Andrei Dumitriu

Hi everyone and here's my version of this year's transit of Mercury through an animation - 26 frames were used in total

My first time seeing and capturing this type of event, which definitely made me sit on my toes! At the time of the event for an hour or so, I've publicly broadcasted a live video on facebook directly from my scope, since not everybody holds a telescope nor they have the possibility to experience such an event.

All this was captured using a Mak 127 + ASI178MC on top of an AZ synscan mount from skywatcher (discovery). The animation spans over 2 minutes and holds 26 individual frames. As I have used a solar film filter, the Sun has been colorized. Although from my location the event started when the Sun was around 18 degrees high, I am pretty happy of how this ended up.

I guess most of the AZ owners will end up sooner or later on the EQ land. I'm pretty sure of that for myself. I "only" need a backyard

Anyone using an AZ GTi mount? I've heard they're doing quite well on tracking targets.

Something looks off at Helix. Was the scope pointing near a light source? What ISO was that, 1600? Any filter used? If yes, you might want to do a custom WB preset based on that filter or cut down Red a bit.

I'm having a low tolerance for bad frames and dump everything that looks non-round star. The total amount of capture was around 4h so I discarded basically half. Y'all know that it hurts to delete data, but it is what it is.

Thanks @happy-katfor the tips - already running like that.

On 09/11/2019 at 10:27, The Admiral said:

Welcome Andrei and I'm pleased that you've found the thread useful.

What software are you using to process?

Thanks, Ian

For stacking, I'm using the invaluable DSS, and processing goes to PhotoShop CS6. I'm also using some action scripts from Carboni, and while some are useful, other do more harm if overused, like Star Size Decrease. Keeping the star size from growing too much is something I fight with every time. What do you guys do to overcome this?

Hi everyone,

I've been following this topic for a while now and read all of its 143 pages over the course of a few weeks. It's one of the most valuable AZ topics regarding DSO imaging I could find so far. And I came in just to offer a BIG thank you for all you detailed experience and effort you've put here so others can learn from it, just like myself.

The below picture is my way of saying Thank You to all of you for helping me trying to do my best on AZ. Here is one of my best DSO projects so far with 2h integration time - M33. I'm happy with what it came out in the end but it is far from finished. I still wish to add more data to it.

Here's the tech details:

Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ Star Discovery Synscan Goto

Telescope: Orion ED80

Camera: Nikon D5300

Accessories: Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors

Frames: 240x 30s  - ISO 1600