Camera Labs

Still imaging as I type, but I thought I'd do a quick and dirty process of what I got so far.

This is the flame and horsehead nebulas again. My first time trying imaging with a longer lens.

450D full spectrum mod. Astromonik CLS filter. Canon 100-400L at 400mm f/5.6. 6x2 minutes.

My polar alignment isn't good enough for this setup, even after three attempts. It's acceptable at 30 seconds, quite noticeable at 2 minutes, and I've got 4 minutes exposures going right now.

And no, I'm not using the H-alpha filter this time. I want some colour! The light pollution is manageable.

f/5.6 is sooooo slow for this application. How much is a 400mm f/2.8 these days?...

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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.

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Looking promising. I never even started this evening as my intended targets would all have been affected by the Moon by the time they cleared a nearby tree.

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.

Get some practice in and around Orion while you can!

Saw another possible interesting object in my data so far. Follow from running man to horsehead, and keep going about same distance again. I don't recall anything on H-alpha recently but tonight was full spectrum so could be something else. Need to look at up in a bit... ah!, M78 reflection nebula. Explains 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.

Rosette Nebula by Crestie Crazy, on Flickr

My first attempt at combining two data sets. Took the H-alpha output from last time, and added a ton of RGB from tonight. Stick on low heat and stir occasionally. This is what came out of the pot...

H-alpha data:
1x1 minute, 10x2 minutes, 7x4 minutes. All at ISO1600.
Modified Canon 450D with Astronomik H-alpha filter. Canon 135mm f/2L lens.

RGB data:
17x2 minutes at ISO800
19x2 minutes at ISO400 as the blue channel was borderline clipping before.
Modified Canon 450D with Astronomik CLS filter. Canon 135mm f/2L lens.

Two sets processed separately. Output from both fed back into pixinsight to get aligned. Export again, finish in Photoshop to taste.

Some day I really need to try the star removal technique...

_________________
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.

It's going to be tricky as a friend is coming over this evening but hey, I'll see what I can do.

One of my targets is a widefield centred between the Rosette (nice shot, by the way) and the Christmas tree cluster. Photopic seems to indicate there's quite a bit of Hα in the area so I'd like to see what I can find. Ideally the Rosette nebula will have to wait for my TEC 140 which should land on these shores in the next month or so but I think I'll be lucky to be fully up and running in time for that target as the mounting will need realigning and calibrating for the much higher tracking accuracy I'll require.

My other widefield target is a three frame mosaic of Orion (the top one only just including Betelgeuse and Bellatrix at its base) but the bottom one centred on the Orion nebula will be visible shortly after 8 this evening so that gives me a couple of hours before it gets eclipsed by a neighbour's house.

Talking of Bellatrix, the other plan for the night is to watch the last Harry Potter film on Blu-ray. Perhaps if I tell my friend it's too scary and I need to hide behind the sofa she won't notice me popping out to check on the automated imaging from time to time...

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.

Of course I don't know the operation of your system, but from what you mentioned before there seemed to be a fair bit of automation possible on it? Maybe I'm thinking too simply, but can't you set focus, point it in the right direction and leave it running?

I did wonder if I had a fixed mount in the garden would that help me save time once I get the initial alignment set. But then I wondered, what about temperature effects? Or even ground movement?

Off topic: I got the HP blu-ray box set so I can catch up on all the movies as I've not seen the later ones yet, but it still lies there unopened...

_________________
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,

A good deal of automation is possible courtesy of MaximDL but it will be more convenient to split the 8, 40 and 1000 second H-alpha sessions. I'll also be doing some 200 second H-alpha as well as 200 second RGB but no time for those tonight or as many 1000 second H-alpha as I want. That's all if I can get behind that sofa!!!

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.

Plans for tonight have been derailed somewhat. Sky is less clear than last night. And there seems to be more moisture in the air, as a lot of it is also settling on the lens.

_________________
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,

Bad luck. I did slightly better but because they were unsupervised (limited time behind the sofa) it turned out that on both of the 1,000 second Hα exposures I did capture my neighbour's chimney got in the way, obscuring Saiph on one and Rigel on the other. Anyone got a wrecking ball?

I did 5 x 8 second Hα exposures just in case at the start of the session but the 5 x 40 second Hα exposures were well under maximum signal on the brightest parts of the Orion nebula so I won't need to do any more 8 second exposures. Of the two 1,000 second exposures, in the unobscured areas, both look quite encouraging even unprocessed, showing continuous Hα between the Orion nebula and the Horsehead nebula as well as Barnard's loop. I'm hoping to do more in the next couple of weeks but on the basis of tonight I'm only going to be able to squeeze in one such exposure per night of the bottom half of Orion. Still, on the glass half full principle, that means I can also spend time each evening on the top half and the extreme top I'd also like to add to the mosaic. As the forecast isn't encouraging for the next few nights I'll see if I can work up an Hα image tomorrow from my currently very limited data set and share in a separate thread but it will be, very much as with you, most definitely a work in progress as I need more Hα as well as some RGB.

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.

Sounds like you still got more than I did. Cloud moved in no long after my earlier post so I had to call it an early night. I was going for more RGB on Rosette to see if that cleans up much more with more data...

_________________
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.