Imaging with the 130pds

[Thalestris24]

I just made a solar filter (Baader Astrosolar 5.0) for my 130pds  Nice little job for a Sunday afternoon. Hope to get a chance to use it in the coming week. I tried last year with the ST-80 but could never get sharp focus. I thought it was either me or the scope but it eventually turned out that I hadn't removed the clear plastic film - d'uh! So more hopeful this time I made it from some leftover original foam packaging from the scope and some cardboard plus a glue gun - real Blue Peter stuff! It has a net aperture of 120mm so just under F6. Can see the sun through it quite clearly by eye

Louise

[beamer3.6m]

I have a 130pds on the way and have come by some bobs knobs thanks to the generosity of another member.

they are the standard skywatcher ones. will they fit.

if so which ones go in which holes. I only have the primary mirror screws.

[Uranium235]

Im guessing theyre for the secondary? They should be the same size thread (I think all SW are the same at the secondary support) so shouldnt be a problem.

They will be going in the three little holes that surround the secondary holder centre screw (do not loosen that one unless you know what youre doing). Dont forget to remove the old screws first! Also, the telescope will need re-collimating once youve fitted them - but to reduce the upset to the secondary, its probably better to replace them one by one (ie: take one out, put the new one in & tighten it up, move on to the next).

[beamer3.6m]

thanks uranium. its the primary screws I have received though.

[nightfisher]

The 130pds army continues to grow.....

I have returned to the 130p ds club, but most of my imaging will be video cam with a little 1000D thrown in

First job will be to add a motor drive to the focuser

[JimFR]

The 130pds army continues to grow.....

And yet, still no appearances in Skywatcher/OVL magazine ads...

[Uranium235]

Right, we've had some good weather.... but not much darkness to play with. However, Cygnus was high enough to do a bit more work last night.

This is just a rough process (was pretty tired by end of session), and is just half the resolution of the finished item. I'll give it the proper U235 treatment later on and post in the imaging subforum - unless its clear again, in which case I might have a stab at grabbing some OIII (depending how high the moon is).

[nightfisher]

Very nice Rob

[Uranium235]

Thanks mate, when I get a bit of free time later on I'll have a proper look at it. Its only been through half of the normal process, and I'd like to find a way of turning down NGC7000 a bit - its quite bright so I dont want it to unbalance the image when I push the data harder (layer masks to the rescue!).

[astromerlin]

With all the good weather last month I managed to grab some data on the Tulip nebula with the 130pds and Canon 1100d

20 x 300sec rgb

10 x 600sec Ha

All subs captured at iso1600, and my first attempt at combining ha data with rgb.

[acharris77]

I know I added my images to the Deep Sky Imaging section, but thought I would add my M81 and M82 attempt to show that even someone relativity new to the scope and Astrophotography can get a half decent from this excellent scope.

[Robp]

My latest project the Western Veil Nebula.

Two panes of Ha, 5Hours 30Minutes on each pane.

Capturing OIII (currently at approx 3 Hours on each pane) aiming for 5 hours+.

This was captured in my back garden, with no astronomical darkness, in the light pollution of Stoke-On-Trent and a LED streetlight peering over my garden wall.

The processing errors are all my own

Can't wait for the darkness to return, eyeing up the Elephant's trunk nebula next. Think it may even fit on a single pane

Rob

[JimFR]

My latest project the Western Veil Nebula.

Two panes of Ha, 5Hours 30Minutes on each pane.

HA_Mosaic.jpg

Capturing OIII (currently at approx 3 Hours on each pane) aiming for 5 hours+.

This was captured in my back garden, with no astronomical darkness, in the light pollution of Stoke-On-Trent and a LED streetlight peering over my garden wall.

The processing errors are all my own

Can't wait for the darkness to return, eyeing up the Elephant's trunk nebula next. Think it may even fit on a single pane

Rob

That gives me hope for my Black Country garden... now to sort out daily tiredness... (why does it always seem clearer on a work night, or just after a beer or two? [emoji15] )

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Atreta]

back to the lagoon

this time it was at almost the zenith and i think the LP was much lower where it was.

54x30s subs, again no calibration frames.

this is a crop to cut the coma around the corners.

Frank

[Thalestris24]

Here's a version of NGC6940 taken at the beginning of May with the modded 1100d. It's just 3 x 600s. I have lots more data but, erm, my flats didn't seem to match...  I'll have to investigate...

Stacked in dss with flats, darks and bias frames. Just for fun I processed in Gimp and I decomposed into separate red, green and blue and adjusted and stretched each separately. I figure this is a bit like mono rgb processing? Unfortunately the current dev version of Gimp has a problem with (re)composing the rgb image so I had to revert to the older non-16bit stable version. Still, it was interesting to do (on a cool, cloudy day).

