DSO Imaging on a budget

[Fluby]

Great thread. Got more of an idea what I will need now. Can't wait to get started!

[JoLo]

Excellent post Martin, thank you. I started this AP journey slowly and with a method to my madness...tripod shots, barn door tracker, finally to short focal length apo on a mount (Atlas) that will give me room in the future. Over a period of three years, but I am there now and Mary has not divorced me...so I rank it a success. Moving up to an 8" Newt or RC in a couple of years, but i have a lot to learn before i get there. Patience, it's a virtue.

One line really rang true with me...most people don't using their equipment to the full potential, before they are itching to move on to bigger, faster, better. I know my AT106 will take me to imaging heights i can't imagine right now....it's the captain of the ship, I am just the first mate trying to keep the rudder straight and true.

[ollypenrice]

For some reason one oft-repeated word on this thread appears as asterisk asterisk asterisk zero three nine on my screen. This is impeding my comprehension more than a little!! Any help out there?

Olly

[martin_h]

It seems to be replacing an apostrophe.

[mikinio]

cheers for this

[ollypenrice]

It seems to be replacing an apostrophe.

So it is! I feel rather stupid now. Usually these things arise from being on a French computer so I was looking for a word.

Thank you, Martin.

Olly

[azzythehillbilly]

HI Fellas,

Greeting to all.

I am a new member (and a newbie). I recently acquired a vixen 130SF and have had (along with my spouse) some great time gazing at the sky.

My interest seems to be growing and I seem to be on the way to acquiring an (old, discarded?) Apogee AP2 cam. I understand that it needs an ISA I/F card to make it go. Does some good samaritan know something about the parallal interface this cam uses. If I know the way the hardware/software works I might be able to make a microcontroller emulate the custom ISA card (whatever that is). Or is it some sort of a generic ISA card?

I am 65 and retired and don't believe I will be able to afford to buy something from Apogee looking at the "astronomical" prices they quote for their stuff. If it is available. I have not seen it for sale anywhere.

I have been tying to put this in a new thread without luck.

Wouold be grateful if admin will start a new thread for me.

Azzy

[badgerchap]

Brilliant, thank you very much!

I'm just waiting on about £600 worth of my first imaging set up to arrive and, due to its modesty, I was getting quite nervous. "Have I done the right thing?" has entered my mind on a number of occasions in the last few days, but this old post has made me feel much better!

Bring on the arrival of my kit!

[nytecam]

Excellent and valuable post, if 5yrs old, but "If you want to be serious about imaging you have to be serious about exposure times. 7x30 seconds = grainy images without much detail. You should be aiming for at least an hour on most targets..." made my jaw drop:eek: I go back to film with severe reciprocity failure but CCDs are essentially linear and yet nowadays recommended exposures have not decreased but the reverse. It's downer for newcomers learning their technique

I'm clearly not a perfectionist but I get great results from DSO exposures from 30s to 5m and I won't be changing my technique soon as witness in my DSO sampler [linked below] contains three dozen DSOs with a gross total exposure <90min:hello2:

Edited June 1, 2012 by nytecam

[DazC]

Great post, thanks for the advice.

D.C

[roarke80]

Great post, very helpful!

[Scott]

Good food for thought there - thank you I have yet to try DSO imaging - now it doesn't seem as daunting as I thought

Thanks again

Gina

This made me laugh.....Gina yet to try DSO imaging. and it wasn't that long ago either

[Zakalwe]

Build a tracking mount for under £50 .....

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~sdb/Astro/K2/

[Gina]

This made me laugh.....Gina yet to try DSO imaging. and it wasn't that long ago either

Gosh - just two years ago and to think how much kit I've bought since then not to mention over £600 on timber and several hundred on concrete and other stuff for my observatory TBH I don't think I've done too badly in improving my techniques and building stuff in that time either. I've been thinking I should construct a history of purchases and building. I should be able to get all the info from what I've posted here - proper chatterbox I am Should be interesting To me that is I doubt others would have much interest.

[Gina]

Build a tracking mount for under £50 .....

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~sdb/Astro/K2/

I've often thought I like to try making a mount but I don't think I could do it without a lathe and milling attachment. And they cost a fair amount of money. OTOH one thing I'd like in the future is a second mount to put my widefield rig on. That wouldn't need to be as heavy duty as my present NEQ6 - just support a couple of astro cameras and lenses with a few extra bits for focussing etc. Apart from the cameras (2 x Atik 314L+ mono) I'd use little else - maybe a finderscope for guiding or even OAG on one of the lenses. The lenses were built to cover 36x24mm so plenty of space outside the imaging sensor. I might work out a smaller and lighter filter setup. Though I have to say, I like the look of the SX mini FW and OAG combo. Of course, it would need to be accurate enougth to handle DSO imaging. It would be a very interesting project. Edited May 24, 2013 by Gina

[Scott]

Gosh - just two years ago and to think how much kit I've bought since then not to mention over £600 on timber and several hundred on concrete and other stuff for my observatory TBH I don't think I've done too badly in improving my techniques and building stuff in that time either. I've been thinking I should construct a history of purchases and building. I should be able to get all the info from what I've posted here - proper chatterbox I am Should be interesting To me that is I doubt others would have much interest.

you might be surprised how many people are interested Gina

[Spoon]

the mini version of making every photon count!

[Gina]

the mini version of making every photon count!

Don't know about that I certainly took note of what Steve advised though I found his book very helpful

[azzythehillbilly]

I  believe the expression  is  "keep up with the Joneses"

Anyway you are wuite right to emphasize this factor.  

[Christopher Davenport]

Hello,

This is a great post, but somewhat dated now, plus webcam DSO pics just don't compare with DSLR pics. (These can now be picked up at very good prices.)

My current kit which came in around a £1000 at used prices and allows me to research, goto and frame, capture, guide, stack, process, publish.

Used Prices:

Mount - EQ5Pro            -  £300

Scope - SW127             - £150 + £50 Reducer (6.3)

Guide - Finder & QHY5  - £160

Camera - 600D              - £200

Laptop - X201                - £200

All software that I use is free. Although I do own PS5, so I do use this as well as GIMP.

This does not need to be a expensive sport, although as you go cheaper, your image quality suffers.

My advice to those that are new to the sport, is this, do your research, set yourself a target and stick to your budget.

Once you have bought your kit learn to milk it to it's full potential before buying more.

I have seen many people go against the norm on this forum and produce amazing pictures.

Off you go then!

[Mark62]

Looks like I'm staying at my box brownie, long sticks and string [emoji6]

[AstroMuni]

On 11/05/2014 at 11:31, Christopher Davenport said:

My advice to those that are new to the sport, is this, do your research, set yourself a target and stick to your budget.

I absolutely agree and thats been my approach too. In your list of buys you could even skip the guider and related camera if your mount tracks decently.

As you rightly pointed out there is lots of free software out there for managing the devices, image capture and post processing.

[Karl Perera]

Great post Martin! Wish I had read this stuff when I was nearer to starting my journey in DSO imaging. It is all a bit overwhelming at the start.

[Ian McCallum]

Some will claim an achromat for AP is sacrilege, but to some of us, it's all we can afford!😱

[Peter Drew]

On a budget, consider a Newtonian reflector, they are the cheapest, fastest apochromat available.     🙂