The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[Manners2020]

Thanks calli.  Yeah I use deep sky stacker.  I'll check that vid  out today. Much appreciated. 

[Manners2020]

Carsten I mean.

[happy-kat]

Also much of the tutorials on budgetastro.net can be copied in DSS and GIMP.

[Manners2020]

Never heard of that one happy kat  , I'll  give it a butcher's. Also carsten. Is there another way to get to those links  you sent? I've tried copying the addresses but they no longer appear to be available.  

[calli]

3 hours ago, Manners2020 said:

Thanks calli.  Yeah I use deep sky stacker.  I'll check that vid  out today. Much appreciated. 

Calli is fine too ?

There are some Scripts to stack/align in Gimp but I never used them: Astro Gimp Scripts

Here is a video what (very short and no narration) you normally do with GIMP: My crappy tutorial (21 likes 21 dislikes, what do they expect? Hubble image?)

And my imgaes are in my signature!

Carsten

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by calli
Forgotten link

[lnlarxg]

First try with registax on avi file (600 frames), taken last night, since Jupiter is still up high what a good chance to try planetary 

[happy-kat]

Is that a shadow transit? What telescope and camera did you use?

Great image.

[Nigel G]

With Star Tools, are you binning at least 50%. It will run very slow without binning unless you have a powerful computer.

Just a thought.

[Stub Mandrel]

Well done! You can see Europa up and right of the shadow.

[lnlarxg]

23 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Is that a shadow transit? What telescope and camera did you use?

Great image.

Yeah it is! It’s a 300p dob with az tracking, with canon 550d, avi captured with Backyard EOS.

Wasn’t going to stay out that late but saw the transit so I thought I should download Registax and give it a go. Can’t wait till the moon comes out now,

23 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

With Star Tools, are you binning at least 50%. It will run very slow without binning unless you have a powerful computer.

Just a thought.

What is Star tool and binning? It was my first planetary so am new to video stacking. It took about minutes for Registax to stack the 600 frames

[Filroden]

2 hours ago, lnlarxg said:

What is Star tool and binning? It was my first planetary so am new to video stacking. It took about minutes for Registax to stack the 600 frames

This is probably the wrong thread to discuss planetary/solar imaging as these are easily accomplished on alt/az mounts (probably even easier than EQ as setup is quicker).

This thread is more about achieving longer exposure images, hence the suggestion of tools such as Deep Sky Stacker (alignment and stacking) and StarTools (processing). Registax is a very good piece of software for aligning, stacking and processing planetary images.

Nonetheless, I'm glad you shared the image. It's beautiful :)

[Manners2020]

Don't know if this qualifies for this thread or what part of the sky it is but I really like this pic. I think it was 18mm on the nikon kit 18 55.  30 second random pic in southern Alberta.  So the hint of red is some kind of nebulosity  I gather. Is the dark patches the same?

[Manners2020]

Pardon the poor grammar  I'm supposed to be working. Also messed with it in the photoshop Express app on android.

[Manners2020]

Hello. Unrelated to anything on here but I've read on another thread somewhere that this fella who is piggy backing is using a 1.25 lp  filter which he says clips onto the back of his sigma 70 300mm . I thought you could only get them for the body. I can't seem to find these online and he says there a lot cheaper than the body ones. Has anyone heard of these?

[Mr niall]

I’ve got the 1300d, it’s great but WiFi control through another device is only up to 30 secs. If you get an intervalometer (£10 from eBay) you can tell it how many exposures and the exposure length and just leave them. The 1300d is great cos it’s just been replaced so there’s great deals to be had on the high street.

As for your other questions - nearly all DSLR have APS-C sized sensors so that’s all fine there. MP count isn’t really important. Pixel density and size is of more interest but ultimately nothing to worry about when starting. F-stop is a function of the lens not the camera  so that isn’t an issue. Pretty much all DSLRs have 3200 ISO which is the max you’d use. In fact most of your work I should at 1600 or 800 iso.

DSLRs are bad cos they’re not designed for Astro work but good cos they’re incredibly versatile and fully manual so they make excellent astronomy tools. Ultimately unless you spend a fortune it doesn’t matter - get the cheapest or most expensive one you fancy.

[smisy]

My last effort with my Huawei P10 smartphone, Celestron Nexstar 8 SE, 25mm plössl eyepiece, alt - az mount. 

 

Edited July 4, 2018 by smisy

[JGM1971]

Wow! This forum just keeps rolling!

Just popped back in the see how my baby is going. Love the images and the advice that is being shared.

The long summer nights have kept my kit well and truely in storage, but I'm looking forward to the dark nights again. Might be over my affair with the dark side, as the issues I pointed out in the rules at the beginning do indeed hinder the fun at times. EQ mounts are amazing, but the number of nights I've wasted with poor alignment or set up issues is causing me to reconsider my move. Love the OTA, but might get a good old Alt Az again for "drop n go" imaging.

 

Keep up the good work and clear skies to you all. 

 

John

 

[smisy]

1 hour ago, JGM1971 said:

Wow! This forum just keeps rolling!

