RobST

Hi Everyone

So i had a bit of good fortune on the pools and have £1000 to spend 😁

I currently use a Canon 6d and a samyang 135mm f2 lens.

I have a star adventurer 2i that i am still yet to use due to it being cloudy everytime i have a night when it's possible to stay up late 😁

So i was thinking about getting a small refractor telescope that i could use with my 6d and star adventurer.

Something easy to setup, reliable and preferably with good aftersales just incase anything goes wrong.

Interested in DSO Astrophotography

Any advice would be much appreciated

Yes i was chuffed with that as well 😁

Hey Everyone

So last night i attempted Orion Nebula for the first time. Probably on the worst night because of the moon 😁 It was a last minute decision so it was on a static tripod.

Canon 6d, Samyang 135mm stopped down to f2.8, iso 3600, 350 x 2sec subs.

This is just a quick processing this morning but I'm quite chuffed especially with the moon being so bright.

Needs more work though.

2 hours ago, MrZuiko said:

Great no filters means no more expense what tracker have you ordered? I saw a great youtube video with a guy using £6000 vs £600 with goto that was really interesting to watch them slew to their target being controlled by a laptop.........end result there wasn't really that much in it to be honest....but I want to see what my modest out fit will do before buying anything else although I have seen on fleabay an astrotrack set up that can take 15kg payload.....nice!

Ash.

Got a star adventurer on order

19 minutes ago, MrZuiko said:

Morning Rob,

Who needs a tracker when you can capture stunning pictures with just a simple tripod!!😉 granted we have to take a few hundred frames to store the details but the end result is the same just takes a little more work to get there!

Do you use filters for light pollution? Although I live in a town where we are it's pretty good and I have a large back garden to use with only a couple of street lights.

If I take a 15 minute drive then I'm out in the country side no street lights maybe the odd car that drives past but having said that with taking such short light frames it won't ruin the shot,just delete the frame.I too have an intervelometer just got it it's just as capable as if were to control your camera by laptop but a lot smaller!

Looking at the forecast ahead I'm looking to get out Tuesday night when I will try some short tracked shots and static frames with my 85mm and 300mm.

Looking forward to when Orion is in the sky......I have seen some amazing shots on youtube M42,Horsehead etc taken with a long lens and of course M31!

Keep safe and clear skies.

Ash.

Hey Ash

I don't use any filters, i can't wait for orion either, i have seen it about 5.30 in the morning but unfortunately on my way to work 😃 hopefully clear skys Wednesday night when i can get out.

Hopefully my tracker will come soon 😃

Cheers Rob

6 hours ago, MrZuiko said:

So being your 6d is full frame if I use my 85 f1.8 on my D300 gives me 127mm so I'll get a similar size M31 in my images.

Have you tried a longer focal length? Your 2 sec subs were they on a driven mount or stationary tripod? looked on photons to photos and at best I'll be using ISO800 but more likely ISO400

I'm gonna try my 300f4 ED (450mm FL) on my D300 on my Omegon LX2 it puts the total weight 5oz over the 4 lb limit.... and find out what I can track for before star trailing.

Cheers Ash.

Hi Ash

I dont really know about how the image size things work sorry.

If f1.8 is the fastest your lens will go then i would dial it back to f2 or f2.8, some folks say if you use your lens wide open then you won't get the best images.

I have tried 200mm f3.5 but that was an old lens of ebay and my old canon 400d so results were bigger but with no detail.

I don't have a tracker so everything is on a normal tripod, i take 50 subs using an intervelometer, then 50 more, then re center the object, then do the same process again and so on.

Cheers 😃

The image above is 2 seconds subs, 200 i think at iso 6400 on my 6d with samyang 135mm at f2.8.

50 darks, bias and flats whatever that ratio is.

I would normally take 300 or 400 light subs.

This is a new camera so i shot 1600 and 6400 that night and the 6400 was just an experiment, going to use pixinsight for the 1600 next amd see what i get 😃

3hrs learning Pixinsight 😃

On 30/09/2020 at 05:35, MrZuiko said:

Hi Rob,

Found that guy on youtube fascinating to watch even more so that he takes his images using nothing more than a tripod with no tracker and 1 second exposures! I will give this ago because I'd originally planned to use my Omegon LX2 which I'm in the process of upgrading the sighting tube to polar align to a 5x24 finder scope to be more accurate on the polaris using my Nikon D300 and my 85mm 1.8 lens which because of the crop factor equates to a 127mm lens.

But having watched the video I would like to try my 300 f4 ED heavy piece of glass and metal! too much for the LX2 to handle...this would give me me a focal length of 450mm should fill the frame!

The editing looks very intense so I think I would have to be watching the video again on my laptop while working on my desktop.

Does anyone here use the LX2? I was all set the other night as i popped my head out into the back garden went back in camera gear packed stepped back outside and guess what....it had clouded over and the wind had picked up...so a no go🤨......does anyone use light pollution filters and which ones are best I know there's different types depending on what you want to filter out and what you want to let through etc.

Clear skies.

Ash.

Thats how i do my processing, have the video in the background if i get stuck, once you have used the stacking software a few times it's easy, processing is not 🤣

Bit more processing today, stacked and processed with Siril mainly then a little tweak with gimp 😃 chuffed with this although might make it a bit brighter 😃

1 hour ago, MrZuiko said:

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that I'll have a look at that guy on youtube!

Can I ask why so many bias frames? would you take a similar amount of dark frames....say you only took 15 light frames would that mean you would only take 15 bias/dark frames?

all these questions 🤔.

I've never used DSS so that should be fun,I should think!

Clear skies all and keep safe.

Ash.

