Imaging with the 130pds

[beamer3.6m]

M39 with astro frame

M31

[Atreta]

good news, my coma corrector and guide camera arrived today, the bad news is that(as always) it's cloudy tonight.

i don't have any spacers to use with the corrector, what can i use instead? it's a gso coma corrector.

btw, is there anything i can do to test both while it's clouded?

thanks

[Uranium235]

If its the dslr in you sig that you are using, you need the M48-Canon bayonet adaptor - thats all you need to achieve the right spacing. Something like this:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/skywatcher-dslr-m48-ring-adapter.html

[Atreta]

thanks, uranium.

another thing to place in the buy list

[Atreta]

forgot to say in the previous post that it did come with this adapter to t2 ring. it will still need spacers, right?

i'll try to find here in brazil the adapter you mentioned, as FLO doesn't send to here.

[nightfisher]

Wow, you guys are really getting on well with these little newts, im on my second one and cant even get it to focus a 1.25 ep (just like the last one)

I am pleased to say i solved the focus issues with a £5 astroboot long 2" to 1.25 adapter, now all my ep`s come to focus  this adapter is the same one as supplied with my old 150p ds

Just need some time  and clear skies to make an imaging start

[Uranium235]

forgot to say in the previous post that it did come with this adapter to t2 ring. it will still need spacers, right?

i'll try to find here in brazil the adapter you mentioned, as FLO doesn't send to here.

Oh, so youve already got an M48-T2?

On further reading, the spacing requirement of the GSO is quite different to any other CC... 75mm if im not mistaken. Meaning that you need to make up about 30mm of spacing, which is roughly one T-Ring, and a 18-20mm spacer (adjustable would be better). The Altair CC is just a rebranded GSO, and they have a set of setup instructions here:

http://www.altairastro.com/altair-astro-photo-visual-coma-corrector-and-field-flattener-for-newtonian-reflectors.html

Apologies for any confusion, as you wont be needing the adaptor I quoted earlier.

[Atreta]

thank you , uranium.

no problem, you helped a lot

i'll try it with the m48 to t2 and the t2 ring to see how it goes.

we are in lack of astro stuff in the stores here.

cheers

[Uranium235]

Just a little something thats in the oven.... Only 1 hour per pane at the moment, and still a fair way to go before its up to scratch:

[beamer3.6m]

The veil

and cropped

[Uranium235]

Just messing about with a starless version of my current project (hope to finish the Ha on Thursday):

PS: Its quite hard to kill the stars from a newt!

[Robp]

Nice one Rob.

I've been having a play with the J-P Metsavainio V2 tone mapping technique for practice and there is a part of it for cleaning up the star remnants that works quite well using Photoshop (although it is REALLY tedious!).

Create two layers of the image with stars

Remove the stars in whatever way you usually do

Use the Spot healing brush to remove star remnants

Place the second layer (with stars) on top and set blend mode to Darken to restore any detail you have removed using the star removal process.

The problem is that it seems that every star in my image leaves something behind, so it takes ages to go over an image and clean it up with the spot healing brush, I'd hate to think how long that would take on a 383 mosaic . It does seem to be quite effective though.

I'll put up an example of it later on tonight as I'm at work right now, if anyone knows of a faster method then please do let me know.

[MartinFransson]

Nice one Rob.

I've been having a play with the J-P Metsavainio V2 tone mapping technique for practice and there is a part of it for cleaning up the star remnants that works quite well using Photoshop (although it is REALLY tedious!).

Create two layers of the image with stars

Remove the stars in whatever way you usually do

Use the Spot healing brush to remove star remnants

Place the second layer (with stars) on top and set blend mode to Darken to restore any detail you have removed using the star removal process.

The problem is that it seems that every star in my image leaves something behind, so it takes ages to go over an image and clean it up with the spot healing brush, I'd hate to think how long that would take on a 383 mosaic . It does seem to be quite effective though.

I'll put up an example of it later on tonight as I'm at work right now, if anyone knows of a faster method then please do let me know.

Thanks for the processing tip!! Is J-P M:s tone mapping technique described in total somewhere? Would love to try it.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

[Uranium235]

Nice one Rob.

I've been having a play with the J-P Metsavainio V2 tone mapping technique for practice and there is a part of it for cleaning up the star remnants that works quite well using Photoshop (although it is REALLY tedious!).

