Imaging with the 130pds

[Whistlin Bob]

Friday night was clear for me and I got 3 hours on the Iris nebula using an SVBony 405cc. This was really tough to process- especially the colour calibration routines in Pix really didn't like this data. But I've finally managed to get a half decent rendition of dust from Bortle 5- so I'm well happy  !!!

[MarcuSmythe]

Looks lovely to me Whistlin Bob! I hope I can do as well one day.

[BrendanC]

Cave Nebula. 

9:48 hours over 2 nights (15x240s + 12x360s + 7x480s + 4x600s dualband + 36x600s 7nm narrowband)
50 darks per sub length, 50 flat darks, 25 flats
Bortle 4, Moon average 84% phase, 46° height
Acquisition: APT, PHD2, 130PDS with 0.9x coma corrector, NEQ6, ASI533MC Pro (gain 101, offset 50, -10°C) with 2" ZWO Duo-Band filter and Svbony 7nm Ha filter
Processing: APP, Siril, StarNet++, Topaz DeNoise AI, Photoshop

[Adam J]

On 19/08/2022 at 13:07, sagramore said:

Thanks for the bits of advice I received. This post is to apologise in advance to anybody in the south of England because we're almost certainly due a few weeks of clouds at least...

I decided to go for the following:

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro
• ZWO 31mm unmounted LRGB and 7nm Ha, SII, OIII filters
• ZWO 8-filter wheel
• ZWO electronic focus motor (EAF)
• A couple of dew shields for my 130-PDS and my guide scope
• The Rowan belt mod for my NEQ6 Pro mount
• and lastly... a Cheshire, because I've never actually owned one haha

I'm hoping I don't regret it, but I'm pretty excited for it all to arrive now!

 

If anyone has any tips related to any of the above, I'd love to hear them.

I have previously modded my 130-PDS to bring the primary up the tube to help with DSLR focus and the focuser tube not protruding (and I use the SW 0.9x CC) - should I still be able to reach focus with this new setup or am I likely to have to move the mirror back down the tube?

It's the other war around the SW Cc pushes focus inwards slightly so pulling the mirror back would make it worse. 

[sagramore]

On 20/09/2022 at 23:59, Adam J said:

It's the other war around the SW Cc pushes focus inwards slightly so pulling the mirror back would make it worse. 

Yes, thank you! I was fortunate enough to just go with it and reaching focus hasn't been a problem.

Ensuring I have perfect focus has been a problem... but reaching it at all is fine 😂

 

Speaking of - does anyone have any tips for focusing with the ZWO EAF and a filter wheel? I don't know if it's just all part of the hobby but I've struggled to find the best way to ensure I've got the best focus I can. I try to use the focus aids in APT, tweaking the focus position to minimise FWHM on a star, but it seems harder than I was expecting! Also, how much offset would you expect on focus position between the SII, Ha, and OIII 7 nm ZWO filters? I know the LRGB ones are meant to be parfocal, but I don't know if that's true for the narrowband ones?

[Whistlin Bob]

I've been having rather a good time with my trusty 130pds over the last few weeks. It's always been a favourite, but over the last few years I've been exploring other scopes- it's been great to come back and have another play with it. Last night I had it on the Pelican nebula to see what how the Altair Dual Band filter performed on a nice bright nebula, and I'm pleased with the outcome- lots and lots of detail coming through (the conditions helped- it was lovely last night, best transparency in ages). Here it is in in HOO and OOH presentations- only negative was that the Oiii was a touch weak so I enhanced that channel with highlights from Ha.

[Jamgood]

To be continued......

Just a quick look at the data from last night. This is a 3 panel mosaic to fit it all in. Because of the large crossover, the middle has around 4 & 1/2 hours while the outer edges where the faint stuff lies only have an hour each. When the weather allows, I'll add some more. 👍

[Ratlet]

I've primarily been using the 130pds for visual being treated as a pocket dob of sorts, however, I bit the bullet and bought a dedicated astro cam (Hyperstar 533C) and the only thing I could fit it to was the 130pds.

