JamesF Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Taken last night using my LX-modded SPC900, ST120 on an unguided (and somewhat badly behaved) EQ3-2 with motor drives. Not exactly the kit you'd choose to image with, but that's what's easy to get at for the moment.To kick off, a couple of M13. First, 33x16s exposures, no darks, stacked in DSS:And second, 55x10s, again no darks:I think the second is better because with the shorter exposures there's less star trailing.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Well, you've certainly captured the middle of it complete with propellor Pretty good for a webcam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lardy Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 excellent first attempt James .... bet your planning the second attempt already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJJ Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 You've picked out some good detail in the image Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rihard Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Taken last night using my LX-modded SPC900, ST120 on an unguided (and somewhat badly behaved) EQ3-2 with motor drives. Not exactly the kit you'd choose to image with, but that's what's easy to get at for the moment.To kick off, a couple of M13. First, 33x16s exposures, no darks, stacked in DSS:And second, 55x10s, again no darks:I think the second is better because with the shorter exposures there's less star trailing.JamesVery good, that's what I wanted to see. To be a webcam the result is not bad!AstroImaging is not easy and I would be happy to have a record of my observations of this quality,taken with just a little webcam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 excellent first attempt James .... bet your planning the second attempt already It's tempting The sky wasn't looking too hot when I went out just now to shut the chickens up -- lots of high hazy cloud. Perhaps it will clear up later. Given my failure with M27 perhaps I'll try M57 instead.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Great stuff for the kit your using James, I for one would love to see what kind of image of M57 you could get with a webcam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 I shall see what I can do My biggest problem at the moment is lack of exposure time due to star trailing. I have a feeling that the RA axis of the mount does not run perfectly true, I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I shall see what I can do My biggest problem at the moment is lack of exposure time due to star trailing. I have a feeling that the RA axis of the mount does not run perfectly true, I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.JamesWell James as I'm sure you know the EQ3 is a very difficult beast to tame for DSO imaging, poor basic machanics giving backlash problems, ali tripod, and low weight capacity for exmaple. I think the ST120 is a big scope for this mount, also bad CA although I bet it sucks in the photons at f/5:) Hows your polar allignment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 It's a very old EQ3-2, too. One of the Sky Scan 2001 models. Polar alignment is robably as good as its likely to get for an EQ3-2 that gets moved in and out of the house. Hopefully before the winter I'll be able to get my NEQ6 out of storage and things will be better. In the meantime I am quite tempted to fill a length of 100mm drain pipe with concrete and set it in an old car tyre also filled with concrete just to give a stable base to work off. It's all good practice, anyhow James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatermass Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Great results with the webcam love imaging on a budget Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davesparx Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Hey James,I think that's a really good picture. I've not tried a cluster yet. I can't wait to see what colours I get :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 I have a feeling the colour is because I was using my ST120, which suffers from a fair bit of colour aberration. It's ok visually on DSOs, but I think the camera may not be as tolerant as the human eye James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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