Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Imaging with a Star Adventurer


Recommended Posts

Nice little Star Adventurer trick I'm testing this evening:

IMG_20200525_210823.thumb.jpg.27e5b847871de88623e410cd00cd7be7.jpg

 

Instead of using sandbags to stabilize my tripod, I bought a few of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RTRHVRB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Regular pegs might be alright as well, I thought these should offer a better grip, particularly if the cord is well tensioned.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, GuLinux said:

Nice little Star Adventurer trick I'm testing this evening:

IMG_20200525_210823.thumb.jpg.27e5b847871de88623e410cd00cd7be7.jpg

 

Instead of using sandbags to stabilize my tripod, I bought a few of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RTRHVRB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Regular pegs might be alright as well, I thought these should offer a better grip, particularly if the cord is well tensioned.

Great looking setup!! The color matching is on point;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 06/05/2020 at 21:29, Alanjmolloy said:

Ken,

Your work is amazing. You set a really high bar that it would be great to follow. I have the same guidescope. Two cheeky questions: do you have a foto of your rig? I'm trying to figure out how to set up my SA for guiding and have been playing with a lot of options, I have the guidescope currently on a ballhead screwed onto the L bracket. Second question: How do you polar align? I'm worried I might be knocking things off by polar aligning and then moving the scope and guidescope around.
Do keep the fotos coming, they're amazing!

Alan   

Hi Alan,

Sry for the late reply,

About my setup, it is almost identical to yours, from what I see in your post. Guidescope is also on ballhead.

For polar alignment, at first I put Polaris more or less at the right spot.  Then I start to locate the target, once it is centered I adjust the polar alignment and do a calibration in phd2 and start the guiding.

I start my exposures and look at the graph in phd2, in particular the red dec line. The better your PA the longer the red line will stay in the middle. If it drops or rises too fast I make small adjustments to the PA

If it stays in the middle for about 10 minutes I know the PA is pretty good. If it drops or rises too fast you will have much more drift and it will be visible in your stack(edges).  It doesn't really affect your guiding.

Ken

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been doing a bit of planetary work with the SA lately. Got my first 'decent' image of Venus, Jupiter and Saturn a week ago.

This hobby is so addictive I immediately bought the x3 Explore Scientific 1.25" focal extender. 

After reading nothing but positive comments on the optics I was thrilled to give it a go myself. My goal was to do a mosaic of the Moon. The first opportunity I got, which was 8 am during sunrise, I got out and started imaging. 

What a great feeling seeing the Moon so close! It felt like 30 years ago, a 10 year old kid looking for the first time through a telescope at the Moon. 

Can't wait to explore those craters and Moon features a bit more.

I took about 30 panels, to make sure I had every part of it. 

Sessions of 100 frames each, stacked in AS3! and run some wavelets in Registax. The files were imported in Photoshop, aligned and blended using auto panorama mode. Removed some of the missing frames in the background and did some pp in adobe raw.

Camera: zwo asi120 mcs

Optics: TS72 refractor with ff

            ES focal extender x3

Captured with ASIcap

Ken

1791604690_Moon1307.thumb.jpg.5e77888abf99b3b303e1b2cfb9b96d24.jpg

 

  • Like 22
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Just bought an Optolong L-eNhance EOS clip in filter and this was the result of its first use. 50 minutes total integration using a modded 450D, sigma 150mm F2.8 macro lens @f3.5 on a star adventurer. There was persistent thin cloud through the imaging session hence the halos round the stars, also think my PA was slightly out. Blown away by the filters performance though 😁

NGC7000.jpg

Edited by Stuf1978
  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 16/07/2020 at 13:47, Ken Mitchell said:

Been doing a bit of planetary work with the SA lately. Got my first 'decent' image of Venus, Jupiter and Saturn a week ago.

This hobby is so addictive I immediately bought the x3 Explore Scientific 1.25" focal extender. 

After reading nothing but positive comments on the optics I was thrilled to give it a go myself. My goal was to do a mosaic of the Moon. The first opportunity I got, which was 8 am during sunrise, I got out and started imaging. 

What a great feeling seeing the Moon so close! It felt like 30 years ago, a 10 year old kid looking for the first time through a telescope at the Moon. 

Can't wait to explore those craters and Moon features a bit more.

I took about 30 panels, to make sure I had every part of it. 

Sessions of 100 frames each, stacked in AS3! and run some wavelets in Registax. The files were imported in Photoshop, aligned and blended using auto panorama mode. Removed some of the missing frames in the background and did some pp in adobe raw.

