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AstroZamboni posted:In H-alpha this group is best described as "a swirling vortex of doom." Terrifying and beautiful, with frequent flashes of m-class flares. Lots of fun to watch. Please tell us when it actually gets out, I want to make sure that I don't skip it on accident. Edit: Congratulations! Seqenenra fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 01:35
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mr_jolly posted:My second ever attempt at M31 from a couple of weeks ago when the moon was pretty close. Finally getting the hang of PixInsight now and managed to extract this from all the light pollution which I was quite happy with. That looks stunning. Was it taken with an equatorial tracker? How would you compare PixInsight to DeepSkyStacker. Is it worth the nearly 200 euros price?
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Feb 6, 2014 04:27
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Venusian Weasel posted:I haven't worked with one of those cameras, but I'm not sure if even that will be suitable. I'm assuming the project is measuring drag effects on the satellite. For accurate measurements they'll need to minimize the effects of the satellite's orbit as much as possible, and to do that they'll need *short* exposures. I'm not sure that will pick up a fast-moving 11th magnitude or fainter object. Yeah, you've got our limitations hit pretty much on the head.
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Feb 6, 2014 06:54
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pwnyXpress posted:Yeah, you've got our limitations hit pretty much on the head. welp, sounds rough. In other news, this just showed up in the mail (the skytracker, not the rest of it).   Seems pretty drat sturdy and precise, my only complaint with it is that the motor is pretty noisy. Breaks down nicely though, I should be able to bring it along for some hikes in the hills or the badlands when it warms up. Hopefully I can test it out later this week even! It's -11F right now though, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
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Feb 6, 2014 07:41
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Kommando posted:That looks stunning. Was it taken with an equatorial tracker? This was taken with an EOS 1100D through an Evostar 80ED + HEQ5 mount. Until recently I'd used DSS for stacking and Paintshop Pro for tweaking, I could never get the hang of processing in DSS. Pixinsight for me has been well worth the investment in both money and time to learn. Some of the tools such as DBE for removing background gradients from pollution etc. are worth the price alone. Had a rare break in the clouds, wind and rain the other night so had a crack at the supernova in M82 and neighboring M81. Got some eggy stars towards the bottom right but apart from that I was pretty pleased with what came out. This was about 40x60s exposures and 10x60s:  And lastly a question! I'm having a bit of a problem with the 1100D, does anyone know why I'm getting vertical lines coming from the bottom of bright stars and any possible fix? It's okay in most situations but when there's a monster star like Alnitak in this example, it looks pretty horrible! 
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Feb 6, 2014 12:21
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The supernova's in M82 isn't it? I think it's that white dot inside the right side of the cigar(or turd  )-shaped galaxy. Awesome picture.
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Feb 6, 2014 12:49
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OMGVBFLOL posted:The supernova's in M82 isn't it? I think it's that white dot inside the right side of the cigar(or turd It is and I'm terrible at my M numbers!
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Feb 6, 2014 12:54
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mr_jolly posted:And lastly a question! I'm having a bit of a problem with the 1100D, does anyone know why I'm getting vertical lines coming from the bottom of bright stars and any possible fix? It's okay in most situations but when there's a monster star like Alnitak in this example, it looks pretty horrible! I think your problem is that the bright stars are overexposing. In CCD cameras, think of pixel rows like buckets. When one bucket fills up with too much light, it overflows and gets captured by adjacent buckets in the row. As far as fixing it goes, and a more experienced imager could probably answer better, but I think the solution is to make your individual exposures shorter so that the pixel bleed is less noticeable or absent in the first place.
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Feb 7, 2014 08:09
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Venusian Weasel posted:I think your problem is that the bright stars are overexposing. In CCD cameras, think of pixel rows like buckets. When one bucket fills up with too much light, it overflows and gets captured by adjacent buckets in the row. Unfortunately, the picture above is composed of 60s exposures, to capture more of the nebulosity I'd be wanting to capture even longer ones. I've found references to the problem on a few other sites and one potential solution is to slightly rotate the camera between exposures so when they're stacked the lines will be treated as noise and averaged out. Either that or I'll just have to be a bit more careful with framing and ensure the target I'm after is always near the top of the frame!
