July 2, 2009
I missed this one totally last year due to poor weather (either cloudy, or too windy to use the 190MN), so the chance to shoot it this year was too good to miss.
I have to say that shotting narrowband Hydrogen Alpha during what is effectivly twilight still gets fairly decent images. You have to be careful with the noise when post-processing, but its certainly not a waste of time to get out there and image.
The dew last night was getting a bit crazy… as soon as it started to cool, the amount of water that dropped out of the air (and onto all the electrics!) was terrifying.
So, anyway, here we go:
Mount: EQ6 via EQMOD, plus CCD Commander
OTA: Skywatcher 190 MakNewt
Guiding: ED80 + SX Lodestar + PHD
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 17×600s, Astronomik 13nm Ha (100 bias, 100 flats)
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2
(Click on the image for a larger version)
Posted by Steve under Astronomy | Comments (0)
June 24, 2009
I`ve been after this one ever since I (stupidly) tried to bag it with an unmodified 350D a few years back… I learnt quickly after that episode!
Its really low in he sky, way down in the murk from the UK, but its probably the best time of the year to image it. I know the sky wasnt great last night, turned a bit murky as the mositure dropped out of the sky, and then a bit misty early this morning, but considering it is so low, and the sky wasnt truly “dark”, I am happy with this image.
This was also first light for the Alan Gee telecompressor. The C11 does not provide a very flat field for large chip CCDs (see the closeup version of my M13 a while back for reference), and I had tried the 6.3 focal reducer several times before, but in the 18+ months I have had the Alan Gee unit, I had never tried it. Looking at the image, it gives a better flat field, but nowhere near perfect. CCD Inspector gives some dodgy results on the FITs files, probably because of the nebula in the center affecting its calculations.
Last weekend I spent some time arranging the kit so the back focus is somewhere near correct for the Alan Gee unit when using the Celestrin Off Axis Guider, and at the same time, ensuring that the lodestar guide camera is also in focus at the same time. Last night, all the bits went back together again, and everything worked first time.
Mount: EQ6 via EQMOD, plus CCD Commander
OTA: C11 + Alan Gee Telecompressor (@f/5.9)
Guiding: ED80 + SX Lodestar + PHD
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 1×600s, Astronomik 13nm Ha (100 bias, 100 flats)
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: PSCS2
(Click on image for larger version)
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments (0)
June 24, 2009
Just a quick process on this widefield image. The camera was piggybacked on the back of the EQ6/C11 while I was imaging something else (yet to be processed!), so this is “bonus” data 
Imaging: QHY8 + 28mm Nikon DSLR Lens, Nebulosity, 5×900s, Baader 35nm Ha
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: PSCS2
(Click on image for larger version)
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments (0)
June 1, 2009
Why cant we have this run of clear skies in the winter, when the wide field objects are high in the sky and its dark? eh? Pah!
Had a few “issues” over the weekend while out…. nothing serious, just annoying little things.
Bad things:
Its nowhere near dark…. couldnt believe how bright the sky really was, and I believe my subs reflect that poor condition. The lack of time also didnt help, not enough subs to smooth out the noise. May have to look at GRAS for the summer months, and/or invest in a 6nm/7nm Ha filter.
PAM played silly buggers on me using the FLT98… took me nearly 2 hours on Friday night to work out that it needs to look for 1 pixel stars with widefield images, or it may not solve it.
Couldnt get Maxim to guide… it just refused to “see” a guide star until I was doing 5 second subs with the SX Lodestar. Meanwhile, PHD was finding stars all over the place at 0.5 seconds with the same camera in the same OTA. Go figure…
Had some flexure, couldnt work it out for a while. Both nights I had flex due to the FLT98 focuser (which can rotate) was a bit floppy. Saturday night I had some flex because I thought I had tightened the ADM dovetail into the puck after some lateral balance adjustments…. but apparently not as tight as I thought! When I stripped it down on Sunday, I could rock the ADM Side-By-Side plate backwards and forwards in the puck. That could have been horribly expensive!
Good things:
CCD Commander is fantastic, and would be near perfect if I could get Maxim to bloody guide! Two frame IC1396, one half per night, perfect alignment for both bits!
Registar made short work of aligning the two parts, I just had to fiddle the curves/levels on both segments (2 separate layers to start with) in CS2 to get it somewhere near usable.
It only takes me 20 minutes to set up if the mount and scopes are already out 
The Televue flattener (TRF-2008) appears to be doing its job nicely.
