Thread: EAA guides?
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Old 25-06-2022, 11:58 AM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
I can see clearly now ...

Tinderboxsky is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Kingston TAS
Posts: 1,094
A couple of options, seeing your full equipment list:

Couple the 294MM to your 102ED with reducer. You will get a pleasingly wide FOV and being mono the image detail will emerge faster and be of greater detail and contrast. The downside is you will miss the colour wow factor. Actually, many EAA observers, especially those chasing galaxies, prefer the mono option for it's speed and finer detail.
Alternatively, couple your 224MC to your 102ED with reducer. The FOV will be much smaller, but still sufficient for virtually all targets except for the large nebula. The bonus is full colour.

You can check out the FOV for these options at astronomytools.

All my EAA is with a 103mm ED refractor with dedicated reducer giving 533mm focal length coupled with an ASI385. This is a small sensor but a step up from the 224. I have attached some observations below to give you an idea of what is possible.

Given you are starting out, I suggest you limit your observations to one or two areas of the sky and target a relatively small number of bright objects.

Two examples that have plenty of hero objects:

Scorpius-Sagittarius region: Open clusters - Ptolomy's M7, Butterfly M6, globulars - M22, nebulae - Lagoon M8, Trifid M20

Centaurus-Crux_Carina region: Double star - Alpha Centauri (closest system to Earth, exoplanets around Proxima etc story), Open clusters - Jewel Box, Pearl cluster, Gem cluster, Globulars - Omega Centauri and nearby NGC5286, Nebula - Carina and Running Chicken (maybe a little faint as a starter), galaxies - Centaurus A and nearby NGC4946 (Cigar Galaxy). It is only a short hop into nearby Hydra to finish off with the Southern Pinwheel M83.

I have attached some of my observations with my ED103 to give you an idea. These are based on about 12 months learning and experience at EAA. Still a long way to go. These are all EAA live stacks with all enhancements, stretching and colour balancing down during the stack. There is no post processing involved.

Open clusters and Globulars respond well with short exposures and avoids star bloat as much as possible. For me, these are typically 2 sec frames at gain300 for a total stack of 2-3 minutes. For nebulae and galaxies, I generally use 8-15 sec frames at gain between 200 and 300 depending on how faint the object is. Good images appear after only a couple of minutes for faint objects, but I generally extend the stack to about 10 minutes to improve the signal to noise ratio.

I hope this makes sense. I am guessing that your biggest challenge is to get a handle on SharpCap so that you can generate some wow images on the night.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (NGC4755_Jewel Box_20220306_ED103S_ASI385_SharpCapStack_300frames_600s_Gain300.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (NGC5319_Omega Centauri_2022-05-08_ED103S_ASI385_Stack_subs4.0s_frames75_exposure300s_Gain400.jpg)
34.7 KB123 views
Click for full-size image (NGC5128_Centaurus A_2022-05-21_ED103S_ASI385_SharpCap_15.0s subs_29 frames_435s total exposure_G.jpg)
12.0 KB156 views
Click for full-size image (M20_20210801_ED103_ASI385_Stack_322frames_634s.jpg)
28.3 KB125 views
Click for full-size image (M83_2022-05-09_ED103S_ASI385_Stack_subs8.0s_frames75_exposure600s_Gain400.jpg)
21.7 KB128 views
Click for full-size image (NGC3372_Eta Carina_2022-05-19_ED103S_ASI385_SharpCap_3.7s subs_243 frames_901s total exposure_Ga.jpg)
31.1 KB107 views
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