Summer imaging

[D Wright]

I have just got a DSLR and can't wait to try imaging. My question is, will I be able to image anything during the next two months while there is no total darkness? I am aware that if I can it will not be as good as total dark sky but how will the brighter objects like clusters turn out?

[tomato]

My view is we got so few clear skies in the UK I use every opportunity to image, full moon, no total darkness,  regardless. True, your images will be better under ideal conditions but there is so much to practice and get right, get the imaging experience whenever you can then you won't waste the few perfect nights that do come along.

Clear Skies

Steve

[Stub Mandrel]

I've been moping and had given up on DSOs for the summer, but your post made me go looking for some of my first DSO images. I got my Canon 10D in early June, bear in mind these are some of my first attempts from the night of 8/9 July 2015, all taken with an unmodded Canon 10D and 150PL. I'm sure I could process them better now, so I think I'll try and do some DSOs this weekend!

 

[SteveNickolls]

Hi,

I'd say go give it a go. Clusters are generally brighter objects to image and you can build up your technique ready for when the autumn nights draw in. As it should be warmer you can spend time outdoors honing your equipment and skill.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Steve

[ollypenrice]

Cumbria is quite far north but you will have lots to do in getting your kit and skills sorted so any sky will do for that. Maybe don't try for 'keepers' but for gettig focus, guiding, flats, darks, dither etc etc into working order that doesn't matter.

Olly

[Jokehoba]

And don't forget targets like the Eagle, Swan, Trifid and Lagoon nebulae - all summer only objects. They are very low and so ideally placed for us in the UK but you can get quite pleasing images.

John

[Astroboy239]

Well May in my country is terrible. The month of clouds. Unexpectedly we got the best sky in April and managed to photograph lagoon, trifid and much more. The summer sky us actually usually the best but not for me. 

??rad

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Astroboy239 said:

Well May in my country is terrible. The month of clouds. Unexpectedly we got the best sky in April and managed to photograph lagoon, trifid and much more. The summer sky us actually usually the best but not for me. 

??rad

Yes, but you get much darker summer nights than we do. In parts of Scotland it doesn't even get dark enough to see any stars...

[Astroboy239]

Yup that's one point we get darkness in summer from about 7:45to 5.30am. But there is a lot of humidity and fog in the hill side. Winter here is usually the best :6.30pm to 7am we mostly have star parties during this time. But in my country there are only a few dark spots nearby my city the best dark spot I'd 700km away. 

Varad 

[Stub Mandrel]

28 minutes ago, Astroboy239 said:

Yup that's one point we get darkness in summer from about 7:45to 5.30am. But there is a lot of humidity and fog in the hill side. Winter here is usually the best :6.30pm to 7am we mostly have star parties during this time. But in my country there are only a few dark spots nearby my city the best dark spot I'd 700km away. 

Varad 

It fascinates me how different it must be to live where you don't have long winter nights. In the depths of winter here it's dark before 5pm.

[Astroboy239]

I'm between the tropic of capricon and equator North hemisphere where it's almost equal day and night 

Varad 

[Stub Mandrel]

That must be great for astronomy!

[Astroboy239]

Not exactly we have 7minths clouds here and 5 extremely clear months to do imaging from mid November to mid may. 

 

Varad 

[Stub Mandrel]

Only seven! We have twelve :-)

[Astroboy239]

Lol the best astroimages are from Europe and us. Too much light pollution in India. 

 

[dyfiastro]

I have only recently started but actually finding it really helpful imaging in summer.
Yes it means using shorter exposures and waiting till later at night, but its also a lot warmer.
I am hoping that by the time winter and the darker nights come I will have learnt enough / fine tuned everything so that I can spend more time imaging.

Although it currently means waiting till just after midnight I am still able to get 3 or 4 minute exposures without issue.

 

[AndyKeogh]

On 3 June 2016 at 16:46, D Wright said:

I have just got a DSLR and can't wait to try imaging. My question is, will I be able to image anything during the next two months while there is no total darkness? I am aware that if I can it will not be as good as total dark sky but how will the brighter objects like clusters turn out?

Well the simple answer is yes

I live just outside Newcastle so on a similar latitude to you.  Last night I spent about 2 hours captuiring periodic error traces and then  about 150 mins of imaging a star field.

Now I am not looking for DSO's at the moment but honing my skills on polar alignment, reducing flex between my refractor and my guidescope and tuning guiding parameters.

My camera and scope have an image scale of 2.61 arc seconds/pixel. Your camera with your GX250 has an image scale at prime focus of around 0.9 arc second/pixel so getting long exposures without guiding may be a challenge.  You do not say what mount you have for this scope?

As others have said, give it a go.  As a guide my first alignment object is Jupiter around 8:30pm and I use live view and a PC to see it.  Imaging last night ended at 2:50am as Deep sky stacker could not find any stars in my images after that time whereas it found more than 250 at 00:15.  I do not start imaging until 11pm and even then my sky is very blue on the images.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[Pete Presland]

You could always try some nice widefield milky way images or noctilucent cloud images.

[Stub Mandrel]

I got this last night in about an hour with very ordinary equipment (Skywatcher 150PL, unguided).

[Astroboy239]

I'm waiting for this target

Varad 

[Astroboy239]

No clear skies for me for a few months until December now it's thundering here at the moment ?