Grant93

Awesome pictures! The only filter I own is a UHC filter, so will try it myself on the next clear night. How much of this is effected by having a unmodified DSLR, is it just the reds that will be faded? Cheers 😃 Grant

Thank you Looks like I will have to hunt for some bigger targets then Having a north west facing back garden and my house facing the south east, feels like its blocking all the good stuff! I am reluctant to set up on the driveway 😅 Grant

Hi Richard, Interesting read that was 😃 As far as sleep deprivation goes, I cant answer as working rotating shifts means I am always tired anyway 😪 But for other suggestions, as we don't get proper night time back until late July, splitting doubles is a great thing to do in the summer time, but also look for some brighter DSOs which are at optimal elevations above the horizon right now, M13, M92, M57 are a few off the top of my head 😃 Clear skies! Grant

Hello all, Now the sunny weather has passed in this part of the midlands and we're back to the usual rainy cloudy british summer, I am getting much less cloud free nights. But thankfully on Saturday it was nice and clear all upto just after 1am, which let me get 40 mins worth of data on M13 Globular. This was the first DSO I attempted with my rig, and because I spent most of my night trying to polar allign, then find the object and frame it as best as possible, I guess the biggest improvement on the picture is the fact I can be out, polar alligned, object framed and imaging within 10-15 minutes now, rather than the previous 30-40 when I first got my rig 😅. My target for the Saturday was to be able to truly capture the thousands of stars that are contained within this magnificent globular, but sadly I have captured far from that! Just here to ask what could be the issue, too long or too short exposures? Not enough data? Simply too small for the ZS61? Anyhow here it is, I will also post my first so you can see the slight improvements Which I think is, simply a sharper picture, less noise, the first one for some reason also has a lot of double stars which arent actually doubles, god knows how that happened 😅 Hopefully you can tell which one is the newer and which is the older one 😅 Details of capture (Newer image only): EOS 800d at 800 Iso ZS61 iOptron Skyguider Pro 40x60s Lights 20 Darks 20 Bias Thanks in advance for everyones advice and input Grant

Thats the truth, but sadly also due to it not getting dark until like 11:50Pm atm, more of these clear nights are missed out due to my shift rotation than the few we get in winter 😪

Sadly, it's my 4:30AM get ups for mornings and night shifts that stop me from imaging on these short nights, been lucky recently on afternoons and weekends! When winter comes the 4:30AM get ups won't effect imaging when it gets dark at 6 🤓

Sadly, it's my 4:30AM get ups for mornings and night shifts that stop me from imaging on these short nights, been lucky recently on afternoons and weekends! When winter comes the 4:30AM get ups won't effect imaging when it gets dark at 6 🤓

Just reading this and thought "oh it must be me" Yes if you compare the two also, it's a good comparison of the difference of H-alpha picked up between modified and unmodified. (spoiler alert - his is better ).

Ill have a look at startools! Yeah I want to start using more than one session for my images, but as I am not using a goto, its difficult to frame exactly like the last session. I've been advised a ASIair PRO will help, and can also be used to guide (with the guidescope and camera ofcourse) and dither? Obviously quite a big investment though in comparison with my current budget setup, one I do plan on making, but not in the near future. Unless there are cheaper options available Thank you for your help! Thank you for that I'm not too sure where the lights come from, Derby is about 8 miles in that direction so possibly that. I am loving seeing these different edits. That is a very good point also, I've never even thought of it, no I haven't been covering it but I definitely will from now on! I've given it a go at re editting myself, trying to take into account advise given here, again only in Gimp at the moment, will download some new advised software and give it a go later! But heres the new one. Stretched, star mask applied to protect from further stretching (did it wrong last time I think). editted the 'background' with color select on one layer, lowering the blackpoint to make it darker, then on a seperate layer increased the contrast (I think thats what its called) of the nebula seperate to the background, again with color select. Then when happy with the background and nebula, I made a 'stamp' layer (photoshop term I think?), Did a star reduction, noise reduction, and sharpened it.

