Photo subjects

[Ric]

Hi all,
I am just starting out with the wonderful world of CCD astrophotography and was wondering what other members who are more experienced would choose as there first subjects to image. I dont want to pick a difficult object and totally disillusion myself in the first session, I have been thinking about starting with open clusters such as the Jewel Box as first choices.
I have a Meade DSI Pro II with filters and supporting software as well as Registax for processing.

Cheers

Ric :confuse3:

[iceman]

Hey Ric

:welcome: to the forum!

At this time of year, the popular subjects would be anything in scorpius or sagittarius, like M8, M20, M17 etc.

Some bright galaxies like M83 and M104 would also be great subjects.

[JimmyH155]

My favourite cluster of all time is NGC 6231 in Scorpius. When it gets a bit higher in the sky, I shall be photographing it with my Meade DSI. I've got a Meade LX100 8 inch SCT with field flatteners 6.3 and 3.3 which work pretty good, but I cant work the Meade supplied software - kernels, histograms, sliders, gamma, :lol: as for the 256 grey shades hopeless. You need a PHD to understand all that!:)

[Ric]

Hi all,
Thanks for the welcome, I must admit that I had a bit of trouble getting my head around the software part of things but it's slowly starting to make sense. I found watching the DSI movies/ tutorials helped quite a bit when I went back to the manuals:bashcomp: . My other problem at the moment is which configuration to use with the DSI and the f/3.3 focal reducer, the paperwork that came with FR does not show the Micro focuser and it has been suggested to use it, I am going to start with what the paperwork suggests which is "OTA - FR - Extender - Camera" and see what happens.
If anyone else has encountered this problem/confusion in regards to LX200's
or LX200R's please let me know what their configurations are.

Thanks all

Ric :confuse2:

[acropolite]

Hi and welcome Ric, I would suggest going through Eric's posts (Ezystyles) as he has imaged many DSO's with the DSI. :)

[Ric]

Thanks for the welcome Phil and the info.
I'll have a search and see what I can find.

Ric :)

[Dennis]

Hi Ric

Here is a somewhat ugly, copy/paste of the “South African Astronomical Observatory Best Observing List” from a program called SkyTools. I set some filters to limit the list as shown in the following paragraph.

South African Astronomical Observatory Best Observing List, evening of 2006 Jun 17 at Brisbane, Australia
Sunset 05:01p, Twilight ends 06:24p, Twilight begins 05:13a, Sunrise 06:37a, Moon rise 10:46p, Moon set 11:36a
Completely dark from 06:24p to 10:46p. Third Quarter Moon. All times local (GMT+10).
Listing All Deep Sky Objects visible above 2 air mass and in twilight or moonlight before 11:58a.

Class = Globular, Open Cluster, Galaxy, Nebula, etc.
Optimum = when object highest for best seeing
Alt=Altitude above the horizon at Optimum time

