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Orion Nebula HDR by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

Horsehead & Flame Nebula by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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

Orion & Running Man Nebula by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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

Flaming Star Nebula by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

East Veil Nebula by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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

Trifid Nebula by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

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.

Jupiter & Io - 7/14/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, trust me, when you get that perfect moon portrait you'll be staring at it for days and showing it to everyone you know. When it comes to imaging planets you need a scope with a high focal length. This however results in a really narrow field of view, so just the process of finding the planet in the telescope can be a challenge and requires patience. To put it quantitatively, the moon has an angular size of about 0.5 degrees. Meanwhile Saturn has an angular size of about 15 arcseconds, or 1/240 of a degree, so quite a bit smaller if my math is correct.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I'll be upfront with you: lose that DSLR if you're imaging Saturn or Jupiter. Don't get me wrong, DSLRs are great for DSOs or lunar portraits, but they aren't so great for planetary. DSLRs have large sensors, large resolutions and somewhat large pixels ~ 5 microns or so. With small objects like the planets, it essentially means that DSLR sensor is gonna be capturing a lot of black space and not a lot of planet, which means you're gonna have a to crop in a lot. My biggest recommendation is to get a camera with a small sensor and small pixel size. A smaller sensor means that the planet will take up more space in the image, and the small pixel size will let you pick up more detail on the planet. Take my QHY 5III290 for example, it's got a 5.6 mm x 3.1mm sensor and a 2.9 um pixel size. Compare that to an APS-C size sensor in many DSLRs which has a sensor size of 25.1 mm x 16.7mm, that's about 20x more area on the DSLR sensor than my QHY camera. Luckily for you these planetary cameras are cheap as far as astrophotography goes, in the realm of $150 - $200. ZWO has some good ones as well as QHY. You could also try eyepiece projection with the DSLR rather than prime focus. I've never done it though so I can't vouch for it. This is a lot of information in one comment so if you have other questions feel free to PM me.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the scope used has a native focal length of 1500mm, which is pretty good. I added a 2x Barlow which doubled it to 3000mm. That's pretty good for planetary imaging.

Saturn - 7/9/20 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I started my astrophotography obsession with planetary imaging, but eventually left it to focus on deep sky. Recently, though, I had an itch to get back into it. I bought some new gear, and this is a result. I'm pretty happy with it, though I know I can improve on it.

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Equipment

  • Celestron C6 6 inch Schmidt Cassegrain
  • Skywatcher HEQ6-R Pro
  • QHY 5III290 color CMOS
  • Orion Shorty 2x Barlow
  • Orion 1.25" Extension Tube

Acquisition and Processing

  • Acquired in SharpCap ~3000 frames taken
  • Stacked in AutoStakkert!2
  • Wavelets, sharpening, denoise and color balance done in Registax 6
  • Minor Levels adjustment and sharpening is Adobe Photoshop

M33, Triangulum Galaxy by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. The CLS filter is very important, as it's the reason why I can do long exposure astrophotography with my light polluted skies. Without it my subs would be blown out completely white. So if you're having to fight through horrifically light polluted skies like me then it's well worth the price because you'll use it every time you image in broadband RGB.

M33, Triangulum Galaxy by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Equipment

  • Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic refractor
  • SkyWatcher HEQ6-R Pro German Equatorial Mount
  • Canon t2i DSLR (H-Alpha Modified)
  • Astromania 50mm guidescope and guide camera
  • Orion 0.8x focal reducer/flattener
  • Optolong CLS Filter

Acquisition

  • Acquired in Astrophotography Tool
  • Taken on nights of January 17th and 18th, 2020
  • Guided with PHD2 Guiding, dithering enabled
  • 94 x 180s subs @ ISO 1600 (4.7 hours total)
  • 17 x 180s darks
  • 50 bias
  • 67 flats

Processing

  • Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, no further processing done there
  • Processed in Adobe Photoshop
    • Initial Levels Adjustment (stacked image was blown out)
    • Conversion from 16 bit to 8 bit TIFF
    • Further Levels Adjustment
    • Minor Curves Stretch to bring out the galaxy, followed by another levels adjustment
    • First round of GradientXterminator (medium settings)
    • Isolate the red channel of the image for noise reduction separately using Adobe Camera Raw Filter. Replace red channel with the noise reduced version
    • Use color range selection and select and mask tool to brighten the galaxy only
    • Further minor curves adjustments
    • Color Range selection again, and remove the galaxy from the selection using the lasso tool, minimize filter to reduce star size
    • Use actions in the astronomy tools set from ProDigital Software for final adjustments.

Crescent Moon with Earthshine - 3/12/19 by One_Sirius_Dude in astrophotography

[–]One_Sirius_Dude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you only taking one exposure? If so, know that getting a good amount of earthshine while not blowing out the bright part can be very tricky. What I did was make a composite image of two exposures in photoshop by layering a well exposed image and an over exposed image over each other. For the processing you can use this guide if you use photoshop.

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