The Astronomy hobby thread

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

Captured my first long focal length image the other night. M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. These two, interacting galaxies are 23 million light-years away from us and about 3/4 the size of our own galaxy.

Shot with Atik 16200 mono camera, 16, 3 minute sub exposures combined for 48 minutes total expose. This is the luminence channel only. I will get red, green, and blue to add color to the image later.

Scope used was 14" Meade ARC with reducer at approximately 2500mm focal length.

These 3 minute sub exposures are un-guided and show the true potential of the mount once guiding and periodic error correction are added.

Wow! That's a great image. In my CPC 800 that's just a wee little whirly-Q.

[RNajarian]

I’m impressed/envious of some of the photos you guys have taken.

I dusted off my Celestron 5SE and have been able to view a number of remarkable deep sky objects in addition to objects in our solar system.

I picked up a cheapo SVBony 105 optical imager and have made a few images (nothing like what you guys are doing)

My question is: If I want to step it to the next level (astrophotography-wise) what do you guys recommend?

I am still playing with the Software to see if I can improve the resolution (through stacking) but I’m curious what advice the group would have for a nubie?

Bigger Scope?
Better Optical imager?

Thanks for your thoughts

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

Captured my first long focal length image the other night. M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. These two, interacting galaxies are 23 million light-years away from us and about 3/4 the size of our own galaxy.

Shot with Atik 16200 mono camera, 16, 3 minute sub exposures combined for 48 minutes total expose. This is the luminence channel only. I will get red, green, and blue to add color to the image later.

Scope used was 14" Meade ARC with reducer at approximately 2500mm focal length.

These 3 minute sub exposures are un-guided and show the true potential of the mount once guiding and periodic error correction are added.

As usual, very impressive stuff. I've always wanted to get a "good" view of M51. I believe I was once able to see a super faint fuzzy with averted vision. You know, where you keep looking and you think you saw it but you wonder "did I see it or did I want to see it so badly that my brain is playing tricks on me?"

Amazing image, and fantastic stability considering the focal length and time and the stars are pretty much round. It looks like you get a tiny little galaxy to the top right of the right hand galaxy.

Originally Posted by RNajarian

I’m impressed/envious of some of the photos you guys have taken.

I dusted off my Celestron 5SE and have been able to view a number of remarkable deep sky objects in addition to objects in our solar system.

I picked up a cheapo SVBony 105 optical imager and have made a few images (nothing like what you guys are doing)

My question is: If I want to step it to the next level (astrophotography-wise) what do you guys recommend?

I am still playing with the Software to see if I can improve the resolution (through stacking) but I’m curious what advice the group would have for a nubie?

Bigger Scope?
Better Optical imager?

Thanks for your thoughts

Your moon shot is good. To make that better, it needs more post processing to make it pop a bit more (basically, more contrast and maybe some saturation in the most basic terms). The full moon is tough since it's so well lit. A more dramatic moon is usually a partial so you've got more highlight and shadow on the craters that are at the edge of the lit area

Not my photo (photo from here)


As for Jupiter, if you want to see bands or the GRS or any detail, then you'll have to dial back the exposure a lot. The problem then is that you may then not pick up the moons. For sure, for planetary (Jupiter and Saturn and Mars) you'll want to take video. Then once you have video, you get one of the apps that has been discussed earlier which will pull out the best frames from the video and then stack them to give you a better image.

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

I’m impressed/envious of some of the photos you guys have taken.

I dusted off my Celestron 5SE and have been able to view a number of remarkable deep sky objects in addition to objects in our solar system.

I picked up a cheapo SVBony 105 optical imager and have made a few images (nothing like what you guys are doing)

My question is: If I want to step it to the next level (astrophotography-wise) what do you guys recommend?

I am still playing with the Software to see if I can improve the resolution (through stacking) but I’m curious what advice the group would have for a nubie?

Bigger Scope?
Better Optical imager?

Thanks for your thoughts

My suggestions....

Get yourself a smaller, imaging refractor, something in the 70 to 90mm range and short focal length...say, less than 600mm. An ED doublet will work great and not be expensive. A APO triplet is even better but more $.

Next, get German Equatorial mount or even some of the new sky tracker type mounts to try it out, see if you like it.

A one shot color camera is your friend while learning, no messing around with various filters to add color.

Start out small, see where it leads, you may hate it, lol.

[Eric Hahl]

My two latest captures from this weekend.

The Crescent Nebula:


The North American and Pelican nebulas:

[Evans, Marv]

Wow !!!

[bugstrider]

Speechless!!!!


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[Rusty Heap]

i suck

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

i suck

Yea, you and me both!

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

My suggestions....

Get yourself a smaller, imaging refractor, something in the 70 to 90mm range and short focal length...say, less than 600mm. An ED doublet will work great and not be expensive. A APO triplet is even better but more $.

Next, get German Equatorial mount or even some of the new sky tracker type mounts to try it out, see if you like it.

A one shot color camera is your friend while learning, no messing around with various filters to add color.

Start out small, see where it leads, you may hate it, lol.

I'll step in and disagree completely. Eric is a refractor guy, and when you own a hammer, everything looks like a nail That being said, I have my first refractor arriving this week...it'll be clipped onto my new Super Polaris, old school baby!



Ehem, back to the subject at hand. You have a 5 inch SE GoTo telescope, which 15 years ago (even 10 years ago) would have been out of the question for 75% of telescope owners, yet we were doing all sorts of imaging back then. Those mounts are perfectly capable of finding and following objects, and allowing planetary imaging.

