NGC 7000 - My First Space Photo

[Vallantho]

So after about a year of figuring things out and a whole lot of learning by failing I’ve finally produced something I’m not entirely ashamed to share. Taken last night under a full moon and towards the dark destroying glare from Southampton docks. A year ago I didn’t think this would be possible. 
 

There’s still a few bugs to iron out. Stars aren’t very star shaped in the corners. I’ll probably need to shim between the camera and flattener a bit more. Guiding might need a little tightening up. But when all’s said and done I feel like I’m heading in the right direction at last.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Vallantho

[The Admiral]

That's a commendably good start, especially given the conditions.

It might be helpful to indicate what gear you used, the filter used, number of subs etc, and what you processed with.

Ian

[Clarkey]

11 hours ago, Vallantho said:

produced something I’m not entirely ashamed to share.

Don't ever worry about sharing your images - even the not so good ones. Everyone on this forum is keen to help and it is very rare for any images to get anything other than constructive criticism.

[Vallantho]

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

That's a commendably good start, especially given the conditions.

It might be helpful to indicate what gear you used, the filter used, number of subs etc, and what you processed with.

Ian

Well it was 140x60sec lights. 50 each of dark, flat and bias. One thing I didn’t do actually was look through them and toss out any bad subs. I use SIRIL for processing and affinity photo for touch ups. 
 

On the gear side of things I’m using a Sky-Watcher Evolux 62ED with a StellaMira field flatter. Camera is a Fuji X-T2 and an L-Enhance filter. For guiding I got a Svbony SV165 30mm scope and an SV905c guide camera. 
 

That’s all sat on top of an Iexos-100 and everything is controlled through Astro Imager D1 talking to an Indigo Sky server running on a raspberry pi.

[Vallantho]

1 hour ago, Clarkey said:

Don't ever worry about sharing your images - even the not so good ones. Everyone on this forum is keen to help and it is very rare for any images to get anything other than constructive criticism.

Well not so much ashamed. Just setting standards for myself. I used to do a lot of landscape photography with my old 8x10 field camera. Over the years I’ve developed, pardon the pun, a certain expectation of what I’m able to achieve. Unfortunately I can’t get out as much as I’d like. Responsibilities at home that demand constant attention. But there’s a world of landscapes up there to explore.

one day I’ll probably play around with shooting with film. I got a couple of medium format cameras that would be fun to try out some Astrophotography with 

[Lee_P]

Great shot, you've captured lots of fine detail there 👍

[TreetopsAstro]

I'm looking into buying the Evolux 62ed, but I'm not trying to pony up almost the same cost for the SW field flattener, so seeing your great shot with a 3rd party flattener certainly made my day. Are there, if any, necessary adapters needed to install the StellaMira onto the 62ed? Excellent pic!

[Vallantho]

13 hours ago, TreetopsAstro said:

I'm looking into buying the Evolux 62ed, but I'm not trying to pony up almost the same cost for the SW field flattener, so seeing your great shot with a 3rd party flattener certainly made my day. Are there, if any, necessary adapters needed to install the StellaMira onto the 62ed? Excellent pic!

I just got my flattner inserted in the visual back. You can take the nose piece off it and it has a female m48 thread. The focus tube has I think an M63x1.0 thread on the end. I’ve only found one M63 to M48 adapter https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/ts-m63-to-m48-adaptor.html it’s £40

i haven’t bought it because the advantage of using the 2 inch nose piece in the visual back is you can put a 2 inch filter on the end and you can also rotate the camera easily. 

I’m no expert at all but seems to me to be a decent enough scope at a reasonable price point. If I had any complaints about it I’d say the bottom thumb screw for tightening up the focus tube is in a bad place. It protrudes too far and makes it impossible to move the dovetail back to help with balance. I got round this by replacing it with a shorter thumbscrew with a bit of nylon rod glued on the end. The rack and pinion looks like brass so a bare stainless steel thumbscrews will probably mangle it up over time. You could alternatively make a riser block as in this thread 

I probably will spring for the official reducer in time. But using an apsc camera I wanted to retain its full 400mm focal length. I’ve also got an Altair Hypercam 183C pro which has a small field of view and the reducer will give me some more options with that camera .

so yeah not a bad little scope all in all

Edited June 10, 2023 by Vallantho

[Sunshine]

That is a great image! I love the color and I can’t see anything wrong with the stars, great work!

[Vallantho]

5 hours ago, Sunshine said:

That is a great image! I love the color and I can’t see anything wrong with the stars, great work!

Thank you👍