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Suggestions for easy targets for unmodded dslr (unguided)??


Aenima

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Only just started practicing dso imaging and have had a go at some of the usual suspects - m27 m57 m42 m45 m33 with reasonable results, for me at least :) - but many targets are only labels in stellarium with no pic its hard to determine whether it would show up on unmodded dslr (esp without a barlow and shortish exposures) so if anyone can give me an idea of some suitable targets that i'd have a chance with my set-up...I would be grateful ?

Any ideas welcomed,

Regards

Aenima

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Thank you yes I love Orion, though for the most part its entire area of sky is obstructed by houses unless I set up on decking which adds wobbles to my already flimsy mount.

I love planetary nebulas, but obviously an unmodded dslr restricts these targets. Though some do respond well, the above examples included. Galaxies are another favourite but most are either too big - m31 - or too small to get good shots without extra magnification like m82/81 or sculptor galaxy. Though whirlpool galaxy is excellent and shows up well but again its obstructed most of the night.

I'm hoping to catch M15 and M13 before they sink below skyline. :)

Thank you for posting, folks.

Regards

Aenima

PS anyone know if objects like ghost, iris or bubble nebulas can be captured with unmodded dslrs? I love the ghost nebula types, so anything like that will be top of my list - probably not for long time yet though ;)

Regards

Aenima

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Globular clusters make wonderful wide fields providing they are not centred 'rule of thirds' and all that..

Is that 'wide field' as in a camera fov attached piggyback, or just a non-magnified primefocus through a scope?

Also i'm new to AP let alone normal photography so forgive the duh factor here ;) -- not centered, is good or bad?

Many thanks

Aenima

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Is that 'wide field' as in a camera fov attached piggyback, or just a non-magnified primefocus through a scope?

Also i'm new to AP let alone normal photography so forgive the duh factor here ;) -- not centered, is good or bad?

Many thanks

Aenima

Its a loose term generally meaning not isolating one image but capturing a larger area placing the subject in its natural surrounding home and not isolating it.

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Ahh yes, sorry a genuine dyuh moment, hehe.

As it goes the hercules clusters are out of sight and just as i'd set up too wah. But that area of sky - deneb is nicely kinda central at the same 50 ish degree angle up in front of me, so lyra at bottom right and cassieopiea practically overhead, with the summer triangle also left-center is my view.

Badly described I know, sorry. I have good view of cygnus and above me to the left of polaris all the way to the edge of pegasus.

Later m51 whirlpool glxy will appear to my right between houses but not for hours yet.

So i'm thinking the clusters and nebulas in pegasus and cassieopeia, andromeda is also visible but my fov is not wide enough to fit it all in. :(

Any ideas or suggestions anybody?

Thanks again

Aenima

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Cocoon Nebula or Crab Nebula could be possible targets. Maybe a mosaic of Orion Nebula taking in the running man.

Or you might want to concentrate on the ones you've mentioned already and try and get more practise of your technique.

I might have mentioned this before, but astrobin is a good source of astrophotography examples and lets you search by equipment if you would want to look for DSLR images only.

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Awesome, thank you. :) Thats amazing amount of detail for 30sec exposures! i'm only able to get 1600 iso on the 300d and tracking is limited to 30sec also, but with more frames stacked on top its enough for some objects.

Cheers russell for the astrobin suggestion. Will check it out for next session as sky is clear and dont get chance often. But the cocoon nebula sounds a really nice object, can it work with 30sec-40sec exposures unmodded/unguided?

Thanks to everyone posted above. :)

Want to try veil nebula, cant hurt to try.

Regards

Aenima

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I use a Nikon D50 on a SW 200 PDS scope on the NEQ6 Pro mount. I've picked up both the East and West Veil Nebulas with the unmodified Nikon DSLR, both of which fill the frame nicely. NGC6888 Crescent Nebula frames up well. NGC 7023 Iris Nebula, M51 Whirlpool Galaxy and it's companion and M101 Galaxy will also give a reasonable sized image. I've caught all of these using 30 seconds to 2 minutes unguided imaging. They won't win any awards, but it's satisfying to be able to catch them in any form.

I've also done some DSLR images of Neptune and Uranus over several nights as it is interesting to see the movement of the moons around them.

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I use a Nikon D50 on a SW 200 PDS scope on the NEQ6 Pro mount. I've picked up both the East and West Veil Nebulas with the unmodified Nikon DSLR, both of which fill the frame nicely. NGC6888 Crescent Nebula frames up well. NGC 7023 Iris Nebula, M51 Whirlpool Galaxy and it's companion and M101 Galaxy will also give a reasonable sized image. I've caught all of these using 30 seconds to 2 minutes unguided imaging. They won't win any awards, but it's satisfying to be able to catch them in any form.

I've also done some DSLR images of Neptune and Uranus over several nights as it is interesting to see the movement of the moons around them.

How do you time your subs over 30sec? Or does the D50 have native support for longer times?

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Thanks guys, had varied success last night, on the cocoon nebula I took 30 frames of sky that had the actual nebula right at very edge and picked up very little of it, and the bubble nebula kinda showed some definition, but most of the red was absent - unmodded cameras (future reference :) ) its at least good to know. But another evening of snapping frames will always add to it.

The cluster in cassiopiea looked great with only 6 frames at 30sec, although I found my polar alignment had drifted during the night (it probably has every night thinking about it.) so realignment of polaris gave me a magic extra 30 seconds at approx 75% good enough to be kept. :)

So to work on polar alignment will up my tracking time to a minute, which for me is a great result.

Couldnt get a proper idea of whether certain targets were worth continuing with by looking on the little screen previews, hence my question about which ones to target.

Happy with the cluster (M103? I cant remember now - sorry) especially with the red star in with the blues, and glad I found the bubble nebula, and will be giving the suggestions in the above post a try next, thank you. :)

Cheers for the advice folks,

Regards

Aenima

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You could try M31 as a mosaic - that's how we did our M31. I think it looks nice with a bit of sky around it.

http://stargazerslou...andromeda-wide/

A VERY nice image! Bleep bleep bleeeeep was generally my first thought on seeing it. ;)

And also DUH was another thing that crossed my mind. I hadn't even thought of fitting M31 in two or more frames! Thats a pretty cool idea. Thanks. :)

Thanks as well to ArmyAirForce for the examples of good targets. It all helps. :)

Regards

Aenima

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Cocoon Nebula or Crab Nebula could be possible targets. Maybe a mosaic of Orion Nebula taking in the running man.

Or you might want to concentrate on the ones you've mentioned already and try and get more practise of your technique.

I might have mentioned this before, but astrobin is a good source of astrophotography examples and lets you search by equipment if you would want to look for DSLR images only.

I did find the crab nebula, and managed nearly 20 30-sec frames with it nicely placed on the chip, though whatever I try in deepskystacker I cannot get it to look like anything more than a white-ish fuzzy patch. I'm guessing the red is missing again due to unmodded dslr...(?) I will try a different image program - but usually it looks pretty finished in DSS and I've never really had to do much more than noise reduction and/or crop in photoplus (serif photoplus free in Sky at night mag jan-2012, a cut down less powerful type of Photoshop) but there's a good chance my use of DSS was less than skilled 0.o

But as for honing skills at the scope, I did manage to get better focus in slightly less time by zooming the bahtinov star shape in on the preview screen (no live view) which Im pleased about as focus always bothered me using the chunky R & P ones that come with SW scopes.

Cheers russell. :)

Regards

Aenima

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