My best effort yet

[adman (Adam)]

This has been a mammoth effort for me to get to here. Everything came together tonight though. I spent some time on my G11 today adjusting the worms, and it really paid off with my guiding - still some way to go though to get the hang of using the Tak as a guider. The shorter focal length make sit a bit more finicky to get nice round stars.

Anyway - here is my best astrophotography effort so far.

Light frames: 15 x 4 min subs at 400 iso
Dark Frames: 15 x 4 min
No flats (I need a light box...) - but it desperately needs them.
Canon 550D
200mm f5 newt on G11
guided with FS-60CB / QHY5 / PHD

stacked in DSS, curves and levels in Photoshop CS5. I don't know what the band across the bottom is though...anyone got any ideas?

Cheers
Adam

[jimmywrangles (James)]

OK, that is seriously awesome.
If you don't mind I'd like to use that as my desktop.
Keep em coming.

[adman (Adam)]

Thanks James! but I reckon I still have a way to go until I hit 'awesome'...

looking at it more critically this morning, I don't think I hit the focus spot on. It must have shifted a little, as I used the Bahtinov grabber to get it just right. It also really needs some flats which I will do maybe later today with the old white t-shirt trick (I have kept the camera attached to keep everything the same as last). The trap is burnt out also - will need to get a few short exposures to blend in - another learning curve.

Its a work in progress.

Adam

Originally Posted by jimmywrangles

OK, that is seriously awesome.
If you don't mind I'd like to use that as my desktop.
Keep em coming.

[Frobble (Steve)]

Hi Adam, thats a fantastic shot and one I hope to aspire to in the future.
How long have you been doing this ?

Steve

[jimmywrangles (James)]

Originally Posted by adman

Thanks James! but I reckon I still have a way to go until I hit 'awesome'...

looking at it more critically this morning, I don't think I hit the focus spot on. It must have shifted a little, as I used the Bahtinov grabber to get it just right. It also really needs some flats which I will do maybe later today with the old white t-shirt trick (I have kept the camera attached to keep everything the same as last). The trap is burnt out also - will need to get a few short exposures to blend in - another learning curve.

Its a work in progress.

Adam

It was Einstien who said everything is relative, I'm using an spc900 webcam with a 10" dob and no tracking so believe me.... that pic is awesome.

As for the lines at the bottom of the pic it looks like a software problem to me, Do they appear in any other shots with the same gear?
Are they present in your captures before processing?
You should be able to narrow it down by swapping your gear around until you find the culprit.
Let us know how you go and keep posting those piccies, It gives me something to aspire to.

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by Frobble

Hi Adam, thats a fantastic shot and one I hope to aspire to in the future.
How long have you been doing this ?

Steve

I hate to admit it - but since August 2009. I spent a year mucking around with an EQ5 trying to get it to guide properly. It taught me a lot of the basics, but was an exercise in frustration. The G11 has been fantastic. It seems that there is always something else to buy. My last purchase was a fast computer that pushed out that image in a minute or two rather than an hour or two from my dodgy old laptop.

seems like you need to have the x-factor to produce a good image - Xperience, and Xpense...!

I feel that I have come a long way up the learning curve, but it seems like I have the same distance still to go....how does that work??

Adam

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

a good start up to well done.

The core is bit overloaded but you can always use this data along with shorter exposures in the future.

Light frames will be fairly important for you as this is most probably the cause of that bar across the bottom.

[RickS (Rick)]

Good to see you're making progress, Adam!

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Good to see you're making progress, Adam!

yeah - its amazing what you can do with the right counterweight!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Very nice Adam, off and running

Re your oblong stars. I'm not sure you can put it down to guiding. Your center and lower stars look fine where as your upper corner (L & R) as well as in the top center and center sides look more like coma. What are you using to deal with normal coma? Maybe your camera isn't seated square but has a bit of sag in it.

[adman (Adam)]

Hi Paul thanks for that! My comment about round stars was more in general - not this particular image. The guiding last night was great after tweaking the worm clearances. I am using an MPCC - but it must have been sagging in the focuser a little. I have got the camera hanging down in line with the counterweight bar so it balances the guidescope on top.

Adam

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

You have done well.

[stattonb (Statton)]

very well done,it takes time but looks like you are doing well.

[RobF (Rob)]

Great going Adam. Its such a tempting target for any new gear when its up, but M42 is a really tough target with the huge dynamic range involved. Some flats and short exposures will be a big help for sure, but create more processing challenges too of course. You're not having fun if there isn't some new challenge to lust after and mutter about. Plenty of scope to keep playing with the data or adding to it too as you say - there's lot in it already.