Really nice! My image seems to look a little 'soft' (Not sure on proper terms) compared to both yours and Adrians processing. You have both pulled out a lot more. The walking noise I assume is caused by the natural drift of my guider.. Is the only way to fix that by dithering? For which I believe I need to invest in guiding? Thanks a lot

Thank you! Similar to the Triangulum galaxy then. I had a look on a light pollution map the other day coincidentally, I think my closest bortle 4 is 30mins, bortle 3 is about 1 hour 30mins! Surrounded by citys! Will definitely drive out to the bortle 4 regularly when longer nights come back. Was gobsmacked when I visited a bortle 3 in early May, would love to live closer! Yes this lack of night time is frustrating!

Thanks a lot Going to refer to this next time I process!

Woah, I like that! A much more natural looking picture. Shows I have a long way to go yet Thanks a lot for that Any tips on the editting?

Hello everyone! In my area of the midlands, the weather was absolutely clear last night, so I got both rigs out, time for observing and imaging! I got set up at about 23:20 PM. To allow time for the scope to reach ambient temperature. After collimation and alligning the spotting scope I left it sitting on M13 whilst it got darker. Whilst waiting I set up the imaging rig, Once I set that off on the NA Nebula I began my night! Even though I viewed similar things as my last report, I used a different eyepiece and same barlow. Although didnt plan on using the barlow much, only for a couple of my planned targets. 7-21mm Orion Zoom 2x Celestron Barlow 10" Skywatcher Flextube Bortle 5 Back garden. M13 - As mentioned above, I left it hanging on M13. When coming back to the eyepiece I thought it couldn't of moved too much, so without using my spotting scope I moved it around a bit on 21mm to see if I could find it again. I thought I found it (little did I know at the time it was M92). So I viewed it in 21mm, down to 7mm. I was satisfied with it, but not as good as I thought it would be. So I went to move onto M92. When looking through the spotting scope I realised I was way off M13, I was infact on M92. So I moved my scope back towards M13. I was shocked, this truly brought out the quality of this zoom lens for the price, as I've read before on reviews. 21mm it looked its usual sparkily self. 7mm Zoom was better. When I added the barlow, this was when it blew my mind away. I had to back off the zoom ever so slightly very carefully adjust the focuser, and when it reached focus it was about as breathtaking as DSO's go. When I see things like this during astronomical twilight, It makes me even more eager for night time to come back! M51 - Nothing much to report here, two galactic cores, no signs of outter spirals. M101 - Even less to report here, never been able to find this, and last night was no different! (Advice on this one is welcome ) Bodes and Cigar - A nice couple of easy galaxys to find, the cigar was easy to resolve, no averted vision needed. Bodes had a bright core, no spirals visible again, but a outter halo with averted vision. M57 - Another mind blower! As I said in my last report, I've only ever managed to view this lower on the horizon, and didn't manage to last time due to clouds. All I thought when I saw it, was holy smokes (since it was relevant ). Clear difference between the inner circle and the outter ring. Put the barlow on and used the zoom, Not too sure what I went down to, but just so it wasn't covering my full FOV. Didnt take any detail away, so I decided to try averted vision. I can't say whether I saw the centre star for sure or not, so I won't claim I did, just maybe! I planned on viewing the new nova also, but that was also way behind my house! Going to get the binos out tonight to view it if its clear . I know they are similar targets to my last report, but I wanted to compare with different eyepieces, and also be able to view M57 this time . All in all happy with the night, the imaging wasn't too disappointing either! Posted that onto the starting with imaging section! Thank you for reading! Grant

