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mish
member
Reged: 02/10/09
Posts: 67
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Just getting started connecting my DSLR with my telescopes, and I think I could learn to like this. My son and I sat in the back yard taking this session with M31, and the equipment arrangement reads like a Rube Goldberg contraption.
We used my AT66 ED for imaging (64 shots, 30 secs each, unguided), and this telescope was piggybacked onto my Ultima-11's already-overloaded mount. Every breath of wind makes this arrangement move, but luckily, we had little wind on July 2-3, so the frames came out fine.
But 30 seconds was the maximum we could manage from the mount, as it's barely up to visual imaging, so anything longer constitutes pushing one's luck.
This was stacked and stretched in Nebulosity, and except for a bit of red gradient that I have to learn to get rid of (M31 was situated right above a neighborhood sodium vapor street lamp), things turned out pretty well. The moon was up, the wind kept threatening to shut us down, and high clouds periodically obscured most of the sky, but so far, so good!
Constructive comments and suggestions are appreciated. This is only my second full night of digital astrophotography, so I can use all the help I can get (well, that and a GEM, too!).
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mish
member
Reged: 02/10/09
Posts: 67
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Probably ought to attach the image, too... sorry about that!
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4324
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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Nice round stars - nice galaxy. Not bad at all!
But you are right - you won't get much further without a better mount as you really need exposures upto 5 minutes to get teh faint outer reaches of the galaxy arms.
You have a good set of data for the bright bits - keep them and combine with stuff you get when you can go longer
I recon with the stars as round as you have them, that you might get lucky and have success upto 1 minute
Only critique I can offer is that you have lost colour somewhere in your processing. Ther are nice orange stars in this field and you don't have them
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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mish
member
Reged: 02/10/09
Posts: 67
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Tony:
Thanks for the words of encouragement, and for this:
Quote:
Only critique I can offer is that you have lost colour somewhere in your processing. Ther are nice orange stars in this field and you don't have them
I do minimal processing, and don't touch the color adjustments in general (I'm new at this, and prefer to confuse one issue at a time). But the first step in all of my Nebulosity processing is the "adjust color background" process, because there's plenty of sodium vapor lamps near my house, and their color pervades almost every image taken hereabouts.
So I'd wager that the orange and yellow colors in the images are disappearing as collateral damage from the removal of the local light pollution. One of these days when I pick up a real mount for my nascent astrophotography attempts, I'll get out of town to some darker skies away from all these orange-colored streetlights!
Is it ok (given your location) to wish you a happy Independence Day?
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nickatnight
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/14/08
Posts: 1711
Loc: Santa Clarita, CA (LA Suburbs)
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I think you did a super job for 30 second subs and all else you had to contend with. You can see some nice dust lanes in towards the core, and you held up the blue tone in the outer arms. There's a lot you can shoot with 30 sec subs, especially if you speed up the WO 66mm with a focal reduer/corrector. But even without, just shoot gobs of subs, and choose bright targets.
And I'd have to pay my son to sit with me through an astrophotography session.  So fine job to the both of you!
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nickatnight
Celestron CPC 9.25" GPS
Lumicon 2" LumiBrite Diagonal
Meade s5000 18mm UWA, Meade 6.7mm UWA,
Parks G.S-5 10mm, Celestrom 40mm Plossl
Parks 2x Barlow, Meade Tele-Extender
Celestron f6.3 Focal Reducer
Lumicon UHC Filter and Deep Sky Filter
Canon Rebel XTi (prime)
Canon Powershot G9 (afocal)
Canon EOS T-Ring and Parks T-Adapter
Lumicon Univ DigiCam Adapter
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4324
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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Quote:
So I'd wager that the orange and yellow colors in the images are disappearing as collateral damage from the removal of the local light pollution.
No - this won't be the case as LP colour cast removal measures the colour cast of the background areas and subtracts this uniformly over the whole image. The original colour of the stars will be preserved - as long as the stars are themselves not over exposed. OK the brightest stars in your image will be overexposed but the majority will not.
Actually you are right. Preserving star colour is a skill that has to be learnt - it is usually best done in photoshop. In fact I'm currently writing my own PS plugin to manage star colour preservation
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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Nils_Lars
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 3255
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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Well M31 is back , nice work.
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Erik
Orion Atlas Self Hypertuned (EQMOD)
Orion ED 80
Williams Optics VII reducer
Celestron 8" SCT
Orion Starshoot Autoguider
PHD guide
Canon 400D Hap Griffin Mod w/Baader filter
Astronomik clip-in LP filter and 12nm Ha
Stilleto CVF and Bahtinov mask
Tamron 75-300mm&28-80mm lenses
NexImage webcam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31986095@N05/
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Neil27
super member
Reged: 12/15/08
Posts: 101
Loc: East Midlands, England
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Have to say thats a great shot with only just over 30 minutes of data, and at 30 seconds each.
