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Trying to catch some last images...
Oct 2, 2019 15:09:18   #
SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA
 
As we head into winter, the Nebula season is sinking into the West, while the Winter shows are coming around.
I use Stellarium as a control and targeting program, but also when I'm curious.
The other day I was looking into when my old buddy Orion would be in a favorable time slot for me to image around what he herald's to the winter skies. Well, Midnight to 5ish.
To late for me. I no longer hoot with the owls. I'm pretty much calling it a night around the 11 o'clock news hour. Not much instills me to push midnight anymore.
Oddly enough, the South and South Westward sky over my house seems to be favorable since they changed the streetlight to an LED type. Much less glare into the sky. In fact, not much light anywhere but on the street. And the Condo Complex behind me continues to be a PITA for it's Prison Yard glare of mismanaged lighting, and idiots who can't turn off their headlights when they pull up to carry on loud verbose conversations....

So if I get boring, it's because sometimes Astrophotography gets boring. Re-shooting yesterdays targets from last year, Adinfinitum.
But Pleiades is bringing in the winter show. I can only get ~4 of the 7 Sisters, and the beautiful blue nebulosity still eludes me. Maybe if I was to try my DSLR again?

Being a catch as catch can kinda imager, I find myself re-shooting the same things over, just to see if I can do better, or if the particular night might yield better than previous evenings.
So trying to improve is about my only inspiration as I wait for other objects to come around.

Here's the last couple of nights...


Cocoon-Nebula-7-120s-840s-w
Cocoon-Nebula-7-120s-840s-w...
(Download)

Eagle-Nebula10-120s-1200s-w
Eagle-Nebula10-120s-1200s-w...
(Download)

North-Ameican-Nebula-5-120s-600s-w-noise-reduced. The refractor spires are as was, not induced.
North-Ameican-Nebula-5-120s-600s-w-noise-reduced. ...
(Download)

Pleiades--3-120s-360s-w. Can't seem to get the elusive Nebulae, a challenge!
Pleiades--3-120s-360s-w. Can't seem to get the elu...
(Download)

EXAMPLE: Pleiades example from Smithsonian
EXAMPLE: Pleiades example from Smithsonian...
(Download)

Reply
Oct 3, 2019 05:47:01   #
J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio
 
SonnyE wrote:
As we head into winter, the Nebula season is sinking into the West, while the Winter shows are coming around.
I use Stellarium as a control and targeting program, but also when I'm curious.
The other day I was looking into when my old buddy Orion would be in a favorable time slot for me to image around what he herald's to the winter skies. Well, Midnight to 5ish.
To late for me. I no longer hoot with the owls. I'm pretty much calling it a night around the 11 o'clock news hour. Not much instills me to push midnight anymore.
Oddly enough, the South and South Westward sky over my house seems to be favorable since they changed the streetlight to an LED type. Much less glare into the sky. In fact, not much light anywhere but on the street. And the Condo Complex behind me continues to be a PITA for it's Prison Yard glare of mismanaged lighting, and idiots who can't turn off their headlights when they pull up to carry on loud verbose conversations....

So if I get boring, it's because sometimes Astrophotography gets boring. Re-shooting yesterdays targets from last year, Adinfinitum.
But Pleiades is bringing in the winter show. I can only get ~4 of the 7 Sisters, and the beautiful blue nebulosity still eludes me. Maybe if I was to try my DSLR again?

Being a catch as catch can kinda imager, I find myself re-shooting the same things over, just to see if I can do better, or if the particular night might yield better than previous evenings.
So trying to improve is about my only inspiration as I wait for other objects to come around.

Here's the last couple of nights...

