Finally, clear skies...
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
So, last night finally shown cloudless. Not by choice of the stubborn clouds either. It was iffy up until dark-thirty.
Most of the targets (Nebula) I like are fleeing towards the West, and setting early. But we have new LED streetlights that have a good street pattern to them and basically light the street, without lighting everything else or glowing into the sky. A Blessing in disguise!
So since there is one right at the end of my driveway, I'm glad I can shoot around and over it now, where I could not before. I still have the over-groan neighbors trees, but they are very nice so I keep it to myself. Maybe one day I'll have that mountain top...
So my objects were, yet again, repeats but I'm in a "perfect it" mode. I get bored easily with the same old beans every night. So all I can do is try harder to do betterer.
I'll give you the 4 I grabbed, one plain, the following what I did with it in Post Processing. You are most welcome to download and work these for yourself to see what you can do with them. Or not. (I have no delusions of grandeur. They're just picturds.)
I found my focuser was about 130 steps out of focus last night when I began trying to image. So I spent some time playing with that. Probably pushed, pulled, bumped, or did something to effect the focus. I don't have any "Magic Bullets", so every day is a new day, no matter how careful I handle my telescope moving it out or back into the house. My focuser is a friction drive, so it can get out of whack.
Oh, my Kingdom for an observatory and a pier! Close the roof and go to bed.
Here we go:
(Incidentally, the
-w indicates I have PP and saved for the web. No -w is from the camera.)
Black Swan Cluste 3 30s 90s Original, unprocessed by me.
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Black-Swan-Cluste-3-30s-90s-w Thought I'd throw this in just because. I don't often do any clusters, I can't make heads or tails of them.
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Dumbbell-Nebula-25-60s-1500s Original.
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Dumbbell-Nebula-25-60s-1500s-w Actually my last object of the evening. The rest were setting in the Western sky.
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Lagoon Nebula 10 60s 600s Original.
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Lagoon-Nebula-10-60s-600s-w A little filtered and spiced up.
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Omega Nebula 26 60s 1560s Original.
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Omega-Nebula-26-60s-1560s-w Filtered, and PP'd a bit, minimally.
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SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Thanks Don!
How have you been?
I still feed a bunch of Hummingbirds.
SonnyE wrote:
Thanks Don!
How have you been?
I still feed a bunch of Hummingbirds.
Getting by here Sonny...:)
We still have at least a pair of hummers, so I just cleaned and refilled the feeders for them. As long as they stay I will feed em!
Good to see you are still getting them sky shots!
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Yeah, again, finally.
Got side tracked for over a year and partially because I lost interest.
But driving has tapered off for the SIL. So I get to stay up later.
Hard to image in the evening, then get up and go around 3-4 AM.
But with new guys, and less shows to haul equipment to, I get to play again.
Nice, Sonny. We’re you using that new lens, how did it work out on the AVX?
Now that's what I'm talking about Sonny, "GET R DUN ". More fun time fur sure !
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Europa wrote:
Nice, Sonny. We’re you using that new lens, how did it work out on the AVX?
No, no new lens for Sonny.
If I was to buy anything like a new telescope, I think the wife might go "Lorena" on me.
Just the same old stuff, but with these spiffy Williams Optical rings applied.
I think I'm getting sharper images with the new rings and greater stability. Last night I got an image with multiple stars with spires on them. Natural spires, not added on's.
I was trying to image the North American Nebula. It's too big for my pea shooter and Infinity's sensor. But my focus must have been crack on to do the refractor spires.
A Newtonian gives (or can) those 4 point spires. My ED80T CF gives 2 point spires on occasion. This time, multiple. A first for me.
This was my first image after alignment and a focus check with my Bahtinov Mask.
I'll share it here...
North Ameican Nebula 5 120s 600s With the Rainbow Sprinkles.
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North-Ameican-Nebula-5-120s-600s-w-noise-reduced
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Cool! It’s amazing how tightening things up, even the least amount, will make a difference.
It’s still odd that you didn’t need a field flattener. I’m waiting on a spacer to get mine setup. My luck is that it’ll show up the same time Celestron finishes with my repair. I wanted to get a few more targets in on the RASA.
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
stepping beyond wrote:
Now that's what I'm talking about Sonny, "GET R DUN ". More fun time fur sure !
Thanks Ronnie!
I was sitting out last night, and right at the tipping point between stay, or come inside, because I was getting cold.
Almost time to break out the insulated Carhartt's for me. (My boney knees take all night to warm back up.
)
SonnyE wrote:
Thanks Ronnie!
I was sitting out last night, and right at the tipping point between stay, or come inside, because I was getting cold.
Almost time to break out the insulated Carhartt's for me. (My boney knees take all night to warm back up.
)
Funny, I have a military parka and hunting pants I wear at night. And a heater that goes on top of a propane tank. All the non-Californians think I’m nuts.
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Europa wrote:
Funny, I have a military parka and hunting pants I wear at night. And a heater that goes on top of a propane tank. All the non-Californians think I’m nuts.
One gal in North or South Dakota (I think) was surprised a Californian even knew about Insulated Carhartt's.
I'd be in the shape of a woolly Mammoth after living in Wildoming without knowing how to not freeze to death in the winter.
Last night got down to 40.5°F in my weather station. And anything below 60°F in California is
FREEZING.
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Europa wrote:
Cool! It’s amazing how tightening things up, even the least amount, will make a difference.
It’s still odd that you didn’t need a field flattener. I’m waiting on a spacer to get mine setup. My luck is that it’ll show up the same time Celestron finishes with my repair. I wanted to get a few more targets in on the RASA.
Sometimes I can get almost a 3D effect, but other times my images look really flat and 2 dimensional.
Any suggestions to get the more 3D images?
I'm moving the mountains one pebble at a time. Slow going.
I think it’s just how clean the data is. Does your camera handle calibration also, or just stack it?
Also something that requires no effort and that made a big difference for me is to dither.
Sonny, it all comes in time . I just keep plugging away and now with a ct80 refractor setting up on my rings , no more bumping the guidescope and knocking the qhy off target. I got an extension tube and now no more barlow tube. It just takes time to acquire the right stuff. I've moved up the ladder. I also use a high dither with my sequences per Ed and Matthew's instructions , I'm making leaps in this hobby thanks to yall on the HOG.
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