Got a couple of shots in before camera battery ran out

[that_guy]

So turns out my battery charger for my 500d crapped out on me. So I was limited to whatever I had left on the camera (my spares were also flat). Had maybe 3 hours. This also meant that I couldn't get darks or flats so the images are noisy as heck. Got the usual Centaurus A, Leo Triplet and Omega Centauri shot with my ED80 HEQ5 Canon 500d

Centaurus A. 9x 5 min subs iso 400
Leo Triplet. 9x 5 min subs iso 400
Omega Centauri. 3x 5 min subs iso 400

[Mickoid]

Tony, they don't look too bad at all. I've seen a lot more noise than that. You've done well to keep it under control by using ISO 400 and I imagine you autoguided to obtain a reasonable signal with those 5 min subs. Good detail for a 3 inch aperture. Well done :thumbsup:

[that_guy]

Yeah looks like my guiding was better than usual aha. Might push the exposure a bit more for future sessions but with the moon and light pollution , i wouldnt push it past 10 :p

[ChrisV]

They look nice. Love the cluster !

NGC5128 was supposed to be my target on the weekend. But idiot factor - I didn't tighten the clamp holding scope to mount properly. The scope slipped a bit so I got 2 hours of nothing. Lucky I didn't have a scope crash to the ground ...

[raymo]

Tony, get yourself an adaptor so that you can run your camera off the mains,
or through a cheap inverter from your mount's battery.
cheap as chips on ebay, and has the added benefit of not having a battery in the camera which gets hotter and helps to heat up the sensor, which is the last thing you want.
raymo

[cometcatcher]

You're really getting good shots out of that ED80 Tony. Well done. :thumbsup:

[Sconesbie]

Off to the right of Omega Centauri there is a black spot with a star in it. What is that?

[that_guy]

Dust on my objective lens i think. Gotta clean aha

[Mickoid]

Haven't we been here before? Looks like a liquid stain on the camera sensor. It won't be removed with a blower as previously mentioned.

[that_guy]

there was some dirt on the ed80 lens that I just cleaned, I just assumed that was it aha. Do you know how I can clean the liquid stain on from the camera sensor?

[Mickoid]

Can't really add anymore to what I said in your post on the 8th of May but you could try introducing a flat calibration exposure into your processing. It will make it less obvious than it is now, however, at least it's off to the right of centre so it shouldn't really interfere with the object you're shooting. If it concerns you, just air brush it out in PS.

[that_guy]

I just took some sample flat images, with and without the scope, it looks like the mark is on the scope itself and not on the sensor. There are some spots on the lens but its on the inside where I can't get to, too scared to pull apart the scope, I guess I'll have to get used to taking flats :shrug: