|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:14:44 GMT
Had a blast out the other night. Been ages since I've taken out the 8" Newt and EOS650d. Nice clear 10 degree Celsius night. An hour from Brisbane so heaps of skyglow in the East until around 9pm. So stayed on the Western objects until 9pm, then went to Southern and lastly Eastern between 9-10pm. All were single 30 second Jpegs, except after the last jpeg target of M83, I then stayed on it for another half an hour switching to RAW 60 second for a stack of 9 frames. Massive difference between that single 30 second jpeg compared to stack of 9 x 60sec raw. But that's to be expected. Having said that, the first 2 hours shooting single 30 sec frames meant I got to 24 objects in that two hours, and spent some time "observing" the objects and reading up on their data and distances etc, etc. That's what VA is about ... blurry images but heck who cares ... the observing and reading up of info was the fun part. The images below are all screengrabs off a desktop video I shot. Very fun. Also fun ... the third image was trying out the DARV polar alignment technique. Google it. Quite interesting trying that out. Image 1 Jupiter using EOS Utilities Liveview 5x magnification "button". I was trying out a new custom white balance and it produced way too much green! Jupe looks wierd! You can see I have the EOS Utillities white balance adjustment tool open in my attempts to try to correct the faulty WB I'd tried. Next outing, I'll return to my normal white balance settings. I've already shot it - defocused black bitumen in heavy shade with the image set as the one to use for white balance. We'll see how it turns out next outing. Image 2 Splitting the Acrux doublestar again using EOS Utilities Liveview 10x magnification setting. So 454x mag. Image 3 DARV Polar Aligning. Again, Google DARV polar alignment to find out more about this interesting technique. I won't be using it as it is longer to perform than the standard HEQ5 hand control PA routine and it is good enough for 90 second to 2 minute subs without guiding. But it was fun learning another new technique for PA. Always nice to learn new stuff. Image 4 Tarantula Nebula. AstroToaster (old version) and still struggling a bit with the white balance. One of the beauties of using the EOS Utilities and AstroToaster pairing is the camera hasn't left the scope, no barlows put on or taken off, focus unchanged, but while in the above we're able to do 454x magnification you just slew to big Nebs like the Tarantula and it's then down at 45x mag. Big time fun.
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:15:32 GMT
Next bunch of images .... Spindle galaxy. AstroToaster full screen view for all the DSO's. ngc4254 Needle galaxy. M64
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:16:18 GMT
And next .... Cats Eyes pair of galaxies in Markarian Chain Sombrero galaxy Centauris A galaxy Part of Markarian Chain Group
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:16:55 GMT
And next ... Omega Centuri Globular Unzoomed Blue Planetary nebula Zoomed in a bit on Blue Planetary Nebula Zoomed in on the Keyhole Nebula within Eta Carina
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:17:44 GMT
and next .... The Running Chicken Nebula Unzoomed Eta Carina Slightly zoomed Cats Paw Nebula M24 Sagittarius Starcloud
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:19:45 GMT
and last 5 (last two are iso1600 single 30 second jpeg of m83 and then the very last image is m83 RAW 9 sixty second iso1600 stacked) M8 and it Ha and Hb colors, and many Bok globules M20 and M21 Lobster Nebula M83 in jpeg. Single 30 secs ISO1600 jpeg doesnt grab much detail so after this one I stacked nine RAW 60 sec ISO1600 Much longer to wait of course, but I love M83 so was worth the wait to see the finer detail a stack of nine RAW 60 sec ISO1600's will show up. I suppose 11 to 12 minutes all up to stack the nine frames isn't too long a wait-time?
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 6:24:27 GMT
Trying to add object info beside the images ... but no text is showing. I'll try to add them in later. Sorry bout that
|
|
|
Post by davy.... Shirva.. on Jun 3, 2019 6:24:41 GMT
Great seeing you getting out again,, nice images
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 11:44:16 GMT
Hi davy. Thanks mate. I've enjoyed the Star Adventurer and Canon lens widefield a few times as I've slowly tested the back injury recovery. It survived ...!!!... so I really enjoyed this outing with the normal rig of HEQ5 and 8" f/5 Newt. Great fun. Was so keen to just see stuff I went back to the old single 30 sec jpegs so I could have a good look around. Absolute great time, until the batteries died ... I suspect I should've kept them trickle charged over the past 12 months recovery. Suspect dropped cells in the blasted things!.
Cheers
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Jun 3, 2019 11:45:48 GMT
Fantastic results Howie. Don't worry about Tarantula looking a bit green. It's supposed to! Too many people worry when they see it looking green and try adjust the Hue and Colour Balance to make it look more Pink, which it isn't. It's really green. You got it right But one thing I notice in a lot of the images, is that the Gradient isn't there. There is no smooth transition from light to dark. It just steps off abruptly instead of gradually. It might be clipping.
