Andromeda with Canon 200mm lens and Star Adventurer

[Ruediger]

Hi Astronomy friends,

 

it´s been a very long time since i posted something here .... had to find my way in case of equipment. I own a HEQ-5 but wasn´t that happy with the results, spent nights to keep alignment and MGEN runnning well but had not that luck.

So i sold my Newtonian and bought me a Star Adventurer and that was the start of having fun in taking photos.

Here´s my latest result, the well known M31 galaxy -> 49 lights a 120sec. at ISO 800, no filters. Canon 1000da, lens EF 70-200mm @ 200mm f5,6 - 10 darks

Processed with Deep sky stacker, fitswork and photoshop.

 

I am happy with it, although it of course has some minor bugs in ;-)

 

Best regards and clear skies

Rüdiger

 

 

[SyedT]

12 minutes ago, Ruediger said:

Hi Astronomy friends,

 

it´s been a very long time since i posted something here .... had to find my way in case of equipment. I own a HEQ-5 but wasn´t that happy with the results, spent nights to keep alignment and MGEN runnning well but had not that luck.

So i sold my Newtonian and bought me a Star Adventurer and that was the start of having fun in taking photos.

Here´s my latest result, the well known M31 galaxy -> 49 lights a 120sec. at ISO 800, no filters. Canon 1000da, lens EF 70-200mm @ 200mm f5,6 - 10 darks

Processed with Deep sky stacker, fitswork and photoshop.

 

I am happy with it, although it of course has some minor bugs in ;-)

 

Best regards and clear skies

Rüdiger

 

 

Great photo, gives me hope! I'm in the exact same situation as you, selling off my equipment and will be getting a Star Adventurer. I just found that there is little imaging time here in the UK as it is, without it being compounded further by cloudy nights and technical problems.

[Ruediger]

Hi SyedT,

 

exactly  Clear skies are here too limited and that one or two nights in a month you want pics .... and no technical problems.

I have Canon lenses from 24mm up to 400mm and even the 400mm run on the Star Adventurer with a good alignment. I made a test and could use 120sec. IMO that´s more than enough for my light polluted sky here.

In the past i used the Astronomik CLD-CCD filtre for longer exposures. Problem was that i lost all star colors. So in the future i´ll pass on that filtre and make shorter exposures but more lights. I am really happy with my setup now and can finally look forward into my astrophotography future 

 

CS Rüdiger

[SyedT]

9 minutes ago, Ruediger said:

Hi SyedT,

 

exactly  Clear skies are here too limited and that one or two nights in a month you want pics .... and no technical problems.

I have Canon lenses from 24mm up to 400mm and even the 400mm run on the Star Adventurer with a good alignment. I made a test and could use 120sec. IMO that´s more than enough for my light polluted sky here.

In the past i used the Astronomik CLD-CCD filtre for longer exposures. Problem was that i lost all star colors. So in the future i´ll pass on that filtre and make shorter exposures but more lights. I am really happy with my setup now and can finally look forward into my astrophotography future 

 

CS Rüdiger

Which 400mm lens do you have, and which is your favourite for DSOs? I do use the Astronomik CLS filter, just not the CLS-CCD version which is for modded cameras I believe; the only downside to the filter is that it gives the images a blue cast, but that's easily fixed in either Photoshop or DSS automatically does it for me.

I've attached a composite of 204x10 second subs I took using my Canon 6D with a 24-105 lens @ 105 mm; no darks or bias frames used. Quite happy with the end result, but I imagine it'll be even better with a Star Adventurer when I'm not limited by the rule of 500!

[Ruediger]

I have the 100-400mm EF lens f4. My favorite lenses are the 100mm f2.8 macro and the EF 70-200mm f4. I am saving money for the 200mm f2.8 lens. my cam is a EOS 1000da, so a modded one.

That´s a nice pic you made but i think there´s more in  Processing pics is where you learn every day something new. It´s a long way that i had and still have ;-) 

Here´s another one from me with the 100mm macro lens which is fantastic.

Maybe i´ll give my CLS-CCD another try .... we will see.

 

[SyedT]

1 hour ago, Ruediger said:

I have the 100-400mm EF lens f4. My favorite lenses are the 100mm f2.8 macro and the EF 70-200mm f4. I am saving money for the 200mm f2.8 lens. my cam is a EOS 1000da, so a modded one.

That´s a nice pic you made but i think there´s more in  Processing pics is where you learn every day something new. It´s a long way that i had and still have ;-) 

Here´s another one from me with the 100mm macro lens which is fantastic.

Maybe i´ll give my CLS-CCD another try .... we will see.

