Crackabarrel

I have the same scope and tried previously to get prime focus using a DSLR.

Unfortunately the 130P does not have enough inward travel to achieve focus, at least in my experience, you may be better served by looking at the 130PDS which has focuser capable of acheiving focus with a DSLR

I picked up the Antlia Golden Filter on release and have managed to get it out under the stars for the first time tonight.

Managed 10 exposures of 3 minutes each before the clouds rolled in and seeing as I have no idea when it will clear up again I figured I would share a quick hatchet job of the processing in PS for anyone who wants a look at what this filter can do.

Capture details: WO73+ASI2600MC, HEQ5Pro, ASI120mm Guide camera

Processed in PS, levels, curves, hlvg, sharpening, export 50% jpg.

Exposures: 10 x 180sec @ Gain 100 & Offset 50, no calibration frames, taken in Bortle 8.

Overall I am very pleased with this filter's performance, very much looking forward to putting it to work.

Thanks for looking, hope it helps anyone considering the filter.

Nice result for such a short exposure time, topaz can be quite the life saver when used sparingly.

Lovely image, nicely done.

Completely sympathize on the weather front, Dublin has been awful for months now with no end in sight.

Thank you, love the software.

Beautiful, nicely done.

Glad I held off on updating from 3.2.0 so, a low strength pass of severe noise setting seems to work quite well on that version, at least in my experience.

2 hours ago, davew said:

That first one is stunning. If you'd pasted an image of M31 on to it you couldn't have positioned it better. I think we need to see some more of Wicklow. Please.

Dave.

Thank you, hoping to get out there a bit more during the winter, really is a beautiful part of the country.

A HEQ5pro will be enough, scope size dependant.

DSLR or dedicated will work.

Newtonian or Refractor makes no difference, the only issue you could run into is having a newtonian not suited for imaging (not enough inward travel on focuser to reach the image plane of the sensor).

My set up is a HEQ5pro, ZS73 refractor and ASI2600mc, although I used to use a Nikon D5300.

What you will need is an EQDIR cable and a laptop/mini PC to leave outside with the scope and connected to wifi. Have the imaging camera being run by APT or similar, and the mount run by the laptop (using eqmod) connected via the EQDIR cable. You can then use something like go2assist or teamviewer to remote into the laptop from your PC in the house and control it all from there. You will still need to polar align and focus from outside at the mount initially though. That would be the barebones way of remote imaging.

Another option is the use of an ASIair to control the mount and camera from a tablet, although this locks you into the ZWO product line for cameras etc.

The next step up is a permanent pier set up and a dome or roll off roof observatory and full automation.

Hope that helps a bit.

EQDIR Cable: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-eq5-pro-heq5-syntrek-pro-az-eq5-gt-az-eq6-gt-and-eq8-mounts.html

Teamviewer: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/

EQmod: http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/

APT: https://astrophotography.app/

Cheers, yes they are unguided.

Glenmalure Valley and the Ballinashoge Waterfall are worth a visit, Glenmalure Lodge B&B was about 5 minutes from our camp site.

Thank you, appreciate it.

49 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Really liking that 1st one with M31

Was very happy to see so much of it pop up on the camera's lcd alright.

Thank you, looking forward to bringing the Star Adventurer up there next time.

Went camping in the Wicklow Way this weekend, lovely dark clear skies.

First Image is the constellation of Cassiopeia featuring the Andromeda Galaxy (20sec exposure ISO1600)

Second Image being the Milky Way with the North American Nebula (15sec exposure ISO1600)

Shot with a Nikon D5300 and Sigma 18-35 f1.8

Thanks for looking.

While trying to troubleshoot my RA oscillations on the HEQ5 I decided to take test exposures on the North American Nebula during last weeks 80% or so moon.

Over the course of about an hour and a half I managed 13 exposures where the mount calmed down enough.

Decided to see what I ended up with, was pleasantly surprised, asi2600mc proving quite capable.

William Optics ZS73

13 x 2min Offset 50 Gain 100 Temp -5C

Master Dark & Master Dark Flat, no flats as I didn't think I was going to get anything really.

Thanks for looking, any comments / suggestions welcome.

Your not doing anything wrong, the "zoomed in" image you see is what the sensor picks up of the image plane.

A smaller sensor will pick up less of the image plane and so show a zoomed in representation of what you see through the eye piece, a larger sensor will show a less zoomed in image.

Others on the forum can no doubt explain this in more detail.

The star travel will give you a slightly wider FoV as its focal length is less than even your reduced 6" SCT, probably not the entire moon though.

A star adventurer or equivalent would allow you to expose for longer, the advantage of which is being better able to gather really faint signal, allowing you to get more detail on the really dim dust lanes and faint nebulosity in the area.

Being able to shoot for longer also means you can use a lower ISO for decreased noise on each image.

Hope that helps.

A good place to start would be the following website:

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

Plug in your scope and prospective camera and the calculator will tell you how well sampled the combination will be, for example you dont want the combination to be over or under sampled.

Additionaly, planetarium software such as Stellarium allows you to simulate the camera and scope FoV, so you can see if the combination gives you the FoVs you would like.

Between these two you'll be able to figure out what is the best match for both your scope and your imaging intentions.

Hope that helps some.

Thats wonderful, very nice

In photoshop at least:

Select > Colour Range  your stars.

Select > Expand selection to encompass the halos if any.

Filter > Minimise (make sure preserve roundness is selected) > go with 0.2 pixel reduction to begin with and see how you fare.

I'm sure other more experienced imagers will have something to add, but thats the basic process.

Should be a similar process in GIMP if you are using free software.

I find Astroflat Pro for PS very useful, an alternative is GradientXterminator, there are ways of using photoshop plugins in GIMP I believe.

Another way, without using plugins, is to create an artificial flat of your image, basically duplicating the image, blurring out the detail so only the gradient and background shows and subtracting the result from your main image, which should, in theory, even out your background.

One more for the road, added a false luminance layer and slight adjustment layer contrast curve with soft light blend mode.

Slowly remembering how to process after the break. 

Update: decided to push it a little further to get a tad more nebula showing.

Nice definition on the N. American and Pelican there, looks good.

The star adventure should be up for the job, however the FL might be a bit too short.

For reference here is Jupiter with an APSC sensor at 430mm FL, nothing stopping you giving it a go though, be interested to see what you get.