Hi Ash

Yes i just do 50 darks, bias and flats as one of the tutorials i watched said it was a good number, if i was doing 1 min exposure lights i would probably do less darks and flats as they require the same length exposures, but as i am only doing 2 second exposures its quick to do 50 darks and flats. The thing with the bias frames is you can do them for an iso and use them again and again, although i do tend to redo mine 😃 

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

I have just been watching Nico's videos. Came across a point in GIMP that helps subtract light pollution after aggressive stretching that looks helpfull.

Yes i find his videos very useful, although i think i probably push my images to far when using the techniques he shows 😃

14 hours ago, Albut said:

Took this with a friend, our second attempt at M31 with better alignment, using ioptron tracker, Sony a7iiii camera and William optics Redcat51. Took about 50 or so photos iso 3200 60 secs. Then from something that looked pretty dull followed the andromeda video tutorial by Peter Zelinka and ended up with this. Probably the colours are out but pleased with the result.

Fantastic image, yes i would like a touch of blue at the edges of the galaxy 😃 i will go and watch Peters video, i have watched some of them before 😃

18 hours ago, MrZuiko said:

Hi Rob.....Great job on M31 absolutely first class! I enjoy astrophotography and have only a simple set up namely Omegon Mini Track LX2 which has it's limits e.g 2kg payload so can't use my Nikon 300 F4 ED (FL 450mm) on my D300 but I do use my Tokina 12-24, nifty fifty and my 85mm f1.8 which becomes a 127mm short telephoto lens because of the 1.5 crop factor.i would be very proud and excited if I had taken that image,I too will have to learn DSS I'm familiar with photoshop and know I have to take "dark frames" but what are "bias" frames and how do you taken them!

There's an Italian guy on FB Stefano Moschini that has taken some excellent deep sky photo's with this set up so I will continue and improve....can't wait for winter as Orion has to be one of my favourite constellations.

Keep safe people and clear skies.

Ash.

Hi Ash

Thanks for the great comments, Bias frames are taken by setting your camera to the iso you intend to use for your light frames, then set your camera to its fastest speed , in my case 1/4000, and with the lens cap on take about 50 images, those will be your bias frames.

Another great youtube channel is Nebula Photos, a guy called nico takes you through every step in great detail 😃

17 minutes ago, tomato said:

That’s the trap I fall into every time. The trick is extracting as much ‘real’ detail from  your data without introducing artefacts from the processing, I’m certain I will never stop learning how to do this, but it’s fun trying.

Your progress is excellent, BTW, you already have the image capture fundamentals sorted, something that usually takes quite a bit of time.👍

Thanks 😃 just waiting on my tracker now, that image i stacked in dss but then used siril to edit, but no work in an image processing program 😃

47 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Looks very good. I am a bit jealous of your samyang 135mm. I am still waiting the delivery of mine, looks like it's on a back order at the minute.

I managed to get one from amazon, all the instructions were in german, seems its a good one though, and i am enjoying using it, especially now i have my 6d 😃

I would like to tweak the colours a little, but as i said I'm not great at post processing, i usually end up doing to much and ruining the image 😫

My Latest Attempt 😃 alot less noise 😃

Thanks Folks 😁 can't wait to get out with my 6d 😁 hopefully a clear night soon 😁

Ha i never thought of that 🤣🤣

Hey Everyone

Just wanted to share my progress so far 😁 

First image taken 7th June this year, bitten by the bug 😁

I couldn't belive i could image M31 with my crappy setup, even though it was a little smudge, i was so excited 😁

Second Image Taken 27th July with an old 200mm lens i got from ebay and my canon 400d.

Quite an improvement in size but not much detail, but could now see M110 so was very pleased.

My Final image taken just a few nights ago 30 August, i finally got to try out my Samyang 135mm @f2.8 on my Canon 400d.

I was chuffed to bits with how much more detail i could now see 😁.

I am still very new to astrophotography and very new to post processing, I've used Deep Sky Stacker, Siril and Gimp although i hardly know any of the features of any of them.

I just got a used Canon 6d and cant wait to try it with my 135mm lens.

Also have a skywatcher star adventurer on the way.

To be honest i could carry on just imaging Andromeda, as it still blows me away that i can image something so far away and so long ago, from my back garden 😁

I have attached my Deep Sky Stacker Result and my Siril Result incase anyone would be interested in showing me what could be achieved with the data, if i knew what i was doing 🤣

Autosave.tif

result - Copy - Copy.fit

Any advice is much appreciated 😁

Thanks Rob

Amazing Image, i was also out till 4am imaging M31 😁 i just love the fact i am able to image something so far away, from my back garden 😁 congrats

26 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

How about a 600d? You'll have change of your £400 

I have looked at 600d as well plus 700, 750, 760, 80, 70, 60 😂, lots of people seem to have the 600d, i can only really go on tests that people have done, 200d seems to be comparable to the 80d at least on dxo, people seem very impressed with the 80d, so not sure why the 200d would produce images with more noise? I'm sure all would be a major upgrade from my 400d anyway 😁

5 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I would look at a used 60D or even a 70D on sites like MPB or Wex, might just be able to get one for around the £400 mark and will be far better than the 200D you looked at.

Alan

Thanks Alan, i have been scouring those sites, even looking at 6d but really would like the flip screen 😁

Hi Everyone

So i have a very old Canon 400d and am thinking of upgrading, i was all set to get a Canon 200d but then started reading that it wasn't very good for astro, this new camera wont be a dedicated astro camera but if the skys are clear and i don't have to be up for work then i would like to point my camera at the stars 😁

Really would like a flip out screen and live view just to make life a bit easier.

Any advice on what to get would be great, or would the 200d be fine and it's just not that great to what is available now?

Thanks Rob