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Feb 7, 2014 20:36
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I'm looking at building a sidereal tracking mount for my DSLR, barn door or direct drive and before i delve into gear ratios and auduino programming has anyone got any experience with the Orion EQ-1 or mini and stepper drive? The pair is pretty cheap on Amazon (assuming they'll ship to Aus) and might end up costing the same as my budget for building the thing. http://www.amazon.com/Orion-7826-EQ-1M-Electronic-Telescope/dp/B0000XMWBW/ref=pd_bxgy_p_text_y http://www.amazon.com/Orion-9055-Ta...er+camera+mount I've also noticed the Vixen Polarie (and its chinese knockoff iOptron Star Tracker) but at mid $400 its a steep outlay for a beginner, however it is really compact. The AstroTrac TT320X-AG is also on my mind as its a perfect piece of hiking kit, light and collapsible. I could possibly build a similar apparatus. But at $700+ its a considerable outlay. http://www.fredmiranda.com/astrotrac/ Thoughts?
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Feb 11, 2014 04:46
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Kommando posted:I've also noticed the Vixen Polarie (and its chinese knockoff iOptron Star Tracker) but at mid $400 its a steep outlay for a beginner, however it is really compact. I've used both and the iOptron is a much better piece of kit than the Vixen. You can polar align it with the camera attached for starters where on the Vixen the camera and (very expensive, not included) polar scope connect to the same place. Tracking wise they perform equally well, I could not recommend a Polarie over the Skytracker. Astrofest was last weekend in London, which gave me a chance to look over an iOptron CEM60 and compare in directly to an EQ8. Purely from a subjective view of how they are put together the CEM seems to be better engineered and has more ports than I've ever seen on a mount, certainly swinging that way at the moment. Al Nagler gave an excellent talk about his life and work and spent the two days signing every eyepiece he sold, really nice guy. Jekub fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Feb 11, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 13:42
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Jekub posted:I've used both and the iOptron is a much better piece of kit than the Vixen. You can polar align it with the camera attached for starters where on the Vixen the camera and (very expensive, not included) polar scope connect to the same place. Tracking wise they perform equally well, I could not recommend a Polarie over the Skytracker. Well I'm glad I wound up with the skytracker then. Now I just need some clear skies this week so that I can actually test it (even if I do it inside city limits I'd at least like to make sure it tracks properly).
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Feb 11, 2014 23:22
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Thats unfortunate, Astroshop.com.au says bad things about the iOptron, but sells the Vixen in australia. I'll have to do research to find a place that sells iOptron. huh, and half of the retailers in aus for the iOptron dont sell it. http://www.ioptron.com/index.cfm?select=dealers the other half sell it for around $500. But like you said, the Polarie doesnt come with the polar scope, which is another $185. Negative Entropy fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 23:41
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In my perfect world I'd have an Astrotrac travel system, I adore the idea of being able to pack everything down into the pier as well as the ability to cope with the additional weight of a small refractor and CCD Camera, my QSI is not light. Three of my colleagues from Basingstoke AS went out to La Palma for a week of astrophotography from the top of the mountain last year, driving up every night and sleeping through the day. They took an Astrotrac, Polarie and Skytracker along with a borrowed EQ6 from a friend on the island and all came back with nothing but positive words to say about the skytracker. The polarie is a very neat unit and probably offers better PE than the Skytracker, but having to muck about removing the polarscope and fitting a heavy camera to it after polar alignment is a mad idea, it's the very last thing you want to be doing. As for the polarscope we had a society member machine an adapter to fit in a cheap alternative. I even had a Vixen polar scope from my old Sphinx mount at that point and the bastards had put a different fitting on it. I think this is a reasonable review of the three : http://www.ioastronomy.co.uk/2013/07/astrotrac-vs-skytracker-vs-polarie/ (I should note that IO Astronomy are an iOptron dealer but Dave is a reasonable chap about these things from my dealings with him, and they are my local astro dealer) Jekub fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 00:45
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Wow, a bit of research now and that Astroshop.com.au review of the Vixen vs iOptron is rather biased. Also, £379 is a lot. Over $600 AUD. I wonder if i can make a similar design. Worm drive and stepper motor, Auduino...
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Feb 12, 2014 01:30
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I took the Skytracker out for a test. Full moon and somewhat windy, and I couldn't get the polar scope focused right in the dark (i managed to get the stars in focus, but I need to play with it more to get the actual guide markings in focus at the same time, too cold and windy to mess with it too much). So, not perfectly aligned, and a little shakey, but still really happy with the results. These are with and without the skytracker turned on, with a 40mm lens on my OM-D (so 80mm equivalent field of view, pretty zoomed in) P2120078.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr  iOptron Skytracker Test by MrDespair, on Flickr
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Feb 13, 2014 06:56
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Nice. The Merope reflection nebula is even visible. Can't wait to see what you do with it on a non-windy night with good alignment.
