Astronomy
Despite a lot of rain and clouds I have gotten a couple (literally, only 2 since we moved here in December) of clear nights to image. Using my new autoguider (Starlight XPress Lodestar) I am now able to get much longer exposures. I kept these at 10 min subs although I could have gone longer, but didn't want to push it too much my first time autoguiding. I still need a few more nights to get color data, but I am happy with how the Luminance has turned out so wanted to go ahead and post it.
This is 4 hrs of Luminance data, spread over two nights (total of 24 x 600s). Unfortunately I didn't orient the camera exactly the same for one hour the 2nd night (oops!!! At least I noticed then and was able to fix it for the rest of the session) so the edges don't have quite as much detail and depth, though the main portion is all 4 hrs.
Details:
Scope: Orion EON80ED piggybacked on Celestron CPC800
Cameras: Imaging - Atik 314L+, Guide - Starlight Xpress Lodestar
Filters: Astronomik Luminance
Location: Suffolk, England
Sub details: 24 x 600s, preprocessed with flats and darks
Software: Nebulosity (preprocessing and stacking), Photoshop CS2 (post-processing)
Full frame:
- Two Years And A Pelican
Two years ago I could not even tell you what someone meant if they said "narrowband image" let alone expect that I would, in a relatively short amount of time, learn enough about astrophotography that I would be undergoing a project that would take all...
- North America & A Pelican
I have been continuing work on my narrowband mosaic project. I first started imaging on this project on May 21, 2011. In the early morning hours of August 7 I finally got 1/3 of the way through by finishing the Ha portion of the mosaic. I still have a...
- Ngc 3718 ... The Comparison Of Dark Versus Urban Skies
My latest project was to test the limits of imaging a) in the city and b) without an autoguider on my wedge-mounted scope. I chose NGC 3718 as I dont see many pictures of it and I think it looks cool and it has not only the main galaxy but alot of faint...
- More Data For M51
Got back out last night and got additional data to add to the data a few nights ago. Last night's data was: 25 x 210sec - Lum 15 x 210sec - R, G, B 25 x 300sec - Lum so adding that to the previous data resulted in minutes: LRGB: 297:83:83:83 Camera:...
- Every Day In Every Way ....
I'm getting better and better .... at least in my own humble opinion. The new Atik 314L+ camera I am using now to image greatly helped, then add in my new wedge and that has helped bumped up my imaging possibilities another level. I have also been...
Astronomy
First image in England and of 2011
Despite a lot of rain and clouds I have gotten a couple (literally, only 2 since we moved here in December) of clear nights to image. Using my new autoguider (Starlight XPress Lodestar) I am now able to get much longer exposures. I kept these at 10 min subs although I could have gone longer, but didn't want to push it too much my first time autoguiding. I still need a few more nights to get color data, but I am happy with how the Luminance has turned out so wanted to go ahead and post it.
This is 4 hrs of Luminance data, spread over two nights (total of 24 x 600s). Unfortunately I didn't orient the camera exactly the same for one hour the 2nd night (oops!!! At least I noticed then and was able to fix it for the rest of the session) so the edges don't have quite as much detail and depth, though the main portion is all 4 hrs.
Details:
Scope: Orion EON80ED piggybacked on Celestron CPC800
Cameras: Imaging - Atik 314L+, Guide - Starlight Xpress Lodestar
Filters: Astronomik Luminance
Location: Suffolk, England
Sub details: 24 x 600s, preprocessed with flats and darks
Software: Nebulosity (preprocessing and stacking), Photoshop CS2 (post-processing)
Full frame:
Crop of central area:
- Two Years And A Pelican
Two years ago I could not even tell you what someone meant if they said "narrowband image" let alone expect that I would, in a relatively short amount of time, learn enough about astrophotography that I would be undergoing a project that would take all...
- North America & A Pelican
I have been continuing work on my narrowband mosaic project. I first started imaging on this project on May 21, 2011. In the early morning hours of August 7 I finally got 1/3 of the way through by finishing the Ha portion of the mosaic. I still have a...
- Ngc 3718 ... The Comparison Of Dark Versus Urban Skies
My latest project was to test the limits of imaging a) in the city and b) without an autoguider on my wedge-mounted scope. I chose NGC 3718 as I dont see many pictures of it and I think it looks cool and it has not only the main galaxy but alot of faint...
- More Data For M51
Got back out last night and got additional data to add to the data a few nights ago. Last night's data was: 25 x 210sec - Lum 15 x 210sec - R, G, B 25 x 300sec - Lum so adding that to the previous data resulted in minutes: LRGB: 297:83:83:83 Camera:...
- Every Day In Every Way ....
I'm getting better and better .... at least in my own humble opinion. The new Atik 314L+ camera I am using now to image greatly helped, then add in my new wedge and that has helped bumped up my imaging possibilities another level. I have also been...