As we head into winter, the Nebula season is sinki... (show quote)



Reply
Oct 3, 2019 08:15:46   #
Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England
 
SonnyE wrote:
As we head into winter, the Nebula season is sinking into the West, while the Winter shows are coming around.
I use Stellarium as a control and targeting program, but also when I'm curious.
The other day I was looking into when my old buddy Orion would be in a favorable time slot for me to image around what he herald's to the winter skies. Well, Midnight to 5ish.
To late for me. I no longer hoot with the owls. I'm pretty much calling it a night around the 11 o'clock news hour. Not much instills me to push midnight anymore.
Oddly enough, the South and South Westward sky over my house seems to be favorable since they changed the streetlight to an LED type. Much less glare into the sky. In fact, not much light anywhere but on the street. And the Condo Complex behind me continues to be a PITA for it's Prison Yard glare of mismanaged lighting, and idiots who can't turn off their headlights when they pull up to carry on loud verbose conversations....

So if I get boring, it's because sometimes Astrophotography gets boring. Re-shooting yesterdays targets from last year, Adinfinitum.
But Pleiades is bringing in the winter show. I can only get ~4 of the 7 Sisters, and the beautiful blue nebulosity still eludes me. Maybe if I was to try my DSLR again?

Being a catch as catch can kinda imager, I find myself re-shooting the same things over, just to see if I can do better, or if the particular night might yield better than previous evenings.
So trying to improve is about my only inspiration as I wait for other objects to come around.

Here's the last couple of nights...

As we head into winter, the Nebula season is sinki... (show quote)


Hiya mate,
getting cold here too but at least the clouds & rain has ceased for a while.
Pleiades I have always found pretty easy to image, but as you know I only use dslr's.
Recently I have been using my Nikon D7000 for imagining & tbh I found the results upon certain targets (clusters, galaxies) to be better than the modded Canon 450D.

Last night I grabbed a few hours but instead of shooting the Heart n Soul nebs I focused upon the double cluster within Cassiopeia (will post when I get home)
Again the D7000 performed well with just a few 60s exposures upon the 180mm F2.8.

Oh yeah, Pleiades. M45 doesn't rise much before 2230hrs at the moment here in the UK but once it does I will try a few combinations in attempt to capture the whispy blues.
Marc

Reply
 
 
Oct 3, 2019 15:16:18   #
SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA
 
Marc G wrote:
Hiya mate,
getting cold here too but at least the clouds & rain has ceased for a while.
Pleiades I have always found pretty easy to image, but as you know I only use dslr's.
Recently I have been using my Nikon D7000 for imagining & tbh I found the results upon certain targets (clusters, galaxies) to be better than the modded Canon 450D.

Last night I grabbed a few hours but instead of shooting the Heart n Soul nebs I focused upon the double cluster within Cassiopeia (will post when I get home)
Again the D7000 performed well with just a few 60s exposures upon the 180mm F2.8.

Oh yeah, Pleiades. M45 doesn't rise much before 2230hrs at the moment here in the UK but once it does I will try a few combinations in attempt to capture the whispy blues.
Marc
Hiya mate, br getting cold here too but at least t... (show quote)


Hi Ya Marc!
Yep, Pleiades is a bit too big for my Infinity Camera. Last time I tried my D3300 DSLR on my Telescope I got really wide-field images. But that was so long ago, I really owe it to trying again. One thing is a bit more experience now with my guiding.

It's just too easy to mount the telescope as is, align, and go trippin around the sky.
Today, I decided to venture into another old funtime adventure for me, making presentations out of my images to plunk up on Youtube. Getting back to those, I kind of think maybe a better way to share a bunch of images for me.

But Nebulae was my focus when I got into Astrophotography. Because it's out there....
Kinda like me.

Looking forward to your sharing! Always astounding, Marc.

Reply
Oct 4, 2019 09:04:22   #
Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England
 
SonnyE wrote:
Hi Ya Marc!
Yep, Pleiades is a bit too big for my Infinity Camera. Last time I tried my D3300 DSLR on my Telescope I got really wide-field images. But that was so long ago, I really owe it to trying again. One thing is a bit more experience now with my guiding.

It's just too easy to mount the telescope as is, align, and go trippin around the sky.
Today, I decided to venture into another old funtime adventure for me, making presentations out of my images to plunk up on Youtube. Getting back to those, I kind of think maybe a better way to share a bunch of images for me.

