nebula issues

[Sam Baker]

I have tried my best to image the orion nebula however I seem to be struggling. with my UHC filter no light seems to get through to the camera. without I just get a few stars. Unfortunately because I can't track properly with my EQ Mount as its not motorised I have taken loads of very short exposure picture and going to try and stack them. wish me luck! any hints and tips as to what I should do? merry xmas everyone

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[ronin]

any hints and tips as to what I should do?

Hate to say it but buy some motors.

Also get the filter out of the light path, they remove light and you are not intending to do anything like a long exposure ao you will need everything you can get.

What is the scope as one option is to put the camera and a lens on and take a 20 second exposure and see what comes out. Will be small but worth a go.

[lensman57]

I have tried my best to image the orion nebula however I seem to be struggling. with my UHC filter no light seems to get through to the camera. without I just get a few stars. Unfortunately because I can't track properly with my EQ Mount as its not motorised I have taken loads of very short exposure picture and going to try and stack them. wish me luck! any hints and tips as to what I should do? merry xmas everyone

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What camera are you using?  The UHC filter is not necessary for imaging M42 unlless you have to shoot through very heavy LP. Try it without any filter first. If you arusing a DSLR even with an LP filter at ISO 400, 15s  exposures with a fast scope or lens, around F5, should give you a recognisable shape even before stacking and stretch. I also ditto the comment about buying some motors for the mount, AP and manual mount do not go together.

A.G

[Leveye]

Use some kind of tracking mount for at least a 30 second exposure for the nebula and 1-4 seconds for the trapezium.You can then blend them in an editing program capable of layermasking such as photoshop. Autoguiding is always the best. I have never had good results from stacking a large amount of really short exposures with this and most DSOs but some have.

[Sam Baker]

I think I'll have to look at investing in a new mount. my current moynt isn't stable enough to track manually and it would be best having a moterised one. I've got a 127 newt with 1000mm focal length. on very basic and wobbly EQ mount :s

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[lensman57]

I think I'll have to look at investing in a new mount. my current moynt isn't stable enough to track manually and it would be best having a moterised one. I've got a 127 newt with 1000mm focal length. on very basic and wobbly EQ mount :s

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That is quite a focal length to use for AP. Do your research before parting with money.

Regards,

A.G

[Sam Baker]

thanks alot, I've done a biy of research and found an 8" x 1000mm skywatcher newt with eq5 pro mount which seems to be a decent scope and the mount I want as well for AP. what do you reckon guys?

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[knobby]

Not an imager myself but from what I've read here the 8" on an EQ5 is pretty much bat the limit of visual use, not really up to ap. General advice is to spend as much as pos on the mount, heq5 seems to be the minimum.

Having said that some pretty decent images can be made with the sqq but with a smaller scope like maybe a 130 PDS or 80ed... Good luck

[ollypenrice]

You would need the HEQ5 to make the upgrade worthwhile. Otherwise you'll upgrade again, which starts to get expensive.

As others have said, a metre is quite a long FL for a first go. I'd buy a decent tracking mount and get going with camera lenses, personally. Keep the FL down as you learn the ropes.

Olly

[Alien 13]

You would need the HEQ5 to make the upgrade worthwhile. Otherwise you'll upgrade again, which starts to get expensive.

As others have said, a metre is quite a long FL for a first go. I'd buy a decent tracking mount and get going with camera lenses, personally. Keep the FL down as you learn the ropes.

Olly

Sound advice you could also stick a Newt on that mount for visual and basic moon/planet shots but not deep sky, so with the scope removed and a camera with a 200mm lens you would have a nice dual purpose rig.

[Sam Baker]

Wouldn't a 130 x 650 pds and 200 x 1000 newt have the same photographic speed of f/5? and with the 200 x 1000 having the large aperture and relatively short f length benefit from letting more light in and being a suitable scope for AP? I understand my 127 eq x 1000 f length is pretty much no good at anything but the moon and maybe some planetary images with the right mount due to the long f length compared to aperture?

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[LouisJB]

The F5 650 and 1000mm FL tubes will be the same photographically in terms of speed/exposure but the 1000mm will show up every tracking error much more and because you're more zoomed you'll find star trails show up much more quickly than with the shorter 650mm FL. Hence with an unguided setup it will mean only shorter exposures are possible before it starts to blur/trail. This is why you'll probably end up needing guiding at some stage... More so the longer the focal length. For example with a say 200mm camera length on a tripod you could get away with much longer exposures than you can even with the small 650mm tube.

You can at least make a start though. Get your best polar alignment skills and a motorised mount and you should be able to get some exposures of a minute or two (longer with a shorter focal length tube).

When I first tried M42 I tried something like 10 or so 4-5 minute subs and a couple of ~1 minute exposures (no filters!) using a 650mm FL and it came out alright after stacking and blending the short exposure for the core into the image. I'm moving to a 1000mm FL tube now, but it will be guided, my polar alignment just isn't up to it and I can't spend 30-60mins every night trying to get a perfect drift alignment, by the time that's done the clouds would probably roll over

Good luck, keep experimenting, best way. Maybe try Pleiades, it's a nice easy star target, just to perfect focusing and the length of exposures you can get away with.

[Sam Baker]

well I've decided im not going to upgrade until I've become comfortable with the skies and know where im looking. its great to get all the feedback from you all. When the time is right I will get a Heq5 pro and may even invest in a couple of different scopes for different objects that way I'm not limited. someone said to me last week you can mever have too many scopes thanks for all your help, im looking forward to the moon coming out at night in mid jan!

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