Hello all! Last night was an absolute bliss night here for imagers and observers alike around here, not a cloud in the sky! Was excited to get my new 135mm Samyang out for a whirl, my god was I shocked! The quality of this lens is bang on! Decided to try a widefield neb that my house isn't blocking (North west facing back garden), So I pointed it to the north american neb. Sadly not a good target for an unmodified camera, I am very reluctant to modify this as I use it for every day things also. I am not totally unhappy with the image, its clearly visible, but not what I expected, I am sure others have got 10x better in an unmodified camera. Ill upload it and the details of capturing, and hopefully someone can pass on advice It could be the fact its only 1 hours worth of exposure, would 3-4 hours make A LOT of difference? (Excited for longer nights). Hopefully its also in focus, I try my best, not got a batinov for this yet. It looked loads more in focus before noise reduction and such, but I kept the noise reduction in gimp as it seemed to take your eyes away from the stars and more towards the nebula with reduction. EOS 800d Skyguider Pro Samyang 135mm Lights - 38 x 90 Seconds Darks - 30 x 90 Seconds Bias - 23 Frames Editted in Gimp - Stretched, Star mask, Noise reduction. I will also upload the TIFF if anyone wants a go at editting (Would be much appreciated to see if anyone else could pull more out) Thank you all! Grant NAsecondattempt.TIF

Sorry, just spotted this whilst planning some observation on this very clear night. Bit of a noob when it comes to things like this but I've never seen a nova before and it will be nice to add it into my list! How do I go about putting them Coordinates into stellarium so I can find this tonight? Thank you!

Thank you I can very much see why! Was I missing detail on bodes, are the spiral arms quite easy to see under real night skies? Thank you! Sounds like them eyepieces would also be good for moon nights! I'll have a look at them Grant

I think I now have some requests for my birthday! 😇 A bit to wait yet though 😕

Woah! That is some list, at first I thought "How has he managed all this with the lack of current night time", then I saw, Oz! Jealous! Looks like you had a great time! Grant

Yes I can't wait for the solstice to come and go, and watch the nights slowly get darker. Any eyepieces you would recommend? Other than the stock ones being 25mm and 10mm, I have a 2x barlow, a 2" 32mm Orion Q70 (Love this one), 1.25" Orion zoom (above I mistakedly typed celestron (7-21mm)). The 25mm feels like it gives good views, quite clear, clearer even than the Orion zoom, but I assume that has to do with zoom lens often giving less quality views, but I like the zoom for doubles and hopefully it will be good when Jupiter and Saturn are visible at better hours. But I do see a lot less quality when it comes to the 10mm as you say. That advice seems to be the go to, I'll do that from now on! Thank you!

Good to hear! Might have to try some doubles myself tonight whilst imaging! (If its clear, 1 weather report says clear, other says 90% clouds). I only became familiar with this part of the forum on the day before I had this observation, it was fun reading other people observations, getting ideas, see how other people work around this astronomical twilight. Then when observing I just started taking notes for my own report which made it feel productive. Its also made me even consider sketching! Thank you, haha not had a truly clear night for a week or so here, this was just making do. 😆 And thank you for the advice also. 😃

Haha I know the feeling, bortle 5 here also. Good on non football nights, not good on football nights, massive glows from the flood lights. Luckily the glow is also in the direction of the town, which is not a major park of the sky I often attempt to observe anyway.

Very interesting read, gives me a few more ideas on what to observe next. What bortle class are you in may I ask? Grant

I understand its mostly iOptron, Sky watcher and Celestron, so sorry to be a bit of a pest - but any tiny little William optics flatteners for the ZS61 (not reducer-flatteners) sitting amongst them big boxes? 😇😇

It is frustrating having to wait until midnight for just astronomical twilight. But I remember sitting around in winter waiting for them dark nights, and feeling lucky if I got 1 every two weeks. So I feel obliged to take advantage of these clear nights, even if they arent perfect! Hope you get some clear skies and nice views! 😃 Thank you! 😃 I do have a celestron zoom and a 10mm which the telescope came with. But as you say, I gotta wait for them proper dark nights (as dark as bortle 5 gets)!