Anywhere near Whirlpool - M51

[MattGP]

41 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I control the 1100d using my android phone using dslr controller and once I'm happy with the settings I used the time lapse function and leave it running in the back garden. Or you could probably use an intravolometer, I bought one for about £10 to take all the photos.

Ah that’s pretty neat, I have the 500d, so only way for me to live view stars like this particularly well is by using a laptop. 

Tbh tho, my plan was always to add a 72ed to this set up, so may look into stacking more when have a more powerful set up  

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

On 13/04/2020 at 14:36, MattGP said:

Ah that’s pretty neat, I have the 500d, so only way for me to live view stars like this particularly well is by using a laptop. 

Tbh tho, my plan was always to add a 72ed to this set up, so may look into stacking more when have a more powerful set up  

Interval timer, you could try 1 or 2's exposures, try 30 see where that takes you.

[MattGP]

1 hour ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

Interval timer, you could try 1 or 2's exposures, try 30 see where that takes you.

Tbh looks like the 72ed is out of stock everywhere until at least June. So may well have to experiment with stacking more after all  

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

4 minutes ago, MattGP said:

Tbh looks like the 72ed is out of stock everywhere until at least June. So may well have to experiment with stacking more after all  

I got M31 last Aug with a Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 with a kenko 1.4x converter, thing was i didn't know about stacking then (well I did just didn't think about it) so stacked a few of those, the images wasn't great but managed to make out M32 & M110 , just like you I am just as happy to record faint smudges, like a galaxy 1,000 million l.y. away I was awestruck when I discovered that using  astrometry.com, that one really did blow my mind that simple 8" newt and a dslr could capture such a faint object. to be fair i wouldn't have know had I not run it through astrometry., did one today from last nights session 500 million light years, though not as obvious as it didn't show on astrometry, discovered it by chance as I was looking at charts, I think that's what makes it worth the effort.

[happy-kat]

Matt what mount are you using please?

[MattGP]

11 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Matt what mount are you using please?

Am using a recommendation from a previous thread on here....:Star Adventurer Pro...although was slightly lazy when taking these pics as didn’t polar align 100% properly.....

[MattGP]

11 hours ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

I got M31 last Aug with a Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 with a kenko 1.4x converter, thing was i didn't know about stacking then (well I did just didn't think about it) so stacked a few of those, the images wasn't great but managed to make out M32 & M110 , just like you I am just as happy to record faint smudges, like a galaxy 1,000 million l.y. away I was awestruck when I discovered that using  astrometry.com, that one really did blow my mind that simple 8" newt and a dslr could capture such a faint object. to be fair i wouldn't have know had I not run it through astrometry., did one today from last nights session 500 million light years, though not as obvious as it didn't show on astrometry, discovered it by chance as I was looking at charts, I think that's what makes it worth the effort.

Oh yes I’m finding astrometry.net to be super useful now, a great way to learn what’s in my pics and amazing the amount of objects in my pics that are also galaxies  

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

59 minutes ago, MattGP said:

Oh yes I’m finding astrometry.net to be super useful now, a great way to learn what’s in my pics and amazing the amount of objects in my pics that are also galaxies  

300mm is a good size for the wider nebula clusters ect, like the Rosette Nebula or M45 ect, this taken on my Canon 6D would have been better on the 40D maybe, with a ef70-210 3.5-4.5 and a 1.4x converter making it just short of 300mm making it in effect a f/6.7. I mounted the set up direct on the scope, but it isn't ideal, need to get a ball and socket head for it, but most are a bigger thread. This wasn't a good image as Venus created a lot of flare, that I had to try and correct, it is because it isn't a great lens, but it 25 years old or so.

[MattGP]

27 minutes ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

300mm is a good size for the wider nebula clusters ect, like the Rosette Nebula or M45 ect, this taken on my Canon 6D would have been better on the 40D maybe, with a ef70-210 3.5-4.5 and a 1.4x converter making it just short of 300mm making it in effect a f/6.7. I mounted the set up direct on the scope, but it isn't ideal, need to get a ball and socket head for it, but most are a bigger thread. This wasn't a good image as Venus created a lot of flare, that I had to try and correct, it is because it isn't a great lens, but it 25 years old or so.

Nice pic

What is the 1.4 converter?

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

2 minutes ago, MattGP said:

Nice pic

What is the 1.4 converter?

Thanks I actually wanted the following day as would have fitted the scope camera set up, but the weather did as it did eight years ago, clear both days either side, cloudy the day you wanted it clear.

a Kenko, it was cheap, but I does update focal length and aperture info to the exif. The overall set up though is rather soft.

[MattGP]

My attempt at the same pic (I think), nowhere near as cool as yours 

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

30 minutes ago, MattGP said:

My attempt at the same pic (I think), nowhere near as cool as yours 

At least Venus is in the right place. I do quite a bit of P.P. work I use pixinsight and photoshop, I find even on a single image pixinsight is great for removing most L.P.  but there are ways to do it photoshop gimp ect.

If I am lucky I might get one more chance at this I think by the time I am 72 I will either be in my grave or not able to cope with the kit I want to image this with.

[happy-kat]

You can get a packet of thread adapters for being able to use the larger camera thread size. I use a ball head with a thread adapter.

