AstroNebulee

Finally I was able to get out to image my first milky-way of the season. Following the rain of the evening that as forecasted passed over and led to clear skies from 12am right though the night. I set off at 2am to my best milky-way imaging site overlooking the village quarry. Though the moon was just past the first quarter and bright, I had time to take in the perfect silence and wildlife noises of the owls, foxes, bat's and scurrying rabbits. I took my static tripod and dslr and as a quick experiment my alt az az with dslr bracket to see if I could get 1min exposures with no star trails on my samyang 14mm f2.8 lens. Success so something to work on next time for the core. I then set up my static tripod, Canon 600D with Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens and took some long exposure foregrounds whilst I waited for the moon to get lower and the milky-way to rise higher as the moon was really blowing it out. Eventually the moon set enough to crack on. I have manged to capture 3 landscape panoramic panels and 1 portrait panoramic panel for processing. The latter finishing imaging just as the dawn was beginning to try and end the darkness up in the east. So probably around 30 minutes of good darkness before that happened. It was lovely to see Scorpio and Antares, the teapot asterim, the great rift through Cygnus, Aquila and Lyra again after such a long time. It's even better now looking south, that the town 3 miles away in that direction now turn off almost all their streetlights at night. 😊 So I packed up and headed home for a coffee to warm up, with the dawn chorus starting up and the belt of Venus in its early stages. Though chuffing cold by the end of it and lots of dew, good job the dew heater did its job admirably. A most enjoyable session though I'm going to be knackered later at work. Thank you for getting this far on my ramblings. Clear skies. Lee

That's a cracking image and lovely seeing that line of craters. Not seen that before. Thank you. Lee

Hope you feel better soon Mike, lovely images and report. Lee

Thank you 😊. Hopefully next time you'll get the Aurora. I would of stopped by 11pm if I didn't see the alert on Auroa hunters uk on crapbook. Maybe a couple more opportunities before darkness ends soon. Good luck and clear skies. Thank you Paul you're far to kind 😊though I wouldn't go as far as legend haha (maybe next time I'll remember to put the iso up 🙄) but I'm slowly learning and get a lot more joy from Widefield imaging and the inspiration you provide me. Also I now use the long exposure noise reduction on the foreground images as you describe in your journals and much easier, thank you. I'm looking forward to your next one. Clear skies and hope you're all well. Lee

On Tuesday 16th April I went l Aurora hunting. Just before 11pm I was going to pack up my dslr after only getting mainly pink diffuse aurora. Then upon checking all the Aurora apps and page on crapbook I saw that there was to be a huge surge in activity. Then from 11pm to 12pm a huge show evolved with a pillar just visible with averted vision. I was freezing by the end of the session but well rewarded. At least I brought my stool and remembered my dew strap this time. Heres one of the better images of the main show. Taken with Canon 600D and Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens on a static tripod. Sky 8 secs at 800iso f2.8 (should of gone higher on the iso but didn't want moon to wash the sky out, sadly I got it wrong) Foreground 30 secs 1600iso F4 with long exposure noise reduction. Blended and tweaked in photoshop. Worth a click and turn on the image and timelapse. Cheers Lee Aurora timelapse 16-4-24.mp4

Beautiful pillars on your timelapse. Great work. Lee

The Aurora put on a great show last night. I nearly packed up around 10.45pm but glad I stayed out for the main show even though I was frozen to bone when I left my usual Aurora spot to trudge home. Taken off the back of the dslr this was around 23.30. Here in North Cornwall. Lee

When we used to go on holiday I'm like that too. Especially planning for around the new moon time 😉 Lee

During the video as you were wandering up to the houseboat with your headtorch on, I expected a grumpy old man to twitch the curtains, open the window and shout at you. The houseboat would make a lovely place to live with those views. Lee