There was a lot of troubleshooting but I managed to get some decent data.  Each image is 25 minutes of 90s exposures, stacked in siril and stretched using asinh and normal stretching 

 

[RolandKol]

Hi guys,

not sure why, but I am not able to collimate my toy anymore...  I use Cheshire + Camera, I see all 3 primary clips via Cheshire and all cantered with the Secondary mirror shadow slightly prolonged...
But the reflection of the primary during my multiple test is always off... (not sure if focuser is the problem as It was removed previously)
can you please check and advise? (starting from page num: 4)

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by RolandKol

[JimFR]

On 08/08/2014 at 18:51, JimFR said:

Maybe we should try for sone sort of record! 😛

Is this now the longest thread on SGL?

 

[Jamgood]

9 hours ago, JimFR said:

Is this now the longest thread on SGL?

 

Not quite. The "What did the postman bring?" Thread in the Astro Lounge has 488 pages.  There are probably others but this one is still going strong.  The 130PDS still has it's loyal followers and newbies coming in all the time. 👍

[Ratlet]

Skywatcher really made an absolute weapons with the 130pds.  The focal length is very flexible for a lot of object, an aperture large enough for good detail without being so large to need a monster mount.  Over on cloudy nights the call the 130pds "the apo killer" and at the price point, it's not hard to see why 

[braybarr]

Good morning, everyone. I’m currently trying to unscrew the 3 screws holding the mirror cell, so I can clean my primary mirror. However, these screws aren’t budging. 

Any tips? 

[braybarr]

Well, I managed to remove the mirror cell with a drill in reverse. Primary mirror is looking crisp! 

Here’s to hoping this solves my dew issues and I don’t need to buy heaters… although with my luck I’m expecting to have to drop a chunk of cash. 

[Jamgood]

16 hours ago, braybarr said:

Well, I managed to remove the mirror cell with a drill in reverse. Primary mirror is looking crisp! 

Here’s to hoping this solves my dew issues and I don’t need to buy heaters… although with my luck I’m expecting to have to drop a chunk of cash. 

A shower cap over the end of the scope can help with due and also block out stray light pollution getting under there.

A black cloth and an elastic band will also do the same. 

A Dew Shield up the top will also help.

 

[braybarr]

1 hour ago, Jamgood said:

A shower cap over the end of the scope can help with due and also block out stray light pollution getting under there.

A black cloth and an elastic band will also do the same. 

A Dew Shield up the top will also help.

 

Awesome, I’ll give it a try. Last night I used just my dew shield. The secondary was fine all night, the primary dewed over soon as we got close to the dew point. 

I’ll try the black shower cap idea, this is getting so frustrating. I think if it doesn’t work I’ll have to attach a small fan to the back end of the scope. I can’t find heaters for 5” mirrors anywhere.

 

[Stuf1978]

Another one for the 130PDS, my HEQ5 Pro really doesn't like hauling this scope about and has issues slewing in declination..... not the scopes fault though. Anyway this was just over 4.5 hours of 5 minute subs 😀

[Eruliaf]

Appreciate that the 130 isn't the weapon of choice for planetary, however balanced against the thought of deconstructing my rig to put the 200 on, I thought I would give it a go. I have not seen many planetary images on this thread, so thought I would put one up to see what others have achieved with Jupiter so high at the moment.

[sagramore]

On 11/10/2022 at 16:29, Eruliaf said:

Appreciate that the 130 isn't the weapon of choice for planetary, however balanced against the thought of deconstructing my rig to put the 200 on, I thought I would give it a go. I have not seen many planetary images on this thread, so thought I would put one up to see what others have achieved with Jupiter so high at the moment.

This is cool to see! I was having the exact same conversation with myself just 2 nights ago - I don't want to pass up the opposition to get some nice Jupiter pictures, but also I didn't want to have to deconstruct the 130PDS + camera + guide scope to put the 200P on the mount! I should really invest in another dovetail... haha. Thanks for sharing though, looks cool from such a small scope.

