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Showing results for tags 'astrophotography'.
Found 249 results
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Hey all, I made an acquisition and processing tutorial a while back (3 years ago? Yikes!) and it is fairly dated in terms of what I'm doing these days. I've been asked for a long time to make a new one showing what I'm doing these days. Specifically how I'm processing a single shot image for both the surface and prominences and how to process them together to show prominences and the surface at once. I've abandoned doing split images and composites and strictly work from one image using layers. Acquisition does not use gamma at all anymore. Nothing terribly fancy, but it's not exactly intuitive so hopefully this new video will illustrate most of the fundamentals to get you started. Instead of an hour, this time it's only 18 minutes. It's real time from start to finish. I'm sorry for the long "waiting periods" where I'm just waiting for the software to finish its routine, it lasts 1.5 minutes and 30 seconds tops typically at first. The first 4 minutes is literally just stacking & alignment in AS!3. I typically will go faster than this, but wanted to slow down enough to try to talk through what I'm doing as I do it. Hopefully you can see each action on the screen. I may have made a few mistakes or said a few incorrect things or terms, forgive me for that, this is not my day job. I really hope it helps folk get more into processing as its not difficult or intimidating when you see a simple process with only a few things that are used. The key is good data to begin with and a good exposure value. Today's data came from a 100mm F10 achromatic refractor and an ASI290MM camera with an HA filter. I used FireCapture to acquire the data with a defocused flat frame. No gamma is used. I target anywhere from 65% to 72% histogram fill. That's it! The processing is fast and simple. I have a few presets that I use, but they are all defaults in Photoshop. A lot of the numbers I use for parameters are based on image scale, so keep that in mind, experiment with your own values. The only preset I use that is not a default is my coloring scheme. I color with levels in Photoshop, and my values are Red: 1.6, Green 0.8, Blue 0.2 (these are mid-point values). Processing Tutorial Video (18 minutes): https://youtu.be/RJvJEoVS0oU RAW (.TIF) files available here to practice on (the same images you will see below as RAW TIFs): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zjeoux7YPZpGjlRGtX6fH7CH2PhB-dzv Video for Acquisition, Focus, Flat Calibration and Exposure (20 minutes): (Please let me know if any links do not work) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Results from today using this work flow method. Colored: B&W: SSM data (sampled during 1.5~2 arc-second seeing conditions): Equipment for today: 100mm F10 Frac (Omni XLT 120mm F8.3 masked to 4") Baader Red CCD-IR Block Filter (ERF) PST etalon + BF10mm ASI290MM SSM (for fun, no automation) Very best,- 7 replies
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Hi everyone, I'm looking to get a reasonably portable astrophotography set-up, using a 60-100mm refractor, with a suitable goto mount. I spotted the Explore Scientifice exos2-gt with pmc-eight goto system, which looks like quite an elegant solution, and wondered if anybody in the forum owns this mount, and what they think of it's performance & usability? -
Hi, I'm keen to buy a small good quality refractor primarily for astrophotography of galaxies and nebulae. I'd like to use my Pentax K1 full frame DSLR with the telescope. Reviewing YouTube & Google the; Altair Astro 72 EDF deluxe & William Optics 71GT look like they might be good models to go for. I'd welcome the community's views on both, and any other alternatives people recommend.
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The Rosette Nebula taken in Cathedral City, CA I've wanted to image the Rosette nebula for some time now, but with my Celestron 6se telescope it was not really feasible due to the large focal length of the scope. The Rosette nebula is huge! I decided to give it a try with my new Orion ST80, and I could not be happier with how it turned out. It is certainly not a Hubble image, but I did the best I could under light polluted skies, and man does it look beautiful. 5 hours total exposure time Canon 450d Orion ST80 Orion Skyglow filter Celestron AVX mount Stacked in DSS Edited it CS6 and LR http://coachella-astronomy-astrophotography.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-rosette-nebula.html
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I lefted astronomy, sold my G11, FS102, QSI532.... From this site https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/starlight-instruments-feathertouch-focusers.html in UK, all these will cost 1147 GBP! I am selling it for...basically free. Everything in "as new" condition (actually one digital motor was never used). Very precise...MADE in the USA. You can see my work in astrobin or Stargazers Lounge as "paulobao". Thanks for seeing it. I can send you more pics, references, etc. Price: 250 GBP shipping included.
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Hello everyone, QHY5-II (MONO) - as new with original box and acessories. Great guiding camera! Check some photos at Astrobin or Stargazers Lounge under "paulobao". I just quit the hobby and sold all my gear (FS102, G11, QSI532, etc...). Price 70 GBP shipping included.
