Imaging with the 130pds

[Whistlin Bob]

Thought perhaps it's time my 130pds made it's contribution to the thread that caused its purchase...

Taken on 28/29 October:

Image: 17x539s Subs in Halpha (Baader 7nm) , 21x 300s subs in RGB, + flats, darks & bias.  Stacked in DSS, Processed in Pixinsight.

Kit: 130pds, HEQ5, Canon 600d (modified) , SW Coma Corrector, ZWO 224 on Finder/Guider using PHD2

 

[Susaron]

"If you see Ghosts"

Composition of the C4-NGC7023 Iris Nebula with vdB141 The Ghost Nebula in Cephei.
3hours of 300s subs from La Mancha fields in Spain (Bortle 4 skies) at Gain 10, Offset 30, Temp -10C.

Equipment the usual:
SW130PDS+AZEQ5+QHY168C+Optolong L-Pro+Baader MPCC+ASI 385MC for guiding. Captured with APT and PHD2 for guiding. As with the Pacman nebula, my main mirror shows some astigmatism, and also the collimation was not perfect.
Postprocessed with Pix.
Regards.

Mario.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

A quick update on my mount issue progress:

I found a 2nd hand NEQ6 which I've bought and got set up with the 130PDS. Hopefully it will be able to give good results as soon as the skies clear! The mount seems in very good shape, although there was a bit of dec backlash which ive removed. The real test will be when I try guiding, though. ? 

This is the mount next to the old EQ5.

The Setup.

John

[RolandKol]

12 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Hi,

A quick update on my mount issue progress:

I found a 2nd hand NEQ6 which I've bought and got set up with the 130PDS. Hopefully it will be able to give good results as soon as the skies clear! The mount seems in very good shape, although there was a bit of dec backlash which ive removed. The real test will be when I try guiding, though. ? 

This is the mount next to the old EQ5.

The Setup.

John

Nice Duplet!

Don't you afraid camera to fall off in such a position? 
I want to place my ASI1600 like this to make a better balance.... but I AFRAID!

[spillage]

I have always found my focuser on the 130 solid and hang off my 1600 and sx filter wheel from it in that orientation.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

To be honest ive never thought of it dropping off...?I suppose I could put the strap around the scope. The focuser is very sturdy, as spillage says. I also use the MPCC which is designed for this kind of focuser, so there is an indented ring around it for the focuser screws to lock into.  

John

[RolandKol]

31 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

To be honest ive never thought of it dropping off...?I suppose I could put the strap around the scope. The focuser is very sturdy, as spillage says. I also use the MPCC which is designed for this kind of focuser, so there is an indented ring around it for the focuser screws to lock into.  

John

Haha  never paid attention to it!
My SW CC also has it

thanks! 

 

[Adam J]

3 hours ago, RolandKol said:

Nice Duplet!

Don't you afraid camera to fall off in such a position? 
I want to place my ASI1600 like this to make a better balance.... but I AFRAID!

The tube will not fall out if that is what you are worried about, it is physically impossible. You just have to make sure that you have tightened the thumb screws sufficiently and it will not move. 

I hang a ASI1600MM pro and wheel from mine without any fear. 

[sagramore]

So, I added some more time and had about 5 different attempts at stacking & processing various combinations of my data. I also got hold of Astronomy Tools v1.6 for Photoshop and took matt_baker's advice on final tweaks in Lightroom.

All in all I'm quite pleased with this considering my inexperience and the (I think) quite poor raw data I had (lots of LP, high cloud, etc.).

Thanks for the encouragement and help on this forum guys!

 

 

Messier 31 (Andromeda Galaxy) with Messiers 32 and 110
2018-10-30 & 2018-11-02, Didcot, England
 

Gear:
Skywatcher 130-PDS with 0.9x coma corrector (585 mm, f/4.5)
Skywatcher NEQ6-Pro Synscan
Canon EOS 550D (unmodified) and Skywatcher 2" LP filter
ZWO ASI120-MC guide camera
Skywatcher Startravel 80 guide scope

Acquisition & Processing:
- AstrophotographyTools (APT) and PHD2 guiding with dithering
- 34 x 300s = total 170 minutes @ ISO 800
- 2x20 flats, 16 library darks, library bias
- Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and post-processed in Photoshop CC 2018 (with Gradient Xterminator + Astronomy Tools v1.6)

[Susaron]

I will be very gratefull if you could post a picture or screenshot with the parameters you use in APT to control dithering.