But Nebulae was my focus when I got into Astrophotography. Because it's out there....
Kinda like me.

Looking forward to your sharing! Always astounding, Marc.
Hi Ya Marc! br Yep, Pleiades is a bit too big for ... (show quote)


Hiya Mate

Like you I am always looking / thinking of new ideas to share images to others, youtube seems the obvious tool, but gota keep it fresh, more appealing / enjoyable.
My last effort nearly received 200 hits, so not bad (I think)
But, what to do next?
I really liked your post about Orion the Hunter that was so cool, the cameo entrance at the end made it for me as well as the drifting clouds.
One idea that has crossed my mind is all the air traffic in my eastern & northern horizons entering Gatwick airport??????

I am not sure to why my images have progressed so quickly?
I do spend a lot of time searching the net for additional post processing skills / getting the most out of my existing equipment etc.

One of the biggest things I have learnt of late is optimum ISO settings for both my DSLR's (signal to dynamic range efficiency)

for example:

Canon 450d best ISO = 400 & 800
Nikon D7000 best ISO = 200 & 400

At first I really couldn't get my head around how a low ISO could record enough data to produce an image of the night sky as everywhere you read others are stating 800 / 1600 / 3200

So when I first shot M31 at 400 I was somewhat apprehensive about the result.
Live view in APT confirmed andromeda was in my fov & I could see the faint outline of the rings but how much could i pull out of a stacked tiff?
Thankfully it worked very well & with lower ISO I didn't as much calibration frames.

Reply
Oct 4, 2019 10:57:42   #
SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA
 
Oh, I figure with this digital stuff I can always hit the delete key and the evidence goes out the fan in a green cloud, and with it any embarrassing items in the picture. (Or in my case, often a picturd.)

Using Astronomy cameras has made things much easier for me, no settings to worry over. And since using this Infinity, things are so much easier for me and my simple minded "Shoot it and see" ways.
I'm dabbling with some of the controls and seeing how I can fine tune in the cameras program. And it stacks as it goes along compiling images. I've learned to adjust the exposure time to increase color or to decrease glare from Star fields.

But you have a unique and special way with getting a tight focus with your imaging. Always fun to look into your widefield images and marvel at the detail.
Last night I was getting ready to call it an evening, and had sent my mount to its Home position when I saw the Double Cluster was very near to Polaris (Home Position). So I aborted shutting down in favor of some images of what my telescope and camera does in comparison to your DSLR use.
I think the objrct gets tired after trekking from Britain to California, because it was laying down here.

Not sure if you know about my listing nomenclature or not. But "Double Cluster 5 60s 300s" = Double Cluster - The object targeted; 5 = number of images, 60s = time in seconds of each frame, 300s = the total time of all images in a given image. Back in the day when I was learning and figuring my way around my first Astro Camera, the only way to image was to Stack With Time, as Matthew in North Dakota said.
Of course none of this explains the myriad of other settings in the program, many of which are run on Automatic, but tweak-able by my deft bear paws steered by brute force and clumsiness, with a bit of old man shake added to the mouse.
But when you see those hieroglyphics accompanying an image, that's what they mean. And how I catalog my images. Folder Dated, like 10-03-19 (Or 19-10-03 for you Chaps who like that method ), and the images of the evening therein.

Some of the renaming of objects simply drives me bonkers. Patrick Starfish Cluster? Aristotle and Messier must be rolling over in their graves. NGC 1245 In appearance it looks like a field of stars and no cluster atall. I take solace in that I won't have to learn these silly names. (Patrick Starfish is a charicture in a cartoon series call Spongebob Squarepants. )

Anyway, I was thinking of your Double Cluster, and grabbed these quick images. You can see how limited my FOV is. But I specialize towards Nebula. So I got set up toward that end.

Double Cluster 3 60s 180s
Double Cluster 3 60s 180s...
(Download)

Double Cluster 5 60s 300s
Double Cluster 5 60s 300s...
(Download)

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