Snoani

Thanks for your advice. I'll wait for FLO to come back to me.

Good evening I setup up this evening to undertake a night of imaging and during the first slew my HEQ5 mount stopped moving in the RA. Dec is working fine. It may have made a noise but I was inside with the laptop at the time so can't be certaint. I have limited knowledge of mounts, but I have the side panel to attempt to diagnose the issue while connected to the laptop and while the RA is not moving, there is a high pitched noise from the motor if I attempt to slew it. I can also manually turn the RA cogs but I can not do the same for the Dec cogs while it is powered up. I therefore wonder if the physical connection between the motor and the cogs has broken. I purchased from FLO 5 months ago and have only used it 12 times, and so have contacted them but I thought I would ask this community whether anybody else has experienced a similar issue or whether the cause might be something else. Any experience that you can offer would be appreciated. Jem

Thanks for your guidance, much appreciated. I'll give the other flats a try in this case.

Sorry for the confusion I mistyped, and thanks for your reply. Flats and bias were taken at dusk and the darks were taken immediately after the lights. The flats that I took for the other target were using a different ISO, and going with the DSS manual, should be taken at the same ISO than the lights. Is it an issue to use flats taken at a different ISO? Thanks for the tip on dithering.

As an update I have stacked the light frames without any of the calibration, which has produced the image below, the as thought the lights appear to be ok and so it is to do with the calibration frames/ stacking process. **Update** I have since stacked with each calibration separately and can confirm that it is an issue with the flat files. I can't see anything obviously wrong with them, and the flats for M45 were taken immediately afterwards and these stacked without issue, so I am still at loss.

I wonder if anybody is able to provide me with some advice to resolve and unexpected stacking issue. I was out last night and spend the time imaging two targets, NGC 281 (image that I have attached) and M45. Both targets were being imaged using the same equipment but using different ISO and exposure lengths and so I took separate calibration frames. At the beginning of the night I took flats and bias for each target and I took the darks at about 4am after taking the light frames. There was therefore no difference in how I took the calibrate frames for each target, apart from changing the settings. I stacked M45 today and have a nice output image and was expecting the same for the Pacman Nebula, however, to my surprise the stacked image came out as below. I have checked the lights and they all look good, so I don't anticipate a problem with them. I haven't stacked them on their own yet but will try this later. I am expecting this to be a problem with the calibration frames somewhere, but I am not experienced enough yet to know what the issue is. I have stretched the master flat and can't see an issue, so think it may be the darks or bias? I'm using DSS to stack and haven't changed any settings that I normally use, and have never had this issue before. Again, I am also conscious that my other target of the night stacked well. I also tried restacking from scratch but with the same result. Any guidance would be most appreciated because from the light frames, I was expecting a decent final image. Thank you

Awesome job. It is the best that I can recall seeing of this nebula.

I purchased my camera from CheapAstroPhotography. Communication isn't great but very happy with the camera. Jem

Thanks for the video Chris and great job. That is an excellent outcome considering the multiple barriers that you had to overcome.

Ah ok. I had only seen the 1.25" and 2" filter when I researching prior to buying mine.

Thank you. I haven't seen a clip filter just yet, but I would be surprised if they didn't release one in the near future. Thanks for the tip. I'll see if adjusting the reducer next time gives a better result. I do intend on buying a cooled camera within the next year, but I need to save up a little first.

I decided to purchase an Optolong L-Extreme 2" filter last weekend and with a clear sky and 94% moon on Thursday I decided to give it a test drive by pointing my scope towards the Veil Nebula. This image is 125 minutes (25 x 5 mins) calibrated with 15 darks, flats and bias frames. Captured using a Meade 6000 80mm APO, Stellamira 0.80x reducer, Canon 1300D (modified), HEQ5 and guided using a ZWO 120mm attached to a ZWO 30F4 guidescope. It has been very hot and so the image is noisy, which is a pitfall for the DSLR in this weather. I also have oblong stars in the corners, which I think may be due to the reducer. It is also the first time I have used this. Considering the brightness of the moon on Thursday, I am really pleased with the amount of detail that I have been able to collect due to the filter. I look forward to what I can achieve on a cooler night and with some more exposures and happy that I have an option for imaging when the moon is up.

Is your camera modified or unmodified?

I don't own a 550D, I have a different Canon, however, I would personally check Astrobin if you want to see images. Worked for me when picking a scope. Literally just Google 550D Astrobin and is will give a lot of results. It'll give you a good idea about the type of images that you can take with the camera using different combinations of equipment. I've have a quick look and it didn't take me long to find some nice images with a 70-300 Sigma lense.

