Astronomy
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 wispies that I figured (rightly) that I wouldnt be able to pick up in the city. I planned this so I had a week or two here in San Antonio to work on it and get data before my vacation to Big Bend where I would be able to get DARK DARK skies to get data for it there.
I found out that I can get 10 minute subs with no autoguider with my piggybacked EON (piggybacked on a CPC800) with slight tweaking over a week, though I kept most of my subs to 250sec as I still need to do a decent PEC training.
I also determined that no matter how many hours you get in the city it cant compare to a few hours in the ink black skies of Big Bend! Here is the comparison ....
the first is 7 hours worth of Luminance data taken from San Antonio, mostly all 250sec subs, with a few 500sec subs in there.
The second is the original 7 hours of data and then 2.5 more hours from Big Bend added to it.
My the difference a few hours with absolutely no light pollution can make!!!! SO many more stars and now I was able to pull out the faint wispies I wanted to!
Now, just to get color to add to it next month when I head out to West Texas again for a star party to get more imaging time in dark skies ....
Here is the info for the shots:
Scope: Orion EON 80ED piggybacked on a CPC800
Camera: Atik 314L+
Autoguider: NONE
Filter: Astronomik Luminance
Exposure time: Image 1: 7 hrs, Image 2: 9.5 hrs
Sub length: 250 sec, (a few thrown in at 500 sec)
Really makes the case for getting rid of light pollution and bringing back our dark skies!!!!
- A Full Week Of Astrophotography In The Haute-alpes, France
I just spent a week down at Olly Penrice's astronomy mecca in Southern France. Crazy me drove down with all of my gear (the whole trip both ways and what driving we did during the day down there totaled 2100 miles!) and much to Olly's amusement...
- 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...
- 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...
- Astrophotography On An Alt-az Mount With A Stock Camera
We bought our Celestron CPC800 XLT in late August, mainly intending visual use but I did have the hopes of taking a few astrophotos with it as well else we would have opted for a much lower end scope. If you are familiar with the CPC range they are dual-forked...
Astronomy
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 wispies that I figured (rightly) that I wouldnt be able to pick up in the city. I planned this so I had a week or two here in San Antonio to work on it and get data before my vacation to Big Bend where I would be able to get DARK DARK skies to get data for it there.
I found out that I can get 10 minute subs with no autoguider with my piggybacked EON (piggybacked on a CPC800) with slight tweaking over a week, though I kept most of my subs to 250sec as I still need to do a decent PEC training.
I also determined that no matter how many hours you get in the city it cant compare to a few hours in the ink black skies of Big Bend! Here is the comparison ....
the first is 7 hours worth of Luminance data taken from San Antonio, mostly all 250sec subs, with a few 500sec subs in there.
The second is the original 7 hours of data and then 2.5 more hours from Big Bend added to it.
My the difference a few hours with absolutely no light pollution can make!!!! SO many more stars and now I was able to pull out the faint wispies I wanted to!
Now, just to get color to add to it next month when I head out to West Texas again for a star party to get more imaging time in dark skies ....
Here is the info for the shots:
Scope: Orion EON 80ED piggybacked on a CPC800
Camera: Atik 314L+
Autoguider: NONE
Filter: Astronomik Luminance
Exposure time: Image 1: 7 hrs, Image 2: 9.5 hrs
Sub length: 250 sec, (a few thrown in at 500 sec)
Really makes the case for getting rid of light pollution and bringing back our dark skies!!!!
- A Full Week Of Astrophotography In The Haute-alpes, France
I just spent a week down at Olly Penrice's astronomy mecca in Southern France. Crazy me drove down with all of my gear (the whole trip both ways and what driving we did during the day down there totaled 2100 miles!) and much to Olly's amusement...
- 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...
- 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...
- Astrophotography On An Alt-az Mount With A Stock Camera
We bought our Celestron CPC800 XLT in late August, mainly intending visual use but I did have the hopes of taking a few astrophotos with it as well else we would have opted for a much lower end scope. If you are familiar with the CPC range they are dual-forked...