First Attempt @ AP

[Benjam]

1 hour ago, cjdawson said:

Funny you should say that,  I just purchased a setup that I think is capable of getting the whole thing in one go!

Camera: Canon 70D (though my ZWO ASI1600MM-PRO would also work here)

Telescope: William Optics SpaceCat 51

Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro pack

Tripod: Sky-Watcher Stainless steel 3/8"

Guide Scope: ZWO Mini guide scope

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM (Had this looking for a good use)

Guide computer: Raspberry PI 4, running PHD2.   (ASIAir looks very interesting for this application as well)

 

The key think here is that the SpaceCat is only a 250mm Focal length, which is what gives the wide field of view.   This is much much wider than I could get with my LX-90 and all the most powerful focal reducer that I could get my hands on.

How important is it for a guide scope and camera? I think last night I may have had star trails from 90 second exposures. When I zoom in, the stars definitely look like maggots. 

I am saving up for the Starizona Hyperstar for my Edge HD, which has a focal of 1.9 and supposedly 20 x faster. So I’m only guessing and thinking that I’ll be able to take 30 / 40 second exposures and not worry about star trails? 

 

Ben 

[Benjam]

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Hi

You may already have it; a 300mm lens.

HTH

 

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Hi

You may already have it; a 300mm lens.

HTH

Funny enough, I have a entry level 300mm lens that came with my DSLR. 

Did you take that stunning image of Andromeda above? 

 

Ben 

[cjdawson]

12 minutes ago, Benjam said:

How important is it for a guide scope and camera? I think last night I may have had star trails from 90 second exposures. When I zoom in, the stars definitely look like maggots. 

I am saving up for the Starizona Hyperstar for my Edge HD, which has a focal of 1.9 and supposedly 20 x faster. So I’m only guessing and thinking that I’ll be able to take 30 / 40 second exposures and not worry about star trails? 

 

Ben 

Well for my LX-90 8" SCT, I use a 80mm guide scope, and it really does bring things up to another level.

It's why I spent the extra, to get the mini guide scope.  I already had the camera and the PI, so it was more a case of having the ability to make the extra step.  I'm not sure how necessary it is, but once you get start to get beyond 70mm things do start to benefit from some sort of guiding.

[alacant]

41 minutes ago, Benjam said:

entry level 300mm lens

Yeah, try it. Nothing to lose.

There are also some very good lenses from last century to be had cheaply. Tair and Takumar did excellent fast 300mm.

HTH

[Benjam]

I had a quick attempt with DSS, having not used it before. I stacked my lights, darks and bias frames together, I don’t have any flats as of yet. 

Anyway here’s a quick screenshot, I’m not sure what to make from it. I think sadly i have star trails, but that’s as far as my limited knowledge goes. ISO 1600, 90 second exposures. 

 

 

Ben 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Benjam

[cjdawson]

That's looking good.  

[Benjam]

2 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

That's looking good.  

So maybe with a bit of software editing, I maybe on to something? 

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Benjam said:

I am saving up for the Starizona Hyperstar for my Edge HD, which has a focal of 1.9 and supposedly 20 x faster. So I’m only guessing and thinking that I’ll be able to take 30 / 40 second exposures and not worry about star trails? 

On paper, yes. In real life, not so easy. The faster your optics are (lower f-number), the more critical everything becomes. The light cone at f/2 is so steep that focus becomes super critical. So does squareness of the focuser. Any slight misalignment or tilt will show in your images. If low f-numbers were so simple, we'd all be using them. You may be swapping imaging time for tinkering time. I recommend that you at least do some research before you go that route.

Personally, I find f/5 or f/4 fast enough. I like tinkering, but I also want to enjoy the few clear nights we have. 

[Benjam]

On 23/10/2019 at 16:40, alacant said:

Hi

You may already have it; a 300mm lens.

HTH

I tried your suggestion last night and used a 300mm lens piggyback and unguided. 

1 x sub @ 90 seconds unguided, ISO 800 at 200mm 

[alacant]

1 hour ago, Benjam said:

 90 seconds unguided

Excellent. If you have the patience for 100 of the same then great, but as many as you can. Then stack to see the whole spiral.

HTH

[Davey-T]

Good stuff, bit of coma in the corners pretty normal for camera lenses but if you can get your target centred you can crop most of it out.

Slightly eggy stars that all go in the same direction can be easily fixed in Photoshop or similar.

Dave

PS: On the Hyperstar front it's not really suited to beginner astrophotography, the fast ratio sounds attractive but very finicky to set up and even more if you decided to get mono' camera and filters in the future.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Davey-T

[Benjam]

4 hours ago, alacant said:

Excellent. If you have the patience for 100 of the same then great, but as many as you can. Then stack to see the whole spiral.

