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There REALLY should be a beginners section!

GordonCopestake

By GordonCopestake
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Well this is more poor attempt at M51..... I mean really.... how hard can it be? Point the camera and hit the shutter release.... wait 30 seconds.... repeat.

Now I KNOW I was pointed in the right place, cause I looked it up on Stary Night, but where the hell is M51?! It can't be that faint can it?

This is 13 frames of 30 seconds with the D70 and my 28-200 lens at 200. Stacked with registax 4, no other tweaking other than a resize for the net:

m51a.jpg

Just to prove I was in the right area a screen shot from Stary Night that matches the star pattern EXACTLY:

m51b.jpg

Where on earth is M51? The low res images dont really do it justice, but I must have done something wrong and i'll be buggered if I can work out what it is.

Anyway, moving on....

Clouds forced a change of target, so thought I would try M44. I've always liked the beehive so a snap of that would be nice.

This is 9x30second images stacked

m44 behive d70 200mm 9 stacked .jpg

Looks terrible doesn't it. I agree. Couldn't understand what I had done wrong as the single looks like this:!!

m44 behive d70 200mm 30 seconds.jpg

Could be field rotation as i'm using a fork mount, but I didn't have any problems with M51 (well thats a blatent lie, but the stars were not trailing).

Looks like I need a lot more practice with this imaging lark! It's all good fun though! Especially on a nice night like tonight. Bed for me now though. 11pm is WAYYYY past my bed time. Small children up at 6 and all that :D

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Gaz, the beauty of the 28-200 Nikon lens is that it DOESN'T go past infinity!! It's the first lens i've found where infinity is right at the end. It's worth it's weight in gold just for that feature.

Trudie, thanks, I prefer the 30 second single shot to the stacked version hehe. I think i'll try a longer exposure next time, rather than stacking. It seems the mount is up to it at only 200mm focal length. Not sure how long my NELM4 skies can take though!

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CH

CH

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Thank you Gordon for making me start my day with a laugh and a smile. I have no idea how to help you unfortunately as the nearest I've come to astrophotography is poking a camera down a lens whilst looking at the moon.

It's great that someone can put these kind of photos up as it shows that it's not easy. reading the answers is also very informative.

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themos

themos

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childish taunt: "Gordon can't find t' Whirlpool.. Gordon can't find t'Whirlpool.."

He sent me looking for it the other day, didn't find nowt. Maybe it's been deleted from the catalogue :D

Funnily enough, I also switched to the Beehive.

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themos

themos

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Gordon, in your image, I can just make out the two stars (to the right of 24CVn)

RA 13h 32m 16s Dec 47° 11' 41"

RA 13h 29m 22s Dec 47° 48' 26"

They are reported to be 7.1 magnitude. M51 is reported to be 8.9. I don't think you'd pick it up with this setup.

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Vega

Vega

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Gordon, in your image, I can just make out the two stars (to the right of 24CVn)

RA 13h 32m 16s Dec 47° 11' 41"

RA 13h 29m 22s Dec 47° 48' 26"

They are reported to be 7.1 magnitude. M51 is reported to be 8.9. I don't think you'd pick it up with this setup.

I've picked up M51 with my 120mm frac and DSLR so should be able to pick her up with a 200mm. Don't loose hope just yet! She may be beautiful but she's also a shy messier :D

Matt

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Vega

Vega

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:D ... oops with a capital O. Sorry mate, erm have to say that probably is a bit optimistic then Gordon. Im not even sure if a 200mm focal length will get a large anough magnification to reveal m51 even if the image did capture loads of light. You could try this for size...

-Fly out to Arizona with scope

-Spend 6 hours on drift alignment

-Take 3000x60 minute exposures

:p

(Sorry to mock... I have a child like sense of humour me) :D

On a more serious note, you might get results with m81/m82 maybe ?

Matt

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Vega

Vega

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For M51 I use both eyes open method in finderscope and move from Alkaid in the general direction until I find a very closeby equalateral triangle of stars which makes a triangle appearing to 'point' to Alkaid. M51 is right next to the furthest of these 3 stars from alkaid ... see image

m51_finder.jpg

Hope this will help

Matt

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Astroman

Astroman

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-Fly out to Arizona with scope

-Spend 6 hours on drift alignment

-Take 3000x60 minute exposures

No need to drift align. I already have 3 polar aligned platforms. Plus, I've done it before and (as I keep saying), it's not that big a deal. 8) :D

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