ED80 First Light

[sooty]

Managed just over 10 minutes of data tonight,before the fog rolled in.M45 10x1min lights stacked in DSS.

Unsure if this is how it should look?,also do you think the polar alignment is ok?

Comments & criticism welcome.

 

Regards,

Mitt.

[Knighty2112]

Nice work. Well done.  I got an ED80 a few weeks back of ABS. Don't do imaging with it, but use it as a grab and go scope, and also on my Goto alt AZ mount too. Very pleased with the views so far.  

[D4N]

Star shapes all look good to me, I think this is about right for 10 minutes of data, there is just a hint of the fainter stuff starting to come through.

 

Did you use flats?

[sooty]

They are all light frames Dan.Still unsure about flats Dan.Mainly thinking of lights and darks for now,depending how much time i have.

 

Mitt.

[wornish]

Stars look good to me.  Is this just the DSS stacked file or have to done any further post processing ?

 

[newbie alert]

Nice round stars...think the nebulocity will show more with longer subs..great work..hope to see more...

Will have to get myself a ed 80..

[sooty]

1 hour ago, wornish said:

Stars look good to me.  Is this just the DSS stacked file or have to done any further post processing ?

 

Slight adjustments with levels/curves in CS5. DSS runs a little to slow on my PC sometimes.

 

Sooty.

[cjdawson]

That image is looking good to me.  Nice round stars, starting to get a little blooming happening on the bright stars - that can be kept under control when processing.  The nebulosity is starting to show, it's very feint and you'll need more data.   but it's there.

Keep going get more data.   Make a dark library and also worth taking flats.

 

(to do that, just leave the camera attached to the scope, put a white t-shirt over the end, then shine a light on it.  You don't mention the camera that you are using for the lights. The idea is to end up with a good exposure, The differences in the image are effectively a map of the issues in the image, and software will use that data to filter out the issues.)

[sooty]

The camera is a Nikon D90 at ISO1600.By more data,do you mean more exposures,or longer exposures?

My understanding is (and probably completely wrong!),that i could get the same image with say 5 x 1min,

as i would with a single 5 min exposure??. The light pollution is quite bad sometimes,especially when the floodlights

are on,which are around 100m from me.

 

Sooty.

[D4N]

Theoretically it is the same number of photons being detected by 5x1' as 1x5' but in reality the longer exposures will have a better signal to noise ratio so faint data has more chance of being detected.

A light get pollution filter can help a lot with a DSLR, I could manage 30 minutes with mine and a UHC-S filter.

 

Flats will get rid of the vignetting in the corners, this in turn will make it easier to process as you won't be stretching a gradient.