Camera Labs

Another clear night of imaging... with a few mistakes I made more than once before. Maybe writing them down will help?

1a: stop using the CLS filter on the full spectrum mod camera to capture broad spectrum sources. The IR pollution isn't helping. Use a regular camera!

1b: remember to focus for sharper points, not minimum overall glow.

2: remember to change from 30s exposure to bulb before walking away for a long time with external timer attached.

3: charge the batteries!

4: don't kick the tripod. Polar alignment isn't fun to repeat.

5: don't take the camera indoors after it has been out for a while. It might be easier to change stuff in the dark, but condensation isn't fun to get rid of again

6: remember to cool down lenses before starting to prevent focus shift.

1st subject tonight was fresh data at 35mm around Cygnus. Got two sets of visible and H-alpha I hope to blend, although the visible set looks ruined due to error 1 above and I'll have another go another day. Its position from my garden isn't so great now.

So I've switched to Andromeda when #2 kicked in. Ok, I reset when I noticed at which point the battery decided it was dead. Fortunately I have a spare. I think the sky is particularly clear tonight as even at 30s exposures I could see more detail of it than I have ever done before. Can't wait to grab the data and process it.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

A quick Andromeda from the 30s exposure error set. Not bad, but I think the 1 minute exposure set I'm going through now should be better.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

And here's a quick process on the 60s version. I think I can afford to crop it harder, but the noise starts showing up. I think I need more time on this one...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

100% crop.

Another process... think this'll be my last try until the weekend when there's other things I'll have to look deeper at. Thought I'd throw all the data I have at this one.

This is a combination of 60x30s, and 30x60s exposures with stock 600D, 135mm f/2 at f/2, astronomik CLS filter and lots of random button pressing in PixInsight which I need to buy soon as my trial is about over.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi popo,

Good thread. I'm enjoying following the story.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Having a go at Pleiades right now since the sky is adequately clear. Might try going to f/2.8 and see if I can get rid of the red glow around stars if diffraction spikes aren't too bad.

But, one more error: check my power tank. It's showing "needs charging" on it but I'm ignoring that The astrotrac should be low enough power not to kill it before the end of the session.

If it stays clear I hope to have a shot at Orion later too. Below my local skyline at the moment but should be interesting from around 10pm.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Doh! It was that flat... charging it now but not sure it'll be usable in time again for a 2nd session tonight. Now I need to find the AA battery pack adapter instead, which I don't think I've seen since I got it!

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

The quick results from tonight...

22x2 minutes 135mm f/2 ISO400 on stock 600D with CLS filter. Resized 50% and cropped. Although the sky looked somewhat clear higher up, the contrast was still relatively poor.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Great shots popo!

Sky looks good at the moment as do the forecasts for this evening, so I thought I'd try to prevent some errors for once.

Batteries: charging
Know where my cameras, lenses and filters are: to do!
Put them out to cool: will do closer to sunset

Also planning what subjects to pick... Andromeda is pretty close to the Zenith so would help against light pollution, but I don't know if the moon might interfere with that. Failing that, I could try narrowband imaging of heart and soul again.

Later on, I really hope to get a good go at Orion finally although it is still a bit low until late... annoyingly my opposite neighbours have put out their Christmas lights which seem to check out quite a bit of detectable energy at the red end even with a narrowband filter.

As a side thought, I'm thinking of trying longer and slower tonight. As you can see many of my attempts so far have a funny red glow around stars. I think I'm working beyond the optimal speed of my filters here. So running something slower would help if I can still suck up enough light.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Cloud was over earlier so I didn't start until later. Orion was already kinda up but I thought I'd leave it a bit later first, going instead for heart and soul overhead. Could frame them though. They only show up at all on 2m exposures at f/2 ISO1600 so I didn't want to waste too much time on that. Orion was much easier to line up even though it was still partially in the low level glow.

I got something like this...


14x2minutes. 135mm f/2 ISO800. Cropped.


And a 100% crop of the horsehead and flame.

Alas cloud was moving in when I went out to check on it, so that's all I got tonight.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Some things haven't changed then...

