Sneaky Spider NGC 2070

wayne anderson (Wayne) · #1 21-12-2012, 01:47 AM

If you live near the Sunshine Coast QLD you would have been frustrated with the hopeless conditions for imaging lately, clouds and bush fire smoke everywhere.

The Solution, I set up the scope and briefly through the clouds and bushfire smoke focused the camera on NGC 2070 then it clouded over for the next 5 hours so I decided to sneak up on the spider by setting the camera on auto taking 25 second subs all night while I went to sleep for the night. I was hoping that sometime through the night I would get some useful subs.

When I woke up in the morning I checked the 500 shots taken on the camera 420 were totally wasted but 80 were usable (this is one advantage of cloud dodging shorter subs), so a quick stack with no darks or flats and processing revealed this result.

80 X 25sec subs ISO1600 (33mins in total) No darks or flats
12” LX 200 (alt/az setup no guiding)
Sony Nex-3 Camera

I can only imagine what may have resulted if all 500 subs were useful, can’t wait for clear skies.

Larryp (Laurie) · #2 21-12-2012, 06:11 PM

Looks good, Wayne!

LewisM · #3 22-12-2012, 12:01 PM

Wish I could do that. Where I image, if I leave it for more than 5 minutes alone, someone would pilfer it!

HORRID conditions we are having Wayne. I was down photographing Ewen Maddock dam the other day (impressively LOW), and thought of some good spots around you. There are some large clearings in the pine plantation that would afford some darkness and open views with no street lights ( a really good spot I found near Beerwah)

rolls05 (Roland) · #4 22-12-2012, 03:19 PM

alt-az? wow!

wayne anderson (Wayne) · #5 22-12-2012, 06:37 PM

Thanks Larry, Lewis and Rolls, I seem to be getting the hang of alt/az photography, I just need to work on producing good flat frames, a good light box will help.

I hope to try using a field de-rotator soon to see if I can go for longer subs without getting rotation, If that doesn't work I guess getting a wedge and lifting the heavy beast LX200 onto it. The Field de-rotator sounds like the easy way out.

Lewis, I have found a dark sight in the forest between Landsborough and Beerwah I have not set the scope up there just standing in the clearing with binoculars, its a good dark spot and sounds like the one you mentioned. I have attached a link to a post on Dark Sites in Sunshine Coast area.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...749#post928749