Great attempt, can't wait to see what you can do with longer subs.... 
Regards, Neil.
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Skywatcher Sky Tee
WO ZenithStar 70
Pentax 75 SDHF
Pentax 105 SDP
Canon 450D
A lot of enthusiasm, a lot less skill
http://web.me.com/neil27/Starsoverlimetree/Welcome.html
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mish
member
Reged: 02/10/09
Posts: 67
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Quote:
And I'd have to pay my son to sit with me through an astrophotography session. So fine job to the both of you!
My son got me started on hooking up a digital camera (an XS in my case, a D70S in his) to my telescopes -- my interest has always been in the visual arena, not the photographic one. The last week has been our first serious attempt to make this digital astrophotography enterprise work, e.g., taking the time to perform a decent drift alignment, getting serious about focusing, etc.
So he's my digital mentor, and I doubt I could keep him away from the telescope if I tried!
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
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Jaxdialation
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 2448
Loc: Northeast, FL
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Rube would be proud! You got the job done!
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John
Stuff: TSA102 & EM400, RCOS 10RCA, STL- 6303, AP 1200GTO, too much software to list
My Image Gallery
My Weather
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KevinUK
Vendor (DSLR-AstroMod)
Reged: 08/22/07
Posts: 706
Loc: N 51'53 W 00'25
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Nicely done Mish on an excellent 1st image!!, and welcome to the wacky wonderful and at times frustating world of DSLR astro imaging!
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DSLR AstroMod
DSLR filter removal and replacement packages
http://www.dslrastromod.co.uk
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Bob Moore
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/07/06
Posts: 817
Loc: New York
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Nice image Mish,Keep up the good work
Bob
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A scope or two
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Cobalt5120
member
Reged: 06/24/09
Posts: 45
Loc: Bremen, IN (just south of Sout...
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Mish:
Personally, if I had something that good, I would see no reason to improve on it.
Very nice!
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Larry
Visual: Orion XT10
EyePieces: Hyperion 8-24 zoom, Orion 25mm, 10 mm stock plossl's
Cameras: Canon XSI (450D)
Accessories: Sky Scout, Telrad
Realistic Dream List: Astrotrac, GEM, 80ED, Mallincam
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Footbag
sage
Reged: 04/13/09
Posts: 437
Loc: Scranton, PA
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Very nice!
I figured you had the camera duct taped to the telescope with a water fed gravity assisted cable release.
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Adam
Celestron CPC 800, Celestron HD Wedge
Hyperion 17mm, Celestron 40mm Plossl
WO 66, SSAG
Canon XS
Lackawanna Astronomical Society
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Andrew Welsh
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/28/06
Posts: 2483
Loc: Rochester, NY
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good start, better than my first effort!
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LX200 8" classic, f/10, Meade eq. wedge, .63x FF/FR
Canon 40D and 5D, unmodified
Canon EF 300/2.8L IS, 400/5.6L, 135/2L, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 35/2, 24-70/2.8L, and Peleng 8mm fisheye
Orion Apex 102mm (4") Mak-Cass
Pimped out with accessories and bling
My DSLR Astrophotography Webpage and photo bucket with full equipment list
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justabob
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 05/05/07
Posts: 1635
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Quote:
good start, better than my first effort!
Very nice first image, my first stuff was laughable. And I have yet to nail the big galaxy.
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http://www.pbase.com/rkn/astro&page=all
Vixen Sphinx SXW
Meade sn6
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Hutech 1000d
Self modded 350d
DSI PRO II
Bob
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mish
member
Reged: 02/10/09
Posts: 67
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Quote:
I figured you had the camera duct taped to the telescope with a water fed gravity assisted cable release.
My first few times out with the Ultima-11 did involve a lot of duct tape, as I didn't have any counterweights and the fork mount really needs balancing due to that big primary mirror. So I filled a couple heavy bags with 16d nails and duct-taped them to the front of the scope.
And I do use a gravity-assist mechanism, but thankfully, there's no water involved. I have so much gear hanging on this overloaded mount that I adjust the counterweight on the bottom rail so that gravity is driving the Byers gearing, so all that thing has to do is govern the speed of the right ascension motion -- it doesn't actually have to move the telescope.
So far, it working out well. But it's been really windy for the last few nights, and I've got no cure for the wind's effect on my images. I wonder what Rube would do about that...
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