My first outing with M42 and M45 (badly) with the Orion Express 80 and the Pentax

[h0ughy]

well what do you do when you bed is taken over by your family. Get even - stay up and have a go with astrophotography with my new scope. Now I must say here i did not polar align properly, or drift align, and I know the images are not good but it shows the false colour and coma that this scope exhibits, but I don't mind that much, so M42 was my target, and had a go at pleades and realised tracking was terrible, and I had a go at the flame neb too. I will have better results when I polar align and track. images not processed either. :lol:

longest exposure iso 800 199 seconds

[Dennis]

Hi Dave

Hmm, I see what you mean about CA around the brighter stars. None-the-less, glad to see the IIS community out there practicing their art - well done.

How did you get 199 secs on the *istDS? Bulb setting and using the remote release?

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

yes Dennis,
and i had it also set on 2 second delay to allow the mirror lockup before the shot was taken. i learnt this one last night. well at least something good came of it! :lol:

[davidpretorius]

great family pic!!!

is this a new new scope or the one that has been around for a month or so?

[Robert_T]

Hey Houghy, bit of a bummer that chromo aberation - do you think it could be removed with some filtering? I have the WOZenithstar 80mm which I think is exactly the same. Their web-site of course has nice images with no chromo taken through it so expect some creative filtering is in order.

cheers,

[h0ughy]

YEs Dave, first real chance to use it. I love the ability to rotate the whole camera easily and the focus.

[h0ughy]

I expect so, and I knew that it was going to be a problem but I loved the scope. anyone make an ED refit :lol:

[RB]

Great photo of the kids Dave, it almost looks like it's been staged.
Love it.

With the astro's, once you have the gear setup properly you'll get better shots. They're great as they are considering it was just a quick shooting session, no alignment etc.
If you set up the mount properly you will be able to take multiple shots, slightly different exposures, and stack a whole bunch to get a cleaner image.

The CA is to be expected from a semi APO like the express 80. It's a good alrounder for visual and as a guide scope too.



Cheers

[Striker]

Nice Start Huffy....bit worrying about that Chroma colour though....are all the 480mm the same...

[beren]

Yep nice start mate :)

[h0ughy]

DOn't know Striker, I will assume so as they are made by the same manufacturer :confuse3:

[h0ughy]

No Andrew that is a genuine flake out :lol:

[RB]

Yeh, I realise it's a real shot, I ment it just looks staged, they look so cute.. :zzz:

I would'nt worry too much about the express 80, aren't you basically going to use it to guide or for visual, Dave?

[h0ughy]

yes and when they are awake they will rip you bl**dy arms off (as Aunty jack would say).

Mainly visual Andrew, that was my second time imaging through it, the first were daytime terrestrial shots, looked ok then. The coma is bad, but maybe one of those minuv violet thingys might help. I must say though to all those out there in SCT land who haven't used a good quality crayford focusser before (me included) I found achieving focus in the OE exceptionally enjoyable and easy.

[RB]

:lol: :rofl:
:family:




Yes I'm hunting around for a minus violet filter too for my camera lenses.
Because not all the light is focused at the same point, the stars tend to bloat.

[h0ughy]

reprocessed the shot a bit

[Striker]

Still looks very nice Huffy.....your off to a great start.

I just dont know why everyone was recomending the Orion Short tube 480mm when the Orion ED80 is a far superior scope for not much more money....specialy for Astrophotography.?????

Thank god mine is only being used as a guide scope...just like your's Huffy.

[RB]

Do you have an Express 80 too Paul?
Do you find similar results from your's?

[Striker]

Who's Paul......lol

I purchased a WO Zenithstar 80 which is the same scope which I will be using as a guide scope....so I imagine if I did any imaging through this scope I would get the same.

Striker = Tony
Paul is a very very bad name....you wait till I tell Louie....lol

[RB]

Sorry Toni, me appoligggg's, bad headache dis morn'ng.
Please don't tell Louis....... :lol: :drink:

[RB]

I think the problem can be corrected somewhat with a minus violet filter.
They cut out the unwanted wavelengths which cause stars to bloat.
I've ordered one from Lumicon to help with my wide field shots.

This is a quick attempt through a 200mm, as you can see not polar aligned and some flaring but it shows that stars tend to bloat even with high end lenses.

I'll see what the minus v filter achieves and let you know but I suspect it will help a lot in your scope too David.

[h0ughy]

Oh he says this is just a quick shot :P quick be bu99ered. its an excellent short shot :lol:

[h0ughy]

I agree and will be getting a minus violet filter 2" soon

[RB]

:lol:

You know what I mean, I didn't pay to much attention to setting it up, ISO, appature, etc.

Thanks for the nice comments. :)

[h0ughy]

can you please email me the full res image , i love yours!!

[atalas]

Houghy your off to a great start ! from here on It all gets better and more interesting mate . Striker and RB .... I havent got a clue what your talking about ! but please don't let me stop you guy's .

[h0ughy]

Thats Ok Louie, niether do they, just come in and trash my post, come to think it I helped, oh I trashed my own post. Well there you go. everything is normal mate! Just cruddy images from me