More bad things:
Something I do when out with the kit really screws my back up. I have to be really careful to watch how I lift things. No wonder its been getting better recently, I havent been outside since Kelling(!!)
So, anyway, lets get to the image:
Mount: EQ6 via EQMOD, plus CCD Commander
OTA: WO FLT98CF + Televue 0.8x flattener (@ f/5)
Guiding: ED80 + SX Lodestar + PHD
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 8×600s + 16×600s, Astronomik 13nm Ha (100 bias, 100 flats)
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus, Registar, PSCS2
Notes: Need far more time on this to be able to process it as far as I would like. I will return to this in August/Septmber.
(Click on image for larger version… sorry, its a bit noisy!)
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
May 1, 2009
Finally found the time to spend processing the subs from Friday night session at Kelling heath. The sky was a bit murky, and more than a bit blustery. The guiding was having real issues keeping the MakNewt pointing in the right place, so I am surprised to see the detail that has appeared out of the stacked version.
OTA: Skywatcher 190 MakNewt
Guiding: ED80 + DSI-C + PHD (The SX Lodestar misbehaved for some reason)
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 22×600s, IDAS (100 bias, 100 flats)
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: PSCS2 + ImagesPlus
(Click on image for larger version)
And a quick picture of my little part of the Kelling field…. the sky glow in the background is from the shower block on the Kelling Heath Yellow field. The spring event only has astronomers on the red field, so the lights stayed on pretty much everywhere else 
The glow from Holt village to the south west also gets worse every year, not helped by the moisture in the air over the weekend.
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
April 27, 2009
Below is a widefield image taken with my QHY8 + Gerd Neumann + 28mm Nikon DSLR lens (using a CLS LP filter), piggy backed on the back of the usual imaging setup.
The best thing about this image is that its a SINGLE 10 minute sub, hence why its a bit noisy, and why there is no larger image to view… it was a target of opportunity against a rapidly lightening dawn sky. Cant wait to get some more time on this target later in the year, and also with the IDAS filter instead… and maybe use an Ha filter for added detail
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
April 16, 2009
Taken with my QHY8 and the Nikon adapter.
I have a new lens, a Nikkor 28mm, with a lovely flat field. Some images from 1st April, 300s subs, cant remember how many of each (will have to go hunt them down). I think the CLS filter used is too harsh, so I will have to find the funds for another IDAS filter, as well as taking much longer subs.
Click on image for the larger version… M51 and M101 are both visible in the large version
And if you squint, you can kind of see the merest hint of milky way… click on image for larger version
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
April 2, 2009
Well, what another great night… seeing was great, transparency kind of “magic murk” again. With the hour change, I was out, set up and polar aligned well before astro dark started. I discovered that I can now laterally balance the MakNewt on the ADM side by side plate if I have my QHY8 + Nikon lens bundle on top of the ED80 on the other side of the plate… result! (Might post some wide field images from that later)
Anyway, here is my attempt at the Leo Trio. Never imaged this before, so am very happy with the way this has come out. I may have to reprocess it over the next day or two, as I havent had any sleep at all, and we all know what that can do to your post-processing
Note: This is now the reprocessed version.
OTA: Skywatcher 190 MakNewt
Guiding: ED80 + SX Lodestar + PHD
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 21×600s, IDAS (100 bias, 100 flats)
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: PSCS2
(Click on the image for the larger version).
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
March 21, 2009
I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this one
It took a while to get the C11 sorted, getting the SXV M25C in focus, and then getting the Off Axis Guider parfocal…. never want to do that again, but the result was just incredible. Perfect round stars, even when imaging at 2800mm focal length from a mount that was outside. The data was so good that I managed to drizzle stack this for 6000×4000 and the image data is still incredibly good…
OTA: C11 @ f/10
Guiding: C11 @ f/10 + Celestron OAG + DSI-C+ PHD
Imaging: M25C + MaximDL, 28×300s, IDAS
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: PSCS2
(Click on image for larger version)
And a closeup crop of the centre section
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
March 13, 2009
Sorry, but with the weather and cloud cover being the way it is, the only thing keeping me sane is reprocessing previous data. Two versions this time. With the first one, I was going for the light and fluffy look, and the second version was the harsh and colorful look. I think I pushed both options about as far as I could. I still prefer the light and fluffy version. Click on the images for larger versions
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off