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 12:09:09 GMT
Evening Ken. Thanks for the kind words. I'm just happy to get out and about again!
Yes, Tarantula is green but boy have a look at Jupiter (that first image) ... the green was way up too high on the Custom WB. I ended up pushing the Toaster green channel way down to get most of the subsequent shots.
Re clipping ... yes indeed jpegs at 30 seconds and the astrotoaster stretch you have to do to them to get that brightness of image does clip data. Probably more to do with being jpeg with all its conversion processing it does? It doesnt worry me when I'm just flying around or doing outreach. I just want to see more than an EP. But, it's one of the reasons last year I ended up going RAW 60 secs x 9 stacked. Much better.
All except the last image are jpegs and if you expand the photos you will see all the jpegs are all the same Expand gradient (thats the astrotoaster stretch). See expand gradient 3 to 9 with a mild luminance checkbox clicked ... but then have a look at the last image (RAW 60x9) and check out the settings. Totally different for RAW with both expend gradient up around 50 and a lens gradient too to get similar brightness of image. But ... heaps more faint stuff without a sharp gradient dropoff.
Hmmmm ... next time I must try RAW single 30 secs and see how it goes.
Cheers
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2019 16:12:58 GMT
Great results Howie. That is very interesting re jpeg compared to raw and the astrotoaster stretch. I only ever stretch jpegs in AS and never get past a 3 or 4. I will have to give raw a go.Most of the time I just leave the image the way it is.The 8" newt is a great scope but the 8" and HEQ5 would have really tested your back. Glad it is settling for you. I have had 2 injuries in the last 12 months which have stopped me lifting the bigger scopes so I shouted myself a sw72 ed on a mini az-gti mount .Great lightweight combination for travel.
cheers Paul
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 3, 2019 23:51:58 GMT
Thanks Paul. Those 72ED's and the gti are a great combo. Two blokes I saw out and about when I was using the SA and lens rig were loving their GTi's and 72ED's. I was tempted to get a 72ED as the weight is just borderline ok for the Star Adventurer (5kg payload). I reckon I'd have to put the ASI224 onto the SA counter weight bar to act not as a guider but as another counterweight in order to balance the 72ED. But it would work ... I think?
cheers H
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2019 4:49:34 GMT
Howie,the total weight of my 72ED plus the ASI224 is 2.35 kg. It is hard to picture what your setup would look like with the 224 as a counterweight I am flying up to the Sunshine Coast in July for a holiday and hope to take the 72ed/Az-gti up with me .That should test its portability. cheers Paul
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 5, 2019 1:52:42 GMT
Howie,the total weight of my 72ED plus the ASI224 is 2.35 kg. It is hard to picture what your setup would look like with the 224 as a counterweight I am flying up to the Sunshine Coast in July for a holiday and hope to take the 72ed/Az-gti up with me .That should test its portability. cheers Paul Thanks Paul for the weight with the 224 onboard. Very useful info! The SA will take up to 5kg payload. The problem is that they only supply one small counterweight so in true astrophotography "only-load-to-50%-payload" it will only just balance my DSLR with the heavy multi element Canon / Sigma zoom lens when that counterweight is at the bottom of the CW bar. But with my experiments with the SA the biggest hassle is doing PA with the darn thing. So I figured out that just above the counterweight bar there is a 3/8" bolt for rigging up a dual pair of DSLR's ... so one counterbalances the other. So I found that undoing that lower 3/8" bolt, I can thread a 1/4" or m6 (whichever it was) through that empty hole and mount the 224. So the 224 and lens attached in that lower position under the main imaging DEC head part and will do PA using the SC routine nice and quickly. The "normal" 3/8 bolt is for mounting another DSLR on Manfrotto swivel head for imaging ... Being below the centre of mass around the polar axle area the lower counterweight becomes optional. The lower camera usually balances the uppermost one. But if you have a heavy OTA up top, it can also be used with guide camera like this ... However, I only want to use the ZWO for PA using the SharpCap routine. I don't wish to guide with it, so you can take the 3/8 bolt out and using 1/4" / M6 attach the ZWO ... Like this ... just for PA, not guiding.
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Jun 5, 2019 5:57:23 GMT
I am flying up to the Sunshine Coast in July for a holiday and hope to take the 72ed/Az-gti up with me . cheers Paul Paul, If you are up here on 6 July thats the next time the Astro Anarchy club has booked to go to an aerodrome just inland and not far from the Sunshine Coast. Let me know and I'll come pick you up and we'll head out there if you wish or are able to. Cheers H
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2019 6:13:44 GMT
Howie ,a lightweight grab and go EQ mount looks like a hard ask to me, but I am sure you will sort it out. cheers Paul
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2019 22:52:37 GMT
Howie, I have booked the holiday from the July 6 and my wife and kids and partners and in-laws will all be up there but I cant get there until the next week. Damn!! Thanks for the offer though,I would have really enjoyed that. cheers Paul
|
|