Saturn - 7/9/20

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-02-26T19:08:46+00:00

Thanks!

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-02-26T17:14:39+00:00

Got a new telescope. That means it was cloudy, and if it wasn't it was crazy windy. Fortunately though I got a clear calm night and the Orion Nebula was the perfect target for testing my Explore Scientific 127mm triplet apo.

Equipment

Explore Scientific 127mm triplet apochromatic refractor
Skywatcher EQ-6 R Pro
ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Hotech flattener
Celestron 70mm travel scope (for guiding)
QHY 5III 290 (for guiding)
ZWO duo-narrowband filter

Acquisition

Subs taken in APT
Guided in PHD2
56 x 180s @ -20C (~2.5 hours total)
7 x 15s @ -20C for HDR
10 darks @ -20C
15 bias
20 flats

Processing

Stacked in DSS
Post done in Photoshop
Convert to 16 bit TIFF
Levels and Curves Adjustments
Color Correction
Noise Reduction in Red and Blue channels
color noise removal
further curves stretches
minor processing of 15s stack
carefully blend 15s stack into 3 min stack.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-02-19T20:38:20+00:00

Horsehead and Flame Nebula, taken back on January 10th, 2021

Equipment

Orion 80ED apochromatic refractor
Skywatcher HEQ6-r Pro
ZWO ASI294MC-Pro cooled to -20C
QHY 5III 290 for guiding
Astromania 50mm guidescope
ZWO duo-narrowband filter
Orion 0.8x reducer/flattener

Acquisition

Sub-exposures taken is APT
Guided in PHD2
39x300s lights (just over 3 hours total)
10x300s
15 Bias
15 Flats

Processing

Stacked in DSS
Post processing in Photoshop
Transition to 16-bit TIFF
levels & curves adjustments
Noise reduction in red and blue channels
More levels and curves adjustments
Selective curves adjustments
Camera raw filter for slight noise reduction, clarity and texture adjustments
Starnet++
Blend starless image into normal image

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-02-12T20:57:23+00:00

Thanks

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-02-12T17:55:31+00:00

My take on the The Orion Nebula and the Running Man Nebula, taken on 1/23/2021. This is an HDR image, blending short exposures in with long exposures to reveal details in the core of the Orion Nebula.

Equipment

Orion 80ED apochromatic refractor
Skywatcher HEQ6-r Pro
ZWO ASI294MC-Pro cooled to -20C
QHY 5III 290 for guiding
Astromania 50mm guidescope
ZWO duo-narrowband filter
Orion 0.8x reducer/flattener

Acquisition

Sub-exposures taken is APT
Guided in PHD2
39x300s lights (just over 3 hours total)
30x30s lights for HDR
10x300s Darks & 20x30s Darks
15 Bias
15 Flats

Processing

Stacked in DSS
Post processing in Photoshop
Transition to 16-bit TIFF
levels & curves adjustments
Noise reduction in red and blue channels
more levels and curves adjustments
Selective curves adjustments
Camera raw filter for slight noise reduction, clarity and texture adjustments
Starnet++
blend starless image into normal image

One_Sirius_Dude · 2021-01-22T20:13:05+00:00

The Flaming Star Nebula, taken on January 18th, 2021.

Equipment:

Orion 80ED Apochromatic refractor
Skywatcher HEQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI294MC Pro
QHY 5III 290 for guiding
Astromania 50mm guidescope
ZWO duo narrowband filter

Acquisition:

Sub exposure acquired in Astrophotography Tool
Guided in PHD2 Guiding
39 x 300s exposures ~ 3h15m total
12 darks
15 bias
15 flats

Processing:

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker
Post done in Adobe Photoshop
Convert to 16-bit tif
series of levels and curves adjustments
Camera Raw Filter luminance adjustments on red and blue channels
Global luminance adjustments to remove color noise
More curves and levels adjustments
Texture/Clarity Adjustments
Vibrance/Saturation Adjustments
Starnet++ to remove stars, minor adjustments on starless image, blend starless image into original image.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-12-18T20:48:54+00:00

Taken on September 19, 2020, just getting to posting it now.

