Objects To Get Started

[The-MathMog]

So guys, I would like to know what objects you guys think, are a good place to start when getting into astrophotography, others than the obvious ones of course. By those I mean the Planets, Orion Nebula, Pleidies, The Andromeda Galaxy. Not that they are necessarily easy, as you could keep improving on them and pull out more data. Just that they are the well know obvious go-to ones.

I've just acquired my first equatorial mount, a Celestron AVX mount, and I will be doing a lot of practice, getting used to the mount, the sky, and my limitations in terms of visibility, before I go deeper into actually doing guided shots.

I am not necessarily looking for objects that will look great at short exposures, but probably more in the vain of being able to distinguish them. Star trails to some extend doesn't bother me.
So instead of me just trying a lot of different objects that might actually be "out of my league", and not knowing if I have them actually centered in the image, or simple not long enough exposed.

Sure I could keep shooting at the ones that I KNOW I can at least catch to some extend, and improve on those, but I fell that I would rather experience more parts of the sky

Right now the OTA I am using is the Celestron 130SLT OTA, with the 1.3x barlow element from a Baader to achieve focus (Waiting on some screws and bolts, to make a modification that allows for proper prime focus). So anything that will fit in a focal length around 850. Any globular clusters you guys are fond of, or some high surface brightness galaxies? So far I've managed to get the "Black Eye Galaxy" on the sensor (Which was with my SLT mount), so ones with characteristics like that would be of interest too

Cheers!

-Mathias

 

[iapa]

That's good shot from the 130 - I started with the SLT 130 too a couple of year ago, with a Nikon D90.

There is a lot to be said for working targets you know to practice the various techniques.

Orion Nebula is a difficult target as it has a wide range of light levels basically. The centre's very bright, so if you take images where that is not 'blown out' you lose the rest, vice versa, if you aim to image the more nebulous part, then the core flares. Definitelygood for building up lots of lights and processing to get your preferred image out of it..

You'll know you need to take multiple images as different exposures and do the serious manipulation of the images. Not impossible, many people do, but its one of he more difficult targets.

Similarly, to a lesser degree, Andromeda is in the same category.

My current referred targets - depending on time of year ; M81/82, M101, M51, M27.  The fun with M81/82 is getting out the detail in M82, M27 is good for a variety of colours with a similar intensity.

I hope in the next few years to be able to have built an increasing better quality library of each that I can then process to good result.

[The-MathMog]

20 hours ago, iapa said:

That's good shot from the 130 - I started with the SLT 130 too a couple of year ago, with a Nikon D90.
...

I was surprised that I could at least distinguish parts of its features! That aspect of simple astrophotography amazes me!  

Ahh yeah, those are beautiful object too that I will definitely add to my practice. M82 I have managed a bit, a few times, but with M81 I was only able to reveal the fuzzy core. After a lot of time searching, as the SLT mount would not center the objects in the eyepiece. The AVX mount with its calibration stars improves this a LOT, and that intrigued me after last nights test!

M27 might also start to become a possibility now as it gets higher in the sky. Unfortunately a lot of my East and North-eastern horizon is obscured by trees.

Last night showed some promising results, but now I just need to start focusing on one target a night, instead of jumping between half a dozen. And the polar alignment needs some tweaking too, as the mount measured a 7 arc minute misalignment. 

[iapa]

12 minutes ago, The-MathMog said:

I was surprised that I could at least distinguish parts of its features! That aspect of simple astrophotography amazes me!  

Ahh yeah, those are beautiful object too that I will definitely add to my practice. M82 I have managed a bit, a few times, but with M81 I was only able to reveal the fuzzy core. After a lot of time searching, as the SLT mount would not center the objects in the eyepiece. The AVX mount with its calibration stars improves this a LOT, and that intrigued me after last nights test!

M27 might also start to become a possibility now as it gets higher in the sky. Unfortunately a lot of my East and North-eastern horizon is obscured by trees.

Last night showed some promising results, but now I just need to start focusing on one target a night, instead of jumping between half a dozen. And the polar alignment needs some tweaking too, as the mount measured a 7 arc minute misalignment. 

The SLT's mount, I found, would get any of my targets in the eyepiece - but a deal of care was required as it is quite light and easy to move accidentally part way through alignment.

I take a week at Easter, and second week of October and go to Orkney  That's where I get my best of anything. I am, quite fortunate i suppose, in that I am at the northern part of the village with, more or less, a couple of miles from W to NNE where there is nothing but fields and trees (bar a zoo :)) which does give mea reasonably unpolluted skies.

I know that feeling - too many objects and then not enough data to be useful for any

One thing with that OTA is that you can get a guide scope & camera mounted on it. Amazing what improvement you can get guiding. I had a 50mm f3.something Orion guide scope and QHY 6 on it - and on the original SLT Alt-Az mount. Wish I'd still had the images from then.

Last night - phwaah. Cloudy all through