1208 replies to this topic

[winnygrey]

Didn't you guys read those scope manuals and books that warn(ed) "never observe though a window because either the glass or the air currents will ruin the view." ?

 

Sometimes you just need to realize expert opinions are just that.

 

Great pictures. I haven't time and energy to hardly view at night  much less take pictures.CN is my substitute for observing.(Short staffing has required working around seventy "off days" the past twelve months.) Really enjoy/impressed by the pictures posted here.I have a 100/1000 Japanese Newton  gathering dust instead of starlight-hope it is as good as the one  in this thread.

Oh yes, I read this... my home situation should be taken as an example of hard urban location (light pollution, near the sea, local turbolence from buildings, often we have windy days... If your passion resist to all this, you can be sure to be a very motivated stargazer

[BigC]

 

Didn't you guys read those scope manuals and books that warn(ed) "never observe though a window because either the glass or the air currents will ruin the view." ?

 

Sometimes you just need to realize expert opinions are just that.

 

Great pictures. I haven't time and energy to hardly view at night  much less take pictures.CN is my substitute for observing.(Short staffing has required working around seventy "off days" the past twelve months.) Really enjoy/impressed by the pictures posted here.I have a 100/1000 Japanese Newton  gathering dust instead of starlight-hope it is as good as the one  in this thread.

Oh yes, I read this... my home situation should be taken as an example of hard urban location (light pollution, near the sea, local turbolence from buildings, often we have windy days... If your passion resist to all this, you can be sure to be a very motivated stargazer

 

Expert opinions are JUST opinions.Keep looking out the window.

[winnygrey]

Actually I have two other "locations": the kitchen balcony looking SE (about 15-20° of free-from-buildings sky) and the garden looking E (only 10° of free sky)

 

Moon throught my phone from the kitchen balcony with Mizar Kaiser 80/1200.

 

Tak 65/1000 in the garden looking East

 

This is Algieba with Tak 65/1000 and QHY5L IIc

 

 

So explained why I choose small diameters. I really enjoy double stars and planetary observing.

 

 

 

 

 

[TerryWood]

Here are a few images from tonight.

 

Scope: Quantum 6 mak-cass

Cameras: Sony A7S for deep sky, Skyris 618c for Jupiter

Weather: Pretty good actually for the most part, some passing clouds, temps started in the 60's dipping into the upper 40's

Shot in jpeg mode, 30 frames for each image at 30 second exposure, ISO 25,600. I used these settings for yucks and because I didn't want to be out there all night.

Processed in Registax because I'm too impatient to use Deep Sky Stacker tonight. Finished in Adobe Light Room.

 

M22 Sagittarius Cluster

M63 The Sunflower Galaxy

Jupiter (didn't come out that good because it was low in the sky and I was on a shaky deck wrought with vibration)

 

Need two entries due to file sizes. These are super noisy due to jpeg mode and insanely high ISO. They were also cropped a lot.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

V/R

 

Terry

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Edited by TerryWood, 28 June 2017 - 03:31 AM.

[TerryWood]

M63 The Sunflower Galaxy & Jupiter

 

Jupiter looks rough. The scope is capable of much better when Jupiter is higher in the sky and deck vibrations are under control (which it wasn't...at all).

 

V/R

 

Terry

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Edited by TerryWood, 28 June 2017 - 02:36 AM.

[Bomber Bob]

Yeah, my Jupiter imaging for this season is about done after last night.  It's less than 2 hours from our light pollution dome now, and getting worse each week.  And, Saturn is LOW at its best.  Dang!  Gotta leave the camera in the case, and go back to observing...

[TerryWood]

Thanks everybody! I'm going to try again tonight. The window will be tight though! The last few nights Jupiter has been getting more and more difficult to image. I just want one more good one with the GRS. Then I'll see what deep sky targets I can muster.

 

V/R

 

Terry

[Augustus]

I re-processed those images of Jupiter from 2 weeks ago with the 2080 and made a timelapse GIF:

 

http://i.imgur.com/r0HIZcN.gif

[TerryWood]

I re-processed those images of Jupiter from 2 weeks ago with the 2080 and made a timelapse GIF:

 

http://i.imgur.com/r0HIZcN.gif

I can't get it to load on my iPad. I'll have to check it out on my computer. I bet it's neat though!

