matthasboldlygone

When you're just off to bed and you look outside to clear skies, warm comfy bed or cold damp patio... 🏆

69 x 2 minutes
Some darks and bias files, flats not working

Location : UK. East coast.
Weather : Clear sky, temperature 3c to -1c
Moon : 50% setting after first hour
Sky : Bortle 4 - 5
Scope : Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS-Pro + 0.85 Reducer
Camera : ZWO ASI294MC Pro | Temp -10 | Gain 120
Guide : ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide scope
Mount : HEQ5 Pro Rowan
Capture : ZWO AsiAir Pro 
Heating : Lynx Astro 4 Port heater controller + straps
Processing : Pixinsight

Is that just the drift on the Dec axis which isn't being guided? It knows it is off target but can't do anything about it?

That's my guess

Thanks @mikemarotta , I am in two minds about the whole write up side of it. I'm probably not at the stage where I could answer any of those questions reliably. As a technical writer you'll appreciate knowing your subject before passing on knowledge.

I'll have a think about doing a write up of what I did during the night, problems I encountered and how I got to the final image. Could be helpful or just amusing to other beginners. 

👍

I do like this target but struggle to not over process it, I know there's lots more in there... still fighting with calibration frames, getting there.

50 x 2 minutes
Some darks and bias

Scope : Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS-Pro + 0.85 Reducer
Camera : ZWO ASI294MC Pro | Temp -10 | Gain 120
Guide : ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide scope
Mount : HEQ5 Pro Rowan
Capture : ZWO AsiAir Pro 
Heating : Lynx Astro 4 Port heater controller + straps
Processing : Pixinsight

Thanks @geeklee I'll keep an eye on those stars when I try processing it again. Did try to pull out a bit more colour but there's some haze around the middle and it turns blueish. Need to get my Flats sorted out I think..

I was very happy with my first attempt in September with a Bresser 102 and planetary camera ...

Some new equipment and practice and it's improving ....

42 x 2 minutes

Evostar 100ed + 0.85 reducer
ASI294MC Pro -10, gain 120
HEQ5 Pro
AsiAir - guided

Struggling with Flats but will hopefully solve that soon. They're a pain.

I use two of these 12v 10a power supplies. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PDFKGW7/

One powers the AsiAir -> Camera cooler and mount, and the other powers the dew heaters. All seems to work ok.

So nice to get 3 galaxies for the price of 1, and after last weeks failures very happy with this so far. Just a quick process, but I will acquire some flats and improve it..

60 x 2 minutes

Evostar 100ed + 0.85 reducer
ASI294MC Pro -10, gain 120
HEQ5 Pro
AsiAir - guided
 

This appeared in two images, 2 minute exposures, I'm guessing it's the same object in both images moving fairly slowly?

Any ideas?

Trying some photo shop fun, I'll call this my Watcher series

Shame about the purple blob

Enjoying taking snap shots of these bright objects, make's me feel like a pro. 

SW Evostar 100ed + 0.85 reducer
ASI294MC - cooled -10c
HEQ5 Pro rowan
ASIAir Pro
Pixinsight
50 x 2 minute - no calibration

4 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

I've not tried this target, but I've noticed a massive improvement when moving from no filter to a CLS filter (and for nebulae, a dual band filter).  I presume it's improving the SNR by removing some of the glow from the city lights.

 

 

I'll be giving some filters a go soon, this was quite low in the sky towards big orange city lights. Not the best conditions.

5 hours ago, happy-kat said:

What are you using to control your bresser hd camera, I don't see the capture software mentioned. 

It was ToupLite on a Mac, but I wouldn't use it again, I think it compressed everything. Got better results with OACapture, but have now got a ZWO camera and asiair.

12 hours ago, Viktiste said:

Can you post the stacked image, but before doing anything else with it? 

I think I've deleted that one now, short on space... I'll look in the backup later and post if I can find it.

Another badly framed shot

First time on this target for me, it's sooo big and bright, hard to miss it. Well worth waiting up for.

I also got 30 x 30 seconds and 30 x 15 seconds to try and merge together and recover the core detail, but for now this is the 2 min exposures.

Skywatcher 100ed pro + 0.85 reducer
ASI294MC, cooled to -10c
HEQ5 Pro rowan
ASIAir Pro
Guided and dithered every 5 frames
45 x 2 minutes - 1.5 hours
No darks, flats or bias

Looks like this will have to be another mosaic project and could have been framed better. 

First time out with dew straps and camera cooled to -10c, stayed clear till 3am so I got lots of goodies but I did have to stay up and nurse the guiding which kept stopping for no reason.

Need to work on my star processing.

Skywatcher 100ed pro + 0.85 redcuer
ASI294MC, cooled to -10c
HEQ5 Pro rowan
ASIAir Pro
Guided and dithered every 2 frames
60 x 2 minutes - 2 hours
No darks, flats or bias

Added another 100 exposures last night and tried another processing session. Think it has better contrast and was easier to process and better colour.

• SW 100ED - 0.85 reducer
• ZWO294 MC - cooling not turned on, bin2
• HEQ5 Pro Rowan
• ZWO ASIAir Pro
• 185 x 60 seconds, gain 120 (over two nights)
• No darks, flats etc
• Stacked, stretch and simple process in Pixinsight

Lost 2/3s to clouds but ended up with about 90 minutes. Happy to get out and capture anything at the moment with all the cloud about.

SW 100ED - 0.85 reducer
ZWO294 MC - cooling not turned on, bin2
HEQ5 Pro Rowan
ZWO ASIAir Pro
85 x 60 seconds, gain 120
No darks, flats etc
Stacked, stretch and simple process in Pixinsight

38 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Flats, Dark Flats and Darks for lights, but no Bias.

Sounds like a coffee order 

No darks or anything else at the moment, camera wasn't cooled so temp varied 6-11c. Working my way up one feature at a time.

Next time hopefully cooled camera with no calibration. Interesting to see what the difference will be.

Added another hour of 60 seconds, 3 hours total, tried dithering on the asiair, seemed to work but needed some tweaking to get the settle time reasonable. Added quite a bit of time doing it every 60 seconds.

Yet another processing session..

Time to plan a mosaic I think, 4 tile should get it all in nicely.

12 hours ago, jiberjaber said:

Problem I can foresee which I'd like feedback on is where does the evaporated condensation go to

Been thinking about this as well, maybe something like a PC fan to extract air from inside the cover, or maybe just a vent at the top. Got to keep the air moving.

Looking at ways to pump warm air from the house into the cover, or draw air from outside but feed it through a filter -> dehumidifier -> heater

All this work to save me 15 minutes setup time 😄

Tried mixing from both nights, added some dark frames but they didn't seem to do much. About 2 hours total and another processing session ... not sure if they're getting better or worse

I was hoping the thing in the top right was a big blue star

Agree with the green, didn't see it till you said. Having another go processing it with some darks tonight.

Tried again last night, all the same settings but 90 x 1 minute subs this time, and bin2 just to reduce file size for my old laptop. Wish I could get it all in frame, not keen on the cropped view..

With so many new bits I was happy to get anything at all. All the features of the ASIAir worked well, handy focus tool, sync with mount, go-to and plate solve, guiding. Only had a short time before the dew landed, I'm waiting for dew straps. Cyan stars don't look right?

SW Evostar 100ed + 0.85 reducer
ASI294 MC Pro - not cooled this time, ambient was 11 - 8c
ASIAir Pro
HEQ5 Pro
Lights - 80 x 30 seconds - 40 minutes
Darks, Bias, Flats - none
Pixinsight stack and fiddles