Captured M8 last night under worse windy conditions than the other night
PHD2 Guiding was struggling but doing a great job considering the battering
65 x 2 minute dithered guided subs
20 x darks
6” f6 Bintel newt
HEQ5 mount
EQMOD and Stellarium
Canon 600D with Baader coma corrector
Bortle 8 Sydney skies
No filters
ISO800
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools
Great image Martin and great that you show just what a six inch reflector can do.
I used one for years and feel folk underestimate their capability.
Alex
It never ceases to amaze me what clean images you present with the sub lengths you use in the same LP conditions as mine. If I took a 2 minute sub @ ISO800 with no filter from home I’d be presented with not much more than a big white screen. Your images are a testament to what can be done without spending hundreds ( several ) on filters.
Lovely clean image, correct colours & nicely resolved. Well done Martin, really quite an accomplishment given the conditions you describe, your image seems none the worse for it.
Fortune favours the brave
Tony
My secret to imaging under Bortle 8 Sydney skies -
Put up tarps or screens to eliminate direct glare from neighbours lights and moon glare
Image from 45 deg up to zenith
Plenty of subs ,more the better
Dithering
Good guiding
Use Startools, it’s fantastic for removing gradients and noise
Plus a bit of luck thrown in too
Thanks Chris
It turned out better than I thought it would
Ryan
I use the following settings on my Canon 600D which may have a bearing on your raw images
Canon EOS DSLR Astro settings with for prime focus with telescope ( Canon camera’s manufacture dated 2004 to 2014)
Exposure - set to Manual
Autofocus - off or Manual
Grid display - off
Aspect ratio - 3:2
Screen colour - 1 or preferred
ISO - set 800 to 1600
Aperture - aperture is fixed through telescope
Shutter speed - Bulb with remote shutter release
White Balance - set to auto white balance AWB ( if Camera has been Astro modded you have to set a “custom” white balance )
Drive - set to single shooting
Colour Space - set to RGB
Image file - set to Raw + JPEG
Image review - turn off
Metering mode - set to Evaluative
Exposure compensation - set to 0
LCD Auto off - set to disable
Live View Shoot Function - enable
Live View Exposure Sim - enable
Custom functions -
ISO expansion - set to off
Exposure level increments - set to 1/3 stop
Long Exposure Noise reduction - off if shooting darks
High ISO speed noise reduction - off if shooting darks
Highlight Tone Priority - disable
Auto Lighting Optimiser - disable
Auto focus assist beam firing - disable
Auto power off - set to 2 minutes
Auto rotate - off
Built in flash - turn off
Red eye reduction - turn off
Dust delete data - set to none or turn off
Picture Style -
Sharpness 0 or halfway on slider
Contrast 0 or halfway on slider
Saturation 0 or halfway on slider
Colour tone 0 or halfway on slider
Mirror lock up - disable
Note : some older Canon cameras may not have some of the above settings so ignore them
Ryan,
I also stack in Deep Sky Stacker with the following Settings -
DSS Settings DSLR and Startools
Raw Files / Fits Digital Development
Raw files tab
White Balance
Uncheck both “use auto white balance” and “use camera white balance”
Bayer Matrix Transformation
Check Bilinear Interpolation
Leave Set the black point to 0 box unchecked
Fits files tab leave blank or unchecked
Stacking Parameters
Tick use all available processors in all tabs
Result check Standard
Light tab check Kappa Sigma clipping
Dark tab check Kappa Sigma clipping
Flat tab check Median
Alignment tab check Automatic
Intermediate Files check Fits
Output tab tick create output file, check autosave tif/fits , tick Append a number to avoid file override, check Create output file in the folder of the reference frame
In Stacking Steps
RGB Channels Background Calibration - No
Per Channel Background Calibration- No
Register Settings Advanced Tab check “Reduce noise by using a Median filter
Thanks Alex
Your comments about the 6” reflector are so true
My 6” f6 newt is a little gem ( only cost me $299 )
It’s advertised in Bintel as a visual scope but could used for planetary and lunar imaging only
Well I have proved over the past 2 years it’s a fantastic deep sky imaging scope both in Bortle 8 Sydney skies and Bortle 3 dark skies down the coast and I haven’t even attempted to image magnitude 8 or 9 galaxies yet
Cheers
Martin
Thanks for sharing all of your info. My settings off the top of my head are the same as yours. There are some options that you’ve listed that I don’t have but apart from that they are the same. I’m going out tonight for a session but it will be with the 9.25 SCT. Next time I have the Newt out I will take an unfiltered sub and maybe we could do a direct comparison? Single sub untouched with the same settings ?
Really nice image of M8. I didn't know you were imaging under Bortle 8 skies. It kinda makes them even more impressive now. I like your solution using tarps to block stray light. I've been contemplating something similar to combat a horrible street light near me that completely washes out the SCP from my view. Sometimes I wonder if the town planners knew I had a telescope so decided to put it there to watch me suffer.
Thanks Lost in space
The shielding of stray light ( artificial light or moon glare ) from your OTA is a major key to imaging in Sydney or other Bortle 8 locations
I can usually push my exposures to 2 or 2.5 minutes at ISO800 with the histogram just nudging past 1/3. The raw file is fairly bleached out but I know the good data is in there so I don’t worry to much
I use a stock DSLR and don’t use filters but set my white balance to “Auto” rather than “daylight” or “sunny”
Once again I use large quantities of dithered guided subs , stack in DSS with Settings designed for DSLR raw files and use Startools which is tremendous for removing gradients, vignetting and all types of noise