The weak points in your setup:
The 5 inch SE was the smaller, weaker mount, shared with the 4 inch. The 6/8 used a larger heavier mount. If you like how that scope works (how the keypad works, etc) then you can buy a used 6/8 inch mount, and put your 5 inch scope on it. You'll end up with a mount that is oversized for the scope. You can find them for, oh, $250-300.

Also, you can then upgrade when the time comes since it uses a Vixen dovetail, so it's easy to toss an 8 inch Cassegrain on there later.

Then, change to one of the 5MP fast cameras (Celestron Neximage 5 or Orion StarShoot 5), they're basically the same camera. I see them used regularly in the $90 range. The SVBONY item you have is a 10bit A-D converter, which is part of why Jupiter is blown out.

Finally, you need to buy either a 3x barlow, or a tele-extender housing. You need to get that image of Jupiter BIGGER. Either you use a barlow to simply increase your focal length by 2-3x, or you use a tele-extender with a simple eyepiece to project a much bigger image on the camera chip.



Otherwise, I'll sell you a $1500-2000 package right now that will let you start to image nebula and galaxies. However, just ask Eric how much time, blood and money he's tossed at it to get where he is now.

Here's a picture showing Jupiter in your camera (under ideal conditions), with your scope, the red box. Now, go to a 5MP Celestron/Orion and a 2x barlow, you get the yellow box (with your scope). Find a 3x barlow and you get the green box. Now, that image of Jupiter looks a bunch better, since it's now covering lots more pixels. Also, you can bin them 3x3 at that range, which makes the raw files tiny and the transfer instant, so your camera can run in burst mode. Grab 1000 images, pick the best 20 and put them together, and you can get high end style imaging.

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I'll step in and disagree completely. Eric is a refractor guy, and when you own a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Hey, I've got a Cat too! LOL.

[RNajarian]

Thanks for all the info guys...
I’ve got a 2X Barlow already , , , maybe I’ll start with a better imager and pick up a 3X Barlow and see where that takes me.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

Thanks for all the info guys...
I’ve got a 2X Barlow already , , , maybe I’ll start with a better imager and pick up a 3X Barlow and see where that takes me.

Use the barlow with your camera on the Moon, and see what happens (do the moon so you can check on things like "can my scope focus on the camera with a barlow". Also, at that level, you might need to change your tracking to "lunar". For the Nexstar, It should be in a menu, maybe "Menu" "Telescope" "Tracking Rate" "lunar" "enter". Otherwise the Moon will start to blur at high magnification.

Then try Jupiter again, at maybe 1/10th the exposure time that you used before.

[RNajarian]

Thanks again Mike, I’ll give it whirl.

Remind me sometime to tell you about the time I drove Buzz Aldrin and his then wife Lois to the airport. . . Highlight of my life

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

Hey, I've got a Cat too! LOL.

I tell ya Eric this is by far the worst spring ever. IDK how you're getting such good seeing up your way. I haven't even been able to work on my Lunar Get sheet.

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I tell ya Eric this is by far the worst spring ever. IDK how you're getting such good seeing up your way. I haven't even been able to work on my Lunar Get sheet.

Yeah, it's been horrible up here as well. I just got lucky last weekend and the weekend I captured M51.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

BEFORE

AFTER


I haven’t been able to try out any of your suggestions because it has been cloudy in the Los Angeles Area every night for the past week . . . As if the light pollution wasn’t bad enough.

I have been able to do a little post processing with a little success. Thanks for all the help

[Eric Hahl]

Shot IC1396, Elephant trunk nebula Friday evening. Got about 3.5 hours of narrow band data in Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and Sulfur II. Mostly Hydrogen Alphs though as the clouds rolled in on me. I don't reall care for the colors in this one. Think I might re-work it.

[Pazuzu]

Since we're here...
In the last 10 days or so, I have:

Bought a Vixen 102mm refractor for myself (Relabeled Orion, with an adjustable front lens housing).

Finished tearing down and rebuilding the Super Polaris mount that I bought, for myself (except the legs, they need refinishing).

Finished tearing down and rebuilding a CG-5GT mount (Celestron Advanced GT). It moves, but the GoTo electronics are buggered. I might end up converting it to a regular dual axis powered CG-5 and flip it.

Continued to get my friends birthday present put together, a 6 inch Celestron Evolution with the StarSense autoaligner, and an Orion StarShoot imager that I had lying around. Found him a solar filter, a 45 degree diagonal so he can birdwatch with it, upgraded the firmware for both scope and alignment scope, and scrounged some sky charts. I still need to get the backlash dialed in and make sure that everything works, we've been pretty socked in lately. He'll be able to run it from his Ipad, which is pretty cool.

Finally sat down with my 1.5 CGE mounts. Put them on the workbench, grabbed one of my random NexStar hand paddles, found a power supply that came with my CGEM-DX, and...everything freaking works! I have the parts needed to complete the second mount coming, then I'll have 2 actual full CGE mounts that WORK! I fully expected that both of them would be basket cases that got sold for parts. I bought one out so someone's living room (that's a story, imagine a CGE on the tripod sitting in your living room for 3 years when you DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE THINGS WAS...The 1/2 mount I got from an Ebay recycler in Baton Rouge, it was from the University and must have been some sort of research project (I took the Megabus out there and back in one day, and smuggled about 90 pounds of telescope parts in my luggage).

[bugstrider]

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