Sadr Region in Cygnus

[newbie alert]

17 hours ago, carastro said:

Thank you Newbie Alert.  You might want to change that Avatar name later on ha ha.

Carole 

Only when I've stopped saying/ doing stupid things

Isn't going to happen

[Hallingskies]

On 21/05/2020 at 19:50, carastro said:

Samyang 135mm F2 lens, but I stopped it down to F2.8
Atik460EX and Baader filters on HEQ5
Ha 900 x 8 & Ha 600 X 9 total Ha 3 1/2 hours
Oiii 9 x 300 binned (45m)
Sii 8 x 300 binned (40m)
Hubble Palette + RGB (for the stars) 12 x 200 each NOT binned. Total 2 hours
Cloud stopped play on the 2nd night or would have got more Oiii and Sii.

Total imaging time (over 2 nights) 6h 55mins or 7 hours as near as damn it.
Bortle 8

Very nice!  Some questions, as I have a 135mm lens I would like to try out..

Are you autoguiding, or is the HEQ5 OK on its own at that focal length?

Why have you stopped down to 2.8?  Were you seeing edge defects at 2.0, even though the 460 chip isn’t full frame?

How have you mounted your filters?  I can’t get enough back focus to use a filter wheel and have had to resort to a drawer arrangement.

Any guidance (no pun intended) appreciated.

[carastro]

Hi Hallingskies.

To be honest I am guiding because I can.  I haven't tried imaging with this lens without guiding.

I stopped down to F2.8 as I was advised to as a beginner with this lens,  but might try imaging at F2 soon.

I am using an Atik camera with an Atik EFW2 filterwheel, and an adapter from Bern at Modern Astronomy which is supposed to be for the ZWO camera, but fits my Filterwheel OK, it all seems to fit.  (I went for this arrangement as I saw another Samyang Owne using the same equipment as me and he said the back spacing was fine.  So I just emulated what he had).

This is a photo of my set up.  

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by carastro

[peter shah]

Thats beautiful Carole

[x6gas]

Really like that Carole - a lot going on but you've processed the data really well.  Definitely a keeper!

[carastro]

Thanks Peter and X6gas

Carole 

[Ruud]

It's exceptional of course. A beauty!

[carastro]

Thanks Ruud.

Carole 

[Hallingskies]

2 hours ago, carastro said:

Hi Hallingskies.

To be honest I am guiding because I can.  I haven't tried imaging with this lens without guiding.

I stopped down to F2.8 as I was advised to as a beginner with this lens,  but might try imaging at F2 soon.

I am using an Atik camera with an Atik EFW2 filterwheel, and an adapter from Bern at Modern Astronomy which is supposed to be for the ZWO camera, but fits my Filterwheel OK, it all seems to fit.  (I went for this arrangement as I saw another Samyang Owne using the same equipment as me and he said the back spacing was fine.  So I just emulated what he had).

This is a photo of my set up.  

Thanks for the info Carole.  I‘ll take a look at MA’s adaptors to see if that can help with the back focus as I’d rather use a filter wheel.  Can’t tell from the photo whether you have automated the focus - it seems OK to do manually from my initial tests but I am guessing critical focussing might be pretty challenging at F2.

[carastro]

Quote

Can’t tell from the photo whether you have automated the focus - it seems OK to do manually from my initial tests but I am guessing critical focussing might be pretty challenging at F2.

I do it manually with a Bahtinov mask.  I have one of the Astrokraken microfocussers which is great for fine tuning and locking the focus.  However, I had some problems on the first night and found I could not get exact focus in blue and green as the focus ring had reached as far as it would go.  But on the second night it was fine.  I have had this before and wondered why, some-one told me that filter focus can vary according to the temperature, but I never realised it would vary from one filter to another, just thought temperature would affect all of them not just some of them.

Carole 

[silentrunning]

Wow that is stunning Carol. Well done on the acquisition and the processing!