First Photos with 80ed

allinthehead

Taken with canon 600d and skywatcher 80ed. 1*90 sec iso 800. Need to get some stacking and image processing software, i'm using a mac so looks like options are limited. Any recommendations for software or should i invest in a windows laptop?

Got the telescope last week from Ktec Telescopes, highly recommended.

murphyme2010

Great Photos.

Some of the lads on the IFAS forum (www.irishastronomy.org) have macs.
It might be worth putting a post up there.

Michael.

allinthehead

Captured this on Sunday night. No stacking yet, just single frame. Iso 1600 for 60 seconds. Processed in photoshop.

Kersh

Beautiful, what gear did you use? The 80ED again?

Its a huge step up from the previous ones, superb.

allinthehead

Kersh wrote: »

Beautiful, what gear did you use? The 80ED again?

Its a huge step up from the previous ones, superb.

Hi kersh, thanks. Yes 80ed again, I spent more time setting up, better polar alignment and focus, finding photoshop better than gimp too. This was also taken at about 20:00 with neighbours lights on, so hoping to get better next time. Just downloaded DSS too so I would imagine loads more detail to come.

Would the focal reducer help?

Forgot to mention this was with the EQ3 synscan mount with remote capture using eos utility.

Kersh

allinthehead wrote: »

Would the focal reducer help?

It will make the scope faster, so you will collect more light on the sensor for a given exposure. Also, it will give you a wider field of view.
Additionally, it will flatten the field somewhat, so the corners should show rounder stars.

allinthehead

Does the camera connect directly onto the focal reducer?

Kersh

allinthehead wrote: »

Does the camera connect directly onto the focal reducer?

Yep, using an M48 T-Ring rather then the normal m42 one.
http://www.ktectelescopes.ie/Canon-M48-x-0-75-Adaptor.html

allinthehead

One from last night. The pleiades. 5 lights, darks, and bias. Iso 800 for 60 seconds. Stacked in DSS, edited in photoshop. canon 600d, 80ed with focal reducer. Only had time for 5 of each as i was testing out new setup. I ran a cat5e cable through the kitchen wall connecting from the laptop(in the kitchen) to a 4 port usb hub strapped to a leg of the mount, allowing control over the mount and camera from the kitchen table.:D

mickmackey1

Just saw your M31 there now, that's a marvellous image for a newbie.

allinthehead

Cigar and bodes from lastnight.
Stack of 50 lights, 20 darks, 20 flats, 20 bias. 40 second exposures at iso 800. Moon was very bright, and intermittent cloud and wind.

allinthehead

Crop and slight reprocess.

allinthehead

Got some clear skies last night so i decided to give m31 a proper go. 10 subs in and my battery died. Need to get a mains traffo for the mount! Anyway lesson learned and wasn't a complete waste.

9 60 second subs at 800 iso

allinthehead

Great imaging session last night managed to take about 90 lights with about 30 thrown out due to mount error.

47 lights at 1600 for 60 secs
19 bias
19 darks

Taken with canon 600d through sw 80ed on eq3 syscan

I also took about 16 frames at 800 iso for the core but i haven't figured out how to blend them in photoshop.

keane2097

That's beautiful!

Kersh

Absolutely superb images. Plenty of detail in both

Wailin

Great images well done! Regarding blending two images of different exposure in photoshop-it's not too bad really. Plenty of youtube tutorials on it and also join Astronomyshed http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=19 as they have a great tutorial section on everything from set ups to post processing, stacking etc.

Here is another handy way but I found videos more helpful:
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/LAYMASK.HTM

Keep it up and keep posting. A guidescope might be the next step and you will be blown away by the results.

allinthehead

Thanks for the comments and links. I was thinking about guiding recently, but i don't know if the eq3 is up to the task. As it stands i throw away about 30% of the frames i get so if i was getting 5 minute plus frames that would be a huge amount of waste and i assume the percentage of waste would increase with exposure time. Maybe a heq5 is the way to go. I was thinking about making a pier in the garden for permanent setup.

Added another 50 lights, darks, and bias to the existing data i had for Orion.

Wailin

An EQ3?! Even more impressive! I would think the NEQ5 would be the minimum requirement for astro. I have the same scope as you, ED80, but use the NEQ6 pro mount. Overkill you might think but when you start adding guidescopes and other bits and bobs the weight starts climbing. I think you can forget the guidescope for now with that mount. This is my kit (not used in awhile unfortunately:pac:)
Astrophotography set up by Tony, on Flickr
The ED80 is a great little scope though. Do you use a flattener with it?

allinthehead

Ya i have the reducer/flattener. Nice setup you have there. What's that between the focuser and the reducer? The eq3 is great as i can take it on holidays, and i leave everything assembled in the kitchen and just carry it outside. For the pier i'm planning, maybe the neq6 is the way to go so. Big money tho.

