Captured NGC 4594 Sombrero Galaxy (magnitude 8.2 ) the other night in Sydney ( Bortle 8 skies ) with an 84% waning Moon up and annoying neighbours outside lights blasting my backyard on both sides ( a great recipe for Astrophotography)
Anyway we struggle through the obstacles to try and get some sort of image out of it all
6” f6 Bintel newt on an EQ6-R Mount
Canon 600D with Baader coma corrector ( no filters)
Orion 60mm guide scope with helical focuser and ZWOASI120MM guide camera
PHD2 guiding ( guiding error was atrocious above 2.0 arc sec error , RA and DEC saw toothing badly so put it down to bad seeing however guide star SNR was hanging in there at 37 to 40 , tried everything to dampen it but in the end tried the Predictive PEC algorithm and after a few worm cycles eventually steadied the ship and stabilised around 1.8 arc sec error. Proof in the pudding was round stars in each sub for hours )
ISO800
Canon 600D sensor electronics temperature running at 20 deg C
105 x 90sec dithered guided subs
40 x darks
Included meridian flip
Tracking and Goto EQMOD , StellariumScope and Stellarium
Framing, focus and Capture by BYEOS
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.4
I want to give a galaxy ago, one of the reasons I captured a 'less bright' neb... I will collect more data on running chicken yet & work some more on my processing skills.
Probably use the Vixen for a galaxy though, bit more light capture there...
Hi are you recording/monitoring sensor temp on your DSLR?
Carlton
Thanks for the kind comment
I use Backyard EOS (BYEOS) for framing , focus and capture it’s absolutely brilliant
When I first started in this hobby I use to stand next to the mount and scope and use a canon remote shutter release switch with 2m cord and take my subs manually , put up with this for a year (a year too long )
I’ve been using Backyard EOS (BYEOS) for 2 years now and it’s now set and forget
The main screen gives you everything need for long exposure DSLR Astrophotography , framing , focus ,capture plan , ISO , sensor temperature, live view , drift align tool , planetary imaging mode , the whole box and dice. There is also a version called Backyard Nikon for Nikon DSLR’s
I’m progressing later in the year to a OSC cooled CMOS camera so currently learning Astrophotography Tool (APT) indoors on my table with a PC. APT does have a program for DSLR’s but it’s more suited for dedicated Astro cameras. I find BYEOS better than APT for DSLR Astrophotography ( others would probably disagree)
Photos attached of my outdoor laptop with BYEOS running ( capture of Omega Centauri last week ) showing sensor temperature
Nathan
Thanks for your comment
Yes I was surprised with how well the EQ6-R was tracking even with a guide graph looking like a kids kindergarten scribble.It just goes to show you don’t need these ridiculously low guiding numbers to produce nice round tight stars for hours and hours across the night sky. I’m not the first to say it but these low cost EQ6-R Skywatcher mounts dollar for dollar are the best on the market in their category !!
Alex
Thanks so much , you have been generously kind with your comments ever since I started this hobby.We all have little challenges both personally and whilst enjoying this amazing hobby and we all finds ways to overcome them or at least wrk around them.
The IIS community as been a wealth of knowledge and assistance over my 4 years into this hobby and still so much more to learn and enjoy
Keep posting your images and your interesting stories from up there at your dark site at Tabby
Thanks again
Cheers
Martin
Great work again Martin. Sometimes I think the numbers lie. Many times I've had the graphs show terrible guiding yet the stars looked fine and other times the graphs looked perfect yet there's eggs all over the screen. This is why I don't really look at the numbers as much anymore. While I still believe in them I don't live by them. I prefer to check on the subs every now and then.
Thanks LIS
I think what maintained round stars for hours with was the fact that both RA and DEC were similar even though the spikes were up around 2 arc sec. There were no large moves in DEC like you get when your guiding is tight under 1 arc sec and you lose the guide star momentarily , or a wind gust hits you or a big dither sends the mount sideways things like that. Even during a dither ( every second sub ) the mount just hung in there
It just proves how good these low end budget EQ6-R mounts are in poor conditions
Thanks again
Cheers
