Been playing around for a while but this is my first attempt of you know what......m42
Only got my heq5 about 2 weeks ago so im still learning how to use it and having a bit of drift alignment problems.
But here is my result from friday night.
I have been playing around with lights, darks, flats, and bias and was getting pretty average results so in the end I picked out 3 lights and 5 darks and came up with a better result than 25 lights, 15 darks, 15 bias, and 10 flats.
Only processed curves and levels in PS.
Got to get back to basics and start again.
M42
3 x 3 minute lights
5 x 3 minute darks
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Photoshop.
Hi Andy , not to bad at all and you have not blown out the core and trapezium stars. You are jumping in at the deep end with that ota though. 1250mm focal length needs very good alignment and f13.9 is not really fast enough for deep space imaging. Most people try and keep around f5 and under when starting out. Have you tried a camera on one of your 130mm newts? You will be surprised at what a difference a drop in a few f stops will make.
Rick
What Rick says. You've done a great job but I can only imagine that F14 must be really tough to work with - really slow. With my scopes I'm at F5 & 5.9, and I'd like to try F4.
And if you're not guiding I'd have thought impossible.
You've got a great mount for a smaller focal length scope.
Excellent effort at that fl and exposure times.
With shorter fl you will get a surprise what those exposure times will produce.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and keep them coming.
Alex
Thanks for your input guys its been a steep learning curve.
I've left my newts at my other house in yorke peninsula SA where my slide off roof observatory is so all ive got is the C90 at the moment.
Live view can only see the brightest stars so focusing is really hard so I rely on my bahtinov.
Im doing a polar align in WCS with my LPI camera and then flipping the mirror to the canon.
My last tripod I could only get 1 or 2 seconds at 1250 mm so 3 minute subs is quite a differnce on the heq5.
Cant wait to try my newts when I go back.
Also looking at a 50mm guide scope to use with the LPI.
I might try some more nightscapes with the camera only.
Thanks again I thought it was harder than it should be but at least I'll learn to get polar align spot on so when I get my other scopes it will pay off.
Cheers
Andy
I have been getting away with less that perfect polar align by going with 30 second subs...f5...
I am hoping tonight may be my first auto guide and longer subs and camera control via lap top..if the clouds give me a break.