Class ID Con RA Dec Mag Size Optimum Alt.
Glob 47 Tucanae Tuc 00h24m23.1s -72°02'26" 4.0 50.0' 10:44p +18°35'
Gal Black Eye Com 12h57m03.6s +21°38'59" 9.3 10.7'x 5.1' 07:03p +40°52'
PNe Blue Racquetball Oph 18h12m26.5s +06°51'10" 9.0 11" 10:44p +48°54'
Open Butterfly Sco 17h40m30.4s -32°11'55" 4.6 14.0' 10:44p +75°54'
Gal Centaurus A Cen 13h25m52.1s -43°03'17" 7.7 28.8'x 21.4' 07:31p +74°27'
PNe Cleopatra's Eye Eri 04h14m32.7s -12°43'14" 9.6 21" 05:11a +17°21'
Open Collinder 135 Pup 07h17m10.6s -36°50'06" 3.4 49.0' 06:22p +27°42'
PNe Dumbbell Vul 19h59m54.1s +22°44'08" 7.6 6.7' 10:44p +20°14'
PNe Eight Burst Vel 10h07m17.0s -40°28'13" 8.2 30" 06:22p +60°35'
Neb Eta Carinae Nebula/Keyhole Car 10h45m19.5s -59°54'17" 3.0 06:22p +54°06'
PNe Ghost of Jupiter/Eye Hya 10h25m04.1s -18°40'34" 8.6 25" 06:22p +63°06'
PNe Helix Aqr 22h30m00.1s -20°48'11" 7.6 16.3' 10:44p +11°26'
Open IC 2391 Vel 08h40m22.7s -53°04'11" 2.6 49.0' 06:22p +43°07'
Open IC 2602 Car 10h43m23.6s -64°25'02" 1.6 49.0' 06:22p +50°15'
Open IC 4665 Oph 17h46m35.4s +05°42'38" 5.3 40.0' 10:44p +53°01'
Open Jewel Box Cru 12h53m59.2s -60°21'41" 5.2 10.0' 07:00p +57°09'
Neb Lagoon Sgr 18h04m07.2s -24°23'06" 5.0 45.0' 10:44p +70°39'
Gal Large Magellanic Cloud Dor 05h23m27.7s -69°44'51" 0.9 10.8°x 9.2° 06:22p +21°22'
Glob M 2 Aqr 21h33m47.7s -00°47'46" 6.6 16.0' 03:38a +63°18'
Glob M 4 Sco 16h24m01.1s -26°32'34" 5.4 36.0' 10:29p +89°03'
Glob M 5 Ser 15h18m54.7s +02°03'29" 5.7 23.0' 09:24p +60°27'
Open M 7 Sco 17h54m23.6s -34°47'46" 3.3 80.0' 10:44p +72°21'
Glob M 15 Peg 21h30m17.4s +12°11'33" 6.3 18.0' 03:35a +50°19'
Open M 16 Ser 18h19m13.4s -13°45'42" 6.5 6.0' 10:44p +62°56'
Open M 20 Sgr 18h02m45.1s -23°01'04" 5.2 28.0' 10:44p +70°35'
Glob M 22 Sgr 18h36m49.1s -23°53'59" 5.2 32.0' 10:44p +63°18'
Open M 24 Sgr 18h18m50.1s -18°23'44" 11.1 5.0' 10:44p +65°22'
Open M 25 Sgr 18h32m03.1s -19°13'38" 6.2 32.0' 10:44p +62°52'
Open M 41 CMa 06h47m18.2s -20°43'40" 5.0 38.0' 06:22p +16°07'
Open M 47 Pup 07h36m52.5s -14°29'33" 4.3 29.0' 06:22p +24°24'
Gal M 49 Vir 12h30m06.9s +07°57'53" 9.3 9.8'x 8.1' 06:36p +54°33'
Gal M 60 Vir 12h44m00.2s +11°31'04" 9.8 7.2'x 5.9' 06:51p +51°00'
Gal M 66 Leo 11h20m35.3s +12°57'20" 9.6 8.7'x 4.1' 06:22p +47°24'
Gal M 77 Cet 02h42m59.7s +00°00'55" 9.5 7.6'x 6.8' 05:11a +31°24'
Gal M 83 Hya 13h37m22.5s -29°54'15" 7.9 13.5'x 12.3' 07:43p +87°36'
Gal M 87 Vir 12h31m09.2s +12°21'23" 9.5 8.3'x 5.8' 06:38p +50°09'
Open Melotte 111 Com 12h25m26.2s +26°04'22" 2.9 4.6° 06:31p +36°27'
Open NGC 2451 Pup 07h45m35.2s -37°58'18" 3.7 45.0' 06:22p +33°26'
Open NGC 2516 Car 07h58m23.3s -60°52'20" 3.3 29.0' 06:22p +36°11'
Open NGC 2547 Vel 08h10m49.9s -49°16'10" 5.0 20.0' 06:22p +38°56'
Open NGC 3114 Car 10h02m53.2s -60°07'37" 4.5 35.0' 06:22p +50°21'
Open NGC 3293 Car 10h36m02.0s -58°14'48" 6.2 5.0' 06:22p +54°41'
Gal NGC 4725 Com 12h50m46.4s +25°28'02" 10.1 11.0'x 7.2' 06:58p +37°03'
Open NGC 6025 TrA 16h04m15.2s -60°30'33" 6.0 12.0' 10:09p +57°00'
Open NGC 6231 Sco 16h54m29.6s -41°47'40" 3.4 14.0' 10:44p +75°22'
Glob NGC 6397 Ara 17h41m15.8s -53°40'44" 5.3 31.0' 10:44p +61°26'
Open NGC 6633 Oph 18h28m04.3s +06°34'02" 5.6 27.0' 10:44p +46°57'
Gal NGC 6744 Pav 19h10m25.1s -63°50'45" 9.1 20.4'x 13.8' 10:44p +46°20'
Glob NGC 6752 Pav 19h11m28.9s -59°58'17" 5.3 29.0' 10:44p +48°31'
Gal NGC 7793 Scl 23h58m09.6s -32°33'04" 9.8 9.8'x 6.2' 05:11a +77°48'
Glob Omega Centauri Cen 13h27m09.6s -47°30'53" 3.9 55.0' 07:33p +69°59'
Open Praesepe/Beehive Cnc 08h40m25.9s +19°58'08" 3.9 95.0' 06:22p +19°33'
PNe Saturn Nebula Aqr 21h04m32.8s -11°20'18" 8.3 29" 10:44p +26°06'
Gal Sculptor Galaxy Scl 00h47m52.0s -25°15'02" 8.2 26.9'x 5.9' 05:11a +67°18'
Gal Small Magellanic Cloud Tuc 00h52m52.1s -72°45'35" 2.8 5.3°x 3.4° 10:44p +17°17'
Gal Sombrero Vir 12h40m19.7s -11°39'36" 9.1 8.3'x 4.1' 06:46p +74°10'
Neb Swan/Omega/Horseshoe Sgr 18h21m11.8s -16°10'56" 6.0 11.0' 10:44p +63°49'
Neb Veil/Cirrus Cyg 20h45m58.9s +30°44'11" 7.0 3.5° 01:04a +26°29'
Open Wild Duck Sct 18h51m27.0s -06°15'04" 6.1 13.0' 10:44p +52°06'

Cheers

Dennis

http://www.skyhound.com/skytools.html

[Ric]

Thanks Dennis,
I match that up with my Star Atlas software and work out the best one for my latitude

Ric

[Dennis]

Hi Ric

Here is the link to the source of this information.
http://www.saao.ac.za/public-info/sun-moon-stars/best-sky-objects/

Some time ago, I imported that list into an specialised "Observing List" in the SkyTools native format, hence what I posted previously looks a little ugly. The above link takes you to a nicely formatted list.

Hope you enjoy the challenge!

Cheers

Dennis