The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[SteveNickolls]

10 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I thought what about no dark frames but with bias and flats.

The second image looks better without the darks but it is not so clear cut with the first. Thanks for experimenting.

Hi,

Thanks for your view on the image :-) All images had flat and bias frames. The image of M33 was definitely the poorer and this would be down to it being lower in altitude and intrinsically being fainter. It would be interesting to muse the dark frames added more noise than they were meant to take away. StarTools doesn't like poor images hence the red background hue.

Cheers,

Steve

Edited September 3, 2016 by SteveNickolls

[Stub Mandrel]

I use Kappa Sigma and  darks

[Nigel G]

Impatient me managed to find a small 20 minute window of light cloud allowing a few brighter stars to become visible ,  as my mount and camera can be set up and aligned in a couple of minutes I thought I'd try see what I could get imaging through light cloud, considering I only got 14 minutes of subs and it was very poor seeing I'm amazed with the final image.  It's the third image of these taken with a 210mm lens on my camera I also left out dark frames for this and used bias with the wrong iso setting. 

I could only just make out the Plough through the orange clouds, honest. 

Andromida galaxy in order of appearance

#1 55mm lens, around 1 hour of 45s with dark and bias.  #2 135mm lens,  around 1 hour of 30s iso 400 and 20s iso 800 dark and bias.  #3  210mm lens 14 minutes of 30s iso 800  very poor seeing bias and no dark. #4 150p posted earlier in this thread. 

I have 1 more to complete the set with my 420mm when I get the chance. 

It's interesting to see how much could be collected from such poor conditions I know this can be greatly improved but blimey. 

55mm.

135mm

210mm 

150p. 

Nige

 

[Filroden]

Okay, after a long leave of absence moving house I finally found all my telescope boxes and got a clear night to test my new skies. After a very rough start (practically relearning how to set up and align the mount) and being unable to lock my focus (the knob fell off during transit and by the time I realised it was missing I'd already got everything set up and plugged in - so I took my chance and hoped the weight of the camera and any changing temperatures wouldn't affect it much).

My new skies look much more polluted - I live much closer to a very industrialised region. I also now have two very bright LED street lights just outside the garden so I had to place the mount right up against a fence to get some shadow. The good news is that it seems almost all the lights in my town are LED and very focused downwards meaning I think the sky is actually darker, even though I can see in full colour in the garden!

So here's my first effort of the season (stealing your idea of focusing on something big and bright)...

69 images of M31 ranging between 30s and 60s at ISO800 using the Evo mount, the 80mm refractor and the Canon 60D. I've probably over processed it in Pixinsight (something else I had to relearn from scratch). I was rather surprised I got the result I did. Most of the images showed some trailing, caused more by the mount losing position (I need to recenter my target every 5 to 10 minutes) rather than rotation.

Anyway, here's to more clear nights soon!

[The Admiral]

That's a nice image Ken, with plenty of colour around the periphery. Considering your total exposure must be around an hour, and with an 80mm 'scope, perhaps your skies are darker than you thought! How much 'yuk' was visible before subtracting the background?

Ian

[Filroden]

2 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

That's a nice image Ken, with plenty of colour around the periphery. Considering your total exposure must be around an hour, and with an 80mm 'scope, perhaps your skies are darker than you thought! How much 'yuk' was visible before subtracting the background?

Ian

The background was pretty flat. At ISO800 and 60s I think I was only getting to about 15% on the histogram. I did try 120s and that barely got me over 25% so it must be much darker than my previous house. 

[The Admiral]

I think the 150p is going deeper Nige, but that 210mm short exposure shot looks little different to the long exposure ones to my casual eye. They are surprisingly good.

Ian

[Nigel G]

Ken, Excellent image, great colour, plenty of detail. 

Well done, ☺☺ 

 

Oh how I  wish for a clear night sitting listening to the rain pooing down and the wind blowing a gale.

[SteveNickolls]

Yes, 

That's a lovely image of M31 Ken and one to try to emulate. I do like all the blue star forming areas around the galaxy edge. You must have quite dark skies you know :-)

Nige, you are building up a lovely collection of images at the different FL's :-)

Cheers,
Steve

[SteveNickolls]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I use Kappa Sigma and  darks

Thanks, must try that option also :-)

Cheers,

Steve

[Herzy]

Last night the skies were incredible. The light pollution took the night off for some reason. I don't even know how it's possible...

My single 2m subs of the crescent were showing more detail then 2hrs of it I took a month ago. Unfortunately, some clouds rolled in and I couldn't get anything worthwhile. Tonight is looking good. Anyone else go out last night?

[Nigel G]

37 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Last night the skies were incredible. The light pollution took the night off for some reason. I don't even know how it's possible...

