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Tim star

By Tim star
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Tim star

Tim star

Posted
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Hi

Its taken me a while to make my first post mainly becuase I was waiting until I had a half decent photo to post. So here is my attempt at M104. Only 5x5 min subs, 5 darks, 10 bias and 10 flats. I observe from an elevated position just south of Bristol and have pretty good dark skies, especially to the South and East. I also am fortunate to have a site in Cornwall near the coast where the sky seems very black but it is often rather windy. I have a SW Equinox 80 Pro with HEQ5 Sysnscan and I must say am very impressed with this setup. Although obviously a beginner I started to get reasonable pictures straight away, only limited by patience to take enough subs and skill in processing. I have an Orion Magnificent Miniguider package which seems to work though to be honest the HEQ5 seems to track pretty well over 5 minutes or so. I did notice elliptical stars at the edges of the FOV and thought this was a guiding error but of course what it needed was a field flattener. I have the Televue TRF2008 0.8x FF/FR which was a bit pricey but gives nice round stars right out to the edge. I usually crop a bit anyway. Camera is Canon 1100D modded by "Cheap Astrophotography" which was brilliant - he needs a better name. I bought photoshop elements since the full program is so expensive but I have just done a 1 month free trial of photoshop cc and admit it does seem more flexible and resourceful, might go for the monthly subscription.

I have had a lot of "fun" trying to set up a semi-remote system. I would prefer to sit in the shed with a nice blow heater in my face looking at the monitor than stand around in the freezing cold. I obtained 10m USB repeater cables from Trixes which seem to work OK for the camera on Live View and the Guide cam. I tried to use EQMOD and its clearly a great system but I did get frequent freezes which was very frustrating and I think may have been due to data loss in the long cables. So I have the Southern Skies Sky-Fi linked to an ipad with Sky Safari and that works great.

I seem to have found that the imaging/refractor side most appeals to me, I like to have a record of what I have seen, though sometimes a wish I have a really big scope to look though. I soon found of course that planetary work with my setup is a waste of time.

Now, another reason for taking the plunge and making a post is that I have a bit of money to spend, and, more importantly, spousal approval. The obvious thing would be to step up to CCD imaging. I looked long and hard at the Atik 460 but am thinking that if I settled on a 414 I could buy another HEQ6 mount with roughly the same budget which I could keep at my second site to avoid lugging the mount and tripod about all the time. I know the FOV is small but I could continue to use the Canon for wide field and use the 414 for little faint targets.

Anyway, nothing too original here but thanks for a great forum, its informative and sometimes amusing to read!

Tim

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glowjet

glowjet

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Posted

Hi Tim and welcome to SGL, nice introduction and quite obviously a dedicated imager, with a good degree of success with your image of M104, however, I would repost your thoughts on CCD imaging into the imaging sections, where you should find a wealth of helpful suggestions in connection with your future proposals, enjoy your Astrophotography and the forum :)

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Tim and welcome to SGL from another dedicated and mad imager! :D

A great introduction and image :) A step up to a CCD is a good improvement for sure. I guess that it's a personal thing about what field of view that you'd like between the Atik 414 and 460. I had a 460 for a while and it was a nice camera. 

Have you checked out the field of view calculators out there?  FOV calculator If nebula's are your thing, you may find the 414 a little small and may lead toa mountain of mosaics to fit stuff in.

Hope that helps.

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