Jump to content

1st M31 with Teleskop Service 65mm astrograph

Guest

By Guest
in Imaging - Deep Sky

Recommended Posts

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I didn't expect much from the patchy clouds in the sky last night but managed to get 50 minutes (5x10) on M31 for the first time with my new Teleskop Service 65mm astrograph.

I'm really impressed with the flat, wide field. I really like the surrounding stars it captures, so many different colours - really sets the object off.

I also processed this in Nebulosity instead of Photoshop and found the curves easier to understand - and no histograms were clipped in the making of this image har har :-)

I still have many processing steps to test but so far so good I think. Oh and I need a ton more data ....oh, and yes, Flats, the dreaded Flats still ellude me....

David

post-1878-0-29476900-1350141211_thumb.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Ags

Ags

Posted
Posted

Nice. If I had to make a suggestion, perhaps you could introduce a bit more contrast into the galaxy (give a few more levels to the bright regions)?

I've always been fascinated by the TS 65mm. How much does it weigh? I've heard the quality can be variable on them - you obviously have a good one!

Looking at fairly deep images of M31 like this one, I'm always struck by the slightly asymmetrical shape of the galaxy - it seems to flare out toward the lower end of the picture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

thanks for your suggestion on this - very useful as when you're processing we lose the eye for these finer detail

Quality on the Ts65 is outstanding - there were some problems with early models in the cold but they've been fixed. I absolutely love this scope - such great results with it and its so inexpensive too.

Im not sure on the exacts eight but I think it might not be far off my Orion ED-80

thanks again

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

What camera did you make the image with - the Canon?

It was the QHY8 - another real favourite - I've had some trouble understanding how to use it properly but Bern at Modern Astronomy has helped me throughout. Now I find it quite easy to be up and running in the obby within 10min :-)

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites
asteele3

asteele3

Posted
Posted

Celestron C8 OTA

HEQ5

Canon 1100d EOS

ISO 800

1 minute exposure. Everytime I go over that minute it starts to turn bright and a little blurred.

Do I need a Focal reducer? Would this enable me to take longer exposures? If so, I suppose I'd have to buy one asap!

Let me attach this image and show you what I mean:

post-14882-0-48941300-1350158548_thumb.j

Cheers mate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Celestron C8 OTA

HEQ5

Canon 1100d EOS

ISO 800

1 minute exposure. Everytime I go over that minute it starts to turn bright and a little blurred.

Do I need a Focal reducer? Would this enable me to take longer exposures? If so, I suppose I'd have to buy one asap!

Let me attach this image and show you what I mean:

post-14882-0-48941300-1350158548_thumb.j

Cheers mate.

with that setup and proper polar alignment you should be able to go for at least two minutes before star trailing get too bad - are you using a light pollution filter - CLS clip in the DSLR? That might help

i have to admit I gave up on DSLR Astro imaging when I read about the QHY8

others on here are more knowledgeable - check the "how to" section

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ags

Ags

Posted
Posted

I think you have three problems asteele3. Firstly the C8 is f10 so it gathers light very slowly. A celestron focal reducer would increase the speed to f6.3 which would mean you are gathering light three times faster. In 20 seconds your exposure would be as bright as your current exposure of a minute. Secondly you have a focal length of 2000mm which magnifies tracking errors. A focal reducer will help here too by reducing te effective focal length to 1260 mm. Thirdly you have light pollution to contend with (your image goes bright) but you can help this a bit with a CLS clipin filter as you suggest.

Its not a free lunch. The focal reducer will make the galaxy image smaller and less detailed, and it may cause vignetting at the edges of the sensor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
Posted

I can only just get M31 in the frame of my DSLR with my ED80 with focal reducer which gives a FL of 510mm. Even with FR your scope will produce an image of M31 that's more than twice the camera frame size. What you are getting is just the very bright centre of the galaxy. To cover the whole of this gigantic galaxy (6 moons wide by 4 moons high I believe) you'll need to either make up a mosaic or get a lens or scope of around 500mm focal length, or less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I managed to get another 80min on this tonight for a total of 2hr 15min - the extra data seems to be paying off - this is just a quick process before I get some sleep :smiley:

post-1878-0-75792000-1350177500_thumb.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Yes, indeed, very nice :) And yes, more data certainly makes a lot of difference :)

Thanks everyone :-) This one is turning out to be really useful for my processing skills

I'd started to use Nebulosity and a few "auto" setting features - like Auto Colour Adjust

I'm sure I've noticed before that this kills data but wasn't able to get the channels in shape without it in the past - now I think I know why - Data :-)

As I had so much (well, more than I usually get on an object) for this one I thought I'd process it in Photoshop without any help and just use levels and curves

I may not yet have it right but one thing was for sure - there was more data in in the non-Auto example below - it took a lot longer to process but I was in more control of the final result. This meant I didn't wind up with the "coppery" colour above.

I'm sure this will evolve but I've learned the lesson again - data is everything :-)

David

M31_121013_TS65_QHY8_BASE.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

its a bit blue try aligning the rgb with the levels, cracking detail in there though

Daniel you're absolutely right - I went to the gym - got back and looked at it thinking it looked mono-tone :sad:

I liked some of the early iterations where it was gold - it looked really good against with the blue star - I'll shoot for something like that now

I did whack the blue up quite a bit because my camera is notorious for being weak in that channel - I used to use Auto Colour Adjust in Nebulosity to align the histogram but as Gina has confirmed - that sort of function isn't any good really (I've been told this before but was unable - I thought - to get good results without it - just need more patience :grin:

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Nice m31 , and a nice scope by the looks of it, This Galaxy can be a bit fiddly to process at the best of times.

Well done Paul

Thanks Paul - I just reprocessed it keeping the histogram closer to its original configuration instead of weighting the blue channel so much - I'm happy with this now, until I look at it again in a week no doubt har har!

M31_121013_TS65_QHY8_2hr15min.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.