[sagramore]

On 11/10/2022 at 13:40, Stuf1978 said:

Another one for the 130PDS, my HEQ5 Pro really doesn't like hauling this scope about and has issues slewing in declination..... not the scopes fault though. Anyway this was just over 4.5 hours of 5 minute subs 😀

Love this! I have been having a go at it myself with my new ASI294MM - I wasted a lot of my limited clear skies trying to shoot the iris nebula in narrowband (lesson learned, reflection nebulae are not NB targets....) but then managed about 2h each of Ha and OIII on this. I feel like you've either done better with the data or you are just better with focus/collimation/etc than me as yours looks really nice. Do you mind sharing what your camera and filters etc were for this? I'll try and remember to post my attempt when I get home later...

[Stuf1978]

53 minutes ago, sagramore said:

Love this! I have been having a go at it myself with my new ASI294MM - I wasted a lot of my limited clear skies trying to shoot the iris nebula in narrowband (lesson learned, reflection nebulae are not NB targets....) but then managed about 2h each of Ha and OIII on this. I feel like you've either done better with the data or you are just better with focus/collimation/etc than me as yours looks really nice. Do you mind sharing what your camera and filters etc were for this? I'll try and remember to post my attempt when I get home later...

Thanks. I used a ZWO ASI294MC PRO and Optolong L-eXtreme with a total of 55 x 5 minute subs, calibrated with darks, flats and dark flats. Im in a bortle 8 area if it's of any relevance. The subs were stacked and pre processed in Siril and Photoshop. I still think it needs at least double the integration time as I had to use quite a bit of noise suppression.  

[Whistlin Bob]

Here's a rendition of the Lion Nebula. Taken with an SV405cc and Altair dual band filter, using 50x 3 minute subs. Really pleased with the signal that's come through, but my framing isn't very good, mainly due to getting very little to see when I was lining it up. I need to work a bit harder on that! Plain HOO looked a bit like an Italian flag, so I've done HO- (the red one) and OOH.

[Space Oddities]

On 10/10/2022 at 10:37, Ratlet said:

Skywatcher really made an absolute weapons with the 130pds.  The focal length is very flexible for a lot of object, an aperture large enough for good detail without being so large to need a monster mount.  Over on cloudy nights the call the 130pds "the apo killer" and at the price point, it's not hard to see why 

Couldn't agree more! The more I use it and the less I can justify the purchase of a big refractor. I paid about £160 for mine! I'd live a triplet refractor, but it would be, say, 10x the price of the 130PDS? And surely not 10x times better optically...

Although, to be fair, I might have spent 2x the price of the scope on accessories 😅

I realize I never posted the processed mosaic I've been working on. I managed to stitch the 2 panels in PI, and the result really amazed me! I can't see any artifact from the combination of the 2 panels.

I captured SII Data as well, but bad weather arrived just after, and then our friend the Moon... so I'm waiting for a chance to capture some OIII, hopefully soon, so I can create an SHO image. At least with nights getting longer, so is the integration time!

[Whistlin Bob]

3 minutes ago, Space Oddities said:

Couldn't agree more!

+1 from me. I think the big difference compared with a 10x more expensive refractor is that you really need to tweak a 130 to get the best out of it. Once you've sorted the collimation, tuned the focuser and worked around the mirror clips, you've got to buy a very premium scope indeed to better it.

I was going to say you need to like star spikes too, but I've decided that they're sexy and people who don't like them are just wrong 🤪

[Space Oddities]

Good point! I'm not sure whether I like spikes or not. I guess it depends on targets... I'm a bit reluctant to photograph the Pleiades with this scope, I'm a bit afraid of the huge spikes, but I'll give it a try!

The only think I dislike is the focuser, and there seems to be no alternative  Apart from that very expensive Moonlite one...

Edited October 14, 2022 by Space Oddities