Camera: zwo asi120 mcs

Optics: TS72 refractor with ff

            ES focal extender x3

Captured with ASIcap

Ken

1791604690_Moon1307.thumb.jpg.5e77888abf99b3b303e1b2cfb9b96d24.jpg

 

This is outstanding.  I can never get bored of looking at the moon and this is one of the best widefield images shots I've see of it.  So much subtle detail to drink in...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 16/07/2020 at 04:47, Ken Mitchell said:

After reading nothing but positive comments on the optics I was thrilled to give it a go myself. My goal was to do a mosaic of the Moon. The first opportunity I got, which was 8 am during sunrise, I got out and started imaging. 

What a great feeling seeing the Moon so close! It felt like 30 years ago, a 10 year old kid looking for the first time through a telescope at the Moon. 

It's an absolutely stunning image, Ken - I agree with Danny, it's one of the most striking images I've seen!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anybody using an ASIAIR pro with the star adventurer for both polar aligning and guiding? Watched a YouTube video earlier with the original ASIAIR (white one) and it connected to the red star guider pro. But it does mention it works with the star adventurer as well.  So was just wondering if it still works with the new red type ASIAIR and the newer pro (green) star adventurer.

For interest here is the video I mentioned

 

Edited by Chefgage
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's what I've done recently on my Star Adventurer, including reprocesses with the help of Topaz AI Denoise(trial). Scope was a SW 72ED and camera was a stock Canon 650d with Astronomik CLS clip-in filter under Bortle 9 skies. Remarkable results even at 420mm focal length with 30-second subs; it really is pushing the mount's capabilities!

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.46.18 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.44.55 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.09 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.37 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.56 AM.png

Edited by Nerf_Caching
  • Like 9
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Here's what I've done recently on my Star Adventurer, including reprocesses with the help of Topaz AI Denoise(trial). Scope was a SW 72ED and camera was a stock Canon 650d with Astronomik CLS clip-in filter under Bortle 9 skies. Remarkable results even at 420mm focal length with 30-second subs; it really is pushing the mount's capabilities!

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.46.18 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.44.55 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.09 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.37 AM.png

Screenshot 2020-09-03 at 12.45.56 AM.png

Very nice images. I have the same filter for my modified canon. I really need to start using it as it has only been in the camera once!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my most recent astro pic: M31

Bare in mind, I'm a complete novice in AP, just know the basics, and most of my processing comes out of guides on the internet.

This was about 1hrs and 7 min total integration made out of 45x90". Under bottle 5 skies.

ISO 800 at 250mm f6.3 I think.

15 bias and 7 darks were taken, couldn't take more due to battery dying 

Edited with PS, any advice is appreciated :)

clear skies!

PSX_20200907_105734.jpg

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday night the sky was clear for a couple of hours so I got a chance to test my new modified Canon 100D.  I bought a 135mm f3.5 carl zeiss jena lens but the adapter hadn't yet arrived so I shot with a canon 50mm at f4.

Here are 36 180s light frames of cygnus shot at ISO 400.

Processing was done in siril and startools.

cygnus1.thumb.jpg.bbb7c09932b340f0192544a34bf63041.jpg

cygnus2.thumb.jpg.f03623c5d2a054a88843b4eafb725a80.jpg

I am not fully satisfied with the outcome but I can't quite figure out what is missing here (apart from more hours of integration time, I was cut short by clouds).  Any leads?

I took 50 or so flat frames (camera in AV, smartphone with white screen in front of lens) but I noticed that processing with flats led to more gradients in the final image. Could this be due to uneven brightness of the screen?

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had a few clear spells the last week after what felt like weeks of constant cloud. I managed to capture 3 hours and 40 minutes of total exposure time of the North America Nebula with my Canon EOS 100D and WO Zenithstar 61. I'm sure the post-processing could be improved but here's what I've managed so far using GIMP.

 

 

North America Nebula 2.jpg

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Kyle Allen said:

I've had a few clear spells the last week after what felt like weeks of constant cloud. I managed to capture 3 hours and 40 minutes of total exposure time of the North America Nebula with my Canon EOS 100D and WO Zenithstar 61. I'm sure the post-processing could be improved but here's what I've managed so far using GIMP.

 

 

North America Nebula 2.jpg

Nice image. I have managed to get a couple of hours of subs on this target myself this week. Just need to sit down and spend some time processing it.

Edited by Chefgage
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

clear night for a change on wednesday so i got out the old SA with the new cam and lens and i am very pleased the way they worked.

