Lodestar X2C session (1st Q Moon)

[arkosg]

Hi everyone,

Finally had a clear night (and very crisp!) so I took the opportunity to get out again.

A 1st Q+ Moon was out and bright, and I was at my urban viewing site, with the 

usual light pollution challenges to deal with.  I'm using a CPC 800 HD, 8" Celestron, 

on an alt-az mount, with a Macbook Pro running the excellent Lodestar Live software.

Exposures are a mix of sum & mean stacking, typically 15-25sec exposures, with up 

to 10 frames (though usually more like half that).

I did find Comet Lovejoy, but it was still low and in the murk from my location, and I 

couldn't resolve it very well (and couldn't see any sign of its tail at all).

Cheers,

- Greg

PS. I've posted my attempts to use the Lodestar with the 50 mm finder in Don's 

widefield imaging thread; those were taken the same night.

[f15p5]

Very nice!

[RobertI]

I like the comparison of M42 with and without the Ha. It appears to have a much lower dynamic range in Ha - I'm assuming this is because in Ha most of the visible wavelengths are filtered out including the reflected light of the Trapezium?

[HiloDon]

Very nice, Greg! I really like your Running Man. You have that one down pat. I tried getting it last night and was just not happy with it. I agree with Robert on the M42 Ha. You have the Trapezium and excellent detail in the nebula clouds. Is that the color LS?

I'm going to look at your 50mm shots next.

Don

[Martin Meredith]

Excellent Crab too esp. given the moon and LP!

Martin

[arkosg]

Thanks guys!

I only have the Lodestar X2C, so the Halpha is done with it rather than a mono cam (I do have a Mallincam Jr. Pro mono, but I didn't set it up last night - Lodestar is quicker to get up and going with, and LL lets me stack which helps with fainter objects). I used a Bahtinov focus mask for the first time, which was fun & helped a lot (eg the M1 shot seemed sharper to me than past attempts). I was pleased with the results given the moon & LP at my location!

I've not really used the Halpha filter before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I know Don & others have used it primarily with mono cams to maximize the sensitivity and resolution; perhaps there is a penalty in dynamic range using a color cam too?

Cheers,

Greg A

[HiloDon]

Greg,

It was good to see how well the Ha filter works with the X2C. The theory was that it would work, but would lose considerable resolution. Your image actually looks like it has better res than without the filter. It appears though that you do lose the color. Really cuts down on the star bloat too.

Don

[Paul81]

Very nice - I really like the Crab Nebula shot, and another post which is convincing me I need to get a Ha filter too. I think the M42 Ha shot came out well, showing some nice detail in the nebula. The colour Lodestar will only be using half the pixels for Ha, which given the interpolation to convert CYGM to RGB will result in a lower dynamic range in the image. However, for me, it still doesn't detract from the nice details that are a result of using the filter, and is a great additional tool to have for EAA observing.

By the way, what bandwidth Ha filter are folks using? I am assuming no one uses a 3nm Astrodon, but Astronomik do 6nm and Baader sell 7nm and 35nm and I think Orion are 7nm?

[HiloDon]

Very nice - I really like the Crab Nebula shot, and another post which is convincing me I need to get a Ha filter too. I think the M42 Ha shot came out well, showing some nice detail in the nebula. The colour Lodestar will only be using half the pixels for Ha, which given the interpolation to convert CYGM to RGB will result in a lower dynamic range in the image. However, for me, it still doesn't detract from the nice details that are a result of using the filter, and is a great additional tool to have for EAA observing.

By the way, what bandwidth Ha filter are folks using? I am assuming no one uses a 3nm Astrodon, but Astronomik do 6nm and Baader sell 7nm and 35nm and I think Orion are 7nm?

Paul, I use the Orion 7nm Ha. The Astrodon was a little too expensive for me and Chris A was getting good results with the Orion. I found it on Amazon on sale. Keep an eye out there. They sometimes sell Orion gear cheaper than Orion does. Can you purchase through Amazon from overseas?

[Paul81]

Not sure about Amazon US - you probably can but then might get hit with import duty.

Baader filters are more available here, and I know the 7nm one is very popular with the AP folks. I suspect that is the one I will get as the 6nm Astronomik one is around 50 GBP more.

[arkosg]

Hi all,

I was using the Baader 7nm Halpha filter in the above.

Cheers,

Greg A