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So, I have gone and got myself a Skywatcher Star Discovery 150p, which has so far proved to be a very good little scope and I've had some very good results. I have now got the bug for imaging and have gone out and got myself a second hand Nikon D5100 and verious other equipment needed to do this, only to now find I can't get Prime Focus!!!!!!!! So the only way I can image is using a barlow x2 which obviously changes the F ratio from F5.5 to F11 slowing everything x2 this isn't to bad for planetary imaging but for DSO images not so good!!! After searching through lots of videos on to do this all I can find is...... I can either butcher the standard rack and pinion focuser that's fitted on it by cutting it down and rethreading it or by moving the primary up by 20-25mm, which seems a shame to do a brand new scope still under warranty! The only other option I have come up with is changing the focuser to a Skywatcher Low Profile Dual Speed Focuser For Newtonian Reflectors. Could anyone out there shed any light on this before I spend another £130 on the new focuser. Thanks -
I see that there are some great actions for PS out there but they come at a price. Have you come across any free and good actions, that you can recommend? -
Hello, I have a question about filterwheels; SBIG filter wheels specifically. As far as I know they are the only ones that really use the 8 position filter wheels. So I have it loaded with L, R, G, B, Ha, OIII, and SII. So that is seven filters, what goes in the 8th slot??? Thank you for your insight, Christopher
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Hi to everyone, I used to do some astrophotography in the past with a Celestron AVX and DSLR but after few month had to give up for several reasons, including light pollution (I'm living in zone 3 east London), and also working shifts. Now I want to start again, and this time more serious. I've been searching around for a couple of months to choose all the gear and I'm quite happy with the list so far although it's a bit over the price I planned at first. I will get an William optics Z73 with his 50mm guide scope, a flattener/reducer 0.8, light pollution filter IDAS D2 and as camera I will use a Canon 600D modded and I will buy a ZWO 183MC Pro, after so much research, I'm very happy with the scale and framing I will get with this combo, but I'm starting to get confused with the mount. My first idea was to go for an HEQ5 Pro, as my previous experience with the AVX has been awful, then I realized that the FLO, sells that mount with belt modification and also some cleaning and tuning if required, I heard that it's a big improvement over the stock one and the price it's ok, but another important factor for me it's portability. Unfortunately, my garden doesn't allow me to do much so I will need to carry around on trolley, for a km walk, I'm a strong person and been doing plenty of time with the AVX, so my confusion came recently when the iOptron mounts entered my radar. I start comparing the heq5 pro with belt, with the iOptron cem25EC and the CEM40 without encoders, and I'm so unsure of which to buy, the cem25 seem to be the equivalent of heq5 at least speaking of payload, but in some threads I read people saying it's a bit fragile so kind of remove it from the equation although the weight it's interesting for my situation, then the cem40, seem to be quite similar on weight to the heq5 but with higher payload and that's interesting too as I will buy a C11 at some point. Now it will all come down to the accuracy of tracking I guess, how the heq5 and cem40 would compare on tracking and guiding? If the cem40 it's better, I would probably go with that since it holds more and would last longer as I don't plan to get anything bigger than a C11, but if the skywatcher it's better, I could decide to go for that, and when I move to a place with better garden then get a second mount with higher payload. Apologise for the long post and my english. Kind Regards, Giovanni.- 7 replies
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Hi All, I've had a reflector telescope for years but never really used it (this one) . I've recently dusted it off and decided to try my hand at astrophotography. I was really pleased with myself when I successfully pointed the telescope at Saturn and could make out the planet and rings (it looked like one big white ring but a good start). Once I'd nailed getting the planet in view I decided to hook up my Canon EOS 600D. Initially I connected it using THIS and was able to get a picture of a Saturn and ring shaped slightly blurry blob, which I have to zoom in on the image to see, thus blurring it further. For my first attempt I was pretty pleased. I then watched some YouTube videos of people showing how it's done and upgraded the Canon T-ring to THIS so I could drop a lens into it for more zoom. However, when I try the new adapter with a lens the camera picks nothing up - any picture I take regardless of how long exposure I use just comes out as a black screen - not even any stars. If I take then lens out of the adapter I get the same. I only get a picture if I use the original T-ring, back to the blurry really small blob. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I'd really like to get into astrophotography but not getting anywhere yet. Many thanks in advance.