Louise

[Thalestris24]

Here's a version of NGC6940 taken at the beginning of May with the modded 1100d. It's just 3 x 600s. I have lots more data but, erm, my flats didn't seem to match...  I'll have to investigate...

Stacked in dss with flats, darks and bias frames. Just for fun I processed in Gimp and I decomposed into separate red, green and blue and adjusted and stretched each separately. I figure this is a bit like mono rgb processing? Unfortunately the current dev version of Gimp has a problem with (re)composing the rgb image so I had to revert to the older non-16bit stable version. Still, it was interesting to do (on a cool, cloudy day).

Louise

Added some more data (7x600s total) and made it less red / more blue (and stretched a bit more):

Edit: Maybe not so good...

Edited June 20, 2015 by Thalestris24

[JimFR]

back to the lagoon

this time it was at almost the zenith and i think the LP was much lower where it was.

54x30s subs, again no calibration frames.

this is a crop to cut the coma around the corners.

lagoon crop.jpg

Frank

Here was I thinking that looked like it was in my range (30s untethered dslr), but then considered your location and skies compared to mine!

Awesome image all the same, and still hope for me yet, albeit a different object... [emoji16]

[Atreta]

thanks, Jim

i guess you can get a similar result, how's your LP?

i'll try taking a short exposure to show how it is in here, it's ok mostly to the south and east too, but north and west is much more light polluted.

please post your results when you take them.

Frank

[JimFR]

My LP is shocking! But its a deal.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[sidelight]

The Wizard Nebula, the imaging session was delayed when a required cable repair was spotted, so only 6 HA exposures of 600 seconds.  

Cheers
Ross

[Thalestris24]

Sun was out this morning  so had a go with some solar imaging today Just in white light but also had a quick go with some standard NB filters. I wasn't expecting them to have any effect but there may be some subtle differences - or could just be quality variation? All taken with a fs modded Canon 1100d fitted with a cls-ccd. I preprocessed in Pipp (1500 x 1500) and stacked the best ones in Registax 6.

Anyway, here you go:

First - plain white light:

Using Baader 7nm Halpha:

Using Baader OIII:

Using Baader SII:

Hmm... I obviously need some flats too but not sure how to do them for solar? I'd have posted in the Solar forum but was too embarrassed by the dust bunnies...

Louise

[toxic]

Sun was out this morning  so had a go with some solar imaging today Just in white light but also had a quick go with some standard NB filters. I wasn't expecting them to have any effect but there may be some subtle differences - or could just be quality variation? All taken with a fs modded Canon 1100d fitted with a cls-ccd. I preprocessed in Pipp (1500 x 1500) and stacked the best ones in Registax 6.

Hmm... I obviously need some flats too but not sure how to do them for solar? I'd have posted in the Solar forum but was too embarrassed by the dust bunnies...

Louise

hi Louise just take a couple of pics with a white t shirt over the lens or a white  tissue just so there is no detail then. like a flat . but at 1/260th iso (so it looks the same brightness ) then open photo shop then open the stacked frame and the single frame you just made, make sure they are both same size and color depth and file type (tiff - grey/rgb - 8 bit/16 bit) then select the sun pic and at the top goto image apply image subtract opacity 100 - scale 1 - offset 50. that should get rid of you dust bunnies. 

[happy-kat]

There is subtle difference between them but I think for me just by a smidge is the Baader OIII closely followed by the first.

Is this the sun spot causing the Aurora for us?

Did you crop the image or does it fill the frame like that?

[Thalestris24]

hi Louise just take a couple of pics with a white t shirt over the lens or a white  tissue just so there is no detail then. like a flat . but at 1/260th iso (so it looks the same brightness ) then open photo shop then open the stacked frame and the single frame you just made, make sure they are both same size and color depth and file type (tiff - grey/rgb - 8 bit/16 bit) then select the sun pic and at the top goto image apply image subtract opacity 100 - scale 1 - offset 50. that should get rid of you dust bunnies. 

Ok, will try that next time if I can find something suitable to cover the 130pds+solar filter.

Thanks

Louise

[Thalestris24]

There is subtle difference between them but I think for me just by a smidge is the Baader OIII closely followed by the first.

Is this the sun spot causing the Aurora for us?

Did you crop the image or does it fill the frame like that?

Hiya

So maybe the OIII adds a little contrast. Well, solar flares cause auroras several days later but I don't know if there's any link to today's sunspots. I'll have to look in the solar section to see if anyone caught the offending flare!

The original frames are auto-cropped to 1500x1500 by Pipp, then I reduced the stacked output image by 50% so the posted ones are half actual size.

Louise