Astro Noodles

To be honest I'm not sure whether it makes any difference - but there was a bit of wind last night so I thought I would deploy the Velcro. I think it would make a difference if you were doing narrow field and long exposures but for what I do probably not. Maybe just a good habit to get into. I only have 3 cables at the moment, but when I get guiding organised it will go up to 6. Anyway, I thought you had an Obsy.

Here is a bit more of the region I captured 24/25th May with Sadr and the Crescent Nebula. Same equipment/ parameters as above only this time 72x60 second subs and Velcro to keep the wires from swinging around in the wind. 😄

Hi @vlaiv Can you recommend a mosaic tool plugin?

I am intending to put together a mosaic this summer, probably using ImageJ. Is the correct procedure to process the images first and then stick them together, or do you stick them together and then process the resulting mosaic image?

I find that capturing fainter objects depends how good your signal to noise ratio is. With a good signal to noise ratio you can stretch out the faint details in processing.

As an example, using my equipment, this is how the Crab nebula would look at 200mm Whereas Andromeda galaxy would frame up like this. Although Andromeda is very faint away from the central core and will need many hours of integration time.

But that's part of the fun of it.😄 You need to try it out and see what you get. There are certain things - Orion nebula, Andromeda, Cygnus loop etc which would frame up well in a 200mm lens. Most things need a lot of integration time, several hours. Tiny objects like the Crab nebula, most galaxies etc are not really worth taking with 200mm as you won't have enough resolution to blow them up.

It sounds like a fascinating topic for a thesis, a hell of a lot of legwork required though without any guarantee that any of the documentation even still exists. I'm afraid I have no practical assistance to offer, but as a master of History myself I would like to offer your friend my best wishes in what sounds like a fascinating, important and worth-while endeavour. 🙂

Thanks Olly. I haven't really decided on any specific targets. I want to see smaller things more clearly. So I suppose better images of the Crab nebula and similar things and some of those galaxies in Leo. Ultimately, It is my aim to have a collection of scopes which are suitable for imaging at all/most scales, but I'm anticipating a timescale of a decade or more. At the moment I am having plenty of fun with my widefield setup. At the moment, my camera is bumping near to 3.5 arc seconds per pixel with my WO 61. So, in order to move forward, I need more aperture, but the pixel size of my current camera is fine for that (4.29um) ? Makes sense. Next year perhaps.

Many years ago, when I worked for a large railway infrastructure company, a certain number of electrical engineers were retained on zero-hours contracts. These 'Zero Men' had specific knowledge and skills related to all the legacy electronics used in the railway system - some dating back over a century. I'm sure that NASA and JPL have a contingency for a similar set of issues which will inevitably arise with the march of progress.

They must have a lot of time and money to waste. 😆

And two during the summer. 🙂

OK, I think I've got it. The guide camera connects to the skyguider by ethernet cable. The guide camera and Raspberry pi are connected by USB and there is no direct connection between the Raspberry pi and the skyguider ?

So, I have accumulated all the gear necessary for guiding - it will be my summer project to get on top of it. I have a 32mm guide scope, ZWO ASI 120mm mini, Raspberry pi four with astroberry, loads of cables, various power banks etc. Putting it all together, I realise that the camera requires an ethernet cable to connect to PHD2 on the Raspberry pi. The mount takes its instructions from the Raspberry pi via an ethernet cable. The Raspberry pi only has one ethernet port. What have other people done to get round this?

Here's one I have stretched out a bit further. Autosave020.tif

87x60sec Canon600D Optolong L-enhance ISO800 WO Zenithstar 61 II Unguided iOptron skyguider pro. Flats/Darks/Offset applied Stacked in DSS, a quick stretch in GIMP Taken last night 20/21 May. I had a 2 hour gap between 23:00 and 01:00 between cloud.

The fairy lights are in next door's yard.

I think it has run into the huge painted backdrop studded with spotlights. 🤔

Hi and welcome to SGL

So I have been thinking about this an I have realised that the problem I have isn't a FOV problem, but an under-sampling problem. The camera I have has pixel size of 5.76 um which is far too big for any of the scopes I use. As I see it, I have 4 options: 1. Get a mount/scope setup which more closely suits the pixel size of my camera. As suggested by @Clarkey above. That would cost at least £1500. 2. Get a x2 powermate/barlow lens. Much cheaper than option 1 but unworkable due to having F10+ 3. Get a camera with a smaller pixel size - ZWO ASI 178 might be a good solution. 4. Give up and take up Golf instead,

Nice. 🙂

According to Clear Outside, I image in Bortle 5 sky. Under no circumstances am I ever able to see the Milky Way from my back yard. This would indicate that my conditions are more like a Bortle 7/8. I imagine that because I am surrounded by houses/street lights etc and these make a considerable difference to my specific viewing conditions and add at least 2 to the Bortle scale in my back yard.

Thanks. So I will get no advantage from powermates? The way to go - something like a HEQ-5 and 130 PSD do you think?

The moon is just for scale. DSOs are really my thing.

So far, I have the WO61, Askar 135 and Askar 200 on the way. I think that with a couple of Powermates for use with the 61mm, I can get a nice, graduated FOV to take images. I think that I can get 2minute+ exposures from my mount with guiding so exposure length might be do-able at longer focal lengths. Does this sound like a good idea or would a bigger scope and better mount be the way to go for smaller frame size?