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Hello, this is my first attempt on NGC 7635 with my skywatcher 250pds on an NEQ6 synscan mount. These are 7min subs stacked to a total exposure of 5 hours taken with my unmodified canon 700d and a skytech cls filter. No coma corrector was used as I haven't gotten one yet. I'm just wondering how I could make my images look clearer when zoomed in and improve them overall as I can see the image gets more blurry when I zoom in onto the bubble, should I use a higher magnification? Do I need to take more darks to get rid of the redness around the image ? Or perhaps I stretched the image too much in Photoshop? I used 10 darks, 60 bias and 60 flat frames. Update: I have now further processed my image with greater care and got a much better result. Thanks Greg -
Skywatcher 100 ED Pro Esprit - Great Performance
Selborne posted a topic in Member Equipment Reviews
Hi Guys, I thought I would share with you my first hand experience of the Skywatcher ED100 Pro Esprit Telescope, I have only had it a few months, but so far I am extremely happy with the results, it is so sharp and the contrast is very high. I live in a small town, Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK, where the light pollution is not to bad, but still I have to be cautious with the direction I choose to point the telescope. All my astrophotography is done from the back garden on my patio. I have had a few different telescopes over the years, but I always found myself moving more and more into astrophotography, so after some research I selected the Skywatcher ED100 Pro Esprit, as many of the other users had commented on the sharpness and contrast. As I wanted to focus on more wide field astrophotography the F5.5 speed giving 550mm seemed the right choice, I also use an ED50 Skywatcher Guide Scope with an Altair Astro ASI130mm camera for the guiding and of course PHD2 software, all mounted on my Skywatcher HEQ6 mount. Here is a shot of the Andromeda Galaxy, 20 x 30s stills at ISO 800 on my Sony A7Rii, no filters just RAW images processed with Photoshop, Stacked Mean option. I used the Trevor Jones video on his BackyardAstro You Tube page for processing DSO's and it seems to work very well. What you will see from the image is just how sharp it is, something that really surprised me when I processed the images. This has inspired me to spend more time outside in the garden to photograph more objects, plus I have recently purchased an Astronomic CLS Filter for my Sony A7Rii, so I am looking forward to using this to see if it improve the contrast. I will keep you informed. Also I am looking forwarded to trying my Olympus EM1 MK2 camera, yes I know it does not have the capabilities of the Sony A7Rii for light gathering, but it does have a really clever mode where it can stack the images in camera to reduce noise, so I will also let you know how this went as well. Best Regards Jamie- 61 replies
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Total integration: 960 minutes/16 hours (20+10 x 6m for S2 + 61+20 x 6m for Ha + 34+15 x 6m for O3). Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractor @ f/4.8. Reducer: SFFR70-APO Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight, Photoshop CC. Inline image with reduced quality uploaded to forum. Full sized higher resolution image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/veil_sho_20+10x360s_61+20x360s_34+15x360s.jpg The Veil nebula and regions within located in the Cygnus constellation are known by many names, including Filamentary, Cirrus, Network, and Witch's Broom. This capture is my first attempt at creating a (two panel narrowband) mosaic and perhaps my last since after doing this I feel I should stick to my general philosophy of using the right sensor/reducer/OTA combination for the right target (though the North America nebula beckons and I don't see how I can get it to fit in a single panel unless I switch to using camera lenses). It was a PITA to get the brightness and noise levels of the panels matched up properly and also bring out the faint wispy details while imaging during moonlight though I learnt a lot about PixInsight doing this. This was an interesting target for many reasons, beyond my two panel struggle. The Ha areas largely over encompass the O3 and S2 regions, but both of these also have very strong signal and if I had done an image excluding Ha it would've looked rather similar (except for the very faint bits prominent only in Ha. The S3 overlap is near 100% with the other two elements and if I hadn't brought down the Ha (which is still overwhelming) there would've been a lot of white as a result of the RGB combination. I chose to find a balance between choosing a post processing scheme that aesthetically looked good from afar while also showing the details of the filaments but the Ha only image really shows how intricate the filament work is. IMO, these narrowband images take a lot of artistic license and are best appreciated in comparison to the monochromatic signal from the individual filters, particularly Ha. Other versions (Ha, darker background with more subtle processing, and basic SHO without HP tweaks) are here: https://www.astrobin.com/416486/B/ https://www.astrobin.com/416486/F https://www.astrobin.com/416486/G/ My plan is to repeat this with my OSC on the SV70T and by rotating the camera by 90 degrees I can get it to fit, which will a generate a colour image, and and then if possible I will create a merged SHO-RGB image by combining all of these captures. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram -
Canon 450D Modified for astrophotography, the IR cut filter has been removed for better response on red emission nebula in deep sky objects. Comes with battery, and charger. Shutter count is (atm) 5914, see picture 4. The camera is in great condition, throughout. No lens, just body. Will post special delivery. message me if you have any questions. Price is £150.
