I was able to get out with my new NEQ6 and SW 1000mm 8" F5 Newt for the first time ever.
I had to learn how to align in the southern hemisphere at 11pm with the manual only really mentioning the northern hemisphere but I got there.
Still had a lot of drift but I will figure that out soon.
My first ever photo was of M42 and I was very, very happy that it came out so well.
I have edited them all because the spot I was at in Tooradin, Vic had yellow street lamps nearby which cause a lot of yellow in the image but I just turned down that colours saturation
Congratulations Matt... you've done really well for your first attempt
Waaaay better than I ever did when I first started and there's so much to be learnt here...
You don't need another scope for Jupiter, just a $15 webcam and a barlow lens. Stack a 1000 frames in Registax [ freeware ], and you're
off and running.
raymo
If you were after a good site down the Peninsula way, you could join the mornington peninsula astro society you then have access to the Briars. http://www.mpas.asn.au/
a 5x powermate will up the scale of the planets.
You seem like a bit of a perfectionist Matt and I wouldn't normally point this out to someone after their first astro shot!! But you're quite advanced already so i'll give you some feedback on orion - i hope it doesn't come across as harsh but just trying to be helpful.
There is coma around the fringes so a coma corrector should be on your list (that's just a function of your setup not your capture). I'd also say the focus is off a fraction off and either the tracking appears to be a tad off (or it was perhaps windy) and/or the scope needs some tighter collimation.
But as i said earlier stellar effort for a first shot! Mine definitely wouldn't compare.
Looking forward to more.
Cheers
Rusty
ps in the meantime you could possibly play around with lens correction to offset the coma a bit - if you use photoshop.
If you've got Magic Lantern with the raw video module on your mkIII you can shoot in raw zoom mode where it takes video at 1:1 pixels off the sensor. This won't give you any more focal length than shooting stills but it will mean that you can process and stack those video frames to get significantly more detail. Note that this is different to just shooting 1080p video normally which takes the full image off the whole sensor and shrinks it down to 1920x1080.
Raymo, I have used registax before for shots of the moon with a 300mm Canon lens so I could definitely do that.
Rusty, I am a perfectionist and I'm not worried about criticism. It is how I learn so it is ok. I would much rather an honest opinion than none at all.
I am waiting to hear from Peter at Astro Pete's for when the coma correctors he is getting arrive and I will snap one up.
The tracking was way off also. Because it was dark and the first time I was polarising it I kinda gave up after I got it in the generally direction because I couldn't see the Octans at all where I was.
I did notice that when I locked the focus in it would change it slightly as well but I got it as close as I could. Also it was windy by the water.
I usually chuck on a little lens correction with Lightroom too.
Hugh, I do have ML on it and tried the RAW video once but my card wasn't really fast enough but I didn't know you could crop it like that so I will have to give that a shot.
Hugh, I do have ML on it and tried the RAW video once but my card wasn't really fast enough but I didn't know you could crop it like that so I will have to give that a shot.
From memory you just press the + button to zoom to 5x on the liveview before you start the recording
Assuming that you are using your NEQ6, I wouldn't bother with Octans. The polar alignment feature built in to later versions of Synscan make
it much easier.
raymo
I will definitely be giving the ML RAW video a whirl don't you worry.
I was under the impression it was always better to get as close to celestial south as possible. I did it so rough I was surprised I got an image at all. When I get a guidescope it will help too
Assuming that you are using your NEQ6, I wouldn't bother with Octans. The polar alignment feature built in to later versions of Synscan make
it much easier.
raymo
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtfreestyler
I will definitely be giving the ML RAW video a whirl don't you worry.
I was under the impression it was always better to get as close to celestial south as possible. I did it so rough I was surprised I got an image at all. When I get a guidescope it will help too
Hi Matt/Raymo,
Raymo is right - polar align through different means. however if the handset is running an older version of synscan it won't have it.
what version of synscan your handset is running is shown when you switch it on. A handy polar alignment function was added I think around v3.33 or something. The newest is version 3.36 - you can update the handset here http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads.php
it would be worth watching a youtube video on how to update.
Once the firmware is updated, you do a two star alignment, it tells you how far your alignment is, then you select 'polar align'. follow the instructions, then do a two star alignment again. Repeat a few times as necessary. important to redo a two star alignment after the polar align function.
Mine is different to how Rusty describes it. It shows the error after each iteration of the two star alignment process; you just stop when happy with the error, press the object list button to start tracking, and select your target type from the object list. Mine is 3.35
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 25-02-2015 at 12:09 PM.
Reason: correction
Mine is different to how Rusty describes it. It shows the error after each iteration of the two star alignment process; you just stop when happy with the error, press the object list button to start tracking, and select your target type from the object list. Mine is 3.35
raymo
hi raymo,
I believe the goto is more accurate if you do another alignment (1, 2 or 3 star) after doing the polar alignment routine.
my understanding is the handset still will be working off your last two star alignment , so while mechanically the mount is in a better position the computer (handset) still thinks the stars are in a slightly different position - (goal posts shifted). it shouldn't cause that much trouble, especially if you've done an iterative PA routine, but it only takes a few seconds.
I get where you are coming from Rusty, and for most people it would
probably be right, but because I don't autoguide, I need to get down to around 10 or 15 seconds of error with my penultimate iteration, and obviously less than that with my final one, so I think that the difference in tracking accuracy in my case would be minimal. I had round stars after 165 secs unguided when producing my last image with my 8" f/5
scope. I don't think that could be much improved upon before periodic
error started to show in the image. Having said all that, I will do as you suggest and see if there is any improvement.
raymo
