Early beginner attempts

[Jonathan_Shields]

Recently bought a Heritage 150p Virtuoso and a ZWO ASI585 specifically for EAA and have been enjoying myself seeing a lot more detail than I could visually in Bortle 6.  I have had a battle with clouds and dew but I am reasonably happy.  I tried M97 and just couldn't see it so I was either in the wrong place or its not viable with 6 inches of aperture.  I am still getting to grips with Sharpcap so I am quite possibly missing something.  These are all just stretch/colour balance in Sharpcap during the capture and then crop only to remove the field rotation effects. M65/66, M3, M51, M81,M82, Hamburger galaxy NGC3628 and M53 (horrible noise/gradient on that one)

[Xio1996]

Hi Jonathon,

Those are really great images. I agree that the difference in detail you see between visual and EAA is quite amazing. Have you tried M42 yet? That usually blows your socks off! 😄

What settings were you using to capture your images?

Have fun.

Pete

 

[Jonathan_Shields]

1 hour ago, Xio1996 said:

Hi Jonathon,

Those are really great images. I agree that the difference in detail you see between visual and EAA is quite amazing. Have you tried M42 yet? That usually blows your socks off! 😄

What settings were you using to capture your images?

Have fun.

Pete

 

Thanks. M42 is currently at the front of my house near lots of streetlights so i might save that one for early winter.

I used about 350 gain and either 2 or 4 seconds...4 for the galaxies. In Sharpcap I used the bilateral noise filter.

[Xio1996]

Hi Jonathan,

I find I use between 4s and 15s subs. I have an Altair Astro camera so my gain setting is 900. Which sounds huge to ZWO camera owners but this is just where the Altair Astro camera enters HCG mode on their gain scale. The enhancement features are good in SharpCap as are the background gradient removal settings. 

Have fun

Pete

[Jonathan_Shields]

On 19/03/2023 at 23:47, Xio1996 said:

Hi Jonathan,

I find I use between 4s and 15s subs. I have an Altair Astro camera so my gain setting is 900. Which sounds huge to ZWO camera owners but this is just where the Altair Astro camera enters HCG mode on their gain scale. The enhancement features are good in SharpCap as are the background gradient removal settings. 

Have fun

Pete

Background removal is on my list of things to try. I also will try pushing up my exposure time as i think particularly away from the zenith people are getting no trails with alt-az at a lot higher times than i have used. 15 seconds is impressive.

[Jonathan_Shields]

Terrible weather here this week but I managed a couple of stacks during a brief clear spell.  The M101 I am OK with and this was with 8 second exposures.  The FWHM filter dropped a lot more than with 4s but I think the result is better.  Great example of a SAB(rs)cd galaxy apparently...slightly barred bulge with a slight around the centre and loosely bound arms...to me its like a catherine wheel.

M100 and Ceres I was pleased to see but the skyglow wrecked the pic a bit.  Now payday is nearly here I am going to order a Baader Neodynium.