Just popped back in the see how my baby is going. Love the images and the advice that is being shared.

The long summer nights have kept my kit well and truely in storage, but I'm looking forward to the dark nights again. John

 

 I just try to take pics with my phone, with okularprojection I don't need so many time to gather light. So its much easier with my alt-az mount. Of course I plan to buy an EQ mount too, but not now. Alt-az makes also lot of fun and good to show the objects for my friends too. Have a good sky!!

[calli]

I had my nephew (16 yo) coming over last night. We looked at Jupiter and then browsed a bit the stars. We then slewed to M57 and took some fotos. It worked out quite well this night even with a one star align. I did not expect any good but we did go though all steps (Subs, Darks, Bias, Stacking, Gimp) as he is very interested in all phyics, computers and astronomy. In the end we had a nice image, I think the best so far I got from that target. Scope was a Mak127 on a NexStar SLT Goto mount and a Nikon D5100. Took 10s subs@iso6400, 55 where usable (about 50%...).

Look up my other images (all no EQ) in my Signature (Google Fotos) an you can see my other takes on M57.

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by calli

[The Admiral]

On 04/07/2018 at 17:28, JGM1971 said:

Wow! This forum just keeps rolling!

Just popped back in the see how my baby is going. Love the images and the advice that is being shared.

Hi John, I bet you didn't expect your thread to run to over 3000 replies! But I for one am grateful for you posting as it sparked my interest in the possibility of Alt-Az imaging. And as you say, its simplicity is a major plus-point, even though there are some inherent limitations. It's a super entry into (relatively) low cost imaging too.

I look forward to seeing your images grace these pages again soon!

Ian

[The Admiral]

14 hours ago, calli said:

I had my nephew (16 yo) coming over last night. We looked at Jupiter and then browsed a bit the stars. We then slewed to M57 and took some fotos. It worked out quite well this night even with a one star align. I did not expect any good but we did go though all steps (Subs, Darks, Bias, Stacking, Gimp) as he is very interested in all phyics, computers and astronomy. In the end we had a nice image, I think the best so far I got from that target. Scope was a Mak127 on a NexStar SLT Goto mount and a Nikon D5100. Took 10s subs@iso6400, 55 where usable (about 50%...).

Look up my other images (all no EQ) in my Signature (Google Fotos) an you can see my other takes on M57.

Well done calli, but I can't help thinking you could get rather more out of your data. Further stretching and a lower black point? Have you tried Startools? Free trial is not restricted other than saving, not expensive to buy either. It works well with the sparse data from Alt-Az imaging.

Ian

[calli]

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

Well done calli, but I can't help thinking you could get rather more out of your data. Further stretching and a lower black point? Have you tried Startools? Free trial is not restricted other than saving, not expensive to buy either. It works well with the sparse data from Alt-Az imaging.

Ian

Hmm. I am too lazy to learn a new tool ? I maybe uploaded the version from the night. Here is some more enhanced:

I usually stop when I see so much noise that I (in my experience) cant cope with it. So I am quite sure in my capabilities I got quite the most of it out.

[susan-parker]

This time with a tripod

Taken on the night of the 7th July, with Jupiter and it's four Galilean moons centered in the image (L2R = Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto); situated to the right of the left hand side of the constellation Libra (Zubenelgenubi I & II is the pair of bright stars to the left of Jupiter).

These two pics are a 1800 pix wide scaled down from the full-frame, and an 1800x1800 pix 1to1 crop from the center.

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 (pre-AI with scalloped focus ring - AI converted) at f/2.5, ISO 250. IDAS D1 filter.

Image is a stack of 11 exposures of 2.0 seconds each. Stars are down to magnitude 13.

Camera mounted on a fixed mini-tripod, and I used an IR remote plus the camera's 3 second delay after mirror-up before the shutter release.

Taken near the village of Goult, Vaucluse, FR - where there was still some atro-dark around and after midnight although this sequence was in nautical-dark.

[susan-parker]

Also taken on the night of the 7th July, the constellation Corona Borealis (for once I have a constellation that actually fits within the image frame!).

Pics; two 1800 pix wide images scaled down from the full-frame, one the stack and the other a single frame "eye view"; a 1800x1800 pix 1to1 crop from the center, and the UniMap ID.

Stars are down to magnitude 14.

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 at f/2.5, ISO 250. IDAS D1 filter.

Image is a stack of 24 exposures of 2.0 seconds each.

Camera on fixed mini-tripod, plus IR remote.

[susan-parker]

Thire shot from the night of the 7th July; this one is the bottom leg of the constellation Hercules.

 

Two pics; a 1800 pix wide scaled down from the full-frame, and an 1800x1800 pix 1to1 crop from the center (I have tweeked the brightest stars to reduce the red halos).

 

Stars are down to magnitude 14(ish).

 

Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 at f/2.5, ISO 250. IDAS D1 filter. Image is a stack of 17 exposures of 2.0 seconds each. Camera on fixed mini-tripod, plus IR remote.