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My first interstellar images with the new camera and drive


Swoop1

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Last night was the first test of the new drive on my EQ3/2 and Sony a3600 in interstellar mode. I had spent many painful hours (or so it felt) trying to align the polar scope to the mount and then attemting my first accurate polar alignment.

Despite a near full moon, I decided to give M31 a try and here are a couple of exposures of differing lenghts-

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ISO1600 single frame 30 seconds

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ISO1600 single frame 15sec.

I then moved on to Mizar and Alcore-

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ISO1600 single frame 5 seconds

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ISO1600 single frame 20 seconds.

I am learning how to utilise my kit best at the moment- alignment, focus etc. Once I have that nailed, I will then start looking at multiple frames and stacking.

I think there is evidence of trailing suggesting less than adequate alignment. I am not sure of the cause of the 'fogging' though hope this is light pollution from neighbouring street/ security lights plus that pesky moon.

All critique welcome.

Matt

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Hi Matt

Good start you also can see in M31 image both M110 and M32. Focusing isn't too bad but I think you have Cromatic Aberations rather than trails which is down to the lens/scope

What lens did you uses and what aperture? 

I invested in a Pentax super takuma SMC 135mm with an adaptor to fit it to to my Canon 1100D which I use at F5.6 or even F8 to reduce CA

I have an EQ 3-2 motor driven and have got up to 4 minutes with no trail so you do have to persevere and get the polar scope cantered and correctly aligned. Though I generally go 2 minuites to remove risk of trail and leave it running on a timer.

 

Take a look here for what can be don with the EQ 3-2

 

 

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Great start with the new setup under a very bright Moon - will be much better when the Moon is gone.

The images show a mix of trailing (perhaps mount settling down), focus (not quite spot-on) and coma. Coma can be fixed with a corrector. Focus at less cost with a Bahtinov mask (can be a DIY effort). Trailing depends on the equipment balance and setup - presumably the EQ3 is tracked but not guided?

Great polar alignment, whilst important, is only crucial for longer exposures - perhaps best to just go for whatever interests you as that is useful for gaining experience. Having said that, the 20 sec image of Mizar looks spot-on with just a bit of coma. 

 

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