Tonight is my first night attempting to use the new mount. Since I'm woefully unprepared on the software side, I decided to go the intermediate route of using a QHY5 vis ST4 cable directly in the EQ6. Hands up if anyone still knows what I'm on about at this point?

Took a bit of experimentation to find out I needed to point PHD at Ascom to see the camera. Poked buttons and it seems to be working now, although my polar alignment might be a bit rubbish as I never collimated the polar scope, and I had to revert to using the Astrotrac polar finder to get Polaris' current orientation as I didn't set that up either.

What else messed up? With the dovetail on the 450D, I couldn't put it on a regular tripod as I normally do when trying to find a star to focus on, not that I had any filter in it anyway. So instead I reverted to the 600D as that still had a manfrotto RC2 style plate on it. Remember to put a memory card inside either camera! Positioning using the GEM wasn't as bad as I thought, although I never liked the tilted camera angle that style mount gives.

Initial 30 sec test shots seemed ok, so I've got it on 2 minutes now. If that's also ok, depending on exposure levels I'll try up to 8!

Starting to wish I didn't get up at 6am this morning...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

New mount, new set of errors...

1: do the polar alignment BEFORE you get everything else set up. Accurate framing at longer focal lengths isn't so fun.
2: guiding on a hot pixel doesn't work so well...
3: if you "borrow" bits from an imaging rig, put it back before you try to use it. Like the diagonal I was using to get the right focus spacing on the guidecam...

With that out of the way, I've got 4 minute OIII subs going on the 600D at 300mm f/2.8 Will check the 1st sub in a moment, and if that's ok, will get an hours worth and move onto H-alpha.

Elsewhere: fitting the focus motor onto the ST120 now so none of that wobbly business with manual focus. Didn't check it took a 9V battery, which I don't keep at home so quick trip and £7!!! later at Tesco for a pair, I'm ready to test it... the fitting was a bit random since it wasn't obvious what bits you needed to use or take off, as it had all sorts of bits for the various SW range. And their grease doesn't improve with age...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi popo,

New kit, new routine to learn! It'll soon shake down I'm sure although I hope you manage to find a way to set up without having to spend too much time fine tuning the polar alignment each night. I'm currently capturing my fourth, and probably final, 1500 Hα sub of the Heart Nebula tonight. Tracking of the first two wasn't quite perfect but the data may still be usable. Hopefully more tomorrow but the forecast isn't so good.

The nebula is larger than I would like as it barely fits the frame with the TEC 140 plus ML16803 but I'm definitely not doing another mosaic for a while. The ideal focal length would be 300mm which would allow me to capture both the Heart and Soul in a single frame without too much empty space but the Pentax 300mm f/4 ED is currently a low priority as I'd rather spend the cash on an OIII filter!

Update: The fifth frame had good data so I'm now really pushing my lucky and trying for a sixth before the Moon totally spoils the party! Should finish the exposure at 00:05 BST.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Going ok for now... got 15x4m OIII, done a preliminary stack and looks good Got Ha running now, also 4m, which I'll leave until around 00:10 to get 15 subs also. Then Ill drop in the SII filter and hope it's parfocal enough given it's not too different in wavelength from Ha, and astronomik filters are supposed to be parfocal, but they don't say down to what f ratio that applies.

My polar alignment still suck, as I'm getting some pixels of drift per sub, but the 300mm f/2.8 I'm using isn't one for pin sharp stars anyway so that'll mask it. The apparent detail already blows away anything I've done with the 135/2. And the drift acts as my dither. Sorted.

I might have to use flats since a preliminary DBE didn't get rid of the gradient adequately. My subject is the veil again, and that has faint nebulosity all over the place which is probably confusing DBE enough to be a problem. But the system definitely wasn't parfocal between OIII and Ha, so the focus needed a slight tweak. Oh, I think I could use a bathinov mask. Can't see naff all in live view in Ha at f/2.8. So slow... even f/2 was borderline.

Once I got the Ha in, I might do a preliminary output with Ha=red, OII=blue and synthetic green as that palette worked really well last time.

Haven't checked moonrise times yet, but if I really push it after I get SII, I might try the ST120 on the bubble nebula in RGB if I can find it...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.