SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
#5626604 - 01/16/13 05:11 PM
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A few days ago, I returned from a weather-induced break in the hobby and had set up my telescope to begin imaging again in earnest. In post-processing I realized I had stars that were considerably wonky.
Last night, I had discovered that my telescope's permanent outdoor tripod had somehow been nudged a bit off of true celestial north. I also discovered my mirror lens had fell out of collimation, so I went to fixing both issues. After resolving it with a rather lengthy realignment and recollimating the lens, I began imaging the Orion Nebula again once it cleared a few patches in the trees. Needless to say, the efforts paid off.
I re-shot the Orion Nebula then added it in with data I had set aside after shooting last fall (before the rains set in). Much better stars! Alas, at this point the Orion Constellation began transiting behind a thick stand of trees, so, it was off to a long, 80-minute wait.
After the Orion Constellation re-emerged out of the stand of trees due south of the house, I set my sights on the belt stars. Specifically, I set sights on Alnitak. Since it was a bone-chilling 26 degrees outside, I had a hair dryer at the ready to fight off frost and dew on the gear, in addition to keeping me warm while at the controls. At this point, I set Alnitak as my guide star in the reticle, and began tracking it with the telescope. At the same time, I hit the shutter release cord, and began to capture data on that area - in the hopes I could successfully image the Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula.
My efforts paid off after about three hours of data gathering, plus a couple hours of processing in DSS and Photoshop.
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CA Stargazer
member
Reged: 01/27/12
Loc: Milpitas, California
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5626691 - 01/16/13 05:58 PM
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Wow! 3hours at the Horsehead. Just beautiful.
You must have great skies.
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shrevestan
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/19/12
Loc: Shreveport, LA
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: CA Stargazer]
#5626712 - 01/16/13 06:09 PM
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2 winners!
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terry59
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/18/11
Loc: Colorado, USA
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5626746 - 01/16/13 06:28 PM
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Wow Steve...very nice indeed.
I have a couple of questions. Is your D5100 modified or stock? How did you collimate your lens?
You're going to make me get a D5100 
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nofxrx
Vendor (HyperCams & Mods)
Reged: 07/12/05
Loc: Palm Bay,Florida
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: terry59]
#5626929 - 01/16/13 08:15 PM
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Very nice, Steve!!
That D5100 is really producing great images.
I am curious to see if the new 24Mp D5200 does as well since I was hoping to get another/backup DSLR for higher resolution imaging..
Great work!!
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SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: terry59]
#5627040 - 01/16/13 09:19 PM
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Wow Steve...very nice indeed.
I have a couple of questions. Is your D5100 modified or stock? How did you collimate your lens?
You're going to make me get a D5100
It's stock. I use it for regular photography also.
As for collimating the lens, it took a bit of trickery to rotate the corrector back to where it should be
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srosenfraz
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/06/11
Loc: United States
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5627162 - 01/16/13 10:35 PM
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Beautiful images, Steve. Your colors in both of these are superb.
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SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: srosenfraz]
#5627603 - 01/17/13 08:32 AM
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Thanks, guys!
They're sure racking in quite the views over at my Flickr page. The Orion shot is rapidly climbing the "Most Viewed" list on Flickr's "Explore" feature... Needless to say, I didn't expect that! 
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alpal
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 06/15/09
Loc: Melbourne Australia.
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5628286 - 01/17/13 03:17 PM
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Both pictures are top work -
you should be proud of those results.
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Nils_Lars
Postmaster
Reged: 01/04/08
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: alpal]
#5630950 - 01/19/13 01:25 AM
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These came out great Steve.
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SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: Nils_Lars]
#5631019 - 01/19/13 04:14 AM
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Thanks for the compliments, guys! 
Also learned something a bit humbling, if not surprising...
It came as a great surprise to me tonight, that I was informed that my photo of the Great Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula on Flickr, is now at the level of popularity that Google has ranked it #4 in search result rankings out of 284,000 results for the term "Great Orion Nebula" itself. It has also achieved status as my most-viewed photograph ever on Flickr in the seven years I've been a member, with just a few dozen shy of 2,000 views at present. To say I am humbled at this would be understating it. I never imagined that photo achieving the level of popularity (usually I average far less views per photo), but it did, and for that, I am speechless. Wow.
It's hard to imagine that that three nights ago, I stood outside in 26-degree temperatures for an hour and a half, gathering the imaging data.
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srosenfraz
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/06/11
Loc: United States
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5631513 - 01/19/13 12:53 PM
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Congrats, Steve. Have you tried submitting it to Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Tel, APOD, etc.?
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SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: srosenfraz]
#5631571 - 01/19/13 01:24 PM
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Congrats, Steve. Have you tried submitting it to Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Tel, APOD, etc.?
Haven't tried, but I'm definitely looking into it!
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TimN
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/20/08
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5637358 - 01/22/13 05:10 PM
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Wow Steve, I just got back and have been checking some of the posts I missed and came across these images. Truly fantastic. I also use a D5100 - just had it modified - but have been unable to use it since it came back. Mostly related to weather. Anyway, these should be hanging from your wall. Very well done!!!
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mpgxsvcd
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 12/21/11
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: TimN]
#5637394 - 01/22/13 05:25 PM
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Outstanding images.
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fco_star
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 12/13/10
Loc: Texas, Midland
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: mpgxsvcd]
#5637459 - 01/22/13 05:57 PM
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This is a fantastic job Steve. Congratulations!
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SteveRosenow
sage
Reged: 07/10/12
Loc: Shelton, Washington
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: TimN]
#5638168 - 01/23/13 01:30 AM
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Quote:
Wow Steve, I just got back and have been checking some of the posts I missed and came across these images. Truly fantastic. I also use a D5100 - just had it modified - but have been unable to use it since it came back. Mostly related to weather. Anyway, these should be hanging from your wall. Very well done!!!
Who did the modifying?
I'm considering picking up a D5100 body as a spare and I'm considering having that done.
Also, thanks for the compliments!
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bilgebay
Post Laureate
Reged: 11/06/08
Loc: Türkiye - Istanbul and Marmari...
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: SteveRosenow]
#5638220 - 01/23/13 03:59 AM
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Steve, we are lucky 'cause you returned Very impressive photos!
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TimN
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/20/08
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: bilgebay]
#5638849 - 01/23/13 12:38 PM
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I had it modified by Brent Oliver. He is member of this forum and goes by the name of Nofxrx. He is a great guy to deal with and has a lot of experience with Nikons. Hopefully, when the moons gone, I can get some images to try it. Also it has to warm up a bit for me - was minus 40C last night.
Edited by TimN (01/23/13 12:40 PM)
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SunBlack
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/05/11
Loc: Rome (IT)
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Re: The prodigal son has returned, Take Two!
[Re: TimN]
#5638891 - 01/23/13 12:58 PM
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Two nices, for a stock camera!
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