Not that much imaging recently, due to the appaling weather, so I was relieved that the weather was clear for 3 nights in a row over the weekend. Am just getting used to my new QHY8 Cooled CCD camera… yet another learning curve to climb, but am getting there slowly.
I managed to squeeze this one out on Friday night (click on the image for a HUGE version)
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Moon shot, 25th August 2007
Despite the high thin clouds, I managed to get some failry decent sequences out of my setup. Last night was the first light for my William Optics Zenith Star 66 SD and the counterweight system…oh man, I wasnt disappointed 🙂
First up, yet another M57, and the first one I`ve captured with some nebulosity round the edges. (Almost cerainly due to my installation of Bob’s Knobs and collimating it to within an inch of its life!)
OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Guiding: PHD + WO66 + DSI (yes, was subpixel guiding at FL 388mm @ f/5.9 without too many hiccups)
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)
Sequence: 10 x 240 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)
Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker
Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools
(Note:This is cropped but not reduced from RAW image size)
Next M31, and I`ve been waiting for this one to peek its head over the roof/gutter for a few weeks now. For thisone, I reversed the imaging/guiding train, so the WO66 was imaging and the NS8GPS was guiding.
OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66
Guiding: PHD + NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10 + DSI
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)
Sequence: 10 x 120 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)
Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker
Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools
(A little distortion at the edges, but I dont have the 0.8 field flattener for it yet)
(Please click on images for a larger version)
Now I understand when people state that the WO66 can punch well above it weight… this “little” OTA rocks!
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on M57 and M31/M110
Despite the best efforts of the Moon to destroy a perfectly clear sky, I managed to get these:
All images taken with:
OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded), Images Plus Camera Control
Guiding: OAG + PHD + DSI-C
Subs: 30 x 30sec, ISO800, (plus 20 darks)
Processed: DeepSkyStacker, PSCS2
M2
M11
M13
M15
M92
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on 5 Clusters from Friday night
First imaging session on this, as it has started to poke its nose over the top of my house. I knew it was big, but not quite this big! I need the focal reducer on it for next time. This session was more of a investigation for when I get a better/longer view.
Canon 350D (unmodded), Only 10 x 120s @ ISO800, 10x darks, NS8GPS @ f/10, OAG+PHD+DSI, DSS, PSCS2 + Noels AstroTools
Not great, but its a baseline to work from next time (damn the moon glow! but at least I got out 🙂 )
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on M31, Andromeda Galaxy
A clear night, and I wasnt going to waste it. A few (predicted) clouds as the sky was darkening:
Jupiter top left, Antares below left, moon to right
Once this band had passed, I powered on and did the usual alignment dance for 20 minutes or so.
First target, M11, the wild Duck Cluster.
OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Guiding: OAG + PHD + DSI-C
Images: Canon 350D, 10 x 60s @ ISO800 (+5 darks) via DSLRFocus
Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CS + Noel’s AstroTools
Note: Last time I tried imaging this, I also got “redish” background stars. No idea why, might be light pollution but not 100% sure
Next, the tricky one, that went bad, but I learned a lot from it – M16, Eagle Nebula.
Being an emission neb meant that it has plenty of Ha… but my 350D is *UNMODDED* and so most of the Ha is blocked by the inbuilt Canon filter. Even so, I needed to have a go, “just to see” what I could manage. I knew I had to get as much data as possible because of the Canon filter issue, and so used my CLS filter to reduce the effect of LP…. but in the end I over did the exposure time, and the subs and darks started to show a lot of random hot pixels when processed, which destroyed the stacking process. Still, I managed to salvage a final image from it, and learned something new…
Here is a rescaled (but unprocess) RAW:
If I do a basic curves on it, you can start to see the hot pixels starting to create a lot of noise in the darker areas (well, everywhere actually)
After imaging for nearly an hour (plus the darks), I just had to salvage something from the subs, so here is what I managed to retrieve (no darks, they just made things worse)
OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Guiding: OAG + PHD + DSI-C
Images: Canon 350D, 6 x 600s @ ISO800 (no darks) via DSLRFocus
Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CS + Noel’s AstroTools
Note: No Darks, so Amp glow quite prominant in lower right. Bright red “hot pixel” upper right quarter.
