Trapezium at Midnight - no tracking

[ballaratdragons]

I have just come in from an adventurous night in the sky. Tonight was the first great night in a very long time!!!! :)

I set up early (8:30pm) for cool down, and at 10:30 when it was good & dark I hit the imaging trail.

Venus was just about to set so I started there before she dissappeared for the night. No luck though. Venus had sunk too low for any decent imaging so I moved onto Mars. On the Lappy the image only seemed reasonable but I captured an Avi regardless, hoping I can make it OK in PhotoShop. :confuse3:

I Shifted over to 47tuc and could not define anything on the screen so I gave up on it. Over to Tarantula. Nope, nothing visible! I was determined to capture something so I zipped up to good old Orion neb. HOORAY! There's the Trap!!!

OK, locate the Trapezium on screen and set levels as it zooms across the screen. Re-centre, levels, zoooom. Re-centre, levels, zoooom. On it went like this for about 5 minutes until I was happy with the image on screen. Click on the button to start the recording standby mode, place Trap on edge of screen and . . . click!

As the Trap edged it's way across the screen I was ready on the 'Stop recording' button. And . . . . Click! Got Ya!!!

Then I moved over to the Carina Nebula but couldn't get any image on screen.

It was at this time I noticed everything starting to get washed out by Moonlight rising in the East so I quickly packed up all the imaging gear so I could spend the last bit of semi-dark sky with my eyeball at the EP!

I went for a quick squizz around the Fornax Cluster and spotted about 7 galaxies but the Moon was already making them fade. A quick look at Mars and YUCK! It was terrible!!!!

It was at this point I decided to check my collimation only to find it was way out of whack!!!!!! :o :doh: How dopey could I be! Oh well, too late now, the sky was ablaze with Mr. Moon, and my fingers had gone numb from the cold. :cold:

I transfered all my images to the Desktop and only one was any good. The Trapezium (I'm suprised it worked at all with such lousy collimation :P ).

I have posted in here for you. I like it, as it is better than my last effort!

Enjoy! Comments welcome.

Trapezium in Orion Nebula, GS 12" Dob, no tracking, Philips ToUcam at Prime Focus, 160 frames stacked in Registax, Levels adjusted in PhotoShop CS.

[asimov]

How the hell did you get that!? That's brilliant! Neb clouds PLUS six in the trap!:prey2:

Last night I took 1000 frames of the trap & still ended up with only 4 stars!:confuse2: :mad2:

[ballaratdragons]

I dunno John. I thought it was supposed to come out like that. Actually I was hoping for much better. Now you have me confused.

I just pointed and recorded! If I raise the Brightness level I get tons more Neb and heaps more stars but it looks too light and washy so I didn't go too high with the brightness.

[asimov]

Of course, your using a much lower magnification than me...makes all the difference. Heres my 'splendid' effort last night at mag 10 zillion lol. You may commence laughing! :nerd: :lol: :)

[RB]

The trap has come up very nicely Ken.
Well done.

Have you tried NEAT Image to remove any noise from images?
There's a free version at http://www.neatimage.com/

Cheers Ken.

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Andrew.

I've got neatimage on my pooter but don't know how to use it.

[RB]

I'll see if I can write down a step by step for you Ken when I get a spare few moments.
I had a quick go at your trap with NEAT image and also adjusted levels to highlight the trap.

Hope that's OK. :prey:

Keep up the good work and I enjoy your posts. :)

I'm off to bed...... :zzz:

PS could't get rid of all the noise, there's still some to the left side :confuse3:

[ballaratdragons]

AsiJohn, looks like your scope is out of collimation too!

Here is a close up of the Trap & a little bit more brightness added.

I don't know what the black images are either side of the brightest stars but I left them there.

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, play away Andrew. But where did all the Nebula go?

[RB]

It's still there on my screen, Im using the old CRT? Are you using an LCD screen, sometimes different screens show up detail differently :confused:

I'll have another go tomorrow on your closeup shot. Your closeup shot looks even better.

[asimov]

No Ken. The refractor is pretty close to spot on....The problem in that pic was I stacked the whole AVI with no filtering in registax (& gave it heaps with the waveletts) to try to get the 6 trap stars to come out....bad seeing as well.

[ballaratdragons]

I'm using a very old CRT! On mine the sky is totally Black and the stars are Blue.

You've ruined my lovely picture :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :lol:

[asimov]

I have the CRT too....I can just make out the cloud.

[ballaratdragons]

You can 'Filter' in Registax? Boy, I have a lot to learn about Registax. And Neat Image, and Desire, and Astra Image!

At least I can use PhotoShop. :lol:

[asimov]

Not the kind of filter your thinking of Ken....I meant it 'filters' out the crap images.

BTW In neatimage...If you read thru the instructions, it eventually asks you to take an image of a callibration print-out with your camera. See below.

[ballaratdragons]

Here is a bigger version of the original pic for anyone to have a play with.

Have fun! :)

[ballaratdragons]

You've lost me there . . already! LOL!

Confounded gizmos :tasdevil:

[asimov]

Lol!!

[davidpretorius]

well done ken, 6 stars!!!!.
I was out playing with the powermate and saturn and jupiter - nothing to write home about re results, but th powermate is lovely!!!

it is great to see your capturing skills rocketing up the scales. It is very pleasing doing something manually, and it is even sweater when you get your tracking going!

congrats

[h0ughy]

well done Ken, I am impressed, six stars plus a few others to boot. Very Nice!

