Denys

+ 1 for N.I.N.A. I have tried to use the DARV method but found it too cumbersome, while N.I.N.A. is very easy to use and works most of the time for me (although sometimes it fails). The downside is that you need to carry your laptop with you.

Nice capture! Do you mind if I ask how you created this animation? Specifically, do you record a series of short videos? If so, what is the duration of each video, and do you set a specific interval between each capture?

Thanks in advance!

Denys

Was lucky enough to have a second opportunity to photograph a pair of birds this morning! It's the exact same palm tree, but this time with a more exotic bird. Toucans are tipically seen in pairs, and you can just catch a glimpse of the partner's body behind the tree leaves.

Picture taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70.

Managed to capture these loving couple yesterday with the moon in the background.

I think it would had been a great picture if I had managed to focus it properly 😅. Unfortunately, the moon was quite high in the sky so I had to do a deep squat to get the birds into the frame, and it was quite difficult to get a good picture in such an unstable posture.

I would have given it another shot, but the birds were probably annoyed by having their privacy invaded and decided to take off, so I will have to stick with that.

Picture taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70.

2 hours ago, Simone_DB said:

Hi Denys, yes, you and the others already gave me a great support. It's not always easy to find a forum where people, for various reasons, get to understand what you need or sometimes they just have a kind of aggressive or dismissive attitude. I'm glad I found such a kind and welcoming environment here. I'd be more than willing myself to help other people one day.

About the modding of the camera, I have a collegue that own a Nikon D3100 which he removed the IR filter from, and he's not using it anymore, so I'll have a chance to make some practice with that! Buy the way, such a modding is suitable just for reddish objects, or is it good in general for DSOs?

Edit: I just reread your last post and I noticed that you already answered, at least partially, to my question. Thanks!

Oh, it's great that you can get the chance to try a modified camera. What is even better is that you can compare both cameras and check for yourself whether or not it is worth it.

Like I said, I have no experience with a modded DSLR, but if I had to make a wild guess I would say that it will give you better results for most DSOs. But you touch an interesting point about the reddish objects. For instance, I was checking for some pictures of Orion with modified DSLRs on astrobin and most of the images have a very strong reddish color (which I have to say, it’s not of my personal liking - but perhaps that can be treated in post-processing?). On the other hand, I once tried to capture the flame + horsehead nebula or the Rosetta nebula and didn’t have much of a success, and I think it’s probably due to the IR filter that is blocking most of the signal in these specific targets.

Anyhow, please let me know your thoughts on this once you get the chance to try the cameras.

Regards,

Denys

Hi Simone,

I'm really glad that I was able to assist you. When I was just starting out with astrophotography, the support I received from everyone in this forum was invaluable. It's incredible to now be in a position where I can offer help to others who are embarking on this same journey.

I appreciate your offer, but there's really no need for the wine. Trust me, as you delve deeper into astrophotography, you'll discover a never-ending list of equipment that you'll want to invest in, so it's best to save your money for those occasions!

Regarding modding the camera, all I know is that it involves removing the infra-red filter that is in front of the sensor. I have a canon which I use for my astrophotography, but I never had it modified – but people often say that it can really boost your images of DSO, since (depending on the object) a lot of the signal is actually in that part of the spectrum.

Good luck with everything!

Best regards,

Denys

Hi again,

There are lots of people here in SGL who are very knowledgeable on this, so perhaps they can give you better answers or even some workflow to follow so you can start making your imaging... But here are some things that I think are relevant (perhaps you know this already):

1. In summary, there are two different types of workflow in astrophotography: it depends if you are imaging a Deep Sky Object (DSO) or a planet (include moon here as well)...

2. For DSO, you (usually) want photos with long exposure - because the objects are very dim. For this, you need to be polar aligned.

3. For planetary imaging, you want to make a short video (you'll find that the video cannot be too long because of the rotation of the planets) - but a couple of minutes is a good start. Here, the faster the frame rate of your video, the better (see topic 5). Why a video? Because in this case a long exposure picture will be very blurry due to turbulence in the atmosphere. Thus you make a single video, and then break the video file into its individual frames, select those frames that are less blurry, stack them together into a single picture, and finally apply some tools to reduce noise and increase the sharpness of your image...

4. As you might have noticed, there are lots of different software out there, but the most common workflow that I've seen involves using three of them in combination (since each one does a different job): PiPP, Autostakkert, and RegiStax 6.

5. You will see that people often recommend a dedicated astrocamera for planetary imaging since DSLRs are not very suited for this task. This doesn't mean it cannot be done, and that's what I wanted to show you in the video that I linked above. Mind you, the video I linked before wasn't indeed the best tutorial out there to learn your way into the software (but I do recommend that channel for DSO, I have found it really good in walking you through all the steps from imaging to processing).