Thanks Chris, very useful. I stacked my Neowise previously without identifying the comet in each light frame and think that is the reason I ended up lines across my image. I am restacking as I type.

Thank you all for your kind comments. Tomato, I live in the south of the Isle of Wight, so the skies are reasonable dark. To the South is the English Channel but to the north there is some glow as our county town is in that direction and a little beyond is Portsmouth and Southampton. The maps say that I live under in Bortle Scale 4 skies, but I do wonder if it closer to a 3.

Just a quick post for my first attempt at processing the Crescent Nebula, taken over the previous two nights. This image is 3 hours 24 minutes (51 x 4 mins) calibrated with 15 darks, flats and bias frames. Captured using a Meade 6000 80mm APO, Canon 1300D (modified), HEQ5 and guided using a ZWO 120mm attached to a ZWO 30F4 guidescope. It's one of those targets that requires a lot of patience when processing simply due to the number of stars in the field of view. I have seen far better, but at least I have a benchmark for future attempts.

Thank you Wyvern. Much appreciated.

Awesome image Wyvern, love it. Can I ask soomething, I note that you use a William Optics GT81, which has 478mm focal length. I was considering the Heart Nebula this week, but decided against it because I thought that my 480mm would clip the edges of the nebula. I don't currently have a reducer and I was wondering whether you are using the WO reducer, or whether to managed to frame it as the above focal length? Thanks Jem

Last night I made my first attempt at capturing the Andromeda galaxy, which has been a wish of mine for a number of years. This image is 120 minutes (30 x 4 mins) calibrated with 15 darks, flats and bias frames. Captured using a Meade 6000 80mm APO, Canon 1300D (modified), HEQ5 and guided using a ZWO 120mm attached to a ZWO 30F4 guidescope. It is a bit noisy but I think the data is good, so at this stage it comes down to my novice processing skills. I think that I will keep trying to see if I can reduce the noise ad imrove on the colour, but I am still happy with this result for the time being.

I took advantage of the clear skies last night and had another crack at M16, following a failed attempt the night before. This is also my first acquisition using my new and first APO, and I am generally happy. I think it could be edited somewhat better, but I am still learning. Constructive feedback is always welcomed. 120 minutes (30 x 4 mins) calibrated with 15 darks, flats and bias frames. Captured using a Meade 6000 80mm Triplet, Canon 1300D (modified), HEQ5 and guided using a ZWO 120mm attached to a ZWO 30F4 guidescope.

Nice post John and I very much appreciate it. It will be a year or two before I purchase an astro camera and so I am considering (highly likely to) buying a H-alpha filter in a couple of months to use with my DSLR. Jem

With the moon disappearing and a forecast of total clear skies for last night I was looking forward to a night of imaging M16 for the first time. So in the evening I set up the scope well in advance but before I started I decided to take a quick stroll at sunset to local spot that boasts panoramic views of the Isle of Wight to capture some images of comet Neowise. This image below is an 8 second exposure taken with a Nikon 7100 at 18mm f3.5 ISO400. It's not close to the quality of some images I have seen, but could be far worse also. With the skies still clear I wandered back home to the scope that I had setup earlier and an intention to capture about 2 hours of data for M16. I therefore aligned the mount, star aligned, focused and framed M16. I then calibrated PHD2 and started guiding with a healthy graph. And then, literally about 1 minute and just as I am about to press the button for APT to start the imaging session, the whole sky vanished behind a ceiling of cloud. Checking my weather app, which was still forecasting totally clear skies, I waited patiently for it to pass. An hour later at 1am the sky finally reappeared and my rig was able to guide again and so with limited darkness remaining I set the imaging plan running and hoped for the best. The session was unfortunately hampered by passing cloud and so I only achieved 40 minutes of usable data. So the image below is 40 minutes of uncalibrated data captured using a Skywatcher Startravel 120, Canon 1300D (modified), HEQ5 and guided using a ZWO 120mm attached to a ZWO 30F4 guidescope. I only took a few minutes to make a basic edit. The upside is that not only are clear skies forecast for tonight at my location, I should today be receiving a new imaging scope, as I have upgraded to a Meade 6000 80mm triplet APO to replace the achromatic telescope that I have been using so far. All going to plan, I therefore hope to be posting an new image of M16 this weekend of greater quality. Fingers crossed and thanks for reading. Jem

Great image. I love the detail around the dust. Jem

Just reprocessed M51 also and again I think it is improved. The learning curve is steep and long but I have started the journey.