Very nice indeed Paul. Sometimes you just got to brave the weather's and get out there and you've been rewarded. The foreground of the light painted barn is beautiful and I like how Leo appears to be leaping over it. Thank you and clear skies. Lee

Wow that's impressive Ger. I'm so pleased you captured the core on your holiday and took such an amazing image. I agree with the landscapes in the Canary Islands are very moon like and a place I love to visit when possible. Clesr skies Lee

Beautiful Paul. Just watched your journal and I'm blown away as usual. I just want to say a huge thank you for your journals, advice given on them and your enthusiasm for Widefield astrophotography that keeps me going and I'm sure many others of us. All your images are superb but last resting place is just sublime. Clear skies and look forward to your next journal. Lee

Beautiful image Dave. What an amazing foreground of the Abbey. I know what you mean about the wind it was extremely windy. I was out in the early hours by the quarry trying for the milky-way but clouds only gave me glimpses. Good luck for next time. Lee

No the confusion was all mine haha. I thought you meant above in the image of M81&82. Regarding the dew sheild on mine I had a look and it's the felt variety. Good luck with your imaging journey, you're well on the way now. I never liked spring as not into galaxies with the 72ed and also lighter evenings. Late summer into autumn you'll have so many to choose from just remember to concentrate on one target and get several hours on it especially nebula, I used to get 5 hours if possible. Lee

Thank you. Yes it's a great view if what the Astronomik L3 can do, and I learnt more about processing by then. Always learning in Astrophotography beit Widefield or scope work. I did try some milky-way last night but the clear gaps never appeared but a stunning location by the quarry even if I was being blown about by the wind. Good luck on your imaging journey I'll look forward to the results. Lee

It's looking good. Though not M51 above its NGC3077 I think. 👍 Lee

The stars look good in all the corners and no back focus issues I can see. It was really windy out ladt night when I was trying for the milky-way with dslr, so I'm not sure where you are but the wind will play havoc with guiding unless really sheltered. I found the 72ed was better on bigger targets and never really bothered with to many galaxies. I did do M31, M33, M51 and M81&82. But found it was at the limit. Lee

My dew sheild pulled off and had a felt strip attached to the scope. Will take a photo when I'm home. I wouldn't bother cleaning the element unless it's really dirty, you'd be surprised how much dirt doesn't bother the image. Lee

Yes I did use an Astronomik L3 filter to cure the blue fringing and bloating of stars and did a really great job worth every penny. It really tightened up the stars. I'm in bortle 3 so never had to worry to much about LP. I used it on nebula and some galaxies but I was more of a nebula imager. Lee

Fantastic Gerr. I've not seen the zodiacal light yet. All the more lovely with the H alpha of Orion. Lee

So much depth and structure Paul, lovely image. 👍 Lee

Congratulations Paul 👏. So brilliant your getting the recognition you deserve. Such a stunning image, as Paul said I do like how the mountain and milky-way arc compliment each other perfectly. Lee

It's looking very nice indeed. 👌 Exciting times ahead. What I did to help balancing in RA better was to mount the guidescope on a small dovetail bar on top of the scope so all was central and no excess weight either side of the rig. That was my ocd kicking in the though. But yours shouldn't weigh to much to affect RA. Lee

I'm sure you got it all sorted as best you can without a real world test in the stars. I was plugged in to and asiair in the photo. Though I don't do the imaging side with my scope anymore. I just do visual with another scope and lunar and planetary. Mostly dslr Widefield Nightscapes now. I'll look forward to seeing your setup. Lee

Did you insert the flattener all the way in and tightened the thumbscrew up? Or did I misread that part. An all screwed imaging train is best when you can manage it. That way you can eliminate a few errors that may crop up with an imaging train that has thumbscrews that hold parts together. If you get any partly clear skies at night you can now refine the focus position with your setup either in stars or the moon when visible. I always left my imaging rig set up when not in use, covered in a couple of sheets to keep the dust off and carried it out to my imaging area in a couple of trips when in use. Lee