Enough bunnies for a warren....!

[Helen]

I haven't done any imaging for ages and ages, mainly because of terrible weather, but also I'd lost my confidence a bit after a few nights when nothing went right. So tonight I noticed that Venus was visible in the twilight so opened up the Obs. Got a quick shot of Venus with the webcam, and bouyed by that (relative) success I thought I'd give good old M42 a go.

Seeing was awful, large banks of clouds rolled over, my focussing was poor (forgot completely about the mask D'oh), I framed the shot badly, and there are amazing dust bunnies all over the image (the diagonal is the culprit I think!). But apart from that it was great! Well actually, I'm happy, because despite all that I've got an image - its bad, but it shows the potential of my system if I can get good skies and take a bit more care in setting up. Oh, and its the first time I've got the running man (well apart from his head - see earlier point about framing...!)

I would have learnt from the first subs tonight and corrected the problems, but I got completely clouded out after half an hour.

So here it is....

SXVFH9 on ZS66, piggybacked on a Nexstar 8GPS, unguided 9x60s subs. Captured with astroart, overprocessed in elements.

Helen

[RobH]

Hey Helen, don't knock yourself!

That's a good image, and you've caught a heck of a lot of surrounding nebulousity too.

Nice one :-)

Cheers

Rob

[barkis]

That's not bad at all Helen. The image is a good one in itself. The Bunnies you can sort out for next time you get an opportunity.

The main thing is you got out there and did some imaging.

You haven't lost confidence, it is lack of decent skies to blame.

You'll be OK next time out, for sure.

Ron.

[Les Tilly]

Nice start, we all had problems in the beginning and still do but you learn from them and keep plugging along I know my first M42 was no were near as good as yours

Good Job

Les

[jgs001]

Nice one Helen, lost of detail in there. Shame about the conditions...

[Kai]

Helen , dont be too hard on yourself

The scope combo works well and for 9 mins of exposure you have got alot of detail there.

Just think how good your next image is going to be !!!1

[Helen]

Thanks for the encouragement guys . I need to get the guiding back working next time, and then get the filter wheel set up going too. Then colour images here we come:blob7:

Helen

[Psychobilly]

Congrats on getting out Helen...

I'm bothe yearning for and dreading the first nights imaging again after this long break...will have to get the idiots guide laminated and printed...as otherwise I am bound to forget something

Billy...

[bazza]

Helen, there are alot of positives about this image.

Firstly, although unguided, it shows your mount is tracking pretty good as even with the one minute exposures, the stars are round.

That means when you are guiding, there's less work for it to do.

There is alot of detail in the nebulosity for just 9 minutes.

You wouldn't want to see my first effort with M42 - it was just a blob!

As for the bunnies, they can be sorted later. Do you have a light box?

I'm curious as to why you are using a diagonal with the SXVF-H9?

You should just be able to connect it to the ZS66, although you may need a 2" extension tube. The less optics in the chain, the better.

That's a good image Helen, don't be too hard on yourself.

Barry.

[roundycat]

I second Bazza above, why are you using a diagonal. If that is where most of the dust is you can get rid of it easily, get rid of the diagonal.

Dennis

[centroid]

Hey, come on Helen, its not at all bad really, given the conditions you describe, and at least you actually found a brief hole in this cloud.

The stars are nice and round, so your mount is nicely alligned, and 'tracking' well.

As for the diagonal, I too have to ask why?. If as I think, its because of a lack of available back focus, then as suggested, a simple extension tube with overcome the problem

Dave

[Paxo]

Excellent image Helen despite the conditions. Looks like you have dust on a couple of surfaces, there seems to be at least two distinct sizes of dust bunnies (one ***** size, one mountain Hare!).

I would second Dave's suggestion of the extension tube, it will remove another source of dust.

Steve..

[CELESCOPE]

Hi Helen ,i think we all find it a bit daunting after a long lay off, good job i write everthing down , else i would forget ,lol ,

But just look at the Stars Helen , super round , ok the bunnies need sorting , they are always a pain .dont notice them using Ha , but once on say CLS they show up big time ,so just make sure everything is ultra clean before setting off imaging.

The image is just fine other than that , so dont go worrying.

Rog

[MikeD]

looking good Helen.

Here's to the next one.

mike.

[Helen]

Thanks guys. The image has actually encouraged me, rather than got me down. I'm going to have to check all my surfaces... thinking about it again I didn't use the diagonal on the ZS66, I used it on the C8 for the Venus shot . I do have the 2 inch extension on the ZS66 (and as an aside I need to work out how to stabilise that to avoid flex..). So I need to work out where else the dust bunnies have come from - I think that only leaves two options, the scope and the camera, as I didn't use filters. The last time I used the scope it was very dewy, so maybe that caused a problem. One for checking in the light on the weekend I think.

Watch this space....

Helen

[Taff]

Hi Helen' That is a nice picture of the neb.Mark