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Feb 13, 2014 07:41
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AstroZamboni posted:Nice. The Merope reflection nebula is even visible. Can't wait to see what you do with it on a non-windy night with good alignment. Thanks, too bright out to really get any detail (and I don't have any other good shots to stack). Here's one more shot, this was at 12mm, but I managed to get IDEFIX/ARIANE42P flying over. Good luck spotting it though  P2120074.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr crossing from bottom middle to left middle of frame
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Feb 13, 2014 09:08
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Welp, got my tax refund and went on a buying spree. All my red dot finders and red flashlights have crapped out on me so I got a good Rigel flashlight and a Telrad, Astrosystems dew shield for the Telrad, 6mm and 9mm Orion Expanse eyepieces, Agena 15mm Wide Angle HD eyepiece, Cheshire collimator for my dob, #82A pale blue filter and #8 pale yellow filter. Also an enema bulb with rocket fins. Apologies to anybody in Colorado who planned on doing any observing this week. Edit: Added a Zhumell OIII Filter too. They're not on par with Lumicons, but they're on sale for $17 right now. Can't beat the price, yo! Edit2: Still not done shopping. Got replacement dome light bulbs for my jeep. They're red LEDs, so I can open my car at a star party without ruining other's night vision. I am going to be SO ready for Star Party Season, bizznatch! AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 02:48
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I've had a lot of fun the past two years looking at the night sky through binoculars. I'm not always sure of what I'm looking at, but it's fun nonetheless. So about a week and a half ago I got my first DSLR. And I remember reading about or seeing people take star pics with their fancy cameras. So I figured why not try it out, right? I used that 600 rule, figure at 18mm (x 1.6 for a crop sensor) I'd be good for 22 seconds. 20, just to make it easier for my camera. I put it on my tripod, go out into the cold and wild backyard here on Long Island. With my naked eye I could see about, maybe 20 objects? Well, after I thoroughly smushed and destroyed the images, I got something really surprising.  It looks poo poo, but I'm so goddamn giddy about it! I seriously have such a big poo poo-eating grin over this. I live in quite the suburban area and never would've expected to see this on a night like last night. I can't wait to go way out east into darkness and see what I can pick up! And perhaps I'll make myself a barn door tracker to try out. At least for shits and giggles. I'm poo poo at knowing what I'm looking at, and honestly don't know how to google search this, but does anybody know what that little cluster is in the bottom to the mid-left? I was pointing straight up. I'm in the northern hemisphere, but that lil cluster should be, if I remember right, to the west or southwest? Anyway, thank you for looking.
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Feb 19, 2014 17:04
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I'm 95% sure that's The Seven Sisters, aka Pleiades. Probably my favorite object to stargaze because it's almost always visible, even in washed-out city skies, and binoculars or darker skies only make it more and more neat to look at. e: assuming you mean this one here 
Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 00:17
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Welp, I ordered red LED dome light replacement bulbs for my jeep from superbrightleds.com and they sent me the wrong ones. Turned out they didn't have the right ones, so they just sent me "whatever" and the crap didn't fit my Jeep. Now trying to find an alternative source for red LED interior automotive lights that will fit my jeep. Not going well. Luckily they're issuing a refund since I called and raised holy hell. loving shitbags.
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Feb 21, 2014 19:51
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OMGVBFLOL posted:I'm 95% sure that's The Seven Sisters, aka Pleiades. Probably my favorite object to stargaze because it's almost always visible, even in washed-out city skies, and binoculars or darker skies only make it more and more neat to look at. Yeah, that's the one. That was the first thing I thought of. Embarrassingly enough, I didn't think to... turn the image. So, uh... whoops. It's been cloudy as anything here so no chance for me to try and take more pictures. I did start working on a barn door tracker, though, so that could be fun. Anybody here have experience with those? I think I saw Mr. Despair made one? Also, I need to actually learn how to look at starmaps. I know it's not that hard, it's just something I don't know. AstroZamboni posted:Welp, I ordered red LED dome light replacement bulbs for my jeep from superbrightleds.com and they sent me the wrong ones. Turned out they didn't have the right ones, so they just sent me "whatever" and the crap didn't fit my Jeep. Now trying to find an alternative source for red LED interior automotive lights that will fit my jeep. Not going well. Luckily they're issuing a refund since I called and raised holy hell. Maybe I just don't know, but is "jeep" a term for something other than the car. Like, is it an astronomy term that I'm not aware of? Or is this a lost post?
