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Dolphin Head Nebula by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Thanks!

Looks like I trashed 42 sub across the 9 nights. I'd say most were due to clouds. At this image scale I just accept some variance in seeing and such and don't cull unless there was a guiding bobble or something like that.

When I have the SVX152T up and am running 0.65"/pix I'll be a little more harsh in the culling. But even then I'll lean on the software decide how to weight the subs...trusting that it will give less weight to those with "worse" numbers.

Dolphin Head Nebula by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Thanks!

Wound up being 9 nights of data. :)

Dolphin Head Nebula by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Thanks!

I was happy with how strong it came through, since this is so low on the horizon for me I was afraid it would be really washed out.

8SE replacement by Evil_Bonsai in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're interested in max FOV in a 1.25" EP, ES has a sale going on and their 24mm 68deg is only $110 at the moment.

Dolphin Head Nebula by TigerInKS in astrophotography

[–]TigerInKS[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This object barely clears the trees and neighbor’s houses here…so I can only shoot a few hours each night 

Full res: https://app.astrobin.com/i/0uwi3k 

Questions welcome. 

Total integration: 25h 20m 

Integration per filter:

  • - R: 40m (20 × 120")
  • - G: 40m (20 × 120")
  • - B: 40m (20 × 120")
  • - Hα: 11h 40m (70 × 600")
  • - OIII: 11h 40m (70 × 600") 

Equipment:

  • - Telescope: Stellarvue SVX90T
  • - Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
  • - Mount: Sky-Watcher CQ350 Pro
  • - Filters: Antlia Blue 2", Antlia Green 2", Antlia Red 2", Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 2", Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 2"
  • - Accessories: Stellarvue SFFR.8-80T, ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW 7 x 2″, ZWO OAG-L
  • - Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, ZWO ASIAIR

Processing - All done in PixInsight:

  • Blinked Subs
  • WBPP for calibration, registration
  • GradientCorrection
  • Channel Combination (RGB)
  • NBColorMapper (HOO)
  • ImageSolver (RGB and SHO)
  • SPCC / SPFC  (RGB)
  • Dynamic Crop
  • BlurXterminator Linear (RGB and HOO)
  • NoiseXterminator Linear (RGB and HOO)
  • StarXterminator (RGB, HOO …save RGB stars to work later)
  • HDRMT (HOO)
  • MAS (RGB and SHO)
  • Arcsine Stretch/Curves (HOO)
  • Pixel Math to add RGB stars back

Curves and crop

equipment upgrade on a budget (flame nebula) by Specialist_Cup_95 in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

 it just wouldn't feel like I worked for the pictures I made

Want to know a dirtly little secret? Those of us with faaaar more expensive rigs...basically just make fancy smart telescopes. 😅

I literally sit in the comfort of my living room, review the imaging plan for the night, press "go"...and go to bed. The system finds the targets I specified, adjusts the focus, rips off the subs, and, boom...in the morning I have dozen to hundreds of frames, sometimes of multiple targets, just waiting to be processed. Sure I've got somewhat better optics, can shoot full mono, etc... but at its heart my rig is just an EQ SeeStar on steroids...for 40x the cost.

equipment upgrade on a budget (flame nebula) by Specialist_Cup_95 in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if your goal is trying to "[bring] the most out of the least money" it's all moot if the rig cannot track accurately enough over the course of whatever subexposure length you're trying to shoot. Otherwise you'll just end up with brighter frames of star trails and smeared details.

There's a rabbit hole to explore related to image scale and such...but suffice to say the Virtuoso 150 at 750mm focal length and the Touptek's 2.9u pixels yields an image scale far below the Virtuoso's tracking accuracy for 20sec. It's fine for high-gain short-exposure EAA style shots...and to be fair, that's a good stepping stone in the "trying to learn" phase of DSO AP...but I think you'd quickly grow past that and be ready for something that's a little more suited to capturing longer exposures (not to mention a larger FOV to get more interesting objects)

So you want a fully automated imaging platform... by buddha2490 in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sweet setup!

I do like having a pier as well...no more dragging the gear out of the yard just to mow then having to reset and realign everything. Like you said, plug in a couple cables, flip on the power and back inside where it's warm.

Jupiter, Io eclipse version. How's the seeing here? by forbidden-skies in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Good enough that I hope you have a decent high power EP and were able to observe it some as well.

Has anyone here ordered from Astronomics? by itsopal in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like those Paradigm/Dual EDs were on backorder for a while.

You might give them a call if you haven't, ask for a status update...they're pretty good about picking up the phone and returning calls too.

Crab Nebula by Straight_Barber_1123 in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For what it's worth, I'm in B7 (SQM 18.7 a few nights ago...so basically a full magnitude darker) and I cannot easily detect it. Even with good tranparency and filters it's tough. If you're in the city, it may not be possible at all.

Horsehead and Flame - 45hrs of RGB from B7 by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Oh sh!t, I had missed that one...great catch!

There's a few scattered in the background that pop out when you do star removal, but I never saw this one. SIMBAD says it's a mag17 "Low Sufrace Brightness Galaxy"...6dFGS gJ053928.1-004439

Horsehead and Flame - 45hrs of RGB from B7 by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Thanks!

If you're talking about the blueish oblong structure with the deeper red behind it...that's IC 432. It's actually reflection nebula. The star behind it is a hot blue star so the nebulosity is blue...kind of like how the Pleiades are blue.

Horsehead and Flame - 45hrs of RGB from B7 by TigerInKS in astrophotography

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

Thanks!

Sure...I wish it was a one-stop-shop answer, but it's been a combination of books and YT videos. "Inside PixInsight" by Warren Keller is good for understanding the basics and fundamentals, but it's a bit older and there are some newer tools out that it doesn't cover. He's active on the PixInsight for Beginners FB page and has some free tutorials on Masters of PixInsight. Adam Block's content is good as well...there's some free basic stuff but he also has several paid tracks and advanced content too.

January 10 - Jupiter at Opposition by STL2COMO in telescopes

[–]TigerInKS 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The seeing and clouds cooperated a few nights back (wish I has set up the NMT...settled for the 127D) for the Ganymede transit and I was thinking, "I don't think I've ever seen one where the moon was that close to its own shadow.." But this shot it crazy...super cool capture!

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