What was it like last night Peter?
Heavy cloud early morning and today in Brissie.
It was quite good last night. Because of the heat during the day, I'd more or less written the night off but it turned out much better than I expected - but by then it was too late - the red wine damage had been done.
There is fog around this morning though - but I expect that'll lift in th next hour or so.
I'll post an update about lunch and see what's what then.
Well guys, it was good while it lasted.
Brandy has asked me to apologize for snatching Tim's Fernvale Bakery pie but says it was delicious anyway.
We won't be here for April new moon but hope we can schedule something for May.
cheers
Peter
Nice work Rick, the sky was clear here until 4 ish last night.
Good to see you were able to capture a few subs on M83.
Sorry I couldn't make it, will catch everyone next time.
At least we got a few hours of starlight before the fog rolled in, Peter. Thanks for your hospitality again.
Here's a quick & dirty process of my meagre three hours of M83. At full res the detail is quite nice but I really need a few more hours on it...
Cheers,
Rick.
By way of contrast (or is it comic relief) here's the same object, from the same night and same site - but instead of that piece of Italian rubbish, this is from 5 inches of raw Chinese power - I know there is just no comparison, but don't tell Rick! OK.
Peter
By way of contrast (or is it comic relief) here's the same object, from the same night and same site - but instead of that piece of Italian rubbish, this is from 5 inches of raw Chinese power - I know there is just no comparison, but don't tell Rick! OK.
Peter
Still quite a respectable M83, Peter. A little processing magic could tart it up too. Perhaps next trip up?
Hi Tim. You will be welcome back any time you like.
That image actually shows some good things. Polar alignment and guiding are the clear winners. A computer interface from your guide camera will make it easy to do drift alignment and that'll get your polar alignment sorted within 10-15 minutes.
You'll need to download the program PHD guiding by Craig Stark. It's a freebie. And I'll give you some hard-to-forget instructions next time you're here. Easy.
Guiding also requires a computer interface and once again, PHD will do the job for you.
Assuming you've got your scope reasonably well balanced, that will give you round stars and get you going with longer exposures and better results.
The good thing about the image is that the camera is clearly going to give you good colour balance even though it may be a bit light in the red zone - but most DSLRs are the same.
As I said to you, my advice is to put your good camera aside for a while, get hold of a simple Canon DSLR and grab a copy of one of the programs written specifically for the DSLR users - like Backyard EOS. A power supply for your camera would also be a good idea - to free you up from the annoying need to change batteries - which usually happens at the most inopportune time.
A Bahtinov mask for your telescope makes focusing a breeze too. If you have a mask, you don't need to rely on using your camera's live-view system. You focus via the laptop running Bayckyard EOS.
When you've made yourself copmpfortable with the computer interface to your scope/camera, you can later consider putting a motor on your focuser but for now, that should take a back step to getting used to drift alignment and using Backyard EOS.
Oh yes, you'll need to download the latest ASCOM drivers and EQMOD. And you'll need to get hold of a suitable cable to connect your EQ6 to your laptop. Bintel is the place for that.
You'll also need to get the ASCOM drivers for your guide camera. I didn't notice what you were using but if it's a QHY5 or similar, there is no problem with drivers.
Agreed - pretty amazing shots for first efforts Tim, considering unguided etc.
Some of the star smearing is coma - you can see the stars in the outer corners have a radial "warp drive" effect that would be cured by an MPCC.