[MattGP]

Well, managed a better pic tonight, can actually make out the Whirlpool 🥳

[robbymain]

Useful thread for me - I tried and failed to visually pick up M51 or M101 last night in a 6" reflector and rubbish skies. I will see about getting the Bortle measurement for my back garden... OK Clear Outside reports Class 6 but my estimate based on the criteria is 7-8.

Edited April 20, 2020 by robbymain

[MattGP]

The way I can find it through my lens now (just by knowing vacinity) is to put Alkaid in the bottom left of frame, then move up and to the right slightly- then the star maps in this thread helped me  

[noah4x4]

I don't know if this image will also help you find it. This is an extremely wide FOV of the Whirlpool Galaxy area at f/2 on Hyperstar.  I would normally zoom in to view it, but this view offers a panorama of the wider area. M51 is centre (n.b. use Zoom to enlarge). Sadly, seeing wasn't great, and my skies are Bortle 6. 

 

[MattGP]

11 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

I don't know if this image will also help you find it. This is an extremely wide FOV of the Whirlpool Galaxy area at f/2 on Hyperstar.  I would normally zoom in to view it, but this view offers a panorama of the wider area. M51 is centre (n.b. use Zoom to enlarge). Sadly, seeing wasn't great, and my skies are Bortle 6. 

 

Matter of interest What lens was this with? 

[Stardaze]

I was struggling to find it last night too. Bortle 5 for me and a 5" telescope. Need to have another go tonight. 

[noah4x4]

It was with Atik Horizon (original) on Hyperstar on an 8" Evolution. With Hyperstar, you remove your secondary mirror. That changes the scope from f/10 to f/2. This means images form 25x faster. Removing the secondary mirror results in  the huge FOV seen here. However, you do sacrifice magnification. But with a camera such as the Horizon, high resolution and tiny pixels mean I might Zoom in from here to compensate.

I am not surprised Stardaze struggled. My image is blighted by poor seeing conditions and Bortle six skies. Shortly after the cloud was overwhelming. An advantage of the Hyperstar route is you can achieve much more in less time.  But it's an expensive bit of kit. The new Starizona Night Owl 0.4x reducer goes a long way towards offering a lesser budget alternative. 

[Stardaze]

15 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

It was with Atik Horizon (original) on Hyperstar on an 8" Evolution. With Hyperstar, you remove your secondary mirror. That changes the scope from f/10 to f/2. This means images form 25x faster. Removing the secondary mirror results in  the huge FOV seen here. However, you do sacrifice magnification. But with a camera such as the Horizon, high resolution and tiny pixels mean I might Zoom in from here to compensate.

I am not surprised Stardaze struggled. My image is blighted by poor seeing conditions and Bortle six skies. Shortly after the cloud was overwhelming. An advantage of the Hyperstar route is you can achieve much more in less time.  But it's an expensive bit of kit. The new Starizona Night Owl 0.4x reducer goes a long way towards offering a lesser budget alternative. 

I found it last night but very difficult to see. Just about make out some blurred gases. Ordered a 10" dob yesterday so will have to wait a week or so and pray that conditions stay the same..

[MattGP]

18 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

It was with Atik Horizon (original) on Hyperstar on an 8" Evolution. With Hyperstar, you remove your secondary mirror. That changes the scope from f/10 to f/2. This means images form 25x faster. Removing the secondary mirror results in  the huge FOV seen here. However, you do sacrifice magnification. But with a camera such as the Horizon, high resolution and tiny pixels mean I might Zoom in from here to compensate.

I am not surprised Stardaze struggled. My image is blighted by poor seeing conditions and Bortle six skies. Shortly after the cloud was overwhelming. An advantage of the Hyperstar route is you can achieve much more in less time.  But it's an expensive bit of kit. The new Starizona Night Owl 0.4x reducer goes a long way towards offering a lesser budget alternative. 

I’m going to have to google every piece of kit you mentioned there 😂

[rob_r]

23 hours ago, Stardaze said:

I was struggling to find it last night too. Bortle 5 for me and a 5" telescope. Need to have another go tonight. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Here, I have Bortle 6, a 5" f12 scope with a GOTO system which gets me to the right area. It was with a little luck I managed to capture it a couple of weeks ago (be it off centre in the frame), then struggled to find it again since. I see nothing through various eyepieces other than the stars but with the captures it was revealed as a ghostly image on the subs with a Canon 600D. I'm eager to find it again to get more subs. I might try my 0.5x reducer and see if that makes things any easier.

Edited April 22, 2020 by rob_r

[Stardaze]

8 minutes ago, rob_r said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Here, I have Bortle 6, a 5" f12 scope with a GOTO system which gets me to the right area. It was with a little luck I managed to capture it a couple of weeks ago (be it off centre in the frame), then struggled to find it again since. I see nothing through various eyepieces other than the stars but with the captures it was revealed as a ghostly image on the subs with a Canon 600D. I'm eager to find it again to get more subs. I might try my 0.5x reducer and see if that makes things any easier.

I couldn't find it with my 25mm EP, but just in the 18mm. I tried the 8mm out of curiosity but my little 5" wasn't providing enough light. It wasn't easy with 5" f/6.92 last night so keep at it and hope for a better viewing evening. I know we're not supposed to as such right now, but maybe a field in the middle of nowhere, at midnight, on your own, could be allowed 😁

Edited April 22, 2020 by Stardaze

[MattGP]

Seems I’m being quite lucky with just  300mm telephoto lens then 🙏