HTH

Thank you 

I had BYE setup for exactly 100, though weather intervened. So probably out of 20 subs, one third had satellite trails and got binned. I stacked the remaining subs very roughly and I could clearly see the spiral. 

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Good stuff, bit of coma in the corners pretty normal for camera lenses but if you can get your target centred you can crop most of it out.

Slightly eggy stars that all go in the same direction can be easily fixed in Photoshop or similar.

Dave

PS: On the Hyperstar front it's not really suited to beginner astrophotography, the fast ratio sounds attractive but very finicky to set up and even more if you decided to get mono' camera and filters in the future.

Thank you for the advice Dave, I will work on centring the object. 

I’ve had a reality check since my hyperstar suggestion and I now have a game plan. I recently brought myself a dedicated planetary camera (ZWO ASI 224 MC). I’m gonna work to my scopes strengths and chase planets next year and certain galaxies. 

Though I do keep looking at the RASA... 

[wimvb]

26 minutes ago, Benjam said:

I had BYE setup for exactly 100, though weather intervened. So probably out of 20 subs, one third had satellite trails and got binned. I stacked the remaining subs very roughly and I could clearly see the spiral. 

No need to bin the images with satellite trails. Stacking software can take care of them.

[cjdawson]

Don't worry about Satellite trails.  Unless it's the cluster thing that's like a meteor storm.    The more images you stack the better, the trails will get averages out of the stack as they will only appear on one given frame. 

[Benjam]

Hi everyone

I was just wondering if someone would be very kind enough to have a go at processing the data I recently collected on Andromeda. I would be very interested to see what I've actually captured and to improve. I have zero processing experience and would be very grateful. 

What I've done so far is...

102 lights at 90 seconds

30 darks frames

30 bias frames 

I did managed to stack them all together using DSS. I basically pressed (Register Checked Pictures) and after about 10 minutes one stacked picture appeared (Autosave). I'm not sure how to transfer the data across to someone, so if you could please explain that too. Also would you prefer the data, non stacked or stacked. 

Thank you 

Ben

[wimvb]

Non-stacked data would be too large a file, even zipped, probably. But if the stacked image looks fine, just post it here. In DSS, don't apply any stretch to the autosave file. Just post it as is, attached to a reply. As an alternative, zip the lot and put it in a public Google drive folder or Dropbox.

Edited December 6, 2019 by wimvb

[Benjam]

20 hours ago, wimvb said:

Non-stacked data would be too large a file, even zipped, probably. But if the stacked image looks fine, just post it here. In DSS, don't apply any stretch to the autosave file. Just post it as is, attached to a reply. As an alternative, zip the lot and put it in a public Google drive folder or Dropbox.

Thank you Wim. The stacked image is a bit rough and ready around the left hand side.

I will try to add the file below. If that fails, I have a friend who's a computer programmer and he will assist me in transferring the data across. 

Autosave.tif

*It's saying the upload failed but above is the file. Do I need to change the file format?

Ben

Edited December 7, 2019 by Benjam

[wimvb]

The file is unavailable. There should be no need to chane the file format.

[Benjam]

9 minutes ago, wimvb said:

The file is unavailable. There should be no need to change the file format.

Am I transferring across the file wrong? I tried sending the file like I would with a picture on here. 

Ben

Edited December 7, 2019 by Benjam

[alacant]

5 minutes ago, Benjam said:

sending the file like I would with

Hi

It's probably larger than the forum limit, so best to upload it to e.g. Google Drive or Dropbox and send us the link.

Cheers

 

[Benjam]

My bad, I manged to upload the tif but its still saying unavailable. I will seek help tomorrow.

Ben

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Benjam

[wimvb]

1 minute ago, Benjam said:

Autosave.tifUnavailable

My bad, I think I've corrected the issue.

Ben

 

Nope, still unavailable. As @alacant wrote, the file is probably too large.

Edited December 7, 2019 by wimvb

[wimvb]

When you upload an image, it shows in the upload section of your post, what the maximum file size is. If your image is only slightly larger, you could try zipping it and attach the zip as you would an image. Otherwise you need to do it through Dropbox or Google Drive.

Edited December 7, 2019 by wimvb

[Benjam]

The file size is 175 MB and the max is 1024 MB.

I will send tomorrow using Dropbox.

Ben

Edited December 7, 2019 by Benjam

[Benjam]

Here's the file https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpua2fvrfk8jw5e/Autosave001.tif?dl=0 

@wimvb @alacant

Kind Regards

Ben