M42 First attempt with SCB 2000

[SupahNube]

So iv'e gotten some clear nights recently and decided to give this a go.

let me know what you think. Any feedback, tips or tricks is much appreciated.

Iv'e watched a video on youtube of a chap who captures the M42 with an SCB 2000 

this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=staDqIDDRhY

I'm wondering how are the images in this video are so clear? In comparison, mine are horrible...

is there some trick i'm missing? or something about my setup? again any advice is welcome.

thanks.

[nytecam]

Well done :-)

Merry Xmas for everyone :-)

[DoctorD]

Hi

Good first attempt.

There appears to be a few issues with your image:

1. Focus is off - a bahnitov mask can make focussing easier.

2. The stars look elongated as if your tracking was out.

3. M42 is a difficult object to image due to the very wide dynamic range.

Try the following camera settings:

Sharpness:0

AGC: Max

SSDR: maximum

SSNR: mid point

Exposure: Manual x32, x64, x128, & x256

Each exposure will show detail in different parts of the nebula.

Note that the greater SSNR you use the longer the image will take to stabilise. At x512 and Max SSNR it can take a minute or two before you get a good image.

If you are operating in an area with strong light pollution you might want to consider a LP filter such as the Baader Neodymium Moon and Skyglow.

Hope this helps and Happy Christmas.

Paul

[SupahNube]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the advise Paul, ill try out your settings next chance i get. I was using the cam with the SSDR off and probably wasn't giving enough time on the exposures i find that without the SSNR set to maximum the picture gets extremely noisy. However with the SSNR set to full i lose lots of contrast. There was pretty much no tracking going on here, and i know for exposures longer than 1 sec that's just madness. I'm pretty happy and grateful for what i can see with this cam, it's truly amazing. My only problem seems to be with the resolution as i'm unable to get much detail. I will be getting an f6.3 reducer shortly and ill try the filter and see if this helps but what i really want to do is get this to a dark zone with tracking set up properly and give it a proper go.

Thanks and Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all.

[shirva]

great image...agree with pauls advice..tracking issues for star bloating trail and a focuss mask is a great investment,,,a bit of tweaking in photoshop levels will darken up your background and it wont appear as grainy..but its great first shot...the editing is purely an individual thing you can tweak it and make it better looking or take it as just a raw image capture...you could even try stacking your best capture images and use deep sky stacker,,it basically comes down to your pref,,,davy

[SupahNube]

So with the clear skies last night I decided to have another go at the m42.

This time i got the f6.3 focal reducer for my scope, so with that and the 0.5x i was working at a much faster f ratio, I’m not sure what f ratio it was? I also used the tracking this time; it wasn't spot on but helped a lot.

Anyhow I was far more impressed with what I seen live on screen. Even at short exposures I was getting much nicer images than before. I’m amazed at how much detail I was getting from my light polluted city balcony. I think the SSDR set to full made all the difference.

I captured a 1 min video and extracted it to frames and used GIMP to stack them and make some improvements. I can’t wait to get to a dark zone.

 

 

My settings were

 

Lens – Manual

Exposure – 64x to 128x

SSDR – Max

SSNR – half

AGC – Low

 

Before I didn’t realise that switching the AGC causes the SSNR to reset which was confusing me a bit.

 

Anyway really pleased with results, thanks for the help   

[DoctorD]

Well done - you're getting the hang of it!!

Nice to know that the F6.3 works with the x0.5 reducer.

Clear skies

Paul

[shirva]

Nice image..davy