Imaging with the 130pds

[JohnSadlerAstro]

That's a nice lagoon, not too much red, either. Is your camera unmodded?

I'm really excited to get out later this week is the weather allows, but its so difficult to decide which one to image: the Eagle, Trifid, or Lagoon Nebula. :D 

John

[Stub Mandrel]

41 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

That's a nice lagoon, not too much red, either. Is your camera unmodded?

I'm really excited to get out later this week is the weather allows, but its so difficult to decide which one to image: the Eagle, Trifid, or Lagoon Nebula.

John

The elevation of M16 makes it the only one practical for me ?

[Atreta]

1 hour ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

That's a nice lagoon, not too much red, either. Is your camera unmodded?

I'm really excited to get out later this week is the weather allows, but its so difficult to decide which one to image: the Eagle, Trifid, or Lagoon Nebula.

John

Thanks, yes it's still unmodded, I'm still considering if I will. 

I was aiming for the southern Pleiades but LP was too much, so i went for the lagoon. 

[Atreta]

1 hour ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

That's a nice lagoon, not too much red, either. Is your camera unmodded?

I'm really excited to get out later this week is the weather allows, but its so difficult to decide which one to image: the Eagle, Trifid, or Lagoon Nebula.

John

They're all good targets, i like the lagoon more. 

[Susaron]

Dear friends,

Yesterday the weather gave us a breath in Spain. So with 100% humidity we went to the city outskirts to try something.

Here the Foxhead Cluster, Mag 7.3 in Cygnus, a beautifull open cluster, I guess Alacant took a picture last year of it. 100x30s subs +30 darks+30bias+30flats. with the QHY168C unguided, SW130PDS Moonlite + IDAS D1+AZEQ5.

Cheers.

Mario.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Susaron said:

Foxhead Cluster

Nice star colours!

[Susaron]

Now a quick processing of what it was my first objective last Saturday, it is a urban M101 field, 68 x 60sec subs + 30 bias + 15 darks.

Cheers.

Mario.

[Stub Mandrel]

15 hours ago, Susaron said:

it is a urban M101 field

The one target I should be able to get but can't get a decent result on ?

[Susaron]

59 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The one target I should be able to get but can't get a decent result on ?

Change the camera Neil, the Canon has its years and currently the sensors installed over the AS294C for instance give us impressive results with very short exposures. This picture of M101 was taken only at 20km from Madrid city center, with the Airport behind us. The sensitivity of these new sensors like in the 163, 182, 294 or APS-C like models (QHY168C or ASI071) allow us to increase the productivity on those scarce available nights.

[Stub Mandrel]

Why is the answer always 'spend'? ?

[Susaron]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Why is the answer always 'spend'? ?

Sometimes it is unfortunately true. The Nikon D3400 and D5600 have good sensors as well but their modded equivalents in sold in PrimaLuceLab are even more expensive than an ASI071 Pro

[al-alami]

NGC 6888

Telescope: Skywatcher 130PDS
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Camera: QHY 163M
Filters:Ha + O III + S II 
Exposure:
Ha (red channel):
60 X 300 sec
O III (greenchannel):
60 X 300 sec
S II (blue channel)
60 X 300 sec
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC

Edited June 13, 2018 by al-alami

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, al-alami said:

NGC 6888

Tremendous.

[Susaron]

NGC6823 in Vulpecula, an open cluster with embedded nebulosity quite similar to the M16. 25x180s guided subs+darks+bias+flats. Taken from Brihuega, Spain.

QHY168C+AZEQ5+SW130PDS Moonlite+ASI385MC+Baader MPCC+IDAS D1.

[cuivenion]

I took this M45 image back in February. It was my first image taken with the 130PDS. Unfortunately I had some guiding and mount problems, but I still like the outcome. Mount used was a HEQ5, camera was an unmodded Canon EOS 500D:

25 x 300 seconds guided

25 x Flats

200 x Bias (converted to superbias in Pixinsight)

Software used was Backyard EOS for capture, PHD2 for guiding and Pixinsight for stacking and processing.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I believe I posted these in a separate thread a few months back, but as they are all taken with the 130, I though I'd post them here.

All were taken with 1000d, EQ5 autoguiding (except M101, which is no autoguiding). I use a cheap SW 2" LP filter.

M3, M31, M42, Pleiades, M81 & 82, M101, Rosette, Horsehead & Flame.

