A new set up, a few firsts...and plenty of time to process data

[festoon]

Well the weather has been awful since the new year here in Cambridgeshire, UK.

I've been building up my portable imaging rig over the xmas holiday. First arrived the AZ-GTi mount which has been modified for Eq mode. Second, my xmas present to myself of the Samyang 135mm f2 lens. For now I'm just using an ZWO ASI224MC Cool camera. I chose this over my other cameras as the pixel size is the smallest at 3.75um. Connected using the Geoptik cannon T2 adaptor. The setup is using an Intel M3 Compute stick and to control I'm using remote desktop.

I still have to tidy the cables up, but for weeks now have been desperate to try it out. Also during the lockdown period, I've taken the time to take a look at NINA. It looks to have all the capability needed, so installed it on the compute stick ready for first light.

On Sunday night I had about an hour of clear sky, so the the first time managed to get some data. Did a manual focus of the lens....I need to buy some extension rings to get the sensor the right distance from the lens flange, but focus looked sharp enough. Rushed polar alignment, and set NINA off for my first target....I wanted an easy target so M42 was chosen. Goto on the mount worked well. Plate solving got the target bang in the middle of the FOV. Managed to only get 74 x 10s, and 300 x 1s lights...so only 17 mins of data. I also used the time to get some darks, but didn't manage to get any flats before it got too late in the night for being up the next morning for work.

Spent the last 2 evening playing with the data, stacked DSS, Colour calibrated and gradients removed in Siril, and curve/levels in GIMP followed by merging two layers containing the 10s and 1s data. I'm not bothered about the quality of the image as it was more of a try out for the first time to make sure all was OK. But actually pleased with the result given how little time I spent actually gathering data for such a small aperture lens (albeit at f2) and that no flats were taken. Couple of different final images shown here. Personally I prefer the second image.

Looking forward to getting plenty of use of this little set up, and hopefully the weather will improve soon  

I am considering a mono camera and filters for this set up, but TBH, OSC is nice and quick! That's something I'm sure will be a discussion going forwards. I think the ASI533MC will be a great match for this set up....but with the new ASI2600MM coming out, I'm tempted! The obvious improvements for any of these will be higher ADC bits for higher dynamic range, no amp glow, and a much bigger FOV without compromising on resolution. Of course mono should give a better resolution than the OSC and a higher sensitivity, but as I say I'm still in two minds.

Clear Sky's!

Edited January 21, 2021 by festoon

[MartinB]

A great set up.  Looking forward to seeing what you produce with it.

[Space Oddities]

Great setup  Happy to see more fellow AZ-GTi users!

 

[festoon]

Thanks I'd be very happy to get ideas as to good targets for Jan/Feb with this set up.

As much as I love imaging the Orion nebula, it requires a bigger dynamic range sensor than my ASI224MC Cool and I'm limited to exposures sub 10s as I dont have any narrowband/multiband filters in the setup.