 

Yeah, that was just a quick process in Photoshop with curves, levels and brightness/contrast; I'm quite impatient with processing, something I hope will improve with time! I'll be looking to add more fixed focal length lenses to my collection for sure, the difference in quality definitely shows. Also my bad, the picture I posted was a stack of 94x10 second subs, not 204! That was a timelapse I did on the same night.

On a different note, do you think the Star Adventurer could cope with an 80mm doublet refractor like the Skywatcher ED80 DS Pro and a DSLR/CCD mounted on it as long as I have a stable tripod? I'm asking because while I'm sure I'll enjoy the DSLR work, it would be nice to retain the telescope side of things to an extent, and to have that extra bit of focal length.

Also, that is a fantastic picture! Which region of the sky is it?

[Ruediger]

That is in the cygnus area. The bright star is Sadr and the nebula is NGC 7000, the north america nebula.

I am not sure about the ED 80,  but on the other side i heard of guys who mounted that one on the SA and got some nice results. My favored APO would be the TSAPO65Q but it´s quite expensive. However, at the moment i am pleased with my equipment and i hope for many clear skies in autuum and winter. Can´t wait toll Orion is rising up, the horsehead nebula is on wishlist with 400mm. my last result was not bad but it can always be better.That´s a crop from a 200mm shot. 

[SyedT]

1 minute ago, Ruediger said:

That is in the cygnus area. The bright star is Sadr and the nebula is NGC 7000, the north america nebula.

I am not sure about the ED 80,  but on the other side i heard of guys who mounted that one on the SA and got some nice results. My favored APO would be the TSAPO65Q but it´s quite expensive. However, at the moment i am pleased with my equipment and i hope for many clear skies in autuum and winter. Can´t wait toll Orion is rising up, the horsehead nebula is on wishlist with 400mm. my last result was not bad but it can always be better.That´s a crop from a 200mm shot. 

That's an excellent image, if you can get even better then go for it! Do you mainly use Photoshop/Lightroom etc for processing? The only thing that puts me off pure DSLR lens photography is that the lenses themselves are very expensive. I think if I weigh down the SA adequately and have maybe an extra small counterweight then mounting an SW ED80 could work; I'd rather experiment with that than lose more imaging time with a heavier astro mount like the HEQ5 Pro I've sold. The Canon 6D I have is relatively lightweight as well so I'll hope for the best. 

[Rodd]

Wow--now that is one heck of a FOV!!!!  You don't need mosaics.  

[Ruediger]

SyedT,

i use deep sky stacker and for processing fitswork and photoshop. For me that is enough and works well. Just now we have clear sky and i am on the cirrus complex with the 100mm macro f2.8 @ 4.5. Hope to get a new nice pic.

 

The SA mount can carry up to 6 kg weight, so i think it´s worth to make a try with your ED 80. But the polar alignment must be very good for that focal length ..... i think 600mm? I use the PolarAlign 6.0 app by George Varros ..... perfect for a very good alignment.

I still have my HEQ-5 SynScan, can not really sell it. Would like to try parallel photographing in the future. Canon 1000da with small focal length on the SA and on the HEQ the Canon 5d MK III with the 400mm lens. Short exposure time there so i don´t need an autoguider. Would be good for a nice galaxy widefield pic.

[SyedT]

On Monday, September 05, 2016 at 21:35, Ruediger said:

SyedT,

i use deep sky stacker and for processing fitswork and photoshop. For me that is enough and works well. Just now we have clear sky and i am on the cirrus complex with the 100mm macro f2.8 @ 4.5. Hope to get a new nice pic.

 

The SA mount can carry up to 6 kg weight, so i think it´s worth to make a try with your ED 80. But the polar alignment must be very good for that focal length ..... i think 600mm? I use the PolarAlign 6.0 app by George Varros ..... perfect for a very good alignment.

I still have my HEQ-5 SynScan, can not really sell it. Would like to try parallel photographing in the future. Canon 1000da with small focal length on the SA and on the HEQ the Canon 5d MK III with the 400mm lens. Short exposure time there so i don´t need an autoguider. Would be good for a nice galaxy widefield pic.

Basic processing is enough for me for now too, may think about PixInsight in the future  (yet another expense and steep learning curve!).

I've just purchased the SA, now the wait begins! Can I ask, what tripod do you mount the SA on? I'm planning on using my DSLR tripod which is relatively heavy duty and maybe weighing it down when using it with the ED80 to provide some extra stability.

I sold my HEQ5 because it just wasn't getting the use it deserved despite my best intentions. The money from its sale alone almost covers both the SA and the ED80, so I'm happy about that! Maybe in the future I'll invest in a setup again, but for now I'll be quite happy with my 6D and ED80 on an SA.