Tons of stars but no deep sky objects.

[ayoussef]

I am sure I am doing something wrong its just I cannot put my finger on it so please bare with me if it was something very simple and I look stupid enough not to notice it.

First, my equipment:

SkyWatcher ed apo 80mm, f7.5 with .8 focal reducer.
Advanced AX mount.
Orion Starshoot autoguider.
QHY9m with starlight xpress filter wheel.
LRGB , AlphaH, OIII, SII Baader filters.

Software:

stellarium for guiding the AX.

Nebulosity.

Maxim.

PixInsight.

Location: Northern Virginia, heavy light polluted area, and I took all my images there.

I was trying to get a decent pic for any deep sky object, nothing , all my images just produce tons of stars but nothing more, last time before I gave up I took 3 subs for the Iris nebula each one 20 minutes, I used the HAlpha for these subs and you would expect to see at least a shadow in one of them before processing, but nothing, the night I took these subs, was below freezing temp and I made sure the camera cooling was set to the maximum, so the noise was low for sure and still I used 4 darks.
I used 3 different software to integrate the subs and all of them gave the same result.
I didn't use any flats or bias for the Iris.
Attached is the iris image after roughly stacking 'there was a littlebit of star trail in the third image'.

I also attached the stacking result of another set of subs for the M081 , '6 L, 1R, 1G, 1B , 1 HAlpha , 1 OIII, 1 SII and 8 darks' each image was 3 minutes exposure. as you can see I put a circle around what I think is the center of the M081 'The Cigar galaxy should be in this frame too if I am not mistaken, but ofcourse its not'.

I just need help to figure out what I am doing wrong

Thanks!

[ronin]

The Iris Nebula is reported as being predominently Blue, the Ha will block this colour, so nothing on the sensor. The Ha filter allows only a narrow bit of the red/IR through, no blue.

Would have expected something from the central region of the nebula but the Ha filter would kill off the nebula bit.

Not everything is Ha it would appear.

It is  a reflection nebula and this http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140802.html says the dominent reflection colour is blue.

Also is Stellarium able to contrrol an Advanced AX mount?

Just wondering if it pointed at the right place.

[ronin]

Just looked and I would not expect M81 or M82 to be in the same field, they are quite a bit away from Cepheus.

Best I can suggest if not already done is to tell the mount/scope to goto Alfirk, Beta Ceph, centre it, then Sync/PAE the system then goto NGC7023 (Iris Nebula) as a short hop.

Also put the blue ilter in not the Ha, at least to get something on the camera.

More suspect that you are not on the right object for whatever reason. But that is likely to be data of one variety or another.

[D4N]

It looked a bit odd to me so I plate solved it and it seems you are pointing a long way out of position.

The first sub has IC1218 near the top but nothing else.

The DSO in the second sub is IC396, well done catching that as its mag 12, nowhere near your target though

What are you using to slew the mount?

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[michael8554]

Have you tried setting up an imaging frame in Stellarium to show your field of view, the circled object seems very small.

You could try submitting your image to Astrometry.net to get a true location.

Michael

[ayoussef]

The Iris Nebula is reported as being predominently Blue, the Ha will block this colour, so nothing on the sensor. The Ha filter allows only a narrow bit of the red/IR through, no blue.

Would have expected something from the central region of the nebula but the Ha filter would kill off the nebula bit.

Not everything is Ha it would appear.

It is  a reflection nebula and this http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140802.html says the dominent reflection colour is blue.

Also is Stellarium able to contrrol an Advanced AX mount?

Just wondering if it pointed at the right place.

Ronin thanks for the hint!, I checked the link and you are right, but as you suggested in the second reply and as D4n suggested I am probably not pointing toward the right object in all my tries.

Yes you can use Stellarium to control the AVX through NexRemote software, it opens a virtual com port that Stellarium can connect to .

[ayoussef]

It looked a bit odd to me so I plate solved it and it seems you are pointing a long way out of position.