Create two layers of the image with stars

Remove the stars in whatever way you usually do

Use the Spot healing brush to remove star remnants

Place the second layer (with stars) on top and set blend mode to Darken to restore any detail you have removed using the star removal process.

The problem is that it seems that every star in my image leaves something behind, so it takes ages to go over an image and clean it up with the spot healing brush, I'd hate to think how long that would take on a 383 mosaic . It does seem to be quite effective though.

I'll put up an example of it later on tonight as I'm at work right now, if anyone knows of a faster method then please do let me know.

And the funny thing is... a lot of that is what I arrived at independantly last night! It took quite a while to go around with the clone brush and remove the star remnants manually, especially as it was over a four pane mosaic! The only thing I did wrong was to paste the starless version on top of the other, rather than the other way round as you have just described (I'll give it a go later on)... cheers for the tip!

To clean up some of the smaller remnants in the outer areas I laid on a really heavy dose of selective NR and dropped the background levels a bit.... still experimental, but its something to do while I wait for the clouds to go away

Martin: If you want to have a bash at it, the star removal tool (Ps action) is here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/star-removal-ps-action.html

[Robp]

Thanks for the processing tip!! Is J-P M:s tone mapping technique described in total somewhere? Would love to try it.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

The Tone mapping tutorial is available as a PDF from the same site Uranium235 linked for the star removal tool

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/tone-mapping-v20-my-lecture-at-neaic.html

I have only had a play around with the technique but it does look promising.

[Uranium235]

A quick 2014-2015 showcase for the 130pds:

Enjoy!

[happy-kat]

certainly did enjoy that

[JimFR]

A quick 2014-2015 showcase for the 130pds:

Enjoy!

Nice work!

Tend to leave mine up (ooer)

And carry it outside but it is quite heavy, and I havent got steps to deal with!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[tingting44]

A quick 2014-2015 showcase for the 130pds:

Enjoy!

totally stunning rob! really enjoyed that, how did you put it all together mate?

[Uranium235]

totally stunning rob! really enjoyed that, how did you put it all together mate?

I used Sony Video Vegas to put it together, the footage was timestretched to speed it up, then the photos, trasitions, pan/zoom fx and text put in as separate tracks. If you've ever used Sony Acid, its very much along the same lines.

Jim: Yep,  I have wooden stairs to contend with - a real hazard during the winter.... ive almost come a cropper a few times on those, so I have a bag of salt for when it gets a bit icy.

[JimFR]

I used Sony Video Vegas to put it together, the footage was timestreched to speed it up, then the photos, trasitions, pan/zoom fx and text put in as separate tracks. If you've ever used Sony Acid, its very much along the same lines.

Jim: Yep, I have wooden stairs to contend with - a real hazard during the winter.... ive almost come a cropper a few times on those, so I have a bag of salt for when it gets a bit icy.

And I thought my set up was a pain in the 'arris!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Uranium235]

It aint too bad, I can have it up and running in 20min since the 130 is kept in a fairly cool place. In fact, during the Summer months its more of a "warm up" rather than a cool down.

[JimFR]

It aint too bad, I can have it up and running in 20min since the 130 is kept in a fairly cool place. In fact, during the Summer months its more of a "warm up" rather than a cool down.

I find the toughest bit is alignment, but it got better with practice. Mine's in me dining room, so have to take care with thermals and moisture...

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[Apharov]

First (clear) weekend with my new 130PDS! (also at http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/252563-m31-and-m45/)

M31:

M45

[Thalestris24]

Hi all

So I finally got around to shifting my trusty qhy8l over to the 130pds last week  I took a load of subs the other day and at first glance they seemed ok. However, on closer inspection there was some obvious tilt present - tut! It's painful to have to throw subs away...  I tried to correct the tilt earlier but I think there might still be a hint present. I'm using the qhy tilt ring as well as the focuser screws. I'm wondering if there's an easy, foolproof way of getting the adjustment spot on? Is CCD Inspector the way to go or is there another magic technique I can use? I don't want to waste more subs!

Grateful for any input/advice/suggestions.

Thanks

Louise

(have also posted this on the Cameras forum)

Edited September 15, 2015 by Thalestris24