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From the album: Astrophotography
Taken with my iOptron Skytracker and Canon 70d with 300mm lens.- 3 comments
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From the album: Mike's Images
Cat's Paw Nebula - NGC 6334 ( aka Bear Claw Nebula ) An emission nebula in Scorpius (near the scorpion's tail) RA 17h 25m 39.6s ; Dec -35deg 43' 48" . 7th August 2015. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. ISO800, 14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on. 28 x 200sec (starting at zenith) no moon, 3deg C, 70%RH, moderate LP. PixInsight© Copyright Mike O'Day 2015 - all rights reserved
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From the album: Mike's Images
Blue Moon - 31st July 2015 Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian ("full moon" dust cap in place). Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). ISO200, 14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR off. 487 sub exposures @ 1/50th Subs taken over 45min period covering Full Moon @ 10:42 UT (8.42pm local time). Processed using Registax and Photoshop© Copyright Mike O'Day 2015 - all rights reserved
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From the album: Mike's Images
Cat's Paw Nebula - NGC 6334 ( aka Bear Claw Nebula ) An emission nebula in Scorpius (near the scorpion's tail) RA 17h 25m 39.6s ; Dec -35deg 43' 48" . 7th August 2015. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. ISO800, 14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on. 28 x 200sec (starting at zenith) no moon, 3deg C, 70%RH, moderate LP. PixInsight© Copyright Mike O'Day 2015 - all rights reserved
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From the album: Clusters
Ahh, the Double Cluster... I cropped the image down so the clusters would be right in the middle of the image. Just as beautiful as it is when viewed in the telescope where the stars brighten up the eyepiece and you get countless amount of stars in a nursery brighter and hotter than our sun I took this at ISO 400, an Exposure time of 20 seconds (Could have done 15 seconds to prevent trailing), lastly an aperture of F/3.5. This was taken Friday the 27th October 2017, facing North-West at around 19:18. P.S: I know this isn't exactly the Double Cluster people were expecting, but it's the wide field shot, until I can get a better mount and something to move the telescope without disturbing it, it will be wide field shots. But it shouldn't be too long until i get a device for it -
messier 8 The Lagoon Nebula ( Messier 8, NGC 6523 ) in Sagittarius
MikeODay posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Mike's Images
The Lagoon Nebula ( Messier 8, NGC 6523 ) in the constellation Sagittarius - by Mike O'Day ( https://500px.com/mikeoday ) The Laboon Nebula ( M8 ) is visible to the naked eye under dark skies from most latitudes except the far north. Seemingly covering an area about three times that of the full Moon, M8 actually covers an area somewhat greater than 110 light years and is around 4300 light years from Earth in the Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm of the Milkyway galaxy. Links: https://500px.com/MikeODay http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay Details: Messier 8, NGC 6523 - Lagoon Nebula. also contains: NGC 6526 NGC 6530 NGC 6533 IC 1271 IC 4678 7SGR 9SGR Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian telescope. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount. Orion auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D300 (unmodified) (14bit NEF). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. 20 x 120 sec ISO400. 26 x 30 sec ISO 1600. 23 x 240 sec ISO 200. PixInsight and Photoshop. 2 August 14 . re-processed 24 April 2016 to include the additional subs ( the first version only made use of the 23 x 240 sec ISO 200 subs ) and putting use the processing lessons I have learnt over the past year.© Copyright Mike O'Day 2016 - all rights reserved
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Hi, I'm totally New to this hobby and i'm having trouble understanding something in stellarium. I have ordered (not recieved) a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS, which has a 25mm eyepiece 50degrees FOV as a default. I also have a Nikon D810. I wanted to get an idea of what my field of view would be with the 25mm eyepiece (30x on 750mm focal length), and also what it would be With my Nikon D810 mounted shooting prime Focus - no eyepieces. What surprised me was that it wasnt much difference between the frame and size of the object i get with 30x magnification (25mm eyepiece), and what i get with the Nikon D810 mounted. I dont get this. What magnification do i get With my DSLR mounted with no eyepiece?
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Hello, I own a Vixen ED-80 refractor which is used with a custom focuser by Telescope Service. (pictured below) A Celestron f/6 SCT reducer corrector did not provide decent images either because it is not appropriate or because I did not maintain the correct distance. I am thinking of buying the Sky-Watcher .85x Reducer/Flattener instead, as it is made for similar ED80 telescopes. I do not know what is the correct distance of the SkyWatcher reducer for my setup and more important, I do not know if it will focus with the custom TS focuser. Do you have any similar setup that you have used successfully? Clear Skies! Paul
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Hello, I noticed the sky was clear enough to get the telescope out for the first time tonight since getting it for Christmas (newbie), my phone mount to take images properly hasn't arrived yet but with my Note 9 pointing straight upwards I took a few photos (max 10 second exposure, F1.5 and ISO 800) and believe I have captured M45/Pleiades and California Nebula, please correct me if I am wrong though. Thought the second photo was also cool. Feedback and tips would be greatly appreciated. Spencer
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I am going to upgrade to the skywatcher 250/1200 pds telescope and i can't decide which mount i should get. The main (only) purpose is astrophtography and i am considering either the eq6-r- pro or the cem60 The cem60 can carry more weight but is also more expensive, my inner debate now is about if it is worth it What's you take on it?