6. Here is another video that I've found helpful for planetary processing - very short video, so do not expect an in-deepth analysis of what the software can do, but it does explain a little better what each one it is doing and perhaps will give you a place to start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1BDVkl70I

HTH,

Denys

Hi there,

I am by no means an expert, but I've heard people saying that a good way to know if you are on focus with a dslr is to point at Jupiter, and when you can see its four moons you should be on focus (or at least very close to)... And from your images, it looks like you are there.

Since you mentioned you should learn how to take astrophotos, here is a very helpful tutorial (IMO) for planetary images with a dslr:

HTH,

Denys

Hi all,

Here is my take on M83. It was my first time (seriously) capturing a galaxy. I don't think it's an award-winning picture, as there are some really impressive images here, but I thought I would share it since I haven't seem any picture of this galaxy on the challenge yet. Taken with my SW 150PDS with an old canon 500D on an EQM-35-pro mount. 199x25sec plus calibration frames. Stacked with DSS and processed in Siril, then sharpened with AstroSharp (by the way, a shoutout to the guy who made this tool available! I don't know his name, but you can check his YT channel "Deep Sky Detail" if you wanna check this sharpening tool yourself, really interesting, imo)...

On 11/03/2022 at 08:08, 900SL said:

5 minutes with Siril, rough edit, compressed jpeg:

That is a very nice image!

I apologize for deviating from the main topic of this post, but may I ask you what equipment and how much integration time did you use?

Now, back to the main topic, as a beginner myself, I've been using DSS for stacking and GIMP for some very basic post-processing. I like both, there are a few tutorials available to guide you, and more importantly (at least for me), they are free.

Thanks for your replies, I really appreciate!

56 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Also ways of masking certain bright areas as you stretch so it stretches the dark areas but not the masked parts

I did not know about this, but will surely look into it!

56 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

if we look at actual colors (say 0.8, 0.4 and 0.2 and above tripled of 0.72, 0.68 and 0.63) - here is what we get:

Thanks for the very illustrative example vlaiv!

23 minutes ago, wimvb said:

What is the colour of the core in the stacked but not stretched image? Does the colour change when you do colour calibration or when you remove any light pollution?

Oh, should have checked the color of the stacked only image before, it is actually closer to pink... I did not try to remove light pollution, as I was told I am under Bortle 4 sky (according to light pollution map anyway), so hopefully that means I can get away without this step?

Denys

Hello there,

I recently took some images of the Orion Nebula using my DSLR and SW 150 PDS. Not sure if I went for the right settings, but I use 8 seconds exposure time and ISO 800. Then I stacked all my images together (14 min total) and played with it in GIMP.

I am actually quite happy with the end result (as a beginner, mind you), but there is something puzzling me: when looking at one single frame, the core of the nebula has a blueish color to it, while in the stacked and stretched  image the core has more of a pink hue (see image below comparing a single frame, on the left, with my final image).  I actually like the blue core, as it makes the image a bit eerie. But now I wonder why it doesn’t look like that in the final image… Could this be the result of me stretching the image and somehow messing up with the colors?

Thanks in advance!

15 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

In second image - well, I simply can't figure out what is what. I'm looking at Stellarium and Eta Carinae and I can't figure out how to match them. If you can - well, first step is to figure out direction of elongation.

Thanks for your answer vlaiv! This is something interesting that you have pointed out, I didn't think about checking the direction of elongation... Now, since you mentioned it, I just opened Stellarium and I myself struggled to recognized any star pattern there LoL... All I can say is that I typed NGC 3372 in my handcontroller and this is what appeared on my camera/screen, so I assume it was indeed eta carinae 😅

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestions, really helpful! Is it just me or does this hobby has a never ending list of accessories? When I first decided that would buy myself a telescope I thought all I would needed was the OTA! 🤣

Denys

Hello folks!

First of all, I would like to thank this community for being so open and helpful towards newbies like myself, and also for all the high-quality information that is available on this forum (which I am still trying to get a grasp on 😬).

Thanks to this forum I managed to get some astrophotography which I am very happy with (despite them being far from perfect). I hope you don’t mind with I share with you my attempts at the globular cluster in Omega Centauri and the Eta Carinae nebula...

Now, please bear with me once again: I have an EQM-35 mount and a SW 150-PDS, and the images above were taken with an old Canon 500D. But I have been really struggling with polar alignment… Yesterday I spent what felt like an hour trying to align with the DARV method, but I am not sure if I was really successful, as I was hoping I could achieve exposures at least one minute long, but only managed a few seconds… So first question: maybe I am expecting too much from my mount (maybe OTA + DSLR are already too heavy for it)? And if that is not the case, is there any software out there that I could use for polar alignment with my DSLR (on PC)? From my understanding, EKOS may be up for the task, but apparently it doesn’t run on Windows…

Thanks once again!

