printer so I may ask if he'd print one for me, a bit stronger than card I'd have thought.

6 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Ps you mask is great. I once made a cardboard one for my 10” scope. It worked a treat 

Mine works but the spikes are fairly small in the live view and for some reason my cats seem to love to mess with it if they can get their paws on it, so I think I'll have to keep it in the camera bag!

44 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

That's a surprisingly deep image, those outer arms are pretty faint and people spend a lot of time chasing them.

It would be handy if you could put your equipment in your signature please, as I'm not sure camera and lens you used.

I got to make 2 more posts then I can have a signature. However I did forget to add those details so here you go:

Nikon D750

Tamron 70-200 f/2.8

I had another attempt at M101 last night, I went for 600 shots this time as well as using the 300-odd from last time.

All 2.5 second subs again but decided to push the ISO past 12800 and went for the H2.0 option because I live on the edge. In hindsight I feel I should have done this before since I'm not tracking and would want to get the most out of it as I can.

I also made a bahtinov mask! I used some black card and it actually works fairly decently. Although I was a nonce and didn't take a picture of it in action! As you can see it's not quite as good looking as a proper one but for now it works so that's all that matters, and no one can see it in the dark  

The final image:

Certainly more detailed than the last image of it but of course there's only so much you can get from this method. I'm only waiting on two more bits for the barn door tacker so hopefully that will be done soon!

With a lovely clear night just gone I decided to jump out and get more images.

I went with M106, M27 and NGC 2403. Due to my limited setup (Camera, 200mm lens, no tracking capabilities) I am fairly limited to what I can capture and so, I try to go for the brighter and bigger things. So far that's worked out and I can get results that are recognisable, at least; albeit nothing compared to what you could get with a basic tracking system. Nevertheless I still enjoy it and will continue to pursue it!

Anyhow, enough blabbering, on with the hubble-esque images:  

M106:

A few other galaxies can be seen on here too which is a bonus.

NGC 2403:

Probably the better image of the night. Better focus and better detail.

M27:

Image looks better when smaller ?. I think the focus may have nudged a tad during this

one, there was a bit of wind at this point too and my make-shift card dew shield probably

didn't help with that. Still, very pleased with the colour that was captured.

For me this was a decent night although was bleddy windy and cold so some gloves wouldn't have been a bad option. Making progress on getting the bits and bobs for a barn door tracker so hopefully I'll have that built by the end of the week and can give it a test drive.

Cheers!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

While I save up the funds for the gear, I'll be doing the old school method of hundreds of untracked short exposures to create some very basic images. It'll hopefully keep the blood flowing until the next step, so to speak.

After always looking around the site, be it at pictures or advice, I finally decided to make an account!

Been in love with astronomy since year 6 and eventually delved into astrophotography. Primarily wide field with a DSLR but have always wanted to do it with a telescope and such.

Ige attempted DSO imaging with a 300mm lens and stacking hundreds of lights but that can only do so much. 

Planning on getting a proper setup within the next year and having a real good go at it!

Below are two shots I've done in the past (if that's alright to post in this).

Durdle Door. Not a unique shot by any means but always wanted one of it.

Recent eclipse at Boscastle Harbour. Rather chuffed with this one.

Looking forward to exploring the site more and (hopefully) start my own adventure in DSO imaging!

Clear Skies!