M81 with DSLR

[chubster1302]

Hopefully going to out learnt knowledge to practice tonight and get a couple of hours on the above. Shooting with an unmodified D5300 through WO ZS73iii. What would be a good exposure times for my subs ? 

[FenderGreg]

Are you guiding? Tracking? Neither?

It’s a fairly bright galaxy so generally anything from 5mins and under is what I’ve done.

5mins really makes the core bright (bloated). Maybe 90-180 sec subs would be good

[chubster1302]

13 minutes ago, FenderGreg said:

Are you guiding? Tracking? Neither?

It’s a fairly bright galaxy so generally anything from 5mins and under is what I’ve done.

5mins really makes the core bright (bloated). Maybe 90-180 sec subs would be good

Sorry, yes. "Hopefully" guiding with phd2 on a EG5 Pro mount 

[Elp]

The longer your subs the better your guiding needs to be, the same also applies if you're shooting longer focal length. If atmospheric seeing is bad your guiding may also suffer. Anything around 30-60s will do but total imaging time is what will make the most difference. It's difficult for people to recommend duration to you as most of it depends on your local light pollution conditions and only you can assess this. If it's badly affecting your images you need to dial back the sub exposure length.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Elp

[900SL]

On 23/06/2023 at 12:16, chubster1302 said:

Hopefully going to out learnt knowledge to practice tonight and get a couple of hours on the above. Shooting with an unmodified D5300 through WO ZS73iii. What would be a good exposure times for my subs ? 

Use the D5300 histogram to determine a suitable exposure

[FenderGreg]

I did M81 and M82 again the other night and went with 2min subs as the histogram was placed nicely to the left and the core wasn’t blown out. Did try 3 min but it looked too bright.

with a 6” scope tho

[lordwimsey]

Hi, 

I also use a D5300 and try to learn. I have not succeeded in setting up proper guiding on my oooold HEQ-5 with Onstep-Mod yet, so I stayed at ~30s.

I gather about two minutes seems to be the recommendation, may I ask at what ISO and aperture? I read conficting info on ISO-Settings with the Nikons.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

Edited August 15, 2023 by lordwimsey