[atalas]

Nice catch on the Trap Ken !

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks all!

The fuss over capturing 6 Trap stars has suprised me. I thought that was normal and it was supposed to happen as a normal thing.

Oh well, live & learn.

On the original Avi all the stars are a blobby mess dancing their way across the FOV.
They actually look like blurry throbbing Ameoba doing synchronised swimming! :lol:

[avandonk]

I have only seen six trap stars clearly once, the other times I could almost imagine them. When you get your tracking Ken you will do even better. I am amazed you can even capture them as they must sail through you field of view fairly quickly. Or do you ambush them by setting the dob in their path?

Bert

[ballaratdragons]

I must have been doing something right!

Bert, I give the object several runs to get my levels right and then when I am ready to capture I put it just off the side of the monitor. I get the record button ready and as it sails onto the monitor I click 'Record'.

Yep, it flies right across the FOV pretty fast!!!! Just before it leaves the other side of the monitor I click on 'Stop Recording'. Gives me about 150-180 frames. Usually about 6-8 seconds worth.

I actually tried the Barlow last night on Mars but it shot across the screen in under 3 seconds!!!! Obviously I didn't try capturing with the Barlow.

[davidpretorius]

i spose guys that take pics of stars are long exposures so the trap gets burnt out.

the guys that take short exposure stuff are mainly only intersted in planets.

I have seen 6 stars in the trap say only on 5 nights.

This is why i am keen as eggs to do some more double star work. Asimovs sirius was a beauty. I would love to capture some more different coloured double stars.

So mr ken, you 5 from a few weeks ago and now 6 are a rarity on film so to speak, hence the excitement!!!!

[asimov]

I've got 5 on 'film' & a suspected 6 but I'll keep trying.

Well done again Ken.

[avandonk]

As far as I know they ( E&F) are also variable stars and not always visible?

Bert

[ballaratdragons]

Woo Hoo! I wasn't aware it was rare Davo!!! I'm a legend in my own lunchbox!! LOL!

The seeing was about 7/10. Can't wait to track the beastie and also have 9/10 seeing!

I want to catch the Neb gas itself a bit better.

[ballaratdragons]

WOW! That makes it even more exciting! Just call me Flukey-Luke :lol:

Pity it isn't a clearer pic or I could've sent it to AS&T.

[ving]

great stuff ken! you got 6 of the buggers! :D

quite the exper now huh! ;)

[asimov]

I seem to be able to get the neb itself...just not 6 stars. Can't have everything I guess?

[rochler]

It's amazing what you can do with an unguided dob eh? I know what you mean about the images zooming across the FOV - it's surprising you can get any decent frames at all, even with good seeing. But I think that's where video capture is very useful, since you get lots of frames in a short time and can sometimes bag some beauties.

Video really has opened up some possibities for those of us who would otherwise have no chance without all the expensive gear & large, stable tracking mount etc. Even a total beginner like me can get out and give it a go hehe...

Onya.... :)

[ballaratdragons]

Ahhh, nope. Not yet but I'm trying!! :lol:

Do you have any of each to combine?

[ballaratdragons]

I have just been outside on another fantastic night! (Tuesday night)

BUT! I cannot find that elusive 6th star in an Avi in the Trap tonight. I can easily get the 5 each time but not the 6th! (I have taken 5 Avi's of it) But as Bert said, it is a variable star!!!

I also captured a great Avi of 47Tuc but Registax will not lock on to anything in the Avi to process it! I even tried a brightish star in the pic next to Tuc but it just won't lock on, so I can't process it. Pity coz it looks good as it slides across the screen!!!!

Tarantula still won't show up on the monitor and I am having trouble getting objects in the crosshairs in the finder. I need to piggyback mount another scope on the 12" so I can see when I have an object in the field of view for capturing.

Oh well, I am not about to give up. I am on my way back outside to give it more time and more hair-pulling!!! At least I remembered to Collimate BEFORE capturing this time. :lol:

Hopefully I will get something worth putting in here!

Back later :)

[iceman]

Nice work Ken, I got 6 stars in the trap the other night too.

here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7494)

[RB]

I can't believe how stupid I am :doh: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sorry Ken, I was using the new Pleiades plug-in for PhotoShop instead of using the Trapezium plug-in. :scared3: :stupid:

I've had another go. Tried to bring out the nubulosity better. :)

Cheers

[TidaLpHasE]

:)Going great guns Ken, just wait until you have that mount up and running;)

[ballaratdragons]

Andrew,

Thanks for giving it a go but that looks like the version I got when I pumped the Red up! Heaps of Red stars is the result!

I want to be able to bring the natural Red Neb out but leave the stars their natural whiteish colour too, like the enlarged version I posted above in 'post #16', which hasn't had the colour bumped, it's direct from the Toucam with only Brightness and Contrast fiddled with.

Feel free to keep playing with it though ;)

[ballaratdragons]

Here is a pic of the Trapezium taken by the ESO scope in Southern Europe in Infra-Red! Now that's a cool star field.

At least I got some of them in my pic LOL!

[tornado33]

Yes great pic to be able to see all 6 stars. :)

[fringe_dweller]

is that the ESO dob that took that shot Ken? Go the dobbers! Six of the best! :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

I don't know Kearn. The info in the site I got the pic from just said "the ESO telescope in Southern Europe".