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Feb 21, 2014 20:56
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Jeep is exactly what it sounds like. I was replacing my dome lights with red LEDs so I can open my car at star parties without blinding people.
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Feb 21, 2014 21:19
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Rotten Cookies posted:Yeah, that's the one. That was the first thing I thought of. Embarrassingly enough, I didn't think to... turn the image. So, uh... whoops. It's been cloudy as anything here so no chance for me to try and take more pictures. I did start working on a barn door tracker, though, so that could be fun. Anybody here have experience with those? I think I saw Mr. Despair made one? Yup, i've made one from bits of scrap. It worked ok, but there's a number of things I would do differently if I did it again. e. going to look back at what I did and write it down here in a minute Mr. Despair posted:I whipped this together this afternoon. Mr. Despair posted:Update on the tracker. Got a beefier ballhead for the tripod, upgraded the hinges to be more sturdy, added a handle to the drive screw. Still not perfect, but it's usable. Still needs some work on the drive screw, it's needs some graphite or something to make it spin easier, and something to brace it because there's some slop in the hole it goes through. With all that said it worked, but there were some big issues. The wood was some pine or something that was fairly soft, redoing it with thinner harder wood would be nice. The hinge was also really sloppy, I should have just cut a piano hinge to length and used that instead. If you're using a hand powered tracker start tracking before you start the picture, the shakes when you start and stop are probably the worst when it comes to screwing up the picture. Dr. Despair fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Feb 21, 2014 |
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Feb 21, 2014 23:30
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Galaxy season is my least favorite season, but when life gives you lemons ... Widefield NGC3718
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Feb 24, 2014 01:06
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Mr. Despair posted:Yup, i've made one from bits of scrap. It worked ok, but there's a number of things I would do differently if I did it again. Hey, thanks for the tips! I did use hardwood on your recommendation, and I actually had some piano hinge lying around. I'm being a bit of a wuss now and waiting to drill the hole for the threaded rod. Don't know why. Anyway, something that I didn't think of previously is how I'm going to mount this sucker. I have a tripod head that will work well enough to mount TO the tracker, but as far as what to mount the tracker to, I'm stumped. I only have a fairly shaky aluminum tripod, which I don't trust with the wind I'll probably be getting. Living on an island, I have the options of going to the windy shore to avoid light, or staying near the lights to avoid wind. Anyway, my leading idea is to someone mount it to one of my mic stands. You know, the kind with the big metal base. If only because the bases of those are heavy, solid metal. They aren't going anywhere. I know the real answer is probably to get a good tripod, but... well, that's not really in the budget. Going to the hardware store and stumbling through to get a platform for this is in the budget, though. It'll be a fun exercise in futility. *** Also, AstroZamboni, that's really considerate of you. It didn't even occur to me why you would want a red light for your jeep for... astronomy. E*** OR maybe not! May have just lucked into a solution. Rotten Cookies fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Feb 25, 2014 |
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Feb 25, 2014 03:25
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Buying a good tripod is definitely worthwhile. Those cheap 20 dollar walmart special tripods are all fun and games until the QR plate fucks off and drops your camera or the whole thing just tips over. Check craigslist for old tripods, or maybe local thrift shops, I've seen some good usable stuff there if you aren't looking for something extra portable.
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Feb 25, 2014 04:49
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Mr. Despair posted:Buying a good tripod is definitely worthwhile. Those cheap 20 dollar walmart special tripods are all fun and games until the QR plate fucks off and drops your camera or the whole thing just tips over. Check craigslist for old tripods, or maybe local thrift shops, I've seen some good usable stuff there if you aren't looking for something extra portable. Oh, I absolutely know that getting a good tripod is the right thing to do. Unless I can find on in a thrift shop like you said, it's going to be a little while til I can afford a good tripod. The one I have now is a Velbon DH-20/4. The legs just seem a bit... spindly when they're fully extended. So I never extend them. I remember seeing a Manfrotto head at my closest thrift store for $20. Wish I knew.
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Feb 25, 2014 05:41
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If you want a cheap option look at the dolica tripods on amazon. You can get one for around 50 bucks (+ or -depending on what head is mounted) and they're pretty nice and stable for the money. And they have a hook for you to put a weight on to help make it more stable. Something like http://www.amazon.com/Dolica-GX600B...keywords=tripod or http://www.amazon.com/Dolica-AX620B...keywords=tripod which seems to be a knockoff of my benro in some ways.
