M51

[Anweniel]

More experimenting with DSO imaging on the alt-az.

I know 99.9% of you probably think I am a bit nuts.. but I'm having fun persisting with the imaging on the supatrak mount.

I must admit my original target (horsehead and flame) was badly framed and I dumped the subs as the gee gee would have either been just out of shot or in the very bottom right corner. As Orion is off hunting past my rooftop quite early and very rapidly, another attempt was out of the question, for now. So I turned to the more attainable constellation of Ursae Major and a new target for me the whirlpool. I had meaning to try this for a while but as usual weather conditions and other targets have turned my attentions elsewhere.

So last night whirlpool it was...and how glad I was in my decision. Very surprised to see a little structure in the camera review screen after a 30s exposure! Seeing the structure just teasing out gave me the opportunity to centre it better than my previous attempts with the pinwheel so I was hoping for more success and I think I got it.

Very pleased with the results considering my limitations and in particular novice skills.

So here it is 15minutes of data @ ISO 800 using an unmodded 1000D.

Would appreciate any comments or critique especially regarding processing. Thanks for looking.

[peter shah]

very nice shot

[Anweniel]

Really a compliment from someone who pumps out such great images as you do! Thanks Peter

[pel]

Great images with an Alt-az mount

[JohnC64]

Hi Anweniel, Agree with you about seeing something on the screen when you take an image its a real buzz. Whilst framing, I generally push the iso up as high as it will go so that i get a better (albeit noisier) view of what is there. and then drop it down again when I start to take images to stack. Very impressed at what you are managing to tease out of the AltAZ mount. If you like M51 and are pointing in that general direction, then you may want to try M106 as it has a close by galaxy NGC 4217 (2 for the price of one :-) )

Cheers John

[PunkJay]

Howdy,

Have you thought about trying a CCTV camera like a Samsung SCB2000 with your setup? I was always told to forget any DSO imaging with my alt/az setup, but was really happy with the results I managed to get with video astronomy.

Just a thought...

- Jason

[Anweniel]

I hadn't really Punkjay as I am saving the funds for an EQ mount to really get into this. But I will keep it in mind, all sensible opinion has returned a verdict of alt-az + DSO imaging is a no go but since its the kit I got I am having to live with it a try my best, I am pleased to capture anything to be honest and the experience is growing.

John thankyou for the kind comments and advice, I shall try bumping the ISO for framing in the future - some reason it failed to occur to me to try that although when doing planetary with the webcam I had pretty much been doing the same thing with the exposure setting lol and I'll put M106 on my to do list, its currently unforunately positioned for me due to a sodium lamp at the end of the garden, however it is quite busy with deep sky objects around that region so I certainly will give it a go when more favourable.

Ty Pel also for your kind comment