Captured the Centaurus A galaxy last night from my semi dark site near Ulladulla with the new 8” f5 newt
45 x 4 minute dithered guided subs
20 x darks
ISO 800
Canon 600D unmodded
PHD2 ( guiding around 0.80 to 0.90 arc sec error)
CFN forecast had cloud cover from 6.00pm to midnight but it was clear all night until I finished at around 2.00am thankfully
This is my first image capturing at least 3 hours of data
Cheers
Great job Martin. You were lucky it clouded out here in Wollongong about 11 pm and then poured down from about 1am. Kind of the reverse tonight, poured down about 6 and then cleared up.
Thanks so much Gents
I think the exposure length and ISO were spot on plus 3 hours worth of data makes all the difference
Dithering is doing so much for my images especially using the DSLR running at 30deg, very little noise
Who needs a cooled CCD
I can’t wait for winter when my DSLR will be down to < 20 deg
Really enjoying AP with my new rig
Thanks again
Thanks Colin appreciate it
Yes I can’t ask for much more out of my scope , mount and DSLR
Gives you a lot of confidence when you can get good detail out of imaging with an old DSLR
I won’t be jumping ship to a CCD for a while yet !
Cheers
The narrow band requires so much effort , at least for me, that I still have yet to produce a proper image...it seems rather than getting two or three objects which I did with a dslr each night turns to needing two or three night per object... but you are getting runs on the board...maybe a modded dslr the same as the camera you have will get you there...is spite of all I have said about the benefits of narrow band it is a whole new work load...I am just so happy to see someone else appreciating the value and usefulness of the 8 inch f5.
Alex
And although not perfect if you housed the dslr in a cooled box..not as good as a cold finger but given your management of noise so far a cooled box may be all you need.
You must have a decent collection now..its amazing how you think you are just starting but have dozens of objects on file.
So for me..everything is in the car..do I drag it up the stairs for an hour on any object avaiable?
Maybe go dslr on the eight for Sydney..worked ok last year.
Hamburger is available for me but only an hour at most each night.
Damn trees.
Alex
Thanks Alex
I try to do all the little things right before I start
Clean mirrors
Good collimation
Good polar alignment ( I just use the Synscan PA procedure on the handcontroller, I have no view of SCP ) gets me pretty close under an arc minute. Drift takes too long and you have to have find a star near zero dec
Balance my scope well and slightly east heavy
Good focus
Home position spot on
Everything nice and tight including guide scope
I have fine texts marks on my mount for locating the dove tail , balancing the OTA etc...
Then the rest is up to the equipment , software and ultimately the seeing conditions
I’m grateful for all those IIS members who have answered all my queries and questions and provided comments critical or otherwise to get me where I am today after only 18 months imaging and 3 years into astronomy
JA
Thanks for the nice comment
I tend to like diffraction spikes on the smaller stars ( not the big ones ) , gives it a “space” feel to the image, everybody has their own feel about them
Very nice Martin, those stable skies and big aperture are working well for you. I was looking at your image thinking there's something not quite right which prevents it from being a really great image, then I remembered it's just the compression to fit on IIS
Thanks Tony
Appreciate your kind comment
Yes the 8” F5 on the solid EQ6-R mount is a real winner. I don’t think I could ever reproduce the same images if I sat the 8” on my 2 year old HEQ5 mount
I save the image after processing in Startools as a tiff and a jpeg and for the life of me I can’t tell the difference in quality when I open them up side by side including zooming in etc....
Everyone’s been telling me to always save a tiff but I don’t know why after my observations on a number of images
Thanks again
Lovely shot Martin. The detail in the core is very impressive, I'd say the seeing must have been quite good at the time you were capturing the image.
You're getting a lot of pleasure in using that 8 inch Newtonian, I find they're one of the most useful size OTAs available. I use mine for planetary and deep sky so they are a very versatile instrument. Keep up your fine work!
Thanks Mick
It was a reasonable night but seeing conditions were not A1, i’ve had better. Plus the moon was up about halfway through the capture plan and the night was warmish with my DSLR running at 30 deg C
I think the fact that I managed 3 hours of data plus dithering helped in producing some good detail in the image
My new set up is giving me a feeling of real confidence for the winter months !!
Thanks again
Captured the Centaurus A galaxy last night from my semi dark site near Ulladulla with the new 8” f5 newt
45 x 4 minute dithered guided subs
20 x darks
ISO 800
Canon 600D unmodded
PHD2 ( guiding around 0.80 to 0.90 arc sec error)
CFN forecast had cloud cover from 6.00pm to midnight but it was clear all night until I finished at around 2.00am thankfully
This is my first image capturing at least 3 hours of data
Cheers