My single 2m subs of the crescent were showing more detail then 2hrs of it I took a month ago. Unfortunately, some clouds rolled in and I couldn't get anything worthwhile. Tonight is looking good. Anyone else go out last night?

Heavy rain and high winds here tonight, last night I got 15 minutes shooting before heavy clouds rolled in. Looking better in a few days time.

good luck tonight.

[SteveNickolls]

38 minutes ago, Herzy said:

"...Anyone else go out last night?"

No, there were clouds scudding around and today the rain has started. The outlook for the coming week is very mixed. We might be lucky and have one clear night. Take opportunity of any clear sky you get :-)

Cheers,
Steve

[Filroden]

42 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Anyone else go out last night?

Yes. I had pretty clear skies. There was a ten minute spell with some very high clouds but otherwise it was clear until dawn when the rains arrived. Not looking good now for the rest of the week.

[happy-kat]

2 hours ago, The Admiral said:

I think the 150p is going deeper Nige, but that 210mm short exposure shot looks little different to the long exposure ones to my casual eye. They are surprisingly good.

Ian

Seeing Gina's camera lens image from last night just 30 seconds long (so even though on EQ8 it's still only 30 seconds) and the images are fab and I instantly went to look where in the sky the North American N was but alas it is not in a good place for us to try I don't think.

[hobsey]

I really need to dust off my SLT mount and have ago at this challenge.

Some really impressive images being posted. 

[hobsey]

Not wanting to read through 39 pages of the 'imaging with the 130pds' thread and 34 pages of this thread, is there anyone on here imaging with a 130pds on an SLT mount?

Looking for widefield scope, I thought I would look at the 130pds if anyone is getting some good images using the above setup.

[happy-kat]

If you already have a dslr and lens then perfect to get going with, nice and light so not an added drag to your mount.

[hobsey]

16 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

If you already have a dslr and lens then perfect to get going with, nice and light so not an added drag to your mount.

Oh, I have plenty of lenses.

Just I was looking for a widefield scope for visual as I have a 127mak and c8, so I thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone with a preowned 130pds.

Edited September 4, 2016 by hobsey

[The Admiral]

37 minutes ago, hobsey said:

Not wanting to read through 39 pages of the 'imaging with the 130pds' thread and 34 pages of this thread, is there anyone on here imaging with a 130pds on an SLT mount?

Looking for widefield scope, I thought I would look at the 130pds if anyone is getting some good images using the above setup.

Try a search for "130p-ds" in the "No EQ Challenge" thread, that'll narrow down your reading! But in any event, I'd say, "Go for it"!

Ian

[happy-kat]

I'm wondering about getting the 130p-ds to balance on the slt mount.

[Filroden]

Not to get too excited but the sky is an unusual colour (blue) and very empty. It's almost like I could be in for a clear night (at least until Midnight). Tempted to capture something new and try for either the Heart or Soul nebulae and really see how dark my skies are. It's premature but I've got the scope set up and bias/flats already being taken/calibrated. Wish me luck!

[Nigel G]

Good luck Ken, I hope your sky's stay clear. Pretty grim here at the moment,  although there's supposed to be clear here for an hour or two later.

Nige. 

[Nigel G]

On Saturday, September 03, 2016 at 17:56, Nigel G said:

Impatient me managed to find a small 20 minute window of light cloud allowing a few brighter stars to become visible ,  as my mount and camera can be set up and aligned in a couple of minutes I thought I'd try see what I could get imaging through light cloud, considering I only got 14 minutes of subs and it was very poor seeing I'm amazed with the final image.  It's the third image of these taken with a 210mm lens on my camera I also left out dark frames for this and used bias with the wrong iso setting. 

I could only just make out the Plough through the orange clouds, honest. 

Andromida galaxy in order of appearance

#1 55mm lens, around 1 hour of 45s with dark and bias.  #2 135mm lens,  around 1 hour of 30s iso 400 and 20s iso 800 dark and bias.  #3  210mm lens 14 minutes of 30s iso 800  very poor seeing bias and no dark. #4 150p posted earlier in this thread. 

I have 1 more to complete the set with my 420mm when I get the chance. 

It's interesting to see how much could be collected from such poor conditions I know this can be greatly improved but blimey. 

55mm.

135mm

210mm 

150p. 

Nige

 

I have added the 420mm lens image of M31.  About 1.25 hours of 45s and 60s no dark , bias, F3.6 

I'm clearly loosing photons with the amount of glass I'm shooting through with the x2 adapter for the 210mm lens, but it's usable with dark sky's. 

Nige.

 

[Filroden]

Hi Nige

I definitely prefer the look of the 210mm compared to the 420mm even though its a fraction of the total integration time. I think you're right about the additional glass on the x2.