The last images from my Antares 80mm, M51

[Chris]

Hi,

I'm Selling my 80mm Semi-Apo tomorrow so I thought I would have one last quick play:)

66x30 seconds @ ISO 6400 plus 28 darks.

I think its better than my first attempt and hopefully not as good as my third:D

Chris

[Yoddha]

Nice image, Chris!

[stan26]

Thats a great effort Chris!

I'm sure your new WO scope will more than make up for the Antares, and make a great combination with the HEQ5.

Get that controller modded and get guiding mate !

Stan

[Chris]

Thanks Yoddha:) one day I'll get my M51 looking as good as yours, I've looked at your website and its all impressive stuff

[Yoddha]

Starfox, many thanks for the kind words!

I was quite lucky with my M51 image. It is taken on a star party at one of the best places in our country, at more than 1700m above the sea level with very good seeing (not the best one, but very good).

[Chris]

Hi Stan:) yeah I feel the dark side will be calling sooner or later but for now I've opted out of the mod as I've still got a fair way to go unguided. as you might remember I was only getting 20 seconds max with my EQ5, and I want to experiment with subs in the range of 60-90 seconds for a while and enjoy the journey:) I think I've made a great choice buying a second hand HEQ5. I am genuinely shocked by how much better it is compared to my EQ5, even with a very quick polar allignment I'm now getting 60 secs easy, and keeping 90%! I probably should have knocked out 60 second subs for the above pic but I was a bit worried about still having pinpoint stars once I had performed a harsh crop on M51, I will do longer subs next time:) I've kept to the ethos of imaging on a budget though as I have gone from a EQ5 and semi-apo to a HEQ5 and a doublet Apo for 80 quid!! p.s. your L-prime is a beast!

[Guest]

Hello StarFox, it's Martin from Cheshunt.Hope you got home safely.

:rolleyes::cool:The Antares Sentinel is looking good on the "stan" no tripod.Cloudy skies tonight alas.Looking forward to learning how to image with it.I to wish you well with the Willaims Optics 66mm.My one got away.But hoping that the Antares makes up fot the loss.

Grumpy martin

[Guest]

Oh,you'll have to explain the term "Darks" when imaging.

Thanks

Grumpy

[Chris]

Thanks Martin, I hope you enjoy the Antares as much as I did:) its well engineered which I know you appreciate, and very user friendly which is definately a bonus when learning the ropes of imaging:)

Darks is the only one I can explain at present, I know there is also flats, and bias etc which I need to learn also:) right I'm only about 75% sure about the following but here it goes. I think the purpose of Darks is to help reduce noise, and flats reduce vignetting I think? In order to take darks when you set up you scope before imaging take 10 images with the lense cap on, using the sub length and ISO you intend to take all your images at, and then you take 10 more darks at the end of your imaging session in the same manner. The idea of the 10 before and 10 after is that you get a mean average temperature as the temp effects the noise on the DSLR CCD chip, so does your choice of exposure time and ISO. So in a nutshell lens cap on, same temp, exposure time, and ISO as you main images.

oh yes, to use the darks there is a tab in Deep Sky Stacker that allows you to add you Darks before stacking:)

p.s. if anyone can see anything wrong with this explanation please feel free to correct it:D

HTH

Chris:)