 

V/R

 

Terry

[Bomber Bob]

Correcting / Over-Correcting for CA

 

/

 

Some of our old refractors have visible false color.  My Jaegers 4" F5 is my worst offender, and I don't do color imaging with it.  With my Dakin 4" F10, I can tune out most of the violet ring with imager settings.  BUT, there's a balancing act.  Go too far, and I lose cloud belt colors on Jupiter & Saturn; or, the colors become unrealistic (not what I see), or downright bizarre.

 

I'm still seeking that balance with my new ASI120MC.  Last night, I tried dimming by shortening the exposure time, increasing the gain a bit, and shifting the color balance a smidge toward red over green & blue.  It's still not what I see, but at least I didn't lose the orange entirely.

[TerryWood]

Those color sliders during capture are a real balancing act for sure. I stopped using my uv/ir filter and started adjusting the color sliders to help offset the color differences. Ditching the filter has upped my frame rate for whatever reason. I also recently came to understand that using a ton of gain and decreasing the exposure helps out a bunch in the end. I set my Quantum 6 up at sunset in the hopes of catching the GRS and decent seeing. Well, it was ok for about 30 minutes, which was all I needed because the GRS was almost centered. Seeing was wonky, but settled down somewhat for a short time. Processing the vids now. If these clouds disappear I may try another deep sky target before wrapping it up. The gnats are driving me crazy out there!

 

V/R

 

Terry

[TerryWood]

Here's one from tonight. Seeing was generally poor, but I had a little slot of time right after sunset that it kind of stabilized, but still not great.

 

 

Telescope: Quantum 6

Camera: Skyris 618c

5000 frames stacked and wavelets in Registax and finished in Adobe Light Room.

 

 

Could be better, but could be worse. Lot's of "onion-skinning" happening on the right side, but that's the breaks.

 

I'm not sure how this actually looks since I got new progressive glasses yesterday and it's like walking around in a fun house, everything is distorted.

 

V/R

 

Terry

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[deSitter]

Here's one from tonight. Seeing was generally poor, but I had a little slot of time right after sunset that it kind of stabilized, but still not great.

 

 

Telescope: Quantum 6

Camera: Skyris 618c

5000 frames stacked and wavelets in Registax and finished in Adobe Light Room.

 

 

Could be better, but could be worse. Lot's of "onion-skinning" happening on the right side, but that's the breaks.

 

I'm not sure how this actually looks since I got new progressive glasses yesterday and it's like walking around in a fun house, everything is distorted.

 

V/R

 

Terry

Looks good! Nice colors. Good luck with the head prisms.

 

-drl

[deSitter]

Actually I have two other "locations": the kitchen balcony looking SE (about 15-20° of free-from-buildings sky) and the garden looking E (only 10° of free sky)

 

MizarKaiser.jpg

Moon throught my phone from the kitchen balcony with Mizar Kaiser 80/1200.

 

13138957_10209396854548645_6368934598452567914_n.jpg

Tak 65/1000 in the garden looking East

 

Algieba.jpg

This is Algieba with Tak 65/1000 and QHY5L IIc

 

 

So explained why I choose small diameters. I really enjoy double stars and planetary observing.

Beautiful scope! What year?

 

-drl

[TerryWood]

 

Here's one from tonight. Seeing was generally poor, but I had a little slot of time right after sunset that it kind of stabilized, but still not great.

 

 

Telescope: Quantum 6

Camera: Skyris 618c

5000 frames stacked and wavelets in Registax and finished in Adobe Light Room.

 

 

Could be better, but could be worse. Lot's of "onion-skinning" happening on the right side, but that's the breaks.

 

I'm not sure how this actually looks since I got new progressive glasses yesterday and it's like walking around in a fun house, everything is distorted.

 

V/R

 

Terry

Looks good! Nice colors. Good luck with the head prisms.

 

-drl

 

Thanks! Jupiter is getting really tough to image now. I may try one more time tonight, but not expecting much. Regarding the glasses, they have progressive lenses and thankfully no prisms in them (which some people do need). I'm taking them back again for replacement. The "sweet spot" is off. Things look ok when I look off to the side a little, but that's not going to work out. 