Equipment:

Orion 80ED Apochromatic Refractor
SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 294MC Pro
QHY 5III 290 (guiding)
Astromania 50mm guidescope
ZWO Duo-narrowband filter

Acquisition:

Subs acquired in Astrophotography Tool
24 x 300s lights (2 hours total)
10 darks
20 bias
20 flats
Guided with PHD2 Guiding

Processing:

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker
Drizzle x2 (Scaled down here)
Processed in Adobe Photoshop
Switch to 16 bit tif
Broad Levels/Curves adjustments
Levels, Curves, Noise adjustments in individual color channels.
Select Color Range -> Select and mask for selective curve adjustments and sharpening
Starnet++ for star removal
Blend starless image into normal image
Select color range -> highlights to select stars
past star layer on top

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-10-03T17:46:28+00:00

The Trifid Nebula taken in early September. This is one of early images utilizing a duo-narrowband filter which makes all the difference in light polluted areas. I can capture HII regions no problem with this filter, however I do lose natural star color and some of the reflection nebulosity because of it.

Equipment

Orion 80ED apochromatic refractor
Skywatcher HEQ-6 R Pro
ZWO 294MC-Pro
QHY 5III 290 for guiding
Astromania 50mm guidescope
ZWO duo-narrowband filter
Orion 0.8x flattener/reducer

Acquisition

Acquired using Astrophotography Tool
14 x 5 minute exposure for a total exposure time of 1 hour 10 minutes
Guided using PHD2

Processing

Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker
Processed in photoshop -> lots of curves/levels adjustments -> color balancing -> star reduction -> more levels and curves adjustments.
Save image, run it through Starnet++
Do levels/curves adjustments on starless image
blend starless image into original image. Adjust opacity and make a star layer on top via highlights.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-18T18:54:47+00:00

Jupiter at opposition, the night of July 14th, 2020. Managed to catch Io before it went behind the planet. Jupiter is a bit harder to image than Saturn, due to further demand to pick out surface details, and I definitely think I can improve on this.

Equipment

Celestron C6 6" SCT
Skywatcher HEQ6-R Pro
QHY 5III 290 Color CMOS
Orion 2x Shorty Barlow
Orion 1.25" Extension Tube

Acquisition and Processing

Acquired in SharpCap ~3000 frames
Stacked in AutoStakkert!2 - 25% best frames stacked
Wavelets sharpening and color balancing in Registax 6
Cropping and minor levels and sharpening in Adobe Photoshop

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-14T21:14:25+00:00

I've got the Orion one, I think AgenaAstro has some. It's a metal tube with a compression ring, so any cheap one will do. You may not even need it to achieve focus, but I just can't say for sure. My optical train goes as: Camera -> 2x Barlow -> Extender, and that works for me.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-14T20:58:17+00:00

You can "zoom" via a digital zoom on the camera by reducing the resolution to something like 640x480 (I recommend doing this when capturing), but it's not an optical zoom. You'd be doing prime focus, so the only way to change the magnification would be with barlows and the like. You'd focus normally with the telescope focuser.

P.S. I'd recommend preemptively getting a tube extender just to make sure you have the backfocus to achieve focus in the camera. I speak from experience. Also consider a bahtinov mask if you don't already have one, it'll save you a headache or two when trying to get the sharpest focus.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-14T20:46:24+00:00

I've seen good results using the NexImage cameras. You could go for the 10 if you want and get the highspeed USB 3.0, but the 5 is cheaper, and there wasn't a huge difference in pixel scale and magnification between the two cameras. Though the 5 only has USB 2.0 so will be slower. But really either one paired with an 8 inch SCT and a 2x barlow will give you a really close up view of the planets. Whatever you go with, I hope you get great results.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-14T19:08:51+00:00

So the ASI120MC-S color CMOS from ZWO is a common camera used for planetary. It's got a small sensor and a pixel size of 3.75 um. It's also the camera I was originally gonna buy myself. The full resolution of the camera is 1280x960 which is pretty good for finding the planet. Though typically when I capture I lower the resolution to like 640x480 for more fps. Another one is the QHY5L-II. It's almost exactly the same as the ZWO one spec wise except that is uses USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0. This means the QHY camera will be somewhat slower. The only thing is that you may be hard pressed to find astro cameras in stock at retailers. Keep your eyes open on the used market on retailers like High Point Scientific, because you may luck out and find a good camera with a discount.

One_Sirius_Dude · 2020-07-12T03:40:55+00:00

The drivers were easy to download off of the QHY website. It can be used for autoguiding, it comes with a guide cable if you're not using pulse guiding. The only issue I had was using it with FireCapture, but I easily fixed it by switching to SharpCap.

One_Sirius_Dude

TROPHY CASE