The first sub has IC1218 near the top but nothing else.

The DSO in the second sub is IC396, well done catching that as its mag 12, nowhere near your target though

What are you using to slew the mount?

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D4n , you are right, I don't know why I missed that possibility :/, probably I put too much trust in Stellarium to guide the AVX , I spent my time calibrating the mount, the autoguide and camera while assuming that I am pointing toward the right object.

Thanks for clarifying the circled object as IC396, that actually gives me hope that I can easily catch faint objects .

[ayoussef]

Have you tried setting up an imaging frame in Stellarium to show your field of view, the circled object seems very small.

You could try submitting your image to Astrometry.net to get a true location.

Michael

Thanks for the link Michael, D4n clarified that its IC396 not M081, silly me!

I will have to use that Website to make sure I am pointing to the right DSO.

[ayoussef]

Thank you guys for the help, it seems all of you agree that I am looking toward the wrong position.

I have two more quick questions.

1-Is there a better software to control the mount than Stellarium ?

2-Should I keep the QHY9m or return it and get the QHY23 'or any other camera with the ICX814 chip'? 

[Thalestris24]

Stellarium is good but it's just planetarium software, it doesn't guide. I use it on my AVX with StellariumScope - I don't use Nexremote and don't really use the AVX hand controller. However, if you do use it, it should enable you to do star alignments and polar alignment so it should fairly accurately allow you to slew to selected objects. Stellarium relies on you supplying accurate and correct latitude, longitude and time (as does the AVX hand controller). I use Stellarium to select and slew to the target then confirm and centre it with Astrotortilla - free plate solving software Works a treat - 95% of the time

Louise

[ayoussef]

Stellarium is good but it's just planetarium software, it doesn't guide. I use it on my AVX with StellariumScope - I don't use Nexremote and don't really use the AVX hand controller. However, if you do use it, it should enable you to do star alignments and polar alignment so it should fairly accurately allow you to slew to selected objects. Stellarium relies on you supplying accurate and correct latitude, longitude and time (as does the AVX hand controller). I use Stellarium to select and slew to the target then confirm and centre it with Astrotortilla - free plate solving software Works a treat - 95% of the time

Louise

I will have to try StellariumScope and Astrotortilla 'TBO I never heard of them before but from what I read online it seems they are just what I need '

I did polar drift alignment first before trying to take any images , now I suspect that the AVX slew to the target's opposite point across the polaris, I am not sure why this would happen but I just started researching this issue.

Thanks Louise for your suggestions I will update you how it went once I have a clear night  

[wxsatuser]

Polar alignment is not the same as goto alignment.

Nice set of Youtube vids show the setup of an AVX

First vid intial setup and polar align.

Second vid goto alignment

[D4N]

There's a good chance Astrotortilla would have failed to plate solve those images as it relies on the mount knowing roughly where it is to know where to start searching.

Mine is set to give up if the image isn't within 15 degrees of where the mount thinks it is pointing.

Ensure you have the polar and Goto alignment nailed then try imaging something easy to find visually. Pleiades or the Orion Nebula spring to mind as they are bright and easy to check you looking at the right thing in the finder.

Once you find your Goto will reliably get you in the right area you can have a go at setting up Astrotortilla to ensure it is fully accurate.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[ronin]

Ayoussaf,  It does sound as if you just had one of those things called a bad night.     

Did pass my mind that you may be prone to the problem I have - cannot type correctly, I would likely have entered 7032 at least once. :grin:

[ayoussef]

Ayoussaf,  It does sound as if you just had one of those things called a bad night.   

Did pass my mind that you may be prone to the problem I have - cannot type correctly, I would likely have entered 7032 at least once. :grin:

Dang is it that obvious ? lol

[ayoussef]

Polar alignment is not the same as goto alignment.

Nice set of Youtube vids show the setup of an AVX

First vid intial setup and polar align.

