DSO Imaging with ZWO ASI120mm

[simondodd]

I want to give narrowband imaging a go but haven't got the budget for a proper camera designed for DSO's so I'm wondering would it be possible to use my 120mm mono camera for this or isn't it worth it...? Should I just wait until I can afford the 1600mm version?

I'm currently using an unmodified Nikon D5000 for my main imaging camera so I don't think there is a way for me to do narrowband stuff with that unfortunately  

Thanks in advance  

[Craney]

The 120mm is certainly a sensitive little beastie.   I use one for guiding, and I am constantly surprised at how much detail and sensitivity I get from when looking at my PHD2 screen.   Your major drawback will be Field of View,  it will be pretty small with most scopes.     But...... with small Planetary Nebula and small bright SNR  you could still get a result.    Having  longer exposures may reduce the noise /heat   on the chip but I may be wrong.....Give it a go.....

[simondodd]

I've got it all setup in stellarium to see my FOV and there are quite a few galaxies that fit perfectly! I feel my main issue will be not being able to guide with PHD2 although I haven't tried using my Nikon for guiding yet so that may be an option if they can talk to each other  Either that or I just stick to 30 second exposures with no guiding and see what I can get...

Will give it a go next time I have clear skies!  Thanks

[Adam J]

1 hour ago, simondodd said:

I want to give narrowband imaging a go but haven't got the budget for a proper camera designed for DSO's so I'm wondering would it be possible to use my 120mm mono camera for this or isn't it worth it...? Should I just wait until I can afford the 1600mm version?

I'm currently using an unmodified Nikon D5000 for my main imaging camera so I don't think there is a way for me to do narrowband stuff with that unfortunately  

Thanks in advance  

Yes you can but your FOV will be tiny. In the 130PDS thread there are a couple of images of M51 taken using a ASI120mm and they are not bad, as I say problem will be finding the target lol. 

Adam 

[simondodd]

59 minutes ago, Adam J said:

 as I say problem will be finding the target lol.  

Plate solving for the win haha Well hopefully anyway! haha

[tomato]

By all means give it a go, this was taken with an ASI120 hooked up to a big refractor, taking 30 sec exposures. The tiny FOV is a challenge, I set up each session and my Telrad was off, took me about 3 hrs to find the initial sync star...

[Starwiz]

As tomato has shown, it's certainly possible.

I've only tried it once myself - a more modest M57 unguided a few years ago.  This was with the colour version ASI120mc.

 

[rickwayne]

Gonna be a big index-file download...but seriously, now you've got me thinking about doing M57 with my 120MC!

[Starwiz]

On 09/05/2019 at 17:21, rickwayne said:

Gonna be a big index-file download...but seriously, now you've got me thinking about doing M57 with my 120MC!

I didn't have a Bahtinov mask back then, so as you can see my focus was a little off.

[rickwayne]

Heh. So, in a crazy bit of turnabout, I may wind up using my ASI183MM for a guide camera...

[rickwayne]

...or not. The 120MC's pixels are 3.75𝛍, while the 183's are 2.4. So unless I'm a fiend for one-shot color, I'm better off imaging with the "real" camera and just taking a 1280x960 crop out of its 20 megapixels!

[tomato]

It is a lot easier to crop a big FOV than take lots of smaller ones for a mosaic.