[sagramore]

4 hours ago, Susaron said:

I will be very gratefull if you could post a picture or screenshot with the parameters you use in APT to control dithering.

Hi Susaron - I'm at work at the moment but I'll try and get the settings from my laptop when I get home tonight. 

[Susaron]

No hurries at all, many thks

[sagramore]

9 hours ago, Susaron said:

I will be very gratefull if you could post a picture or screenshot with the parameters you use in APT to control dithering.

Here you go! I am not an expert at all but once everything's guiding with PHD2 I have these settings in APT and set it to dither every 2 images. It seems to work for me at least. I also use a 60 second gap between exposures in APT because I used to have some problems with the dither step taking a while, but I'm not sure if that's overkill or not. It usually doesn't make too much difference when I'm on 300 second subs though so I've left it that way.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by sagramore

[sagramore]

So I hope this kind of post is allowed and I'm not seen to be spamming!

I have recently done a lot of re-processing of old data using the advice of people in here. The main difference is having obtained Astronomy Tools v1.6 for Photoshop and matt_baker's advice to touch up in Lightroom as a final step. I think it shows quite a leap in the quality of the images and also made me realise just how much skill there is involved in the post-processing of the data (even more so when the data is as dodgy as mine often is... haha).

Anyway, these are all taken using the 130PDS and an unmodified Canon 550D DSLR. They are all using 300 s guided subs (with dithering) via APT and PHD. I hope you like them. I'm quietly pleased with myself

 

M31 Before:

M31 After (also with a bit more data added, so not perhaps a 100% direct processing comparison):

 

 

M42 Before:

M42 After:

 

M51 Before:

M51 After:

 

EDIT TO ADD: I also have some old data of M1 and of M81/M82 however the new processing hasn't been quite as successful yet. I still need some more attempts at those before I share again! 

Edited November 12, 2018 by sagramore

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, sagramore said:

So I hope this kind of post is allowed and I'm not seen to be spamming!

Not at all! If you are imaging with a 130pds then post away.

Do though feel free to start your own thread if you are looking for specific advice or want to show results. It's very easy for things to just get lost in these very long threads.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

Another quick update, I got the NEQ6 out in a gap between the big Atlantic showers this evening. I did a quick PA with the polarscope and then went through a 3 star alignment which worked really well. I then got 5 frames each on M33 and NGC891. Im planning to get autoguiding up and then get some proper data on 891 later this week if the weather becomes at all cooperative. 

Noise in this "target preview" is obviously atrocious, as its only 5 mins at ISO1600! Hopefully with 5 hours it will be better. I didnt bother to guide, so there is also some trailing. I've processed in B/W as the noise is too bad in colour. My plan is to rotate 90 degrees and centre on the bright star above the galaxy to get the nearby Abell in as well.

John

[halli]

Hi All

A recent (August) 130pds image of M33 with an ASI 1600mm-c.   

The image is LRGB with the red channel enhanced with Ha

 

[Seanelly]

This is awesome, with the multitude of intense star-forming regions.

[halli]

Thanks Sean

[Whistlin Bob]

Here's another M33. On SW 130pds, HEQ5 and Canon 600d with IDAS D2 Filter.

50x5 min subs + flats, dark and bias.

Still a bit noisy, but very pleased with it.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Still a bit noisy, but very pleased with it.

Nice one.

Astra Image would do a good job of controlling that sort of noise.

[matt_baker]

Double Cluster in Perseus.

130PDS, HEQ5 and Nikon D3200

48/60x90s subs + flats, dark and bias.

Was pretty windy last night so 12 subs got thrown out. Guiding was okay at best, about 0.80RMS total

It was a 63% moon, so I decided to picture this jewel box of a cluster instead of re-doing my Pleiades pic

Edited November 18, 2018 by matt_baker

[Susaron]

These cloudy days I am reprocessing some of the 2018 SW130PDS "Greatest Hits", as long as I am increasing the knowledge on the tricks of PixInsight.

Here I leave you some of the pics.

Cheers.

Mario.

 

[Seanelly]

Beautiful stuff. I'm partial to globular clusters, and these examples are prime. I repeat myself below.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Seanelly

[Seanelly]

8 minutes ago, Susaron said:

These cloudy days I am reprocessing some of the 2018 SW130PDS "Greatest Hits", as long as I am increasing the knowledge on the tricks of PixInsight.

Here I leave you some of the pics.

Cheers.

Mario.

 

Very nice. I'm partial to globular clusters, and these are prime examples.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Seanelly