Second vid goto alignment

Thanks Wxsatuser , I figured out initial installment and polar alignment, but I couldn't find a good source for the VX star alignment and I relied on software to figure that out for me which ruined 4 precious clear nights worth of work, so the second video should be very helpful!

[ayoussef]

There's a good chance Astrotortilla would have failed to plate solve those images as it relies on the mount knowing roughly where it is to know where to start searching.

Mine is set to give up if the image isn't within 15 degrees of where the mount thinks it is pointing.

Ensure you have the polar and Goto alignment nailed then try imaging something easy to find visually. Pleiades or the Orion Nebula spring to mind as they are bright and easy to check you looking at the right thing in the finder.

Once you find your Goto will reliably get you in the right area you can have a go at setting up Astrotortilla to ensure it is fully accurate.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

Someone told me to try Celestron StarSense.

He said it is very accurate when it works 'alot of people complaining that it wouldn't work unless you update the firmware' it just does plate solving for you.

[NickK]

You can also check if you're in the right area by taking a short exposure (to get stars) then plate solve using something like astrotortilla.

Those that have attended one SGL party may have seen me imaging M51.. except M51 was out of frame by two frames widths... I did pick up some nice fuzzies  I live in the knowledge that it's not likely to be the last time I attempt to star hop then mess-up on the image

[Thalestris24]

There's a good chance Astrotortilla would have failed to plate solve those images as it relies on the mount knowing roughly where it is to know where to start searching.

Mine is set to give up if the image isn't within 15 degrees of where the mount thinks it is pointing.

Ensure you have the polar and Goto alignment nailed then try imaging something easy to find visually. Pleiades or the Orion Nebula spring to mind as they are bright and easy to check you looking at the right thing in the finder.

Once you find your Goto will reliably get you in the right area you can have a go at setting up Astrotortilla to ensure it is fully accurate.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

Re: Astrotortilla, you can set it to 45 deg search radius. You should be within 15 deg really but if you're not within that, and definitely if your not within 45 deg, then the chances are you've entered incorrect data on the hand controller and/or Stellarium. You need accurate lat/long, accurate time and correct timezone and daylight savings. Don't forget to enable the hand controller real time clock

Louise

[ayoussef]

NickK,  those precious clear nights that we will never get back.

[D4N]

Yep I use 15 degrees as I'm always closer than that. Using higher values can slow it down, especially if it's going to fail on too few stars it's better for it to fail fast so you can take a longer exposure.

The images above were more than 45 degrees out in RA so would fail on most setups.

At least it wasn't clear moon-free nights that were wasted

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[ollypenrice]

For initial framing I'd suggest binning 2x2 and using the luminance filter, since this passes the most light, everything from red to blue.

Olly

[ayoussef]

So yesterday I had 3 hours worth of good weather, I gave the starsense autoguide a try , the good news is I got this image after only 20 seconds of exposure pointing to the bodes nebula !

Thanks to everyone who helped me here !!
The bad news is, as you can see there is stars trail while my autoguide was working, I am not sure why, it never did that before, there was no wind, and the dec curve was moving like crazy mostly between 1 and -1 in the phd but sometimes it goes beyond that, I tried to increase the calibration step but no use,my gear total weight is 11.4 lb and really nothing changed since last time when I took 20 minutes exposure sub except adding the starsense controller and camera, so my guess is that the starsense controller is the one causing that.
I will have to wait until Sunday for any chance of good weather to try again, I wish I can do something until then to figure this whole issue out :/

[D4N]

Guiding requires the anti backlash set up properly whereas tracking does not. Have you done this?

It also helps if your mount is balanced in such a way as to keep the gears meshed.

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[ayoussef]

Guiding requires the anti backlash set up properly whereas tracking does not. Have you done this?

It also helps if your mount is balanced in such a way as to keep the gears meshed.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I did the second part but I am not sure how to do the first one, I will have to go back to the AVX manual.