Denys

Hello there,

I recently got my hands on an old canon T1i + kit lens and decided to make some tests with landscape astrophotography, more for the sake of learning how to operate the camera than anything else.

I live on top of a small hill from where I can see a good part of the (small) city where I live, and at this time of the year the Milky Way shows up from the other side of it, rising at an angle of almost 90 degrees with respect to the horizon.

So here is the thing: I thought it would be really nice if I could get a picture which shows some structures and details of the Milky Way above the city, but I am not sure if the light pollution just makes it impossible. I tried anyway, so am adding the picture of my first try: a stacking of 10 frames, 13 seconds exposure each, at ISO 3200.

I would love to hear what people with more expertise on landscape AP have to say about this mission: could I achieve better results if I stack a lot of images, or maybe use different settings on the camera, or is it capturing the milky way over a city just a fool’s dream 😅

Just now, DaveL59 said:

The screws will always mark the dovetail on this type of mount unfortunately

Thanks, this is what I was trying to find: if it was a design problem or if it was me doing something wrong! But you have a good point about using something else in between.

Hello my friends,

I apologize in advance for what may be a very stupid question, but I would like to check how you fixate the dovetail that is on the OTA on the top of the mount…

There are two bolts there on the mount (see picture) that I assumed should be used to tight the dovetail in place, but the point of contact between them is rather small and it ended up leaving some marks of the tip of the bolt on the dovetail. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? Maybe using a piece of rubber or plastic to stay between the two metal components and avoid scratches... Do you use something like that?

Thanks!

Thank you guys. I tried to swap them but it didn't work.

I made a sketch that helped me understand what may be going on  ... I will upload it here, in case you want to share your thoughts as well.

If I remove the right bolt (bolts are shown in red), I should be able to turn the one on the left and move the altitude all the way to 15 degrees. However, it comes to a complete stop once it reaches 32 degrees and won't go any further... So I think that maybe the head is turning slightly off-axis (that would be the blue cylinder in the picture), in such a way that at 32 degrees the blue cylinder starts to bend the bolt on the left, and prevents me from taking it any further... If this is really what is going on, then I don't know how to solve lol

Just now, Kryptic said:

Clutching straws - are they both the same length?

No. The one on the left of the image is shorter. Should they be the same length?

Thanks @Seelive and @Kryptic. Just removing the right bolt won't do, as the bolt on the left is completely stiff. If I remove both then I can indeed move it to 15 degrees. However, if I try to insert the bolts back again, they do not lock against each another... I can only lock them in position once the mount is back to 30 degrees or higher...

Just now, Peter Drew said:

I don't know the answer but I would suggest removing both adjusting screws and then see if you can manually rock the head to 21 degrees or if there is something internally preventing full movement.       🤔

Thanks for the suggestion Peter. Indeed, by removing both bolts, I can manually move it to lower angles. There is however a physical stop that prevents it from going higher than the 65 degrees.

Hello there,

I am trying to set up my very first mount, a Sky-watcher EQM-35 Pro. I assembled the mount and now I am trying to set the latitude to fit with the place where I live, which is around 21 degrees (southern hemisphere, if that matters...). However, I noticed that the mount does not go to positions lower than 32 degrees nor higher than 65 degrees... Anything beyond this range and the bolts become too stiff and stop turning completely... (I will try to add a picture to show how it looks like)

Now, I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, or maybe there is some sort of trick to take the mount to lower latitudes...

Has anyone faced this problem before on this mount or in any similar mount? Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi there,

I am also new to astrophotography, but I've come across this video on youtube and it was extremely helpful (at least to me), with very good explanations and showing each and every step of the whole process (he talks about the Bias/Darks/flats at around 1hour or so of the video). Maybe you will find in interesting:

21 hours ago, wimvb said:

The t-ring will screw into the coma corrector. That should be enough. Without a cc, you will need a nosepiece that can slide into the focuser drawtube

Thanks for the reply. I was a bit confused because in the website of FLO for the 150 pds they say that you would only need either a t-ring, or a coma corrector and a t-ring (but apparently of a different type of thread I guess), so I was wondering about the other metal piece that goes into the focuser that you mentioned, as I have seen on youtube some people using two pieces instead of only a t-ring... Since we are at it, would you say the coma corrector is a must for AP using this scope?

Thanks again!

Nice image! Do you guys mind if I ask you what equipment would I need in order to attached a DSLR camera onto the telescope? I just bought a 150 pds myself, and I would like to try some AP in the near future, so I am wondering what I would need. Is this T-ring enough, or is there anything else (excluding more fancy stuff like the coma corrector)?

Thanks!