My first go at a galaxy

[Keithp]

Fighting with gaps in high thin cloud and an ever encroaching moon I've managed this so far for Andromeda...(please tell me that's what it is)

Prime focus unguided, eos 500d, 22 images between 45 and 75 secs at iso 800 and 1600 plus 6 darks 3 at iso 800 and 3 at 1600.

I guess from reading elsewhere here I need to add alot more data to really bring out some sort of shape. Also not really well positioned. Just that it took about 15 mins to locate.. Flipping Sky6 glaring at me from the lappy and whether its me or not but it seems to not show true scale in the relationship between its display and the Sky.

But there we go for my first, that's two targets this week.

Happy bunny

Regards

Keithp

[Psychobilly]

yep its M31 alright

I'll setup your scope and camera in TheSky6 for you and pm you the scrren grabs of the bits you need to do... to create a FOV indicator...

How are you attaching the camera to the scope? are you usign 1.25" fittings?

Peter...

[mdstuart]

Lovely pic and you caught M32 so two galaxies for the price of 1.

[Keithp]

heh heh, two for the price of one, that's my kind of deal!

Many thanks for that mdstuart.

Peter, I'll take you up on your kind offer:icon_salut: I'm attaching the camera at prime to the t thread fitting on the 2" to 1.25" adapter for the focuser.

The main problem I have with Sky6 though is a couple of nights ago I inadvertently hit some key combination which has thrown up two circular blue halos, almost like some sort of light polution indicators. It sort of leaves a patch in the middle on 'normal night sky' with a blue semi circle stretching from the SE through E to NE horizon and on the other side SW through W to NW horizon. Not only do these light areas play havoc when your trying to read the screen outside in the dark they kill night vision off very quickly.

Must admit it won't be long before I start adding the eqmod thingy and controlling the syntrek mount from the lappy, but it's good fun doing it the hard way first.

Regards

All

Keithp

[Psychobilly]

Here you go Keith...

Create Scope

[ATTACH]25801[/ATTACH]

Create Detector - Used the 10D

[ATTACH]25802[/ATTACH]

Create FOV

[ATTACH]25803[/ATTACH]

And here's what you get for M31...

[ATTACH]25804[/ATTACH]

I would chnge over to a Max Dslr 2" adaptor for connecting the camera it will make a big difference to the vignetting that you are getting...

Peter....

[Keithp]

Hi Peter, many thanks for that I'll get on it right away. Sorted theSky6 problem, in my other thread...just took all the files from my other machine and overwrote them on the lappy....all back to normal now.

Just one point though Peter, I don't get any vignetting on any of the images I've took so far, I assume you mean where a circle field of view appears on the rectangular picture? Or do you mean it will allow me to move the focus point to a different position and get a wider field of view?

Regards

Keithp

[Psychobilly]

Vignetting is the darkening of the corners Keith.. on the M31 image at the start of this thread the bright circle isn't "centered" possibly something is slightly out of alignment...

The 2" adaptor would make a big difference to this..

Peter...

[Keithp]

Hi Peter, I've attached here one of the original raws -> tiff -> jpg. I've only re-sized it with no cropping. I had to very slightly crop the original stacked picture, but only a very small amount after stacking. Just to lose some mis-alignment space in the top left and bottom right corners.

But from this image I don't recognise what understand to be vignetting, the galaxy being off centre is purely down to my fault in not wanting to lose it when I finally worked out I'd caught it. Is that what you are referring to?

Regards

Keithp

[Psychobilly]

Its the fall of of the illumination towards the edges of the frame... you may not notice it in the images until you satrt to adjust the levels to pull more detail out of the image...

[Keithp]

Ah...twigged what you mean, you're referring to the glow of the galaxy area, the detail pulled out, being circular, gotcha:hello2:

Reet the betting accounts doing quite well..and we already have cloud tonight with not a good weekend.. I'll send off for one..

Heh heh

Regards

Keithp

[Keithp]

Hi All, I can confirm now what Peter is saying. I've just done a bit of over processing on M27 from earlier in the week and produced a similar result with a round halo of light, processing was applied to the whole picture and not one particular area.

Amazing, wouldn't have picked that up and be left wondering why all the shots had that halo.

Nice one Peter:icon_salut:, definately getting myself a 2" adapter now.

Regards

Keithp