First globular

[miguel87]

M13 taken tonight, only my third real long exposure photo, pretty happy with it.

First time I have used flat frames which helped massively with vignetting compared to my last effort which was M81/82.

200p on an EQ5 with single axis motor run on batteries, unguided, 84x30sec exposures.

[MarkAR]

Well done, flats work a treat.

[Demonperformer]

That is very nice and a definite improvement on the galaxies. Keep up the good work!

[alacant]

7 hours ago, miguel87 said:

my third real long exposure

Hi

Excellent shot and thanks for helping to prove the don't-even-think-about-it-big-telescope-on-an-eq5 myth wrong! 

One thought: I think there are a lot more more stars waiting to be revealed in the background. They're still there I'm sure, but the dark sky is masking them. Worth a try with a paler sky maybe?

Cheers

Edited June 2, 2020 by alacant

[miguel87]

5 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Excellent shot and thanks for helping to prove the don't-even-think-about-it-big-telescope-on-an-eq5 myth wrong! 

One thought: I think there are a lot more more stars waiting to be revealed in the background. They're still there I'm sure, but the dark sky is masking them. Worth a try with a paler sky maybe?

Cheers

Thankyou for your comments. 

Yes I'm learning that you can get OK photos of a basic setup.

Wouldnt a brighter sky make the stars more difficult to see tho??

[alacant]

1 hour ago, miguel87 said:

brighter sky make the stars more difficult to see

Hi

By darkening the sky, you're losing a lot of the information you recorded. Even with your uploaded .png, you can see more stars with just a little change to exposure.

Starting with your .fits or .tif original, at 1000mm focal length, it should be spectacular; you'll see a lot more stars on the edge of the cluster.

Cheers and HTH

Edited June 2, 2020 by alacant

[miguel87]

33 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

By darkening the sky, you're losing a lot of the information you recorded. Even with your uploaded .png, you can see more stars with just a little change to exposure.

Starting with your .fits or .tif original, at 1000mm focal length, it should be spectacular; you'll see a lot more stars on the edge of the cluster.

Cheers and HTH

Ok thanks, that's good to know.

To be honest I am so bad at processing that I literally follow a bullet point list of instructions online because the photo editor software overwhelms me. I have never used computers of work or pleasure.

Will look into the processing process 👍

[KevinPSJ]

You've got some fantastic detail in the 2 galaxies - even if the sky is pretty bright. Well done finding them with the moon so bright this week. I spent half an hour last  week looking for M81/M82 and gave up - between waiting for moon to set and sky to get properly dark it was a pretty long night. Switched to M51 (whirlpool galaxy) instead which was high up and easier to find because the moon had set by that stage. Nothing is easy about this hobby  

I'm like you on post-processing - find it a real challenge and need a check list. I tried out startools and found it quite straightforward.  You can try it out for free and there are some good step-by-step guides: https://www.startools.org/modules/introduction/quick-start