Yes I know it's been done to death, but with the murky conditions these last few weeks it's the only bright object I can image except Jupiter!
This is me playing with the Ice In Space acquired 8" Newt, the so called pig in lipstick as it is a basic SW 8" Newt with a bright red Moonlite focuser -sort of suits it!
Took ages to get some alignment -still getting used to the yoga positions required when using a newt. Anyone invented rotating but secure tube rings out there?
Anyway, unmodded canon, stacked in DSS and processed in Startools.
About 40 frames of 45 sec at 800ISO. No filters. Had to abandon the run when the moon became to bright.
Cheers
Graz in Hobart
Hi Graham,
Nice work with the new scope, as far as looking through the scope i just think at what im going to look at and move the scope before i secure it in place cheapest way , and the sky up north is not much better waiting for my new eyepeices to show up they cleared customs the other day so hope to have them soon look forward to seeing more work from the new scope.
Hi Graham,
There are some rotating rings out there.
I saw some in an English mag I have.I'll have a look and see if I still have it.
Oh and good Pic too.
I've seen the lippy on that scope..it looks a treat.
Parallax rings do a rotatable design but they are expensive! alternitively you can get a third tube ring and put it between the focuser and the first ring on, that way you can loosen the 2 main scope rings while leaving the third one tight and slip it around. but alignments could go astray its more for a visual setup!
As for your processing the stars are very stark meaning that you have really pushed the sharpening possibly a tad to far. Also im taking a small educated punt here but if you have used deconvolution that could also be the source of your stark stars. If you have a version of photoshop utilize masked layer blending its really the way to go for your selective sharpening!
Might be my rural imagination, but your picture makes it look like a cockatoo to me.
M43 is the head with comb extended with 42?Ori the eye and M42 the body and spread wings.
looks like you are well on your way to making that pig sing!
All the basics are there - round stars, focus looks pretty close, but you have had to really push the data in those short subs to extract the detail, and it shows in the clipping of the brighter stars. Longer exposures is going to be where its at for you now. Were those shots guided?
Adam
EDIT: I meant to make a comment about the rotating rings - its really only an issue if you are doing visual, and what I used to do was just slacken off the ring screws a little (making sure you have a good hold on the tube...) and rotate it to a better spot for the eyepiece and tighten them up again. A bit of a pain, but against spending a few hundred bucks on rotating rings, I could put up with it.
When you are imaging, swing the camera so it is under the tube (in the home position at least), that way it will act as a counterweight and not unblance the scope laterally. It took me ages to figure this out...
, and the sky up north is not much better waiting for my new eyepeices to show up they cleared customs the other day so hope to have them soon look forward to seeing more work from the new scope.
