Last couple of nights efforts

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Things have been pretty quiet for me in the imaging area over the past month or so.

I've been concentrating on working out the Losmandy mount, StarMate, K3CCDTOOLS V2 for autoguiding and DSLR Focus for focusing, Meade OAG, along with widefield shot using the 300D and a couple of Canon Zoom lenses and my old HD-102EQ achro refractor. Bit of an exercise in frustration at times. Well I think I've got the mount sussed out, and I've come to realize that zoom lenses aren't the way to go for astrophotography (especially when it appear they are achromatic as well )

These are the best of a very moderate bunch IMO. And yes I know there are blue halos around the bright stars. I gave up trying to get rid of them

OK first off the rank is a cropped image of Omega centauri through my refractor
Details:
HD-102 celestron achro refractor f/10
canon 300d prime focus
30 sec ISO1600
(This was froma frustrating night of nothing going right and I wanted at least one shot for my efforts)

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

This one is a crop from a piggyback 300D. ISO800, f/8 (slowing it down, trying to reduce blobbiness of starts and effects of the achro abberation), 200mm for 240 sec. Focused with DSLR Focus and guided with K3 V2

[atalas]

Nice work again Paul and congrats on the new mount!



Louie

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

The next is a mosaic of 10 images processed in autostitch from the pointers to sag area. I'll expose longer next time or change my f/ratio or ISO

Canon piggyback, autoguided with K3, focused with DSLR, each image is ISO400, f/6.3, exp 360 sec, dark subbed, FL 35mm.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

And finally from the tail of scorpio to the sag area. 4 images total

Same setup as the previous. ISO800, f/6.3, exp 500 sec, dark subbed, FL 80mm. stiched in autostich, processed in PS to remove LP and cropped.

[atalas]

Man that looks real nice Paul!


Louie

[ving (David)]

they are great pics paul!
I really love that last one

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

love that widefield

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

This one is my favourite shot of the four from the sag area

[Robby]

Real nice Paul,
Good to see you have got your setup humming!..
Cheers

[xelasnave]

Splendid.. now did you do a dark frame subtract??
Really great shots you gotta be happy with those results.
alex

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty happy with the long exposure shots, even reduced for posting

Yeah its been an interesting journey Robby. Still got some teething problems to work out, like tracking beautifully for a minute or two they either the RA or DEC will head off into the wild blue yonder. I'm learning alot about tweeking those K3 settings and guidestar selection.

Yes Alex I did Dark subtractions. While the red colouring was noticeable in the originals it wasn't too excessive, but the subtraction took out a lot of the bad pixels from the other areas of the image as well

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent shots Paul! I love the mosaic, would love to see a larger version! And next time, expose longer!

Great to see some more images from you again!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hmmm I might have to adjust my monitor at home. The images look a lot brighter on my monitor at home.

[Robby]

Hi Paul,
K3 can do that to you!!!!
You should try the pulse guiding commands. Gary had a similar problem & this fixed it for him.
Go to guiding settings on K3 and tick the "GPS command set" tick box. K3 will now use the pulse guide commands (Mgyxxxx), instead of the less reliable slew commands (My# / Qy#).
Cheers

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Yeah its been an interesting journey Robby. Still got some teething problems to work out, like tracking beautifully for a minute or two they either the RA or DEC will head off into the wild blue yonder.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thanks Robby. I'll do that once this cloud move back home