Eagle Nebula QHY8 and VC200L

[Hagar]

Eagle nebula was my target for tonight. The night started out looking like it might be a good one, quite cold with little atmospheric turbulance, no moon and all the gear on, running and ready to go.

I started by aligning the mount on a handful of bright stars. The mount stopped partway through a slew due to a poor connection at the comm port so back to the begining, a computer reboot and a mount realignment.

I swung round to Eagle and fired up PHD guiding all looking good then PHD stopped and the qguider stopped functioning, a problem I have had off and on for a while. A new set of drivers installed to see if it would fix the problem and away I went again.

I started imaging and went inside to sit in the warm and watch the imaging on my laptop in the lounge. Cold here so my wife stoked up the fire. I took 10 X 20 minute exposures and thought that would be ample for this nebula. When I finally examined the images I realised the smoke from the fire had generously drifted across the top of the Observatory and had ruined 6 of the images.

Not my night obviously so here it is Eagle Nebula 4 X 20 minute exposures calibrated with darks taken duing the day today.

Hope you enjoy. And please don't laugh to hard.

Telescope: Vixen VC200L at F9 (1800mm)
Camera: QHY8 OSC cooled CCD
Mount: G11 with Gemini
Guiding: QHY5 and ED80 when it worked.

[strongmanmike]

Nice (and frustrating) story Doug and tidy image

MIke

[desler]

Why would we anyone laugh!

I've step up twice in the last week, spent heaps of time drift aligning and setting everything up, just in time to see the clouds and or fog roll in.

Haven't even managed one image, but at least I'm feeling a little more comfortable with the set up.

Trying to get to grips with EQ MOD, Thanks AlexN and PHD, picked up a laser collimator (Trevor) to help things along with the Newts and a 5 x Powermate (Graham).

Now all I need is some clear skies and days off.....the wait continues......

Darren

[prokyon]

Many troubles, I think everybody here in the forum has experienced nights like that ;) .

Respect, I don`t see these background storys in the pic!
For all that the result is very nice!

[multiweb]

Still not laughing. My jaw dropped. I reckon that's one of your best. Superb resolution and details in the center and smooth processing. Top shelf. :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Frustrating was the operative word. I will spend some of today checking it all out again. Thanks Mike.



Thanks Darren, anyone who knows me would have a chuckle at this one. They could image how I reacted with one after another. Good luck with your ventures into EQMod and all the other things. Quite a bit of learning ahead.



The story doesn't reflecct in the image only because I still managed 4 quite long exposures which let me still produce a reasonable image. Thanks.



Thanks Marc. Longer exposures seems to be the key. At least for me but guiding is now paramount in getting an image. I have also been working on my processing with the zone system and it seems to be paying off. The longer exposures definitely give me a lot more to work with.

[gbeal]

Ha, I sniggered to myself. Mainly as last night I was freezing my butt off, no fire. Minus 2 when I finally succumbed at about 2300. Too cold for this white man.
Nice shot Doug, good to see the OSC doing it for you.
Gary

[Lester]

I enjoyed reading your write up and viewing the image. Thats a very smooth image for only 4 stacked.

Thanks Doug.

[Omaroo]

Very nice image indeed Doug :) It's one I've never really had success with - but will re-attempt it one day when I receive Lars' MT-160.

Question: How long are your cables such that you can image from inside, or are you using an RDC to control the outside lappy...

[Hagar]

Thanks Gary, Yes cold here too. I am just below Falls Creek Ski Resort with lots of snow on them there hills. Easy to stay warm from the lounge room.



Thank Lester, remember its 4 X 20 minute subs though.



G'Day Chris, ANOTHER SCOPE? You will have to get a bigger house soon.:lol:
No cables, it is all wireless and I use VNC viewer, a free remote desktop program for control from inside the house. I have a desktop outside.

[toryglen-boy]

looks really good to me!!

nice one

;)

[Omaroo]

Hmm... wireless VNC.... hmm....

I have a Tablet PC attached to my mount outside controlling the autoguider and main camera, it has both 802.11 and Bluetooth. I guess I run VNC server on it and client on my inside lappy. Never tried this before in this configuration... would I need a hub? Would 802.11 allow direct peer to peer comms? I wonder if they'd just connect... that'd make a great field setup :)

Yes - another scope is coming :) Can't wait for it either - I'm looking to get rid of my 8" Newtonian and replace it with the MT. Mucho-betta!

