Leo Triplet with a 127Mak - Project

[Christopher Davenport]

Evening folks

Just thought I would share a project that I am working on to get some direction and comments.

Kit: 127Mak (Reduced to F7), EQ5Pro, Finderguider (QHY5L II) and Cannon 600D

Single Sub - 180 Seconds

62 Subs - 180 Seconds (3hr06 of lights, discarded about a hour due to dew problems)

+26 Subs - 300 Seconds (4hr46 of lights, discard about another hour due to guiding problems)

(Also discarded some of the 180s subs as quality was bad.)

So I hope you enjoy my efforts, with my little galaxy hunter (127 Mak)

[pmchugh1961]

Well done, really awesome!

[Pete Presland]

very nice progression, i was going to say the 2nd looked a little over saturated maybe, but your 3rd image is excellent well done ! i do like to see the progress imagers make !

[Christopher Davenport]

very nice progression, i was going to say the 2nd looked a little over saturated maybe, but your 3rd image is excellent well done ! i do like to see the progress imagers make !

Oversaturated and background overclipped to hind noise.

I don't have a set of darks for the 300s so once I finish tonight's capture I am going to complete my darks

[lensman57]

Oversaturated and background overclipped to hind noise.

I don't have a set of darks for the 300s so once I finish tonight's capture I am going to complete my darks

Hi Chris,

I have to congratulate you on managing to use the MAK for DSO imaging. Guiding this long FL scope has always been my concern but you  have managed it well. What reducer did you  use?

I was going to image M57 using my Mak 127 @ its native FL and my 428EX but as it often happenes the clouds are here again tonight and my neighbour is burning the wood he has collected from his garden this afternoon. Lovely  . Anyway great capture and you can always add more data to it at a later date, I found while using a DSLR that good darks in the region of 35 subs helped most of the time.

Regards,

A.G

[Christopher Davenport]

Hi Chris,

I have to congratulate you on managing to use the MAK for DSO imaging. Guiding this long FL scope has always been my concern but you have managed it well. What reducer did you use?

I was going to image M57 using my Mak 127 @ its native FL and my 428EX but as it often happenes the clouds are here again tonight and my neighbour is burning the wood he has collected from his garden this afternoon. Lovely . Anyway great capture and you can always add more data to it at a later date, I found while using a DSLR that good darks in the region of 35 subs helped most of the time.

Regards,

A.G

Thanks for the encouragement.

Sweet I would love to see what the little Mak does with a 428 on its back!

I focal reduce to 900mm using a celestron 6.3 directly onto the back and then onto my dslr.

Give it a go without a reducer though, I have managed 300 sec subs at native.

My problem is my dslr is a noisy beast on high iso and native is very slow.

Edit: busy getting my last set of images and neighbours dog set off security light from time to time lucky my target is opposite direction. I feel your pain.

[lensman57]

Thanks for the encouragement.

Sweet I would love to see what the little Mak does with a 428 on its back!

I focal reduce to 900mm using a celestron 6.3 directly onto the back and then onto my dslr.

Give it a go without a reducer though, I have managed 300 sec subs at native.

My problem is my dslr is a noisy beast on high iso and native is very slow.

Edit: busy getting my last set of images and neighbours dog set off security light from time to time lucky my target is opposite direction. I feel your pain.

Thanks Chris,

Funny you should use the Celestron f6.3X , I had a meade one attached till a couple of nights ago , I think the it has back focus of 105mm give or take 5mm. For M57 I need the FL and I think that If I get the guiding right I should be able to do it with 900s subs.

Regards,

A.G

[Christopher Davenport]

Thanks Chris,

Funny you should use the Celestron f6.3X , I had a meade one attached till a couple of nights ago , I think the it has back focus of 105mm give or take 5mm. For M57 I need the FL and I think that If I get the guiding right I should be able to do it with 900s subs.

Regards,

A.G

I am sure the Meade and the Celestron are exactly the same thing.  

My problem with the reducer is that the Mak is a flat field, but the reducer is a flattener, so I get Coma - Go figure !

I think 300, 600 and 900 sec on most Mag 9/10 objects, will give you an incredible dynamic range.

At F7 I find that 180s and 300s gives me good dynamic range.

(600s on a DSLR the noise dominates unless its a very cold night.)

With a cooled device like you have, you have a much higher SNR than me.

BTW the Mak native is F11 (Native focal length, right against tube)

True focal length is 1380 (1500 is with the diagonal and eyepiece, marketing guys focusing on planetary.)

I have done several measurements with Jupiter to check the true focal length at native.

Keep me in the loop on your progress.

[lensman57]

I am sure the Meade and the Celestron are exactly the same thing.

My problem with the reducer is that the Mak is a flat field, but the reducer is a flattener, so I get Coma - Go figure !

I think 300, 600 and 900 sec on most Mag 9/10 objects, will give you an incredible dynamic range.

At F7 I find that 180s and 300s gives me good dynamic range.

(600s on a DSLR the noise dominates unless its a very cold night.)

With a cooled device like you have, you have a much higher SNR than me.

BTW the Mak native is F11 (Native focal length, right against tube)

True focal length is 1380 (1500 is with the diagonal and eyepiece, marketing guys focusing on planetary.)

I have done several measurements with Jupiter to check the true focal length at native.

Keep me in the loop on your progress.

Good Morning Chris and Thank you,

If the clouds leave us I will give it a good try, this month I seem to have drawn all the evening shifts at work so it does not look promising. Will keep you informed.

Regards,

A.G

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Can you pull down your ISO on the 600D 

i know my 350D  but also the canon 400- 450d -20d - 40d all have an optimal ISO at 900-1000

going to push and say try your ISO as close to 1000-1600 as possible ( lowset here so close to 1000)

its going to give you the best SNR running at the cameras optimal iso.

[Christopher Davenport]

Can you pull down your ISO on the 600D 

i know my 350D  but also the canon 400- 450d -20d - 40d all have an optimal ISO at 900-1000

going to push and say try your ISO as close to 1000-1600 as possible ( lowset here so close to 1000)

its going to give you the best SNR running at the cameras optimal iso.

The 6 series (600, 60, etc) cannon has a slightly better chip in terms of thermal noise. 

I use it on ISO1600 because of this, but this is at it upper limit. (everything above 1600 is digital amplification)

I have been meaning to experiment with a pull down to 1440, but it means I need to redo my dark library.

I plan on modding my EOS for HA sensitivity and using a peltier cold finger.

Initial tests indicate that I should be able to decrease chip temperature by -20C below ambient.

Not checked what the thermal transfer of the cold finger will land at yet.

Once I do this I will play with the ISO pull down as I need to rebuilt my dark library anyway.

[Christopher Davenport]

Last night, I managed to gather a further +- 4hr of data on this project, I had to discard a hour+ due to bad frames from dew.

This has pushed my integration time up from 4hr46 to 7hr22.

This puts the frame counts at 122 frames, with 84 at 180 second exposure and 38 at 300 second exposure.

Edit: I have put on a half size version, so you can see the detail better.

I think I am going to call this one a day for now, although more work is needed. 

Need to create a 64x300 dark and use it in the stacking process

Need to be more brutal with some frames as they are causing stars to elongate.

I have noticed that I have lost a lot of the blue in the galaxies. (arrg)

Anyway a reprocess is always a healthy thing for those rainy days

[astronymonkey]

Christopher, what an excellent thread.

I am hopeless at digital astrophotography but pretty competent at visual astronomy , but im always interested in the evolution of an image as more data is added to the mix.

Having dabbled in the past with film based astrophotography im facinated with what can be done these days with digital kit.

Really enjoyed seeing things develop in this image.

well done,

cheers

[simmo39]

Just seen this, Makes me want to have ago. Will have to give my SW127 a dam good talking to! 

[cotterless45]

Ace ! Still sitting on the fence. The force of the Dark Side grows strong. Super images !

Nick.

[glowingturnip]

coming along very nicely, the hamburger galaxy is getting some nice definition.  I liked the colours in the second one best though.

I must have a go at this one

[Christopher Davenport]

Christopher, what an excellent thread.

I am hopeless at digital astrophotography but pretty competent at visual astronomy , but im always interested in the evolution of an image as more data is added to the mix.

Having dabbled in the past with film based astrophotography im facinated with what can be done these days with digital kit.

Really enjoyed seeing things develop in this image.

well done,

cheers

Thank you,

I must say I started with digital video a bit and then got into stacking video of planets. This made the bug bite for me and then I dived in to full on astrophotography.

Just seen this, Makes me want to have ago. Will have to give my SW127 a dam good talking to! 

You going to need to upgrade that mount first, it's not the scope that makes the magic happen. 

Get making every photon count before wetting your feet.

Ace ! Still sitting on the fence. The force of the Dark Side grows strong. Super images !

Nick.

Thank you Nick.

About a month ago at a local astro event, I played with a DOB and spent about two hours trying to find M81.

It was such a kick to find it and the view was really accentuated by the hunt and find. 

The problem with taking pics is that you get totally absorbed in the process and you miss out on all the other good stuff.

coming along very nicely, the hamburger galaxy is getting some nice definition.  I liked the colours in the second one best though.

I must have a go at this one

Thank you!

I agree on the colour, I got so fixated on pulling out the definition and the detail that I lost sight of the colour.

[simmo39]

Making every photon count is on my very long of things to get from  the IAS.