Second go at the Deep Sky stuff - Trials & Tribulations

[John K]

Well I got out there last night for my second go at the deep sky stuff armed with a newly acquired off axis guider and my 12.5" with thoughts of long exposure postcard looking deep sky images. Little did I know!

It took a full hour to drift align my horseshoe mount and courtecy of the fact that I have only a 5 x Powemate with a 12mm guiding eyepiece, the guide stars where either too small or too faint. Finding suitable guide stars with the off axis guider proved way way more difficult that what I had imagined. Dont know how you guys manage it! Really need a 2 x Barlow. As well, because I have not yet obtained an extension tube, both the eyepiece and barlow need to be fully extended and just manage to reach focus, further exagurating the guide stars looking like seagulls due to extra flex. The other problem was the flexure issue that came/went with the camera hanging off the off axis guider itself as I rotated it around to find guidestars. To top things off battled wind vibration for half the night!

So the name of the game was to crank up the ISO on the 400D and keep things very very short. The only shot I could do any proper guiding with is the Eta Carina shot.

Surprised that I got anything really and on the positive side my drift alignment was not too bad for my first effort. Also imaged my first galaxy and globular cluster even though they are pretty poor by this forums postings, but it's a start and I am hooked.

Going forward need to sort out the guiding thing and learn how to stack and subtrack dark frames, but 100% tracking accuracy will be my first challange.

Comments, advice and suggestions very welcome!

All shots were taken at ISO1600 with built in noise reduction and processed in Canon Zoom Browser EX and Noiseware.

OMEGA CENTAURI - 23 seconds

ETA CARINA - 137 seconds (2 versions)

NGC5128 - Just 21 seconds

SAGITARIUS MILKY WAY - 125 seconds unguided (Sigma Lens is proving great)

p.s. anyone want to sell a 2 x Barlow?

[spearo (Frank)]

WOAH! I love the Milky Way shot. You have to be proud of that!
Hate wind...hate clouds (unless they bring rain), know how you feel about the autoguiding...I have similar struggles.
Keep at it
well done
(and print off the Milky Way shot on a postcard and send it to someone you like!)
frank

[Gama]

That is good work, nice images. I also agree the milkyway is very good.


Theo

[tornado33]

Howdy
Yes a stunning milky way there.
What kind of off axis guider have you got? Youre the only other person then me who uses an off axis guider on a Newtonian that I know of.
Pics of mine http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/focuser/IMG_9937.jpg
http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/focuser/IMG_9932.jpg
http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/focuser/IMG_9933.jpg
Got it here
http://www.aeroquest-machining.com/page9.html
Scott

[iceman (Mike)]

They're excellent John, very good results! Love the milkyway too!

[matt]

Really good John.

Yep, Milky Way gets my vote too

[acropolite (Phil)]

Excellent results John. The milky way widefield is amazing.

[Phil]

great stuff well done

[John K]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

The Milky Way shot was a total afterthought as I was packing up, did not even look through the viewfinder, just bolted it on to the scope and took the shot as dawn was breaking, so quite surprised with the results.

Scott - I use a Lumicon Giant Easy Guider as I have a scope with a truss tube so hard to use a guidescope but over the comming months thinking of going for a low weight 3"-4" SCT/Cassegrain as a guidescope option if I can work out attachment options. P.S. Your radial guider looks amazing!

[davidpretorius]

bloody hell, John.....what are you doing playing with the naughty DSO boys....get your ass back over here in the planetary yard


(they are some mighty fine efforts)

how much again was your scope?? is it ALT / AZ or EQ based?

[ving (David)]

nice rich pics john!!

[John K]

Thanks for the comment Ving.

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

bloody hell, John.....what are you doing playing with the naughty DSO boys....get your ass back over here in the planetary yard


(they are some mighty fine efforts)

how much again was your scope?? is it ALT / AZ or EQ based?

Don't worry Davo, deep sky stuff is keeping me occupied once per month waiting for the seeing to improve and to get the "cooler" effect with planetary stuff.

Scope is a horseshoe equatorial. With the extra cost for custom spec OMI optics + air freight to OZ I paid $10k. I am sure people will do better now with the sky high $A.