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Feb 25, 2014 14:16
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Well, my gear buying spree is continuing unabated. Just a heads up; telescopes.com has all of the Zhumell gear at massive discounts. Looks like an inventory clearance, which makes me wonder if Zhumell is going bye-bye. Anyway, in addition to the $17 O-III filter, I also got a $40 2" UHC filter and an $18 variable polarizer. They'll be arriving Friday. The O-III arrived yesterday and it looks pretty decent. They also have 2-speed SCT crayford focusers for $80, Z-series planetary eyepieces for $40 (which are excellent, btw) and all sorts of other poo poo. If you need to get some gear, you may want to check it out before everything disappears.
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Feb 25, 2014 17:22
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Mr. Despair posted:If you want a cheap option look at the dolica tripods on amazon. You can get one for around 50 bucks (+ or -depending on what head is mounted) and they're pretty nice and stable for the money. And they have a hook for you to put a weight on to help make it more stable. Oh, wow. Thanks for the recommendations. A weight hook seems like a really handy feature. This might be a silly question, but does the weight rating for a tripod account for anything you hook onto that? Or is is just what's above the legs? Again, thanks for the help.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:32
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Rotten Cookies posted:Oh, wow. Thanks for the recommendations. A weight hook seems like a really handy feature. This might be a silly question, but does the weight rating for a tripod account for anything you hook onto that? Or is is just what's above the legs? That weight rating is probably for just the ballhead, before it starts sagging and such. Any decent tripod should hold a good deal more than that.
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Feb 25, 2014 20:51
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mr_jolly posted:This was taken with an EOS 1100D through an Evostar 80ED + HEQ5 mount. I've seen people having this exact problem with the 1100D, and it being related to extreme cold effects on the battery. Edit - he replaced the battery with a main power cord and the issue stopped. Atimo fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Feb 26, 2014 |
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Feb 26, 2014 05:18
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AstroZamboni posted:Nice. The Merope reflection nebula is even visible. Can't wait to see what you do with it on a non-windy night with good alignment. I had a non-windy night, and I even had decent alignment. Just good enough to use a 200mm lens (400mm equivalent with this camera). This was 12 1 minute frames and a dark frame:  The Pleiades.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr That was about all I was up for though, it was only about 20 degrees outside and my boots just aren't that warm, even with wool socks  Also tried getting andromeda, but I wound up aiming at the wrong place :facepalm: Only realized it after I looked at this pic.  P2260032.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr
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Feb 27, 2014 05:59
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On the bright side it looks like you picked up the Triangulum Galaxy too so it's not too bad of an effort. But yeah, this winter's been pretty harsh to work in. I think the worst night was when I went outside to see the supernova in M82 when the wind chills were dropping below zero. I was pretty much wearing all of my cold-weather clothes and it still almost wasn't enough. e: Cool, video of a meteoroid colliding with the moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCFDkj2JtyA Venusian Weasel fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Feb 27, 2014 |
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Feb 27, 2014 06:03
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Oh, I was trying to take pics of andromeda with my 200mm, I was aiming at the bright star above the tree, due left of andromeda. Mirach maybe? I need to bring my binoculars next time so that I can double check stuff like that a bit easier.
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Feb 27, 2014 07:31
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Atimo posted:I've seen people having this exact problem with the 1100D, and it being related to extreme cold effects on the battery. Oh thanks! I might have a play and stick it in the freezer for a bit (inside a couple of sandwich bags!) and see what effect that has on the image quality. If I stick a bit of foil over a lens and punch a tiny hole I might be able to replicate roughly the same conditions as shooting a bright star.
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Feb 28, 2014 20:40
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So the barn door tracker has been built! Let's see what this thing ca- Tracker Mistake by RottenCookies, on Flickr Huh. Well. That doesn't really look as advertised... So, obviously the first time out was a bit rough-going. The thing was a bit wobbly, so I had to add another T-nut to where the threaded bolt comes through. Otherwise, there's just way too much play in there. Also, I just never got to cutting the threaded rod, so it was comically long and did well to amplify any extra bumps from my hand while winding. No bueno. Also, I used the loving thing backwards. Yeah, I was that excited that I set it to rotate the opposite way. I am so smrt.  Tracker2 by RottenCookies, on Flickr This is a bit better. This is from about 20 minutes ago. 18mm for ~90 seconds ISO 1600, and smushed to hell in Lightroom. Can't wait til it's not freezing out and I can go out to the east end of the island where there's much less light pollution. (Also, probably saving the cash to get a new tripod.)
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Mar 6, 2014 04:06
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Is that some kind of artifact in the center of your picture? The dark circle?
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Mar 6, 2014 04:43
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