John

[al-alami]

It's so nice when a target comes out a lot nicer than you were expecting 

 

Telescope: Skywatcher 130PDS
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Camera: QHY 163M
Filters:Ha + O III + S II 
Exposure:
Ha (red channel):
30 X 360 sec
O III (green channel):
30 X 360 sec
S II (blue channel)
30 X 360 sec

Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC

[RolandKol]

On 10/03/2014 at 16:26, Russe said:

How big was the difference between the full spectrum modded Canon and the Atik 383L?

This is the one I've been thinking about. Or the QHY8... (but it's not mono...).

I just got ASI1600MM, - there is no way any DSLR will be close to cooled Astro cam... unless you will manage to cool DSLR to -15C or more, in such a case... Probably the difference will be small, but only if the price would be taken into account.
But if speaking about effectiveness.... The whole night with my CANON ( around 4.5 hours 200sec per sub, around 80 subs in total) = around 10 subs with ASI1600MM in NB (300sec). 

Plus imaging while full moon made me happy!

This is y "Pizza Palette" - Canon 1300D (70subs) and ASI1600MM 15 subs in HA, - still learning
All subs mixed together, re-mixed again and etc, - simply been trying out what can be done. 

Uranium235

How do you get such a sharp star diffraction spikes? Perfect guiding?

I struggle to Polar align as I do not see Polaris, PA error around 3"  what's yours?

[carastro]

Quote

At last I managed to catch the Eagle!
(fell a sleep and spoiled 50% of images... lesson learned... beer+AP=no no!)
I am not yet good at processing, any advice will help!  it looks bit too red for me.

Thanks for watching!

[Eagle Nebula [M16]. SW 130PDS, Canon 1300D +LP filer, [30x120s, ISO800] - Woolwich]

 

That's pretty good Roland, for your London location, the fact that it is a very low target with a DSLR and only 120secs.  

I had a little tweak, and considering it is a screen grab, it's not too bad.  It was a little too far into the red so I balanced the colours and pulled in the grey slider to the histogram in levels (PS which I think you have).  Did a cruves achoring the stars and sky background and then applied gradient exterminator to the background only.  (That's a useful tool).

Finally I did a little high pass filter but only applied it to the pillars of creation. (I can show you how to do that).

Finally I took a crop:

DSLR images of M16 always look red, but additionally in this case the colour balance was slightly too red as well. 

Carole 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by carastro

[Galen Gilmore]

Wow, all of you have been getting so good at using the PDS.

As for me I’m just waiting for the right opportunity...

[RolandKol]

This is my final result of my initial test combining ASI1600MM-Pro HA and Canon 1300D images.
I always kill diffraction spikes

 

[carastro]

Wow that has come out well Roland.  Did my E Mail instructions help with this?  

What you should do now is take some Oiii and add it to the mix (will go into the green channel), there is a great Oiii shell surrounding the crescent, though I am not sure how it will come out from you location, so may have to wait for a dark site opportunity.

Quote

I always kill diffraction spikes 

Please explain.

Carole 

 

 

 

[RolandKol]

25 minutes ago, carastro said:

Wow that has come out well Roland.  Did my E Mail instructions help with this?  

What you should do now is take some Oiii and add it to the mix (will go into the green channel), there is a great Oiii shell surrounding the crescent, though I am not sure how it will come out from you location, so may have to wait for a dark site opportunity.

Carole 

3

Yep Carole, I was experimenting based on your email, thanks for the tips  
As per OIII, I did them... At least, I thought I did  

But only during the experiments of bending them together, I noticed that my OIII do look the same as HA subs...
it looks like, my Filter Wheel was connected via Simulation Option and, of course, it stayed on HA all the time

Plus, now I think I placed incorrectly Nebula in the frame... That little "surprise" Soup Bubble Nebula is left out ;(

I will try OIII tonight, - the filter has very odd marking in the center, I hope it will not make any impact, will check my Flats tomorrow.

As per Star Diffraction spikes, - I always have quite a nice-sharp spikes in the single subs, but they become blurry after stacking... 

I struggle to sharpen them back

Edited June 30, 2018 by RolandKol

[lnlarxg]

Controversially, i imaged a 130pds instead of imaging with a 130pds

nonetheless it shows what a little beauty the 130pds is, with Mars on the left and Saturn on the right

Edited July 3, 2018 by lnlarxg

[Susaron]

A boosted retouch of NGC6823