Andromeda   33 x 30 seconds at iso 6400 -
canon eos 90D with 70-300 f4-5.6L at 300mm f5.6 on the star adventurer no guiding or filters.


Deneb area 90 x 30 seconds at iso 6400
canon eos 90D with 70-300 f4-5.6L at 70mm f5.6 on the star adventurer .


NGC 281     33 X 30 seconds at iso 6400
canon eos 90D with 70-300 f4-5.6L at 300mm f5.6 on the star adventurer.

stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop.

Andromeda psp.jpg

Deneb area psp.jpg

Pac-Man-psp.jpg

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

NGC 7000 North American Nebula.  I posted this in the imaging section but as it was taken using a Star Adventurer pro it belongs in here as well.  Taken using the star adventurer, a modified Canon 200d, 75mm to 300mm lens @ 180mm, ISO 800.

44 lights stacked at 120 second exposures, 15 darks. Stacked using DSS and processed using GIMP. I was trying out a CLS clip in light pollution filter but coupled with the cheapish canon lens gives the stars a bit of bloating and halos.  Got a Samyang 135mm ordered so looking forward to trying that and retiring my cheap canon lenses.

 

North American Nebula.jpg

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/09/2020 at 14:39, AnonymousAnimosity said:

Any leads?

I find that we're always our own harshest critics, so I can understand you may not be entirely happy, but I think that's an absolutely terrific image.

The focus and framing seem bang on and I can pick out lots of my favourite targets for a summer nights observing, not least the veil and the crescent. I love the density of the stars through most of the image, how prominent the dark lanes are and the bokeh on the brightest stars.

Perhaps a touch more saturation would be good, but I wouldn't change much.

Looks like the nifty fifty has struck again!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

I find that we're always our own harshest critics, so I can understand you may not be entirely happy, but I think that's an absolutely terrific image.

The focus and framing seem bang on and I can pick out lots of my favourite targets for a summer nights observing, not least the veil and the crescent. I love the density of the stars through most of the image, how prominent the dark lanes are and the bokeh on the brightest stars.

Perhaps a touch more saturation would be good, but I wouldn't change much.

Looks like the nifty fifty has struck again!

Thank you, it's easy to lose perspective of the quality of the images I capture when compared to more expensive setups. That said, I'm sure I can optimize both acquisition and processing far better. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Andrei Botnari said:

Here is my second attempt to shoot my first DSO. Andromeda with Nikon d850 + 70-200mm f2.8 and Star Adventurer Pro. 52 stacked images 

DSS Andromeda 3 select PS_crop_2600px-1.jpg

Very nice. Any more details on the subs? Iso, exposure time etc??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you!

Not yet 100% familiar with all the terminology as am new to deep sky photography :)

Just double checked and got some details:

Actually there are 36x30s light frames.

21 x Flats

50 x Darks

ISO 800

F 3.5 at 200mm (Nikon 70-200 2.8 + Nikon d850 + Sky Watcher Adventurer Pro

Class 3 Bortle sky 

Post processed in DSS + PS

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 02/09/2020 at 16:04, Chefgage said:

Anybody using an ASIAIR pro with the star adventurer for both polar aligning and guiding? Watched a YouTube video earlier with the original ASIAIR (white one) and it connected to the red star guider pro. But it does mention it works with the star adventurer as well.  So was just wondering if it still works with the new red type ASIAIR and the newer pro (green) star adventurer.

For interest here is the video I mentioned

 

Hi I used the Asiair Pro for my first image guiding with the original star adventurer at the weekend. However there is currently a bug in the Asiair app which has been fixed in version 1.5 and is due to be released soon. I was only able to use it because Asiair sent me the beta test version of the app, which works well.

This is the image of M33, I only managed eight 5 minute subs. I used the Asiair platesolve to find m33, I was very pleased to find it let alone get an image of it. :) 

1131809803_M33LFinal.thumb.png.0ccc7a07a4d9b6e67da5a0bad67e3562.png

 

Edited by Scooot
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Scooot said:

Hi I used the Asiair Pro for my first image guiding with the original star adventurer at the weekend. However there is currently a bug in the Asiair app which has been fixed in version 1.5 and is due to be released soon. I was only able to use it because Asiair sent me the beta test version of the app, which works well.

This is the image of M33, I only managed eight 5 minute subs. I used the Asiair platesolve to find m33, I was very pleased to find it let alone get an image of it. :) 

1131809803_M33LFinal.thumb.png.0ccc7a07a4d9b6e67da5a0bad67e3562.png

 

Very nice image, also thanks for the info. I have my asiair now, just waiting on a power supply and I am good to go.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.