 

V/R

 

Terry

[winnygrey]

 

Actually I have two other "locations": the kitchen balcony looking SE (about 15-20° of free-from-buildings sky) and the garden looking E (only 10° of free sky)

 

MizarKaiser.jpg

Moon throught my phone from the kitchen balcony with Mizar Kaiser 80/1200.

 

13138957_10209396854548645_6368934598452567914_n.jpg

Tak 65/1000 in the garden looking East

 

Algieba.jpg

This is Algieba with Tak 65/1000 and QHY5L IIc

 

 

So explained why I choose small diameters. I really enjoy double stars and planetary observing.

Beautiful scope! What year?

 

-drl

 

The Mizar Kaiser I think it is from early 70's. The Tak TS65D is a 1974 refractor. 

[Augustus]

I posted this in the "what did you observe with your classic scope today" thread but here's my timelapse of Jupiter from the other night. Again taken with the 2080 and StarShoot.

 

 

 

[TerryWood]

These were taken last night/early this morning. It started off cloudy and very hazy, then got clearer as the night wore on. Then finally started getting very hazy again around 2:00 in the morning. These were captured right before the haze really kicked in, though transparency was not that great to begin with, but passable.

 

Three images to follow: Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas, Eagle Nebula, Omega Nebula

 

Telescope: TeleVue Genesis (non-sdf)

Mount for imaging: CGEM

Camera: Sony A7S

Length of captures: 6 to 8 seconds

ISO: 8000 to 10000

Number of frames stacked for each final image: 37

Aligned and stacked in Registax

Finished in Adobe Light Room

Cropped quite a bit

 

I'm still learning the ropes with regard to getting the color mixes right, and I realize they are pretty noisy, but all in all I still think it was a good night. Beautiful and very breezy. I think this first image needs better color and I might re-do it. It seems a little off to me. By the way, the Milky Way star fields were really something last night (even with the mediocre to poor transparency)!

 

These look a bit clearer when you open up the image versus the preview image.

 

V/R

 

Terry

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Edited by TerryWood, 30 June 2017 - 07:27 PM.

[TerryWood]

And Eagle Nebula..

 

V/R

 

Terry

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[TerryWood]

And lastly, Omega Nebula.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

V/R

 

Terry

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[TerryWood]

I posted this in the "what did you observe with your classic scope today" thread but here's my timelapse of Jupiter from the other night. Again taken with the 2080 and StarShoot.

 

jgif2.gif

That's really nice! I've never tried that before but I'm going to give it a shot if I get a couple of good nights soon. Jupiter is almost becoming too low to image clearly. 

 

V/R

 

Terry

Edited by TerryWood, 30 June 2017 - 07:26 PM.

[rolo]

Very nice Terry! What's going on with the color balance?

[Augustus]

 

I posted this in the "what did you observe with your classic scope today" thread but here's my timelapse of Jupiter from the other night. Again taken with the 2080 and StarShoot.

 

jgif2.gif

That's really nice! I've never tried that before but I'm going to give it a shot if I get a couple of good nights soon. Jupiter is almost becoming too low to image clearly. 

 

V/R

 

Terry

 

Thanks! I had Io (it moved quite a bit in 20 minutes) but I had to dim the images to get rid of noise in the background and reduce the fringe around Jupiter (yes, I did RGB align but it persisted).

 

The trick is to get as many captures in as possible in the shortest amount of time to make the timelapse smooth. Each of my captures was right around 1 minute, and it's not very sharp because I only had 16 FPS thanks to my tablet being junk, so at 30 FPS with my laptop I figure I would stay at 1 minute per capture.

 

With the Skyris, you might be able to get away with 20 to 30 second captures at 120 FPS. If Jupiter isn't available you could also try Saturn and its moons.

Edited by Augustus, 30 June 2017 - 07:44 PM.

[Bomber Bob]

Terry, is your Sony connected to a laptop?  My antique ThinkPad is the last component that I need to upgrade.  It has a 15" screen, but the video chipset isn't HD, and the LCD was designed for Windows XP.  Targets look focused, but they're not.  My Android tablet has a better display, but it's just 10" and the system isn't robust enough to capture frames smoothly (as Zane noted the practical FPS limitations).  OTOH, I loath Windows 8 / 10.  I'll probably buy a refurbished Windows 7 (64-bit) laptop with the best display specs available for that OS.

[Augustus]

Here's a better version of the last frame.