Wailin

That's just the focusing tube racked out a bit. The eq6 is quiet expensive, but for it's accuracy, weight and build quality it is one of the best value mounts of that type on the market. All the other competitors are far more expensive, well last time I checked anyway. You must have nice dark skies to be opting for a pier, lucky you! Not the most pleasant experience lugging that gear down to Wicklow on freezing nights.

allinthehead

I'm in a small housing estate in East Cork, about 30 miles from Cork City so not much in the way of light pollution as long as the neighbors remember to turn their lights off. Looks like there's huge weight in your setup.

Wailin

Very heavy, but everything is set up on site so the heaviest part would be the head of the mount. Heavy means stability though and with the guide scope it's possible to do subs of 15 min or more if I wanted.

allinthehead

Couple of snaps from last night.

mickmackey1

Excellent. I was also observing Jupiter last night - saw Io emerge from eclipse after midnight but clouded out for the Ganymede occultation around 2am.

allinthehead

What were you observing with Mick?

mickmackey1

6 inch Nexstar.

allinthehead

With the lovely weather i decided to do a reprocess of Orion using new techniques i've learned over the last couple of weeks such as sharpening using overlay mode, and smoothed layers for noisy backround, and layer masks for brightening, or darkening specific areas. There's a mountain of info on the forums and i have a copy of making every photon count. I fear i've become obsessed.

allinthehead

mickmackey1 wrote: »

6 inch Nexstar.

Nice views with that?

mickmackey1

allinthehead wrote: »

Nice views with that?

Happy enough with it. Not suitable for AP of course but I wanted a fair-sized aperture without losing the grab and go option.

allinthehead

Anyone know where/if i can get a dslr astro modified in Ireland?

Wailin

Better off to buy a second hand 450D and modify it yourself. I picked one up for €200 on adverts and followed this excellent guide here:

http://dslrmodifications.com/rebelmod450d1.html

Few hairy moments and is a bit tricky but the results are worth it compared to standard dslr.

This is only 36min of data with modified 450D
Great Nebula in Orion by Tony, on Flickr

There are a number of places that sell modified DSLRs such as this one in the UK http://www.dslrastromod.co.uk/products.html, but much more expensive.

Iancar29

Wailin wrote: »

Better off to buy a second hand 450D and modify it yourself. I picked one up for €200 on adverts and followed this excellent guide here:

http://dslrmodifications.com/rebelmod450d1.html

Few hairy moments and is a bit tricky but the results are worth it compared to standard dslr.

This is only 36min of data with modified 450D
Great Nebula in Orion by Tony, on Flickr

There are a number of places that sell modified DSLRs such as this one in the UK http://www.dslrastromod.co.uk/products.html, but much more expensive.

Don't suppose you know any other uk people that have nikon conversions?
Wouldn't mind picking up a cheap body myself that i can use my own nikon batteries and lenses on.

Wailin

Iancar29 wrote: »

Don't suppose you know any other uk people that have nikon conversions?
Wouldn't mind picking up a cheap body myself that i can use my own nikon batteries and lenses on.

Not too familiar on Nikon astro mods, definitely not as common as Canon but they can be modified of course. Don't know any sites unfortunately.

allinthehead

M51

Not a great photo but who cares, it's two galaxies colliding.

uck51js9zml2yt

allinthehead wrote: »

Anyone know where/if i can get a dslr astro modified in Ireland?

There's a guy in the UK does them. Cant think of his name but if you check stargazers lounge you should find details.

allinthehead

New pier in the making

allinthehead

Needed more space to work around the pier so added some more stone. Fitted a single socket to power the mount, and a usb and data point in the other ip rated box.



