4 replies to this topic

[Hexley]

 

Hi CloudyNights, I recently HyperStar’d my C8 and made a video last night to demo it. Was mainly testing my new Antlia Triband RGB Ultra filter, and I’m liking the results; I have Bortle 6 skies here at home, typical American suburb.

 

I’d say was a very good (and cold) night of captures over ~75 mins, got the Horsehead, Running Man, M42, M45, M31, Heart nebula, North American nebula, California nebula, and a bit of the triangulum before high clouds came in around midnight.

 

Most of these are 5-10 second exposures stacked about 20-30 times with dark frames to compensate for the ASI294MC’s amp glow. Nothing too fancy.

 

It’s my hope that those with light polluted skies understand there’s a very quick and painless way around it with a camera, and optionally a nifty tool like a used HyperStar =). No EQ mounts, not a lot of calibration frames, no hours long exposures — I’m a busy dad of 5 & 7 year olds, husband… much as I envy those on Youtube who can be out for 9 hours working on one object with $11,000 of equipment, that isn’t my reality — but this gives me a good taste of astrophotography. Probably my favorite part is that I can carry this whole thing out to my driveway and there’s no EQ mount setup… deployment/starsense alignment is less than 3 minutes and tear down is less than 1 . When your wife doesn’t do astronomy and isn’t going to spend a second in the 25º winter, time counts.

 

Equipment used:

Celestron 8” Evolution SCT
HyperStar 8
ZWO ASI294MC astronomy camera
Antlia Triband RGB Ultra Filter 2"
ASI Live software
Farpoint Bahtinov mask
Celestron aluminum dew shield
Celestron StarSense auto alignment camera
Celestron SkySync GPS
Pocket warmers

 

Horsehead at about 5 minutes of stacking.

 

Collage of 9 objects captured.

Edited by Hexley, 04 December 2022 - 08:24 AM.

[Zombeaver]

Looks good.

[Axident]

You gain a lot with a HyperStar. But the HyperStar can and will never be able to compensate for light pollution. Your picture still have the yellowish colors caused by the light pollution. 

But the HyperStar make it much easier/faster to capture enough light with shorter exposure. You could also use another telescope with same F number as you get with HyperStar and you gain same benefit as you just experienced. In general then a faster focal length make most types of photography easier, not only for EAA and a telescope. The same rule count for a lens and system cameras.

 

But I do absolutely agree with you, that an investment in a HyperStar will never disappoint t. It just give you so much more joy and possibility with that telescope.

 

Congratulate with first light for the HyperStar. You got some great pictures.

[Noah4x4]

Now combine your C8 + Hyperstar and ASI294mc with a 4K UHD display for the ultimate immersive EAA experience in a sort of Buck Rogers "chocks away" manner.... As the video demonstrates, with Hyperstar, your objects will generally appear after one x 4 to 8 second exposure and then "develop" almost like an old Polaroid over the next ten exposures, after which your view is truly near-live. A down-side of Hyperstar is the loss of magnification, but you gain a wider field. Having a 4K+ resolution camera plus 4K UHD graphics display enables you to release the full potential and enjoy deeper zoom before pixelation than with a common 1080p display. Forget wedges, guiding and other Astrophotography paraphernalia. Hyperstar/EAA is THE easiest solution for Alt-Az owners that DIDN'T buy a GEM at the outset. Yes, it is expensive, but cheaper than buying a complete new mount. Many of us also invested ££££'s in wedges and guiding and discarded the lot once we had purchased Hyperstar. I highly recommend.

[Hexley]

Now combine your C8 + Hyperstar and ASI294mc with a 4K UHD display for the ultimate immersive EAA experience in a sort of Buck Rogers "chocks away" manner.... As the video demonstrates, with Hyperstar, your objects will generally appear after one x 4 to 8 second exposure and then "develop" almost like an old Polaroid over the next ten exposures, after which your view is truly near-live. A down-side of Hyperstar is the loss of magnification, but you gain a wider field. Having a 4K+ resolution camera plus 4K UHD graphics display enables you to release the full potential and enjoy deeper zoom before pixelation than with a common 1080p display. Forget wedges, guiding and other Astrophotography paraphernalia. Hyperstar/EAA is THE easiest solution for Alt-Az owners that DIDN'T buy a GEM at the outset. Yes, it is expensive, but cheaper than buying a complete new mount. Many of us also invested ££££'s in wedges and guiding and discarded the lot once we had purchased Hyperstar. I highly recommend.

This is so true. Our equipment list looks a bit similar, but to your suggestion, I may be bringing a big monitor out with me to show the neighbors/passerbys what my scope sees, no eyeballs in eyepieces =)

 

I tried the "proper astro route" with EQ mounts, auto-guiding, etc... my results were ok, but nothing NASA was going to feature or hadn't been seen a zillion times before  Realistically, at this point in life, I just don't have the time for proper astro - so EAA is a beautiful middle ground where anything up there I can visualize and enjoy in my Bortle 6 driveway. I'm aligned in 2 minutes, imaging a minute later, with tangible "Polaroid-like results" a minute after. Will I print it out at 20x30 inches? Probably not.

 

I have 5 & 7 year old daughters who like astronomy but aren't super obsessed with it, and a very patient Mrs Hexley who does like casually looking at the moon/Jupiter/Saturn/M42,45,31,etc through the scope occasionally -- but what she doesn't like is me making astronomy a 2nd job and staying out there until 4AM trying to debug an auto-guider or spending $2000+ on an EQ mount, when I've got my Evolution and a Dob in the garage. I bought my HyperStar v4 from a member here who upgraded to a RASA, he was awesome and gave it away at $500... which is bonkers! It sat on the classifieds for 4 days as I mulled it over.

 

She's very pragmatic about the whole thing, I gifted her Celestron 7x50s on an early stargazing date, and she treats those cheapos like they're Leicas (it's definitely her fond memory of the date with her future nerdy husband; not the quality of the equipment).

 

I already owe her big time for letting me have 4 scopes, and she looks the other way when a package from Agena or Astronomics appears

Edited by Hexley, 06 December 2022 - 02:00 PM.