New rig - first pic

[Gavin1234]

Hi, I upgraded my gear this weekend. I bought a celestron 5se as my first scope 4 months ago and I’ve been using that with a canon 80d which was great to start out with. But I wasn’t happy with that anymore. So I got an Esprit 100ed, a Celestron CGX Mount and an ASI071MC Pro cooled camera.

Really happy with this setup. A few teething problems with the camera but I’m starting to get the hang of it. I managed to take my first picture tonight. It’s only my 4th time trying to process a picture which probably shows and I don’t think my alignment on mount was right either so obviously I have a long way to go but I’m just happy to even take a photo of a DSO. Here’s a picture of the rig and my first dso picture.

I want to go back into photoshop with this pic tomorrow and try to figure out how to make the black look blacker and see if I can make it look less busy. It kinda looks like there’s too many stars. Any hints or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Sunshine]

That’s one heck of a mount, and a sweet scope to boot!  You can practically mount Hubble on that CGX-L haha nice to have that weight capability.

Beautiful image!

[Z3roCool]

Wow! Love this image. I am hopefully getting the Esprit 80 or 100. What Bortle sky was this taken in if you do not mind. Also how much exposure?

[geordie85]

That's an awesome image for it only being your 4th.

It looks like you have some coma (stars elongated at the edges) but a field flattener will sort that out. Your chosen target is in a very busy part of the milky way so there will be alot of stars. You can try to reduce them several different ways. Just don't go crazy with it or they will look like poop. Just Google star reduction methods for Photoshop.

 

[Allinthehead]

Very nice. I use the 071 and find it great. Did you use an ir filter? What gain setting?

[Gavin1234]

Thanks. No filters because I don’t have any, the gain was at 240 and it was 30 second exposures, sorry not sure what bortle sky is.  Actually I’m finding the camera is a step learning curve. I’ve spent a lot of time playing with the focus, gain etc in sequence generator. 

[newbie alert]

Fantastic for a 4th image..but try not to make the sky black or blacker..space isn't black there's alot going on..if you clip the black point then you're throwing away good data too..

Great start..keep going the way you're heading..

[des anderson]

Beautiful image. The Trifid Nebula and Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius . You must be down under somewhere??? Des

[astrosathya]

10 hours ago, newbie alert said:

Fantastic for a 4th image..but try not to make the sky black or blacker..space isn't black there's alot going on..if you clip the black point then you're throwing away good data too..

Great start..keep going the way you're heading..

I second this advice. Space is never black. Its always a hue depending on the region, but more towards dark grey. I'd recommend you look up Astrobin website for reference images and you could process them that way. Bortle is the scale used to speak about how good the sky is. For example, a Bortle 7 to 8 scale is the London/NY etc city centre, while a place like Snowdon may be a Bortle 3? I live in Bortle 7, so I usually image in H-alpha because it cuts out the street lights. Sometimes I travel to a Bortle 4 sky which is just over 100 miles away. I hope you now have an idea of what Bortle scale is.

Also, given that you've got a great mount, I'd also recommend you try to drift align (accurate polar alignment) the mount so you can do more longer exposures. You'll see the difference in image quality instantly.

[newbie alert]

Use this app to find out your bortle figure..find where you live then click on it..gives you lat/long and bortle scale

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=7&lat=6687507&lon=-2205&layers=B0FFFFTFFFF

[Gavin1234]

Wow thanks for the info and feedback. Looking at that link I can see I live in a bortle class 6 area (near Sydney Australia). A few Klm’s down the road it changes to class 5 and I take regular weekends away in a class 4 spot about 30 minutes away and I’ll be bringing my scope with me from now on. Also planning a trip to a class 1 spot later in the year which I’m really looking forward to.

next Saturday I’m buying a zwo 30 f4 guidescope and an asi174mm guide camera for auto guiding which will hopefully get me those longer exposures (once I learn how to dial those in also). Any thoughts on that guiding setup? Never guided before but I’ve heard those are a good option.

still trying to get the hang of the camera. I’m using the two spacers that came with the scope but still having a lot of trouble getting focus. The gain in this picture was at 240 which the maximum sequence generator will let me use. I’m thinking I might not have the camera software/driver software installed properly because I have a few problems connecting it in the software as well. 

Once again thanks very much for the help, it really makes the difference.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

For guiding with my 130PDS I use a SW 50mm Finder, Modern Astronomy Adapter to T-Ring, and a Colour ASI120. It seems to work fine, although I am using a DSLR and the PDS has a focal length of just 650mm. The FOV of the finder with ASI120 and the PDS with DSLR are almost the same! I don't know how the 50mm finder would stand up using a CCD or a scope with longer focal length.

John