All tested and working well. Just need to get the neq6 mount from ktec, and figure out a way to fix it to the pier.

allinthehead

I've been busy trying to get everything together. New mount arrived while i was on holidays. Couldn't get anyone to make up platform for the mount to attach to the pier, so i got a set of skoda fabia brake discs, and got an engineering company to drill them for me. My plans changed re plugging the mount directly into the socket. Instead i have a 41ah battery on a float charge supplying the plexo box fitted with cigarette lighter, usb ports and voltmeter. Invested in a telegizmo cover for the mount which should give me much quicker set up times. I should only have to polar align once or twice a year. Pretty chuffed with how it's turning out.











http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy330/setch3/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0673.jpg

Iancar29

allinthehead wrote: »

I've been busy trying to get everything together. New mount arrived while i was on holidays. Couldn't get anyone to make up platform for the mount to attach to the pier, so i got a set of skoda fabia brake discs, and got an engineering company to drill them for me. My plans changed re plugging the mount directly into the socket. Instead i have a 41ah battery on a float charge supplying the plexo box fitted with cigarette lighter, usb ports and voltmeter. Invested in a telegizmo cover for the mount which should give me much quicker set up times. I should only have to polar align once or twice a year. Pretty chuffed with how it's turning out.

Fair play! Jealous of the fact that you should only need to polar align once or twice a year! You must have some reasonably dark skies where you are to have a permanent setup like that?

allinthehead

Iancar29 wrote: »

Fair play! Jealous of the fact that you should only need to polar align once or twice a year! You must have some reasonably dark skies where you are to have a permanent setup like that?

Sky's ok here, as long as neighbours turn lights off. Should save time on setup, meaning more time for imaging/observing. I had the telescope setup in the kitchen and would just carry it out but herself soon got sick of the sight of it. My back will thank me for it too.

cowboyBuilder

Wow !!!

amazing stuff ... and these photos taken just by stacking long exposure images taken with a drive mount attached to cam+telescope?


edit - OK now I see the rest of the thread with the pics of the gear ..

cowboyBuilder

@allinthehead this is your scope ?

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Refractor-Telescopes/Refractor-Telescopes-with-GoTo-Mounts/Orion-Sirius-ED80-EQ-G-Computerized-GoTo-Refractor-Telescope/pc/1/c/10/sc/336/p/24281.uts

Wailin

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

@allinthehead this is your scope ?

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Refractor-Telescopes/Refractor-Telescopes-with-GoTo-Mounts/Orion-Sirius-ED80-EQ-G-Computerized-GoTo-Refractor-Telescope/pc/1/c/10/sc/336/p/24281.uts

It's this one http://www.ktectelescopes.ie/Telescopes/Skywatcher-PRO-Series/Skywatcher-PRO-Series-Evostar-ED-Apochromatic-Refractors/Skywatcher-Evostar-80ED-DS-PRO.html. I have the same myself and they are a very decent scope for astro.

cowboyBuilder

Wailin wrote: »

It's this one http://www.ktectelescopes.ie/Telescopes/Skywatcher-PRO-Series/Skywatcher-PRO-Series-Evostar-ED-Apochromatic-Refractors/Skywatcher-Evostar-80ED-DS-PRO.html. I have the same myself and they are a very decent scope for astro.

Thanks !

That's a good price actually ...

allinthehead

First test image of new setup. Iris Nebula

30 * 180 seconds at iso 1200

Kersh

Great to see how much progress you have made on it

The AZEQ6 looks great sitting on that pier.

The first photo looks incredibly promising, Im still using my ED80 too, great scope.

cowboyBuilder

It really is stunning stuff, Im tempted to get one myself ... but I live in Barcelona :(:(:(

allinthehead

Thanks. Having it on the pier makes all the difference. I knew a few nights ago that the clouds were forecast to clear for a couple of hours. Normally i wouldn't have bothered setting up, but because now it takes about 10 minutes to start imaging i can take advantage of any clearing.

I know i said i would never go down the ccd route, but i'm considering the atik 460ex. Would this be a good choice with my scope? Would it be worth just buying the camera, shooting mono for a while, and saving for the auto filter wheel and filters. I like the idea of being able to image while the moon is out too.

You're right the az looks the part on the pier. Really is a good mount. I did a drift align and managed a 360 second unguided exposure with good results.
This is 360 seconds unprocessed

Wailin

Had the 460ex myself but used it once then sold it on due to lack of use really. Never got into the colour blending but used the H-Alpha filter from a very light polluted backyard in dublin.

Cone nebula - NGC 2264 by Wailin, on Flickr

Horsehead nebula in H-alpha by Wailin, on Fli

These images were taken with a full moon as well. Had issues with the filter wheel leaking light somewhere too, obvious in the horsehead pic with the light gradient at bottom.

Should probably have gave more of a chance and effort in fairness. FOV will be very restricted with the small sensor on the camera though.

Use this excellent site to see what your fov will be with any set up http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

allinthehead

Nice photos Wailin.

Added another 20*180 second exposures to iris.