Nicola Hannah Butterfield

I think this is an improvement on last year's attempt. They are both quite tight crops from a full frame DSLR

2021

2020

6 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

So only on the Lights, so external to the scope and camera setup.

Full Moon ?

Michael

Possible the moon was 59° 2.5' away. I will try again next week with no moon, proving there are clear nights. When I did M51 later in the evening, the moon was 84° 32'.

@david_taurus83I have a home made light shield, as O have a neighbours bathroom light on most of the night, it shines right down on the scope, about the only place in the garden it does, at the time of imaging it would have been greater than 90°there are insecurity lights on two opposing housing, but the scope is hidden from most of those sources by the boundary fence, It is rather a steep hill I live on.

I am just working on a sequence of M51 and no such issuses with this one, taken later the same evening. so it is likely to be a light source of one form or another, I will invest on a better dew shield if the problem persists.

I do actually find shooting NE/east I get better results, as from the SE to SW there is Doncaster about 8 miles away and Barnsley somewhat closer, then Wakefield at about 12 miles to the west. Looking East there is very little between here and the North Sea, Hull/Grimsby about 40 miles away.

7 hours ago, michael8554 said:

What Camera ? Scope ? 

Is it on your Flats ?

Is it on individual Lights ?

Michael

Canon 6D Skywatcher 200P, it isn't on the flats. i did think at first it was clouds, but only used the best of the image with as little cloud in the 30 odd lights

Master flat

Single 120's light

AZ/Alt approx 203° 65° left of frame is towards the horizon.

As the title says, I did a sequence on M33 the other day L.P. apart I am struggling with the very bright band of light and the darker one to the right of it, the 38 x 120's lights (flats bias and darks about 20 of each) after a little bit of PP work this is what I get.

So could the focus tube extended in to the light path be able cause this.

@peter shah@ultranova Thanks for you comments. I used a lot of masking, I have learnt some new things processing this one. One thing I have stated doing (though not sure if has helped, is to cover the camera with a black bag type thing, also a home-made (basically a piece of cardboard) light shield, to help cut down on  excess neighbours lights from going straight down the focuser, I either need to change that or the scope at some point, as it is the standard 200P focuser and extends into the tube an inch or so, though I have painted it black, I suspect it is still effecting the final image. Just need some clear nights to practise, you tend to forget from one month to the next. I have however got the computer side sorted for the most part, guiding (when not to windy) plate solving, dithering (though not aggressively enough on this sequence), flats are always an issue, so tend to take these during evening twilight, and leave the camera in the same rotation. I have an idea what I am shooting so rotate accordingly. I got a bahtinov mask for  Xmas, first time I used my eye focus was spot on anyway, but handy to check.

which was this

Hopefully this is an improvement on last year's image, this should have been 4 hrs or so, but what with wind and cloud (it was supposed to be clear) it ended up at 75 mins of 60's, 60's due to wind and cloud.

I got a 200p last January, the first thing I did was a decent 'ish mount, in my case an EQ6 Pro, a lot of money for me as I don't work, so I understand that bit. On a decent mount the 200p is a capable telescope for photography (winds aside) over the last year I have invested in a cheap guide scope and camera. I planned on 4 hrs of data for this image but only got 75 mins, due wind early on and cloud throughout the session.

47 minutes ago, travaler said:

thanks guys for all goodness.

I just wish the rain and cloudy nights would go away. been this way for the last few weeks. I've had one night so far and that was to set up to check things out to make sure my new toy was working straight out of the box. it still has that new smell! 

We get about 4 to 6 weeks a year in the uk, from my newbie experience.

Well got round to using a pressy sanata brought from RVO, the thing is, this is from a previous locked camera position, so is my focusing of by eye, or has Santa wasted his time

Ditto what others said.

On 23/12/2020 at 18:47, Paul M said:

I've got a big soft spot for ASTAP http://www.hnsky.org/astap.htm  

Amongst its features it has deep sky annotation and Hyperleda annotation.  

 

Thanks for that, I found database that annotated like this, the figures are ly. aquired from the redshifts I could find, and using an edited version of the objects exported using the {GC Hyperleda catalog.

It would be nice to find a data source, so I can export the table with redshift and mag.

Anyway so far this little adventure has turned up the furthest known object at 3.43 billion miles, providing I have the redshift LY conversion right.

Edit.

Light years not miles.

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Not much additional info on this galaxy. It doesn't seem to be part of any group or cluster. Located some 150 MLy distant according to SIMBAD

Thanks.

@HughsieFound the plate solver in PixInsight.

@HughsieI tried Astrometry, it has in the past picked up much fainter objects. The only star atlas I have access to apart from a copy of Norton's is the "Deep Sky Hunter Atlas", tried both Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel sky atlases, limited on astrobin.

From the catalogue number you gave I did some searching, I found some bits also it is known as UGC 05247, I was interested to see how far it is, but could find nothing clear.

I used to have a copy of Uranometria (Northen) back in the 90's not sure what happened to it, so not adversed to digging around I just came up blank with this one.

17 hours ago, Hughsie said:

Here you go. Plate solved image attached from one I took earlier this year. A small galaxy, PGC28225.

Thanks what did you use to plate solve as everything i tried didn't show anything.

I imaged the M81 galaxy after I had got Jupiter and Saturn the other day. I have noticed a small smudge possibly a galaxy circled in the upper right of the image.

This is the first time I have put 95 mins of lights together after plate solving in APT, guiding and dithering (I think the pieces are starting to click into place), it is also pretty much the first time we have any sort of clear nights since I got the guide scope some two months ago, odd clearer night but issues with kit ect, and yes I know there is coma, still saving for that bit.

No show here either, same with Venus and m45, clear both sides clouds on the day

.Just wishing you all the best on the New Year xx
Astronomically

Managed to catch this tonight 19-12-2020 @ 16:28UT, clouds parted long enough a few stills, and a couple of videos, not holding out much hope on those but at least it is something.

SW 200P and Canon 6D, 4s, f5 200ISO

9 hours ago, alan potts said:

Done, nice image too.

Alan

Thanks on both counts.

38 minutes ago, theropod said:

Looks good to me. Title edit?

Just seen it, not sure why the spell check didn't pick it up.

My second attempt at M31, this time with guiding and dithering, a little to aggressive on the stars, but I was trying to get more core detail.
Lights
20x120's,
9x240's

I have managed to get Titan using an old Canon EF70-210mm lens on a Canon 40D back in 2012, and felt exactly the same, similar image quality, this was the first time.

Titan is just right of Saturn at 8.58mag.

The Brighter Star is HIP 67855 mag 7.7  the other HIP 67471 Mag 8.95, so you can get images with wow factor with modest kit.

However, others have already warned you about the addictiveness.

On 28/11/2020 at 12:59, gilesco said:

Something like this?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/baader-clicklock-flip-mirror-ii-star-diagonal.html

That reminds me somewhat of a S.L.R. medium format camera, without lens viewfinder and film holder.