Suburban Astroimaging

[RichardJ (Richard)]

Hazy night in Carlingford last night but it was relaxing to do some imaging.

Saturn nebula, NGC 253 and Helix nebula. All taken with my simple set up of 12-inch Dob on a EQ platform. I'm astounded at what you can capture with a OSC ZWO camera from a light polluted sky.

RichardJ

[doppler (Rick)]

Well I'm impressed, I have thought about trying my 120mc out for deep sky astrophotography and looking at your results it's well worth a try.

Rick

[RichardJ (Richard)]

Hi Rick,
The images were taken with my ASI294MC camera.
Sorry for the confusion. I’ve updated my signature.
The ASI 120MC is for solar system imaging.

Richard.

[doppler (Rick)]

No worries, I just gave my 120mc a go on the 10" newt, pretty hard to work with such a small sensor, best to leave it for planetary work.
Rick

[Bluknghtv (Daniel)]

what mount do you use with the 12? It would be pretty heavy

[Peter Ward]

Not bad.

It is surprising what can be captured from an urban location.

Narrow band images in particular are very much immune from urban light spill

Stick with it

[RichardJ (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Not bad.

It is surprising what can be captured from an urban location.

Narrow band images in particular are very much immune from urban light spill

Stick with it

Thanks Peter. Will do.

Richard.

[RichardJ (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Bluknghtv

what mount do you use with the 12? It would be pretty heavy

I use a Blandin equatorial platform. It is light and strong. I got it a few years ago when the Aussie dollar was stronger againt the US dollar.

For more information on the mount see http://www.blandinequatorialplatforms.com/

SharpCap Pro with stacking is my method of imaging. It is great.

Richard.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Well done. From Emu Plains one can read a newspaper in the garden at night, so Carlingford must be like daylight.

[Foxinsox (Graeme Fox)]

Originally Posted by RichardJ

I use a Blandin equatorial platform. It is light and strong. I got it a few years ago when the Aussie dollar was stronger againt the US dollar.

For more information on the mount see http://www.blandinequatorialplatforms.com/

SharpCap Pro with stacking is my method of imaging. It is great.

Richard.

Hi, Richard,
I would love to fit out my 12" Lightbridge Dob for astro photography. How easy is it to install, align and operate an equatorial platform for my Dob ? Is the Blandin product of good quality ?

[RichardJ (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Foxinsox

Hi, Richard,
I would love to fit out my 12" Lightbridge Dob for astro photography. How easy is it to install, align and operate an equatorial platform for my Dob ? Is the Blandin product of good quality ?

The platform is easy to assemble. It comes with a bubble level to help level the mount and I align it south-north with a compass. You need to allow for the magnetic deviation.

Although the mount has tracking error, SharpCap Pro allows you to take very short exposures and continuously align and stack them to build up the final image. It is sort of like planetary imaging.

I have also used the camera and SharpCap Pro and my 15cm reflector on a vixen EQ mount just polar aligned with a polar scope. I do not need to use PHD or guide.

Hope this helps.

Richard.

[JA]

Originally Posted by Placidus

Well done. From Emu Plains one can read a newspaper in the garden at night, so Carlingford must be like daylight.

Out of curiosity I checked ....

Also nice job Richard

Best
JA

We're rockin' SQM 18.84 (3130µcd/m2) down here. Maybe that's like sunbathing

[RichardJ (Richard)]

I've added NGC 246 (the "Skull Nebula") to my list.

RichardJ

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Kudos to you Richard for giving it a shot and coming up with some respectable results. I have the ‘294 camera as well though I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper run as yet.

[RichardJ (Richard)]

I've reshot NGC 253. Also I've added a screenshot of what I see when I capture an image with SharpCap Pro with image stacking. Hope this helps.

RichardJ