Iceman Does DSO's!

[iceman (Mike)]

Was out on Saturday night, wanting to try h0ughy's DSI on Orion. But before the DSI, I tried with the ToUcam.

Here's Orion, with the ToUcam (not long exposure modified) at 1/25s exposure and 5fps. Gain at 100%.

Even on the preview while capturing, I could see the clouds of nebula through the grain. Stacking got rid of most of the grain, and a curves and levels adjust in photoshop brought out the clouds and darkened the bright background. Finally through NeatImage to reduce some of the leftover noise.

The second attachment is the trap using a shorter exposure and less gain to bring out the E and F stars. I was going to overlay them but I couldn't be bothered

I suppose i'm happy with them, my first capture of M42 using my Dob and a normal ToUcam.

[iceman (Mike)]

Here are the results from the DSI on the same night.

Pretty shocking really. Not blaming the DSI, i'm sure it's all operator error and inaccurate tracking. In fact I know the second reason is mostly to blame

I tried different exposures from 2s to 8s, but my tracking wasn't accurate enough (I didn't drift align). I also need to read some tutorials on the DSI to work out how to use the darn Envisage software. Gawd it's horrible to use.

The ones with the bright nebula were processed (curves) in photoshop. The histogram was already horribly clipped though. The rest I didn't bother to process for obvious reasons

Anyway, have a laugh at these

[davidpretorius]

yes, you get a false sense of tracking with planets and fast frame rates.

as soon as you even get to 1 sec exposure, your alignment errors show up.

What does Ali G say.

"RESPECT to the long exposure boys with pinpoint tracking!!!!

[ving (David)]

when I read the the topic i thought "mike doesnt do dso work.... must be a joke"

well done mike, is this your first neb?

[h0ughy (David)]

Ona Mike! See I think it needs a real telescope . PS I don't know who has one of those

[iceman (Mike)]

My first neb, my second DSO. My only other DSO is 47Tuc taken handheld with the digicam about 18 months ago

I think the ToUcam might do an alright job on 47tuc/omega centauri. Can't wait to have a try at those with my short exposures

[davidpretorius]

is it just me or does "Iceman does DSO's" sound like an adult movie?????

[ving (David)]

Originally Posted by iceman

My only other DSO is 47Tuc taken handheld with the digicam about 18 months ago

god that seems like ages ago hey! IIS had only just started.

[beren]

nice start , have you tired logging on to the DSI yahoo group they may have info for starting out in there files sections . Would the drizzle function help with the tracking etc?

[Striker (Tony)]

Happy to see you start on DSO's Mike....you already do wonderful planatary work.

It makes you appreciate how accurate tracking has to be.....imaging a 5 minute exposure...lol

Great start Mike.

[RB (Andrew)]

Good onya Mike,

Good start, much better than my feeble attemps......

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Better see you at that polar aligning workshop Mike. I want to see you doing 3-5 min shots by the end of the weekend.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Better see you at that polar aligning workshop Mike. I want to see you doing 3-5 min shots by the end of the weekend.

its a question of how much is he a glutton for punishment. Given what I have seen and what he wants to achieve next year I would say he will be in the front row ,just to the right a little

I can see the fine adjuster bolts being added to the mount some how to push and pull the dob base into submission

[asimov (John)]

Uuh huh! Thought this might be on the cards seeing you've borrowed Houghy's DSI!!

Good stuff!

[atalas]

Congrats Mike ! now let me see ? maybe a GPDX Skysensor set-up will help you out !

[iceman (Mike)]

Can't wait, Louie!