The clouds rolled in across the horizon as the last light was being taken, so it was time to pack up while I left the Canon taking the 10 minute darks. I will definitely be back for this fantastic Nebula, more subs, but (and a first for me) shorter exposures.
Things learned last night:
– Emission Nebs can be captured on unmodded Canons… just!
– 10 min subs is too much for ISO800
– The CLS filter effectively halves the amount of light coming through, but it does remove the LP
– My autoguiding works fine
– My polar align routine seems ok (no field rotation in the images that I can see)
– Need “smoother” darker subs that I can stretch, rather than “brighter” noisey subs that just get even more noisey as they get processed
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on M11 (Wild Duck Cluster), M16 (Eagle Nebula)
A while back, I tooks a wide field image of the Cygnus area with my Canon 350D, piggybacked on my NexStar 8 GPS. Well, I managed to get *some* detail out of those images, but after the kind Mr Peonic told me how to actually use Noel’s AstroTools Light Pollution Removal (“You did read the readme.txt file, didnt you?”), this allowed me to pull an amazing amount of detail out of the raw images
Here is one of the unprocessed subs
Then I had a stab at pulling the detail out of it by hand
and then todays amazing image that popped out of the screen at me (excuse the crazy dayglo house colour!)
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments (1)
Another M57, another evening of problems (almost all self induced*)… but it was clear, and the skies were darker than I last remember 🙂
Scope: Celestron NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)
Guiding: OAG + PHD + DSI
Imaging: 3 frames (300s @ ISO800), 2 darks (see below*), ImagesPlus Camera control v3 beta, DeepSkyStacker, PSCS + Noel’s Tools
*Problems included:- the NS8GPS being powered down for so long that the GPS wouldnt link for 30 minutes and the handset started playing up
– saving the images as jpg (8bit… doh!)
– gently nudging/kicking the tripod during the last image, hence the slight trailing
– the Canon batteries dying halfway through my dark taking
Started the imaging session with Jupiter, which has moved past the house next door and is in a good position for early imaging. I had spent about 20 minutes before the recollimating my NexStar 8 GPS, and the results speak for themselves (considering how low in the sky Jupiter is from UK this year).
I then moved on to M57, and managed to squeeze this one single shot out of the Canon 350D before the patchy clouds rolled in and ruined any chance of a decent sequence.
I`ll be back for more subs on this, because this is a very clear image for a single sub.
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on M57 and a good Jupiter
I wasnt planning on creating anything worthwhile last night, it was planned to just use the OAG and PHD to learn how to get the auto guiding working. I wasnt even looking at the images being created, I was just watching PHD and the guiding application…. but then I processed the images this morning and thought it might be worth at least showing it.
OTA: Celestron NexStar 8 GPS + Wedge
Images: Canon 350D Unmodded, DSLR Focus, 10 x 3min @ ISO1600, 5 x darks
Guiding: Off Axis Guider, PHD + Meade DSI-C
Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CS
Please note: As I had reinstalled DSLRFocus in the last few days, dumbass here didnt notice that I managed to take the sequence as normal/small jpegs, and not large/raw… doh! So not only are the originals small, they are also all 8 bit data… double doh!
for reference, here is a unprocessed single sub
Anyway, I`ll be returning to get more data for M51, with longer subs, and more time… and large/raw images!!!
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on My first autoguided image – M51
Just thought I`d try this last night…. (please ignore the low flying house in the image)
Canon 350D (unmodded), piggybacked on my NS8GPS
Unguided
13 x 60s @ ISO800, 5 Bias, 5 Darks
Stacked: DSS
Tweak: Photoshop CS, overprocessed almost totally to death with NoelC’s Tools, but I dont care!
(Note: The sky was starting to lighten quickly towards the lower-left of the image)
And for reference, from Starry Night:
First time I have done this… I`m amazed at the detail! I`ll be doing this more often i think…… I need longer subs … again… 🙂
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on Wide Field Cygnus