[allan gould]

Nice photo Doug. It makes me want to get the QHY8 out for its first real attempt at astrophotography. For some reason I keep putting it off as I wanted to try the DSI II or DSLR images first. I know - the warantee will run out without it having done more than a bias shot. I think I will try a series of shots of M83 with it to see what it can do - I was going to a dark site but I think Ill try from BrisVegas first and try to keep the light pollution out of it.

[telecasterguru]

The image looks mighty fine to me after all it is still 80 mins.
I like the idea of wireless control from inside the house. Will have to look into that.

Frank

[telemarker]

That is a lovely Eagle image. If the whole ten subs were usable then.... you could only speculate but it is still a fine image as it stands.

Controlling from the warmth inside is the way to go. I use an Eee pc on the mount to control everything and connect to it with Teamviewer (another free remote desktop control program) over the home WiFi network. I couldn't get VNC running for some reason :shrug: this seems to work OK.

Regards
Keith

[Omaroo]

Keith - although Teamviewer is stupidly easy and wonderful to setup and run (it's an absolute snap), I believe that it relies on an internet connection between the two units, no? This'd be OK at home, but not much chop in the field - or would it? Will it work peer to peer directly between two laptops over WiFi?

Ah, crap - sorry Doug - I've invaded your thread. My apologies. I'll start another elsewhere...

[Tamtarn]

Saw the frustrating side to your story Doug but must admit we had to laugh about the smoke drift :lol: Sorry!!

With just 4 x 20 min subs you have produced a great image

[Jeffkop]

Nice shot and worth the effort.
Is it my imagination ... or does that image look a bit smokey ???
Dont you hate it in this game when everything is looking good, cold, no cloud, atmosphere is good ... its all shaping up and then blaaaaahhhhh ... you drive under a ladder then thru a mirror and dont miss the china man you were trying to dodge.

All part of the challenge is the phrase I hear turned a lot.

Thanks for the giggle

[AlexN]

Looks great Doug, despite the issues... That must have been EXCEPTIONALLY frustrating finding that 60% of your subs were unusable...

The image itself is nice anyway... I can imagine with 10x20min subs it would have been spectacular..

Alex.

[CoolhandJo]

I think your storey sums up astrophotography very nicely. If its not software malfunction, user error, clouds, insects, battery, wind, dew, neighbours lights, aircraft, wife, children, and time itslef - then its got to be smoke!

Nonethless you produce this kind of excellent image! Bit like hunting really!

[RobF]

Nice Doug. Looks like you got there in the end. Sounds like the smoke affected subs might have been your pay-back for not suffering enough in the cold outside......:)

[Jeff]

Nice work Doug.

I made a coupe of mournful attempts at M16 late last year, but I must have another crack at it (if I can brave the cold :cold:) after seeing your results. Nicely captured and processed ... as usual.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Doug. I generally aim for 15 shots to get nice depth to my images. I don't always get 15 of course but I always set it for that.

I think you might want to address the slightly oval stars though. Is this flexure or is the camera slightly off from square? It is not much but I reckon you would see it in the full size images a fair bit. In the end it is the minor things that start to matter once the basics have been mastered.

Pity you were not able to get more data.

[seeker372011]

nice story and result

[Hagar]

Thanks for all the comments. I seem to have some form of guiding problems that I don't seem to be able to quantify. Some times things just go all over, other times PHD just locks up and requires a full restart.
I really don't seem to be able to pin it down at all. The small variation in star shape seems to be the result of some of these problems. Sometime I will manage to work out this problem and get it working better although guiding at 1800mm is at best dificult.
Thanks again.

[dpastern]

Tis a nice shot Doug, I'd be *happy* with that. Pity about losing so many subs, but I'm sure you'll grab more later and re-process.

Dave

[Hagar]

Thanks Dave, I doubt I will add to this one. With the elongation of the stars and problems I had with this one I think the next image of this target will be a new one with a few things a little better. ( Not a fan of Repros', once done best left.)Unless the original data is excelent.