The 30 Minute Challenge

[toxic]

Hi Rich, I am still looking at buying more gear, 1st thing is a reasonable imaging scope and then a new camera.... and then another year to work out how to use them 

As for the diffraction spikes, TBH I hadn't noticed it until you said, but I am guessing it will either be due to a poorly collimated scope or it could be caused by my home made secondary dew heater which does not fit very well   but if someone on here does know what is actually causing it please let me know!

nice images there Hawkeye whats wrong with the scopes you have unless you want to go widefield i cant get m45 without getting bad reflections from my skywatcher coma-corrector its just tooooo brite . lol imagine a dso that's too brite.

[Hawkeye]

nice images there Hawkeye whats wrong with the scopes you have unless you want to go widefield i cant get m45 without getting bad reflections from my skywatcher coma-corrector its just tooooo brite . lol imagine a dso that's too brite.

There's nothing really 'wrong' with the scope (200P) really, other than I don't really like the diffraction spikes, guding is very hard due to the weight, size and focal length and then finally again due to the focal length I can't get the whole of the larger DSO's without doing mosaics which then means extra time gathering the data..

Not got a coma corrector yet as I haven't decided what to do about the scope...

[toxic]

hi hawkeye hope you didnt mind but had a play with the color in m42 it seems there is more there to bring out.

[Hawkeye]

hi hawkeye hope you didnt mind but had a play with the color in m42 it seems there is more there to bring out.

post-20946-0-55972500-1412625636-color.png

Hi, I don't mind at all.... Looks fantastic and far better than my attempt at processing it...

I have been playing with the data most of the afternoon just trying to stack the data in different ways and the results do look more promising so I'll post the results here later once I have had a play in Photoshop...

Once again it looks great.. Any tips on what you did ?

[toxic]

Once again it looks great.. Any tips on what you did ?

yes i just used selective color in photoshop reduced the blue in the red color and then reduced the blue and cyan in the red channel and a medion filter of 3 to take out some of the grain then just played with the contrast and brightness . just somethings i have picked up on sgl.

open your image in photoshop then go to image/adjustments/selective color snd just have a play with it 

[uhb1966]

Alright.. i reworked my last data:

64x4sec lights

64x4sec darks

Milky Way, static tripod, canon eos 550d with stock 18-55 lens at 18, stacked with DSS, transferred as 32bit TIFF to Cinepaint, stretched 3 times, exported as fits, then exported in Gimp to jpeg...

 

[uhb1966]

Btw why does SGL compress our pictures so hard?!

[uhb1966]

Dropbox-Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ojkzhhiyubocry/DSS-Cinepaint-fits-Gimp.jpeg?dl=0

[ianaiken]

Here is mine, single 30 min sub on NGC6888

[Knight of Clear Skies]

These just qualify at the 30 minute mark - reprocessed versions of Comet Jacques passing the Garnet Star, next to IC1396.

... and a cropped version, which shows the Elephant Trunk more clearly at the bottom left of IC1396. I don't know what the dark nebula on the right is, I guess it must have a Barnard number.

135mm lens at f3.5 or f4.5 (can't remember) on a modded Canon 100D. 15 x 2 minute subs and 30 dark bias (no darks or flats). I used Kappa-Sigma stacking this time which seems to have improved the quality of the image. Unfortunately I can't get the comet + stars mode to work in DSS so Jacques is drawn out into a streak showing it's motion over about 48 minutes (I discarded several subs due to trailling). I used HLVG in Photoshop CS2 to knock unwanted green in the background (de-selecting Jacques first).

[Hawkeye]

yes i just used selective color in photoshop reduced the blue in the red color and then reduced the blue and cyan in the red channel and a medion filter of 3 to take out some of the grain then just played with the contrast and brightness . just somethings i have picked up on sgl.

open your image in photoshop then go to image/adjustments/selective color snd just have a play with it 

Well I have had another go at reprocessing my M42 image using a different debayer matrix, and then usual photoshop adjustments (and a bit of selective colour, thanks Toxic for the tips).

Looks a bit better I think, but still not there.....What do you all think?

[uhb1966]

It is beautiful! Do you think it's possible to enhance the red channel a bit? I believe it is still a bit blueish...

[JRWASTRO]

For the 30 minute challenge I offer one of my wide field camera shots ... Because of the fast lens I thought I'd include it here.

Camera Canon EOS 350D @ ISO 400,  5 minutes exposure through a 50mm F1.8 lens. The main 'scope was being used to split Antares  as the seeing was exceptional at the time.

Jeremy.

[Marky1973]

As I have just posted this elsewhere, I thought I would add it here. Only my second proper attempt at Andromeda, but 20 x 90 sec subs (it is just the lights that count isn't it?) with unmodded Canon 1100d with Starwave 70ED on motorised EQ3-2.

Still lots to learn, but I was happy with the result as a second attempt - processing is a steep learning curve!

Some great images here though, and very inspiring. Great stuff!

[JRWASTRO]

Yes the images are very, very nice. I like this 30m challenge and look forward to our summer so that I can take pictures within the limits set here.

Excellent,

Jeremy.

[JRWASTRO]

As I have just posted this elsewhere, I thought I would add it here. Only my second proper attempt at Andromeda, but 20 x 90 sec subs (it is just the lights that count isn't it?) with unmodded Canon 1100d with Starwave 70ED on motorised EQ3-2.

Still lots to learn, but I was happy with the result as a second attempt - processing is a steep learning curve!

Andromeda FLATS basic GIMP.jpg

Some great images here though, and very inspiring. Great stuff!

Very nice picture.

I see this galaxy "Scoot" across the top of the trees at about 6 degrees altitude to my north and can never get a good picture of it.

Jeremy.

[Atreta]

This is my final revisit (so far )  of my first milky way stack. I guess it's not up to the excelent images shown here, but i'm happy with it.

25x20 subs

10x20s darks, no flats or bias.

total time 8 minutes 20 seconds @ iso 800 and 18mm f3.5 kit lens.

[Atreta]

forgot to attach it, sorry

[JRWASTRO]

Greetings Atreta,

Good first attempt. 

May I offer a couple of suggestions for these very wide angle shots :

1.  Do not worry about darks and flats at this stage as the in camera noise reduction will do an excellent job. 

The main issue will be light pollution and there is no substitute for a dark site.

2. There is little to be gained by stacking but considerably more to be gained by increasing the exposure time. 

Instead of multiple short exposures take a single long exposure Make sure that the tracking and focus are good and take a single 5 to 10 minute exposure.  Use manual control and the mirror lock-up feature time the exposure by your wrist watch!

Jeremy.

[Atreta]

JRWASTRO,

Thanks, i'm yet to buy my equatorial mount, i'm thinking about an heq5. Maybe sooner than i think.

[MattJenko]

Right on the 30 mins. 6 x 5mins of M92 using a 250px strapped onto an NEQ6 for my first ever attempt at reflector imaging having only used an ED80 before.

[MattJenko]

No darks, flats, bias, dark flats etc etc. Clouds ended that dream.

[StevieO]

It's unbelievable what some people have achieved within the constraints of this challenge.

Here for what it's worth is my small effort, the Ring Nebula, got between the clouds in Taunton last night, 19th October

10 x 3 min with 5 darks, flats and bias, SW ED100, Canon EOS 700D.

Cheers

StevieO 

[JRWASTRO]

Not bad at all.

One gets a hint of the central star. Pretty good.

Jeremy.

[StevieO]

Thanks for the compliment, it's the first time I've had the nerve to post an image on here.

Onwards and upwards.

StevieO