Trapezium at Midnight - no tracking

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #1 20-12-2005, 01:27 AM

I have just come in from an adventurous night in the sky. Tonight was the first great night in a very long time!!!!

I set up early (8:30pm) for cool down, and at 10:30 when it was good & dark I hit the imaging trail.

Venus was just about to set so I started there before she dissappeared for the night. No luck though. Venus had sunk too low for any decent imaging so I moved onto Mars. On the Lappy the image only seemed reasonable but I captured an Avi regardless, hoping I can make it OK in PhotoShop.

I Shifted over to 47tuc and could not define anything on the screen so I gave up on it. Over to Tarantula. Nope, nothing visible! I was determined to capture something so I zipped up to good old Orion neb. HOORAY! There's the Trap!!!

OK, locate the Trapezium on screen and set levels as it zooms across the screen. Re-centre, levels, zoooom. Re-centre, levels, zoooom. On it went like this for about 5 minutes until I was happy with the image on screen. Click on the button to start the recording standby mode, place Trap on edge of screen and . . . click!

As the Trap edged it's way across the screen I was ready on the 'Stop recording' button. And . . . . Click! Got Ya!!!

Then I moved over to the Carina Nebula but couldn't get any image on screen.

It was at this time I noticed everything starting to get washed out by Moonlight rising in the East so I quickly packed up all the imaging gear so I could spend the last bit of semi-dark sky with my eyeball at the EP!

I went for a quick squizz around the Fornax Cluster and spotted about 7 galaxies but the Moon was already making them fade. A quick look at Mars and YUCK! It was terrible!!!!

It was at this point I decided to check my collimation only to find it was way out of whack!!!!!!

How dopey could I be! Oh well, too late now, the sky was ablaze with Mr. Moon, and my fingers had gone numb from the cold.

I transfered all my images to the Desktop and only one was any good. The Trapezium (I'm suprised it worked at all with such lousy collimation

).

I have posted in here for you. I like it, as it is better than my last effort!

Enjoy! Comments welcome.

Trapezium in Orion Nebula, GS 12" Dob, no tracking, Philips ToUcam at Prime Focus, 160 frames stacked in Registax, Levels adjusted in PhotoShop CS.

asimov (John) · #2 20-12-2005, 01:36 AM

How the hell did you get that!? That's brilliant! Neb clouds PLUS six in the trap!

Last night I took 1000 frames of the trap & still ended up with only 4 stars!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #3 20-12-2005, 01:50 AM

I dunno John. I thought it was supposed to come out like that. Actually I was hoping for much better. Now you have me confused.

I just pointed and recorded! If I raise the Brightness level I get tons more Neb and heaps more stars but it looks too light and washy so I didn't go too high with the brightness.

asimov (John) · #4 20-12-2005, 01:56 AM

Of course, your using a much lower magnification than me...makes all the difference. Heres my 'splendid' effort last night at mag 10 zillion lol. You may commence laughing!

RB (Andrew) · #5 20-12-2005, 02:01 AM

The trap has come up very nicely Ken.
Well done.

Have you tried NEAT Image to remove any noise from images?
There's a free version at http://www.neatimage.com/

Cheers Ken.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #6 20-12-2005, 02:03 AM

Thanks Andrew.

I've got neatimage on my pooter but don't know how to use it.

RB (Andrew) · #7 20-12-2005, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Thanks Andrew.

I've got neatimage on my pooter but don't know how to use it.

I'll see if I can write down a step by step for you Ken when I get a spare few moments.
I had a quick go at your trap with NEAT image and also adjusted levels to highlight the trap.

Hope that's OK.

Keep up the good work and I enjoy your posts.

I'm off to bed......

PS could't get rid of all the noise, there's still some to the left side

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #8 20-12-2005, 02:13 AM

AsiJohn, looks like your scope is out of collimation too!

Here is a close up of the Trap & a little bit more brightness added.

I don't know what the black images are either side of the brightest stars but I left them there.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #9 20-12-2005, 02:15 AM

Yep, play away Andrew. But where did all the Nebula go?

RB (Andrew) · #10 20-12-2005, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Yep, play away Andrew. But where did all the Nebula go?

It's still there on my screen, Im using the old CRT? Are you using an LCD screen, sometimes different screens show up detail differently

I'll have another go tomorrow on your closeup shot. Your closeup shot looks even better.

asimov (John) · #11 20-12-2005, 02:24 AM

No Ken. The refractor is pretty close to spot on....The problem in that pic was I stacked the whole AVI with no filtering in registax (& gave it heaps with the waveletts) to try to get the 6 trap stars to come out....bad seeing as well.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #12 20-12-2005, 02:26 AM

I'm using a very old CRT! On mine the sky is totally Black and the stars are Blue.

You've ruined my lovely picture

asimov (John) · #13 20-12-2005, 02:26 AM

I have the CRT too....I can just make out the cloud.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #14 20-12-2005, 02:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asimov

No Ken. The refractor is pretty close to spot on....The problem in that pic was I stacked the whole AVI with no filtering in registax (& gave it heaps with the waveletts) to try to get the 6 trap stars to come out....bad seeing as well.

You can 'Filter' in Registax? Boy, I have a lot to learn about Registax. And Neat Image, and Desire, and Astra Image!

At least I can use PhotoShop.

asimov (John) · #15 20-12-2005, 02:45 AM

Not the kind of filter your thinking of Ken....I meant it 'filters' out the crap images.

BTW In neatimage...If you read thru the instructions, it eventually asks you to take an image of a callibration print-out with your camera. See below.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #16 20-12-2005, 02:51 AM

Here is a bigger version of the original pic for anyone to have a play with.

Have fun!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #17 20-12-2005, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asimov

BTW In neatimage...If you read thru the instructions, it eventually asks you to take an image of a callibration print-out with your camera. See below.

You've lost me there . . already! LOL!

Confounded gizmos

asimov (John) · #18 20-12-2005, 03:25 AM

Lol!!

davidpretorius · #19 20-12-2005, 08:30 AM

well done ken, 6 stars!!!!.
I was out playing with the powermate and saturn and jupiter - nothing to write home about re results, but th powermate is lovely!!!

it is great to see your capturing skills rocketing up the scales. It is very pleasing doing something manually, and it is even sweater when you get your tracking going!

congrats

h0ughy (David) · #20 20-12-2005, 10:09 AM

well done Ken, I am impressed, six stars plus a few others to boot. Very Nice!