Crux and Horsehead

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks to some very helpful people here, I've managed to shave down my EQ6 polar alignment / drift alignment time from over an hour down to just a few minutes

I previously thought I had set up my EQ6 perfectly level using the bubble meter, but a few people mentioned that theirs was fairly inaccurate - but their iPhone was dead on. I tested mine out and discovered that my EQ6's bubble level was ridiculously far out (true horizontal has the air bubble along the black outer circle).

After using an iPhone to level the EQ6 tripod to read 0.0 deg... eureka! The altitude alignment is very, very close even between full set ups and tear downs on grass (enough for 6 min exposures at 924 mm with my Canon 5DmkII). I can get the azimuth pretty close using the iPhone compass, and it only takes a few quick adjustments with feedback from PHD.

Based on the past few nights, I've found that I now only need to level the tripod and do a quick azimuth adjustment to get an RMS of around 0.15 in PHD on both axes. Hooray!

So... thanks to everyone (Brendan comes to mind!) for sharing your tips

Here are a couple of quick targets from my light polluted back yard. Unfortunately, the cloud cover didn't let me capture any more data.

1. Crux - 30x 65 sec at 85 mm f/5.6 ISO 400. I discovered that my 85 mm f/1.2L II has coma in one corner (clearly visible in the diffraction spikes of stars) - lucky, because the warranty runs out next month so I can get it recalibrated for free.

2. Horsehead/Flame - 21x 360 sec with 132 mm refractor ISO 400. The weird rainbow is from stray light that street lamp that I thought wouldn't matter... apparently William Optics' anti-reflective flocking isn't as good as Canon's!

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

you have done pretty good i thinks possibly pushed the red in your HH/Flame a bit to hard trying to pull out the curtain though I think your Crux is a ripper!.

Do you use PS CS4 or 5 by any chance?

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks, I figured I'd enjoy the EQ6 before I sell it next month.

Yeah, the Horsehead/Flame pretty overcooked because I wanted to get some contrast. Here's a unprocessed crop from one of my subs (the best I've ever had through the scope)... between light pollution and unmodded SLR, it's a struggle. If the clouds stayed away and I shot it for 50 hours, perhaps I'd get something nice I liked your recent effort though!

Yep, I'm using PS CS5 and LR 3.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Make sure you utilize Vibrance. very powerful little tool!

Don't worry I went though the canon 40D days from the middle of perth. 2 minutes is all i could go before it was just red with a smattering of white dots.!

Here is my folder of origins....

It taught me how to process less than average data and because of that now that i am getting good data I can still use all my little tricks in the box but they work sooooo much better Even got a first place award for one of my images

[naskies (Dave)]

Cheers - I forgot about vibrance (I use it in LR all the time with landscapes).

Yeah, I've been pretty surprised by what can be captured on a modern SLR even with just a fixed tripod with the right processing... a bit like magic.

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Nice work, I like the crux shot alot

[Daveskywill (David)]

The Horsehead is also known as Barnard 33.

Do you need a special filter?

I heard you can visually see it. But you need at least a 12" and/or

good seeing conditions.

David

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Originally Posted by Daveskywill

The Horsehead is also known as Barnard 33.

Do you need a special filter?

I heard you can visually see it. But you need at least a 12" and/or

good seeing conditions.

David

Hi David

The horeshead can be observed visually.
I have even seen it through my 10` lightbridge only because there is no light pollution here.
Hb filter is the one to use but i dont need that either to view it.
Cheers Kev.

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks Ken!

[irwjager (Ivo)]

That's a brilliantly framed Crux! Very nice job.

I appreciate the HH can be a bit of a bugger. I did a little clean up of your image - hope you don't mind. Hard to say whether the may be more in your data from this small image. Love to see some bigger versions on Astrobin!

Cheers,

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks Ivo, great job on the processing (I don't mind at all). It looks like you did some denoising and black point adjustments? Was there anything else?

A pity that it's been so cloudy in Brisbane lately... I would have loved to collect more data for this.

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Originally Posted by naskies

It looks like you did some denoising and black point adjustments? Was there anything else?

Yep, some de-noising. No deliberate blackpoint adjustments (ST automagically adjusts it as it sees fit). I fixed-up Alnitak and the other bright star a little (shrunk Alnitak, rounded both). I also used a funky new algorithm to isolate and rebuild the nebulosity somewhat and push non-nebulosity to the background. Just having some fun.

A pity that it's been so cloudy in Brisbane lately... I would have loved to collect more data for this.

I hear you. Not much joy Melbourne-way either.
Amazing though how easy it is these days to achieve recognisable HH!

[naskies (Dave)]

Aah... I thought the stars looked better! I guess you can dress a pig up in lipstick after all

What does "ST" refer to? Is that the processing software you used?

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Originally Posted by naskies

Aah... I thought the stars looked better! I guess you can dress a pig up in lipstick after all

Almost anything is fixable to a degree - especially stars. This is because we know for certain what they should look like - an infinitely small point of light (they obviously don't look like that in our images for a host of different reasons; diffraction, focus, undersampling, CCD bloom, etc.)

What does "ST" refer to? Is that the processing software you used?

Yep, StarTools.