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Post by howie1 on Dec 30, 2016 10:09:38 GMT
Went an hour outside of Brisbane with a mate and his kids last night. Link below to live HD desktop capture of 30 minutes covering a wide variety of the brighter objects around at the moment. Darken up your room and watch on your pc in fullscreen mode for best effect - or on your widescreen TV. There's 6 minutes of intro explaining the equipment and site and then I start zooming off to diff objects. Zero post processing. No still images used in the videos ... it's all real-time live desktop capture as it happens. There's a rather embarrassing sound about 7 minutes in which is actually the plunger thing on the insect repellent bottle dispenser! ROFL! Once again the trusty ol' HEQ5 PRO GoTo's were bang on ... love that mount! Silly me forgot to charge the laptop so it ran out of power! Doh!
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Post by johnno on Dec 30, 2016 23:01:39 GMT
Great video Howie, its the first time I've watched someone use a dslr and showing the process how you go about acquiring a image on the screen. As the camera had the filters removed for astro or is it box standard .
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Post by howie1 on Dec 30, 2016 23:59:25 GMT
Thanks John. I started with an unmodded Canon 700D and then bought a modded 650D. Both second hand. I like the pinpoint sharp stars and details of the DSLR's. I have in the past struggled to get sharp details using other astro specific non DSLR cams. Like everything in astro its a trade off, as the specialist EAA astro cams often (while fuzzy) have better sensitivity than DSLR's on the very dim objects. For a long time I ran a ZWO ASI224 in a ST80 piggybacked on top of my Newt which has the DSLR. The ASI224 has great sensitivity for dim stuff but IMO blows out anything bright stuff. So that piggybacked rig was fairly close to perfect ... for birght and dim stuff at similar image scale. Except you have to run multiple software and powered usb hub and goto's and stuff wasnt as good as right on the mounts limit ... and so on and so forth. In the end, I dont use the ST80/ASI224 as its great fun to use the DSLR and grab just about every Messier and most NGC's rapidly and easily. Given the 700D was $250 aussie dollars second hand and the 650D only $550, they are pretty cheap entry and IMO great results. Especially as the 650D also came with two genuine batteries, a 12V astro adaptor, and a great 28-135mm lens which is worth a fair bit of loot by itself, and now gets duties on the 700D (unmodded) which I use for normal photography. Here's a link to my first test shots I took to compare the modded 650 to the unmodded 700 when I first bought it. flic.kr/s/aHskHsa89B
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 1:24:24 GMT
I notice big difference between the 450d modified cannon and the 600d unmodified camera even with the ISO range not being as high as the 600,, definitely a good addition to my camera collection,, when I save up I will try narrowband filters to tease out more detail, the coma corrector for the 200pds still in my mind,, Altair astro does one cheaper than first light optics..shed priority for me next
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Post by howie1 on Dec 31, 2016 4:18:27 GMT
davy, I tried a 2" GSO fast newt coma corrector which is like the Skywatcher one. But ... (a) it weighed quite a lot putting even more weight on the rig; (b) it added about 3" to the distance the camera sticks out of the scope; (c) it screws up the light path making it less straight as there is then a big weight sticking out like a lever from the focusing tube, bending and flexing ... so I still got coma on one side or other in some shots as the thing flexed when the camera/OTA slewed over in RA, and also as the two sets of thumbscrews slipped; and (d) it's lens coatings gave everything a bluish green tinge.
So I sold it.
While expensive, I then bought the Baader MPCC Mk 3 coma corrector. I can't sing its praises highly enough! The effect is like the corrector they had to fly up to the Hubble space telescope when they saw it had optical aberations and had to fix it. No color fringe, pin point stars edge to edge, tight screw on connection onto the camera nosepiece so no flexure, and it leaves the camera inserted into the focuser so nice and tight and low in the focuser. Expensive but great piece of kit for f/5 newts.
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 6:42:14 GMT
Thanks for the write up,, it's all the wee snippets of information like this that helps folk get the right equipment.
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 6:44:13 GMT
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 6:47:00 GMT
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 6:49:08 GMT
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 6:59:33 GMT
Howie,you weren't kidding about price wise on the Vader kit,, when you start adding on all the bits and pieces you could buy a small second hand scope for the price of it. Need more information on the Skywatcher/ Altair before I would spend over £100 on one of these.
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Post by howie1 on Dec 31, 2016 11:35:26 GMT
davy, hmmm .... spend GBP100 on the Skywatcher style and have extra weight, an extra 3" of the camera sticking out of the focuser, the bend in the focuser causing coma on one side of the other of the image ... or spend GBP149 plus a cheap fleebay Chinese T-Ring and actually be able to get edge to edge pinpoint stars. Hmmm. Know which way I'd go. Cos I been there and done that! LOL If you still go the SW way that's ok, just know there is another way being the 50% to 100% premium to get the Baader MPCC. cheers
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 12:40:05 GMT
To be honest I probably won't even get one,, shed priority 1, Then filter wheel and narrowband filters Wallet will have third degree burns with the speed the money will be coming out of it getting spent on observatory.😞 I keep saying it WILL be worth it,,if not scopes will get sold and make it into a pub.😉
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2016 23:52:57 GMT
Lovely stuff Howie.
Those large sensors do produce a pretty picture.
You'll be costing me money if you keep posting these.
Robert
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Post by ChrisV on Jan 1, 2017 11:07:44 GMT
Really, really nice for single 30 sec grabs Howie.
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Post by Dragon Man on Jan 1, 2017 13:10:37 GMT
Great results Howie
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Post by howie1 on Jan 1, 2017 23:15:11 GMT
Thanks Davy, Robert, Chris and Ken. The "recipe" of S1 Jpegs and single 30 secs is fan-b****y-tastic for the bright stuff.
Next thing is to start finding a "recipe" for the fainter stuff. I'd like to get the same nice colours and sharp details on the faint fuzzies in short times too.
cheers and Happy New Year to all ... may 2017 be clear skies for you.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 6:03:30 GMT
Went an hour outside of Brisbane with a mate and his kids last night. Link below to live HD desktop capture of 30 minutes covering a wide variety of the brighter objects around at the moment. Darken up your room and watch on your pc in fullscreen mode for best effect - or on your widescreen TV. There's 6 minutes of intro explaining the equipment and site and then I start zooming off to diff objects. Zero post processing. No still images used in the videos ... it's all real-time live desktop capture as it happens. There's a rather embarrassing sound about 7 minutes in which is actually the plunger thing on the insect repellent bottle dispenser! ROFL! Once again the trusty ol' HEQ5 PRO GoTo's were bang on ... love that mount! Silly me forgot to charge the laptop so it ran out of power! Doh! Hi Howie, i got to admit I put my headphones on sat back and really enjoyed your video thanks so much. For a old time observer like me it gave me a thrill and purpose to keep my head up and keep positive and strive for what I want to achieve over the next year. thank you I will watch more times and look out for more . david.
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Post by howie1 on Jan 2, 2017 6:10:14 GMT
Thanks David. It most certainly is pretty good fun. As I said in the video intro, normally I am out there by myself and as I go to targets I read up about them on the iPad info in SkySafari. Musing over the distances and what the constituents of the object are is both a learning experience and a humbling one. Love it.
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