First Light Image - M51

[MikeWilson]

Hi all,

As it's been three months since my last image this is first light for quite a few new pieces of equipment and techniques.

First light list:

• Astrophotography Tool (APT) [it's moved on a lot since I last used it]
  
• PHD guiding
  
• EQDIR/EQMOD
  
• CdC
  
• Guidescope dew heater
  
• A big fat permanent marker (improves contrast)
  

I didn't know how long to expose for, so I mixed up a plan of a selection of 2, 3 and 5 minute exposures. The 5 minute ones came out best but *most* were ruined by cloud and later, heavy dew set in and coated the mirror of my Newt

2 x 2 min

5 x 3 min

6 x 5 min

Total: used 49 minutes (out of about three hours)

I'm not happy with the processing as I think I may have overdone it, however I am very happy with the outcome. Despite being freezing cold outside, when I saw M51 appear for the first time, I had a warm fuzzy feeling inside I am thrilled that I was able to capture anything at all considering the extensive light pollution (I can comfortably read outside in view of the 20 streetlamps, floodlights and fake air traffic control tower lights that pervade my imaging location)*.

With this image I have managed to confirm what was causing the previous reflections that had plagued all my images to date. It was the reflection of some nut or bolt inside the tube. I used a permanent black marker and dabbed all the shiny metal pieces that I could as well as the outside edge of the secondary mirror. This ten minute job has dramatically improved the contrast of the tube and I'm really surprised that Synta don't use black screws in their reflector telescopes as it's quite an easy 'mod' to improve contrast.

I'll put a sheet of flocking paper into the tube when I can.

Widefield

100% crop

Equipment:

Skywatcher 150P on HEQ5 PRO mount

Skywatcher ST80 & QHY6 guided with PHD

Canon 1000D and Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filter

*I'm thrilled that I have a garden that lets me look up towards the skies and filters that clearly cut out most of the light pollution.

[Mark-mck]

Really nice image there. i'd be chuffed to bits with that if it was mine.

[MikeWilson]

Thanks Mark,

I am very pleased with it

[kris h]

Looks great mike

like mark said ill be very happy if that was my image

[AndyUK]

Excellent to have you back posting images again Mike - You must feel really chuffed after all that time! . I'd be very interested to hear your experiences with EQMOD and PHD/QHY (compared to the Synguider )

[MikeWilson]

Hi Andy,

Thanks and yes, I am really chuffed to finally have a little bit of time to myself to make an image!

There was more than enough stuff in the first light list there was plenty to tinker with to keep me going during the atmospheric downtime

EQMOD

EQMOD has been a benefit here primarily for alignment and a few other time savers such as not having to enter in location or time every time the mount is switched on. So I want to align the scope using the handset, normally I am restricted to a set of stars where at least half are impossible to see (due to house, trees, light pollution) and the other half, according to sods law are mostly not near the target.

Now I can align on Polaris (the telescope starts here, so why not use it - I couldn't using SynScan) and then slew over to whatever stars I like. This way I can easily get around to creating a triangle around the target that I'm looking for with just a few clicks and a comprehensive and searchable star list. That shaves a bit of time off alignment - the extra faffing about in setup (extra wires + Windows) adds about ten minutes onto setup but I save about ten minutes and maybe more as I get the more precise alignment that I need so it all works out.

Ergonomically, a wireless gamepad feels better in the hand and is easier to use than the hand controller. I think Synta have missed a trick by not including some sort of joystick accessory for use with the hand controller as a single analogue control in one hand while you're focussing/aligning/shielding your eyes is an understated benefit!

PHD/QHY

An improvement on the SynGuider overall. The Synguider (with a camera remote) is more practical for the reduced-weight mobile setup for obvious reasons. However, the QHY5 doesn't require external power (it takes what it needs over the USB cable) and PHD software is more powerful than the Synguider built in software - it calibrates very well, it's easier to focus, it largely works with a single click, it's easier to see why things go wrong and ultimately on the one-and-a-half nights that I've used PHD, I have gotten tighter and rounder stars than I did with SynGuider.

Would I go with the laptop/EQMOD/PHD solution just for guiding? No. But as I'm already using the laptop for running APT and CdC, PHD makes sense. It's also cheaper than a SynGuider.

These are just my thoughts at this moment in time, happy to discuss on a separate equipment thread later

[AndyUK]

Cheers Mike - I think I'll be following you (and many others ) down the "attached" route one day...

[MikeWilson]

Cheers Mike - I think I'll be following you (and many others ) down the "attached" route one day...

I think it's a case of if you have a fixed setup like an obsy (and therefore no setup time) then an attached laptop and bundles of cables is definitely the only way to go; it doesn't make sense to use portable kit or batteries in that regard. Also if you're using a CCD, you've probably got no choice

I've got a Maplin storage case which the netbook lives in under a coiled set of cables. Plug the cables in and switch the netbook on isn't too bad, so don't feel put off by it. Having said that, if the skies were clear I'd probably not have been tempted to tinker as I don't want to lose a lovely clear night to tinkering

[AndyUK]

Cheers again Mike - My wife still won't go for my idea of building a new shed (with removable roof) in the far corner of the garden, as it would more or less take up about 1/4 the garden we have... So an obsy isn't on the cards for me in this house

[MikeWilson]

Cheers again Mike - My wife still won't go for my idea of building a new shed (with removable roof) in the far corner of the garden, as it would more or less take up about 1/4 the garden we have... So an obsy isn't on the cards for me in this house

My wife has said that I can have an obsy but it's not practical here; maybe a pier? It would save having to PA each time.

[MartinB]

Looks great Mike, the dust is showing very nicely. It doesn't look over processed to me. The galaxy looks like it could cope with a little bit of sharpening but you certainly could easily over do that with only 49 minutes data. One to be very happy with!

[Uranium235]

For 49 minutes, thats pretty good!

I see youve got a guidescope dew heater, is there a strip for both ends then?

[MikeWilson]

Hi Martin & Uranium,

Thanks for your feedback. I had hoped for 180 minutes and I felt a little queasy deleting all the frames of imperfect seeing

The dew heater strap is on the ST80 at the objective lens end. I expect that I also need one for the back of the Newtonian and/or the front of the Newt around the focuser to keep dew off the camera lens (MPCC lens).

So much dew...

[Guest]

Hi Andy,

Thanks and yes, I am really chuffed to finally have a little bit of time to myself to make an image!

Hi Mike,

Great image and encouraging as I'm about to go down the QHY6/PHD route with my set up. I tried using the Synguider but it seemed incompatible with my mount (EQ-5 Synscan Pro).

Excellent advice about using EQMod to select stars (I'll probably use stellarium) as I have the same problem with houses etc from my obby. I'll try that solution next time it's clear - I have to do a re-alignment having faffed around with the set up trying to get the Synguider to work.

Thanks again for sound advice (you too Andy!)

David

[Beyond_Vision]

Back on track then Mike I bet you are pleased with that

Regards

Kevin

[MikeWilson]

Thanks Kev and David,

I've done M101 since and yes - very happy indeed. Finally, I think I'm getting the hang of it

Quite a learning curve!

Mike