Imaging with the Skymax 127.

[Paulus17]

James that image looks fantastic,glad you felt inspired to try it out.

[Paulus17]

Well its been ages since i have managed to get out and do some more imaging,but managed a couple of hours last Friday and managed to get the double cluster which has come out ok.The wind did start to pick up and i was surprised with the end result.This is 14x20 sec lights and 30 darks stacked in DSS and processed in CS3.Once again the Nikpon D90 was used.

[JamesF]

I think you might have clipped the black point a bit hard there. The "sky" is very black. I think it might look better if it were a little softer. Interesting that it fits on the sensor though. I might have to have a go at that myself

James

[Paulus17]

Thanks James.

I will regret asking but what has caused the clipping?

Would it be in PS.I used levels,curves,hue sat,exposure,denoise,sharpen,then fade sharpen??

[Superdavo]

Nice shots!

[knobby]

Thanks James.

I will regret asking but what has caused the clipping?

Would it be in PS.I used levels,curves,hue sat,exposure,denoise,sharpen,then fade sharpen??

New to this myself but I think its moving the left slider in levels too far to the right, you lose some of the data in the black areas by going too far...

[JamesF]

New to this myself but I think its moving the left slider in levels too far to the right, you lose some of the data in the black areas by going too far...

Yes, that can do it. Or perhaps bringing the curve down too far in curves so it "flatlines" at the left hand side.

James

[Paulus17]

OK thanks both,i will try processing it again and have another play with it

[knobby]

I cant play this Mak 127 imaging game anymore I've got a 150 Mak now

[JamesF]

You can start a separate 150 Mak DSO imaging thread

James

[knobby]

You can start a separate 150 Mak DSO imaging thread

James

Thinking about it the 127 is f11.8 and the 150 is f12, should have similar results

[Paulus17]

Managed another couple of hours this Friday gone and first target was M71 and here is the result.

I took 20x20sec lights but discarded 6 of them due to slight trails,as suggested by a friend,and am amazed how many stars i have captured on such a short amount of time.

Once again used DSS CS3 and Nikon D90.

Edit-: I also tried Louies tutorials on the levels and curves and it worked i think??

[JamesF]

Looks good. I might be tempted to crop the frame down a bit before working on the levels and curves as there appears to be some noise around the edges of the frame, particularly at the top and bottom.

James

[Paulus17]

Thanks James.Yes i can see that now yet it looked fine on the puter i done the processing on??

Why would you crop before doing the levels and curves??

[JamesF]

The edges of the frame are often a bit noisy or contain stacking artefacts. If you crop them off first (or perhaps do a smaller histogram stretch so you can see what's going on and then crop the edges off) then you get a more accurate histogram for the image you're actually interested in because it doesn't contain the data from the artefacts around the edges.

James

[Paulus17]

Thanks James

Managed another hour and half last night in the back garden as the skies cleared and they looked fantastic so couldn't resist my next target which was M15.Wind was still a bit breezey but all 30 subs i took came out ok.

Once again stacked in DSS and processed with CS3.Nikon D90 camera at 800 ISO.

M15.

[JamesF]

Very nice

I'm wondering if you're getting a bit of vignetting there. The RHS does seem to have a sharp gradient following an arc and I think there's also one on the LHS, but closer to the edge. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out that the Mak couldn't fully illuminate the very edges of a crop sensor camera.

James

[Paulus17]

Thanks James,i see what you mean once again.

Here is M56 also taken last night,same settings as above but have tried the processing a little different on this one,hope/think its better??

M56.

[JamesF]

Yes, I think that's definitely an improvement

James

[ntansey]

Wow these pictures are amazing! Just upgraded to a skywatcher 127 mak goto from my etx 80. Can't wait to try with my canon. Did you use the standard alt azimuth mount?

[Paulus17]

Wow these pictures are amazing! Just upgraded to a skywatcher 127 mak goto from my etx 80. Can't wait to try with my canon. Did you use the standard alt azimuth mount?

Hi NT,glad you like what i've managed so far,i was just about to put some more up from last Thursday/Friday

Yes all my images are taken with the Alt Az mount straight from the box with no mods to it,apart from tightening the big nut there is on the mount itself.

There is a good thread about the 127 in mounts and set ups.

You must keep very still when imaging with this set up or better still walk away from the area until you have finished taking all the images,as any vibration no matter how slight will show in the images.

[Paulus17]

Heres my latest efforts from last Thursday/Friday.Not the best i have managed so far but believe they are more difficult targets??

I think my processing is getting worse

M33 was barely visible when imaged on the LCD screen,and was surprised i managed to get what i have so more work next time for that one.

NGC-6934.Globular Cluster.

NGC-404.Mirachs Ghost.

M33.Triangulum.

NGC-7662.The Blue Snowball.

[majapala]

Great Pics! How long were the subs?

[JamesF]

I think you might have picked up a fair bit of the noise in the sharpening of the first three of those. I'm guessing that you're really at the limit of what can be achieved with that mount. I'd also say you're definitely getting some vignetting as we discussed in an earlier post. Flats might help with that?

We're forecast a clear night tonight (yeah, right). If it turns out ok I might have a go at M33 myself.

James

[Paulus17]

Majapala thank you.They are all 30x20sec lights and darks.

Except M33 where i tried 15x45 seconds lights as it was so faint,but only managed to use seven out of those fifteen.

Thanks James you may be right but for now i will keep trying as i am enjoying doing this with this scope/set up.

Yes it is clearing slowly here at the moment so if it does i will give the new camera mount a go with some widefields.

I will look forward to seeing your M33 James.

Heres one i forgot-

This is just a single sub as i couldn't get DSS to stack em all for some reason,probably because there weren't enough stars showing??

M94 Galaxy.