It's all good clean fun

[Nico13]

Well the experimenting is going well, :D I think so at least.
This Astro photography stuff is a challenge, keeps the brain active and the hands and feet cold :cold: but the satisfaction level is still on the way up so all is good.

Just a few images from all over the sky, these are just a random selection of targets as part of my experiments with the new bits and pieces to see what field sizes I get from the SCT 8" and the SW ED80 and the effectiveness of the Orion field flattener with the DSLR.
Also how good the guiding is as opposed physical alignment accuracy etc, PHD and guide camera ability on faint stars, finding out what ISO is good and what length of exposures suit different targets and the camera itself.
After all that how to use DSS and then image stretching in CS5.

The images are as simple as 2 frames of Rho Oph to 8 frames on M100 with very poor seeing. This is a bit like a blog I guess as much as a progress report as things improve from previous efforts.
No darks or flats at this stage, they are the next step in the process.



1 Rho Oph - 8" SCT
2 M65 & M66 - 8" SCT
3 M98 & M99 in the Virgo Cluster - ED80
4 M100 - 8" SCT
5 Eta Car - ED80

[blink138]

hello ken how long were the exposures on the galaxies and any lp filtering?

[Nico13]

Hi Pat,

No LP filtering.

M65 and 66 was about 18 min, 6 x 3 min subs, I had another six subs from a previous night but DSS chucked six of the twelve out, maybe missalignment was too great.

M100 was 15 min 5 x 3 min subs.

And M98 and 99 with the ED 80 was only two frames of 3 min and 2 1/2 min and the dark patch in the lower left is my very tall gum trees in the back yard thats why only two frames.

All at ISO 800.

Now that I have a setup that I can work with and know roughly what I'm going to get I can get a bit more serious and focus more on quality rather than quantity.
You know, stop slewing all over the sky just snapping off shots willy nilly :P