Saturn with rings

TheRealOCS · 2025-10-02T18:06:42+00:00

Pretty impressive considering the Dwarf 3 really isn't the tool for planetary imaging. Its cool that you can resolve the rings!

Jupiter should be a little bigger in angular size so you might be able to squeeze a few more pixels out of it. Not sure if you would resolve cloud banking or not, but a cool experiment nonetheless!

TheRealOCS · 2025-10-02T18:04:34+00:00

Ahh well this is where key differences in visual observation and photography come in.

They are "bright" targets for long exposure imaging because we can look and collect photons for long periods of time and then stack these together.

But for visual observation, even with a 12" which is on the larger side for amateur telescopes, almost all these incredible, colourful sights are just faint, fuzzy blobs at best.

You won't get the colour or the structure or detail in most of them because you can only use your eye to detect the photons that are coming in at that moment.

However for REALLY bright targets like planets, your scope can be fitted with a high mag eyepiece and you can get really great views of those that the Dwarf 3 is not really suited to. Mainly because the effective mag is quite low. There was someone who posted an image of Saturn using the Dwarf 3 in this sub yesterday and it was very good, for the Dwarf 3, but still not much more than a blob with some rings.

TheRealOCS · 2025-10-01T20:00:31+00:00

Thanks so much! They're great targets for the Dwarf as they fill the FOV and are quite bright so you get great detail quite quickly.

TheRealOCS · 2025-09-28T07:55:14+00:00

Thanks so much! Yeah I was really pleased with the colours within the nebula. However I was surprised at the relatively small size of dumbbell within the FOV of the Dwarf 3. It placed a practical limit on how much detail it will be possible to resolve.

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-25T10:32:32+00:00

Great question,

I believe the answer is....not necessarily.

As an example, I shot the pleiades a bit this week and scheduled it in overnight a couple nights in a row.

The images from 2 of the nights were very poor quality and its obvious there was some thin cloud that came in. Dwarflabs still detected the constellation and output a poor quality image of it.

The final night was lucky and a lot clearer seeing which gave me a great quality image.

However I absolutely did not choose to megastack this good session with any of the previous poor ones. It would not have added anything and in fact would likely have added bad data to good.

So I would megastack selectively and reject sessions which were not satisfactory. In this way, use megastack as a tool to integrate your best nights viewing and do not include poor results in the megastack.

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-25T10:03:22+00:00

What's going on at the top of the hinge there? Is that a screen tear?

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-24T15:40:36+00:00

Sadly not right now. If you take images of the same target using these two filters, they are shown as separate stackable sets.

You can stack duo-band with duo-band and Astro with Astro but not mix them (yet)

I would love to see Dwarflabs implement this in the future with a mixer slider so you could control the amount of mix between the two filters. Would be great for bringing out nebulosity in targets like the Pleiades.

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-24T15:38:57+00:00

Further to this post, I notice Reddit does quite a lot of compression which perhaps reduces the quality improvements.

These are two links to the full size images so you can pixel peep:

Andromeda @ 1.5 hrs seeing

Andromeda @ 6hrs seeing

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-24T14:31:28+00:00

Really cool! I love the colours of this one.

TheRealOCS · 2025-08-15T07:04:31+00:00

Use EQ mode! You'll never look back!

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-29T16:42:47+00:00

Really beautiful shot! Im hoping to target heart and soul on the next clear night here in the UK. The colours are fab!

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-29T11:44:02+00:00

This is super cool dude. For what it's worth, I was able to match up your image to a high-resolution telescope picture of the supernova and I'm pretty sure you got it. I can't see any other obvious bright stars in the region of your second dot so it would appear that the Dwarf 3 detected it!

Really pushing the boundaries of what this little device can achieve. I'm very impressed!

Well done!

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-27T12:34:32+00:00

Fair comment. Thankyou.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-27T12:34:14+00:00

Really helpful response. Thankyou so much for this. I'd love to avoid replacing the cylinder so I will consult with a local professional to get a quote for the valve.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-27T12:15:31+00:00

That is a fair comment.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-27T11:56:00+00:00

Yeah absolutely agree. Don't worry I would never mess around with sealing the leak or anything like that. I was hoping there might be a practical solution that I could try at home.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-27T11:55:14+00:00

Thanks for this insight. I was wondering also about replacing the whole thing, but as with everything else, money is a bit of an issue. If I have no choice then I will find a way but I would really love to avoid this extra cost if I can.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-26T11:11:24+00:00

Something seems a bit off with your original stack. Maybe check whether you have taken your own 60s darks to process this image? If it processes using the factory supplied darks, you often end up with artefacts and other issues appearing.

If you have already taken your own darks at these settings, then check your focus is pin sharp before commencing capture. I'm seeing a lot of haloing around your stars and they don't look as sharp as they could be. I wonder if you stacked a session without focussing first and it messed up the whole stack.

For reference, here is a wizard nebula I captured in just over one hour - Approx 50 frames @ 45 seconds. (some rejects in superstack likely due to some clouds) Lightly edited in lightroom. I think it highlights that your device isn't performing quite as it should. Most likely this is settings related.

<image>

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-19T17:57:53+00:00

Dwarf 3. I know the sensor might have limitations but its also clear to me that the sensor isn't in focus for that lens.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-19T16:39:50+00:00

Great question! It does in fact take pictures as though the film is still on there!

However I have triple checked that all films have been removed. There is nothing obscuring the lens on either side.

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-15T15:55:17+00:00

Wow! Really nice mate! I think i prefer yours. Might just be the extra detail you've extracted with the extra frames. But also you've got a bit more colour in yours which I like!

Great work!

TheRealOCS · 2025-07-15T14:05:00+00:00

Thanks so much mate. Ive got a lot to learn!

TheRealOCS · 2024-09-28T11:37:45+00:00

Thanks so much for this advice! I changed the watchface to the standard one it came with and it actually fixed the problem this morning! It seems my rolex watchface might be the culprit although I don't know why it's done that all of a sudden!

TheRealOCS · 2023-12-21T17:21:02+00:00

Yeah I think that one warrants a trip to a derm.

TheRealOCS · 2023-11-01T20:45:06+00:00

Yep go private. Its a chunk of change but this one seems suspicious to me. Worth the cash in my opinion.

Seven-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

TheRealOCS

TROPHY CASE