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M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

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Posts Made By: Alec Hitchman

May 30, 2006 04:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Latest Starshoot images

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

Finally had some decent weather here, and after spending the cloudy days tuning up the ol' LXD75 mount a bit, went out last night and tried to fight the good fight. Not much time on either of these subjects, but wanted to test my tuned mounts autoguiding at different declinations, besides working my way through some unusual computer crashes.

Anyhoo,

M97 and M108, 20 3-min subs, using ZS80FD with a Meade 3.3 fr/ff!!, actually reduced about 2x at the spacing used.

Lagoon, 5 60-sec subs, using ZS80FD with the reducer. Very short session due to a poorly placed telephone pole.

Autoguiding with DSI Pro and ZS66SD.


May 31, 2006 10:15 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

More Autoguided Starshoot, Whale and Pup, Dumbbell

Posted By Alec Hitchman
)Hello,

Could everyone look at these and give me comments?

Still trying to autoguide, and I had to tweak my aggressiveness a little last night.

I think my stars are a little tighter than my last post, but perhaps my arcseconds/pixel (greater than 4.5 :S) is just very, very forgiving.

I am still shooting three minute subs, from my city bound site...do you think I need more exposure time on my individual subs?

I know I am not getting great detail with my current image scale, but I am just trying to move gingerly on the learning curve, without falling off!

Both shot with ZS80FD, with Meade 3.3 ff/fr @ F/3.5 and 278mm FL, Orion Starshoot capturing RAW, 3 minute subs. Captured and slightly post-processed in Nebulosity.

Autoguided with Meade DSI Pro, using Autostar Envisage and 2-sec sub exposures. Aggressiveness set to 0.85 (85%).

Whale and Pup w/Hockeystick: total of about 90 minutes

Dumbbell: total of about 60 minutes

June 3, 2006 11:52 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M101 using ZS80FD and Starshoot

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Here is my latest.

My autoguiding is getting a little bit better; I was able to shoot this with 5-min. subs. I took three 10-minute subs, but only two turned out, and so they were not used.

Total time on this was 125 minutes.

I think I may have overdone the deconvolution, and I should've taken a flat.

I would welcome comments or suggestions!

Thanks!

June 10, 2006 03:14 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Help with an image!

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello, all:

I was hoping I could get some help with a picture. I attempted some Ha imaging the other day, and that didn't work out, so I switched to my IDAS NBN-PV filter, which is a narrowband nebula filter.

I took a number of 10 minute subs of the Dumbbell, but since I naively took the photo with my color Starshoot instead of the b/w DSI Pro, my color balance is now beyond my ability to fix.

Could someone help? I'm going to try to post a cropped fits file....

Obviously fits doesn't work, so here is a Jpeg..........

Keith

June 11, 2006 11:10 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First H-alpha shot

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Since my Starshoot + Hydrogen-Alpha adventure didn't work, I decided to try my DSI Pro, which is black and white. I used the Hydrogen-Alpha filter with a reducer giving me about 0.8x reduction on my ZS80FD, for about f/5.6 and ~450mm FL.

Combination of approximately 15 4-minute subs. Guided with the Starshoot via MaximDL, which didn't seem to work as well as guiding through Autostar Envisage with the DSI-Pro. Probably why my image looks so "soft"; my focus was pretty good.

Any comments are appreciated.

Keith

June 18, 2006 01:34 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First Serious 14" LX200 Shot - Dumbbell

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello, A11!

Well, I have had my 14" LX200 for awhile, but the sucker is just too big for my portable setup situation right now. I've had it up for visual use, but never for CCD work.

I finally bit the bullet, though, and set 'er up last night. As you all may be aware of, the first time setting up with the cameras and the piggyback scope can get somewhat amusing...I chased polar alignment around for about an hour until I realized that my counterweight system wasn't getting the job done, and I had slippage in one axis (or both, probably).

Sooo, just finally settled on a rough polar alignment, and tried to shoot something bright and easy to find, good ol' M27.

Total: 20 x 180 sec. using Starshoot (forgot to use the thermoelectric cooler), at f/3.3 on the 14", autoguided with the DSI Pro on the ZS80FD.

Thanks for looking, and comments are appreciated!

Keith

Postscript: Methinks that this scope needs collimation, focus seems soft no matter what I do, or how the seeing is.

June 18, 2006 05:33 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

SCT Collimation needed?

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hrllo,

I have a 14" LX200GPS that is just giving me fits....never snaps into focus, no matter how long I wait for thermal equilibrium, or how long I wait for good seeing. I am hoping that it is just out of collimation.

It seems that when looking at out of focus stars, the SCT "donut" is not quite symmetrical, which indicates collimation issues.

I decided to look at a sun glint off a power line insulator this morning, and try to capture what I have been seeing. To keep things relatively monochromatic, I used my CCD Ha filter for kicks.

Does anyone have any opinions? This is a simple stacked sum of about 100 images from a Toucam.

Thanks for your comments!

Keith

June 18, 2006 05:35 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

14" SCT out of collimation?

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

I posted this picture in the Equipment Talk forum, but I would appreciate opinions from those here, as well.

I took an Ha (=semi-monochromatic) picture of an out of focus power line insulator sun glint, to see how my 14" LX200 optics show collimation wise.

Any opinions?

Thanks,

Keith

June 21, 2006 07:35 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

More 14" LX200 shots

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello, everyone...

Just a couple more shots taken after I tweaked the collimation better on my 14" SCT. I still need to train my drives and do some PEC, but the LX200 is already proving to be a better platform for my photography, compared to the LXD75 that I was using before.

Both shots taken with the 14" SCT, at f/3.3, using an Orion Starshoot. Guided with a WO ZS66SD and DSI Pro through Envisage. I have some vignetting, but I didn't get my flats worked up before going to work.

M13: 30x10s
M57: 24x120s

Thanks for looking, and I welcome comments and criticisms!

June 30, 2006 05:37 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

NGC7331 with added bonus!!

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Folks,

Here is my latest; with special bonus: extreme gradients!

I went after this galaxy with a vengeance, and finally got a night with about 2+ hours of good exposure, but I still had to stretch and slice and dice......

I think I need a couple more hours, or perhaps I should try my IDAS NBN-PV filter on this subject?

Advice would me much appreciated.

NGC7331, 40 x 180 sec subs, 14" SCT @f3.3, Orion Starshoot, autoguided with DSIPro via Envisage

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