12 replies to this topic

[smiller]

After nearly 6 weeks of rain and clouds I had one clear night for a chance...  it was breezy and 17 degrees but darn it, I went out after 1 am when the moon set, with a big robe and jacket over my PJ’s, and got me my comet!

 

I set it up to shoot for 3 hours (before running in with numb fingers) for a future animation, but stacked the first 6 minutes worth for a test shot:

 

 

 

Telescope: Orion XT12G Goto Dob with Nexus 0.75x Reducer/Coma Corrector

Camera: ASI2400MC

Capture stats: 6 second exposures, Gain 150

Bortle 7 Skies, no filters

Processed with APP: Stacked once registering on stars and once registering on the comet, used StarX to allow both to be combined.

Edited by smiller, 30 January 2023 - 09:45 PM.

[gstrumol]

Good for you - nice pic!

 

Gary

[Oddyse]

  Hey wow, you nailed it! Great stars too. Tennessee

[TonyStar]

Really nice outcome, it shows what a large dob on altaz mount can do!

[smiller]

Really nice outcome, it shows what a large dob on altaz mount can do!

Thanks!  The versatility of my Goto Dob has been a surprise to me.... I bought the Dob for observational use but then found it does a bit of everything, not just minor planets:

 

 

Edited by smiller, 31 January 2023 - 03:01 PM.

[TonyStar]

Dobs rule! You motivate me to try DS astrophotography with my own dob. I have a derotator in the making but it's not really required for DS.

[smiller]

Dobs rule! You motivate me to try DS astrophotography with my own dob. I have a derotator in the making but it's not really required for DS.

I have a document I wrote, that covers my experiences in learning how to do astrophotography with my Goto Dob. Although it’s written for the Synscan Dobs from skywatcher and Orion, perhaps you’ll find it of some use.

 

Here it is:

https://drive.google...4r0IP6PbxA/view

Edited by smiller, 31 January 2023 - 04:21 PM.

[rj144]

After nearly 6 weeks of rain and clouds I had one clear night for a chance...  it was breezy and 17 degrees but darn it, I went out after 1 am when the moon set, with a big robe and jacket over my PJ’s, and got me my comet!

 

I set it up to shoot for 3 hours (before running in with numb fingers) for a future animation, but stacked the first 6 minutes worth for a test shot:

 

ComeTestComtReg-StCombinedCN.jpg

 

 

Telescope: Orion XT12G Goto Dob with Nexus 0.75x Reducer/Coma Corrector

Camera: ASI2400MC

Capture stats: 6 second exposures, Gain 150

Bortle 7 Skies, no filters

Processed with APP: Stacked once registering on stars and once registering on the comet, used StarX to allow both to be combined.

So, this was lucky imaged.  If so, set Bob straight. 

 

https://www.cloudyni...aging-of-comet/

[smiller]

So, this was lucky imaged.  If so, set Bob straight. 

 

https://www.cloudyni...aging-of-comet/

Ha!  I’ve certainly done lucky deep sky with my scope on bright planetary nebula and star clusters, so I’ve told Bob that, but I’m afraid I didn’t on this target as I didn’t use a small subset of the frames.  I only kicked out a few especially bad ones.

[smiller]

Slightly updated comet with 1 hour of exposures integrated.

 

 

This has a more defined tail and the anti-tail, which I understand is brown because it's composed of dust and is actually the view of us looking along the plane of the comet's orbit and seeing dust in its orbital plane.

 

I played with various integration techniques (ex; Integrating starless subs), but found the following worked best for me:

 

1) Register all subs by the stars.  this stabilizes and rotates the subs because I'm shooting Alt/Az.

2) Stacked a few of the best select frames to extract the star layer.

2) Then register in Comet mode, this works better after they are registered by stars as the comet now migrates smoothly from frame to frame.

3) Just stack as the stars will be diminished with the stacking rejection (either in APP or PI).  I didn't play with the rejection parameters.

4) Cleaned up any lingering dim star trails with the Affinity heal tool and merged the nebula layer with the star layer.

[Bladerunner88]

Thanks!  The versatility of my Goto Dob has been a surprise to me.... I bought the Dob for observational use but then found it does a bit of everything, not just minor planets:

 

 

DeepAndPlanetCollage1600_1200CN.jpg

lol That is awesome. I love seeing people deviating from the status quo.

[CharLakeAstro]

Congrats, great images - glad you could snag it before it leaves us!

[Diane Miller]

That's gorgeous!  I finally got it, but my stars are too bright -- a couple of threads above this one.  Need to modify processing somehow.  Still stumbling around in PI.

 

Might be able to shoot it again in a couple of days.