The STW Astronomy and Astrophotography Thread

Just read this article, which may be of some interest!

Photographer shoots breathtaking image of comet Leonard from his backyard

@augustuswindsock – I haven’t forgotten you. I will respond properly tomorrow.

Wasn’t going to do anything tonight – forecast too much cloud but then I get cross with myself when on a nice cloud free night I am not prepared at all and things don’t go right. So tonight I set up anyway and tested out some new software, ironed out the bugs and even managed to make a start on gathering data for the Horsehead Nebula.

This is just a single 5 mintue exposure sub frame using a hydrogen alpha narrow band filter. I shoot in mono so I need to take a number of sub frames using various filters to get a colour version. Still , quite a lot of detail already showing but I need a good 1-2 hours worth of nice clean data for each filter so 4-8 hours in total.

The first version is how it looks straight out of the camera and the second, once it has been stretched (I use a piece of software called PixInsight however you can use Photoshop or Affinity Photo for stretching also).

There’s a nice piece on the BBC website about a chap that took up astrophotography during lockdown (he seems to have taken some splendid images) –Whittlesey astrophotography provides lockdown escape – BBC News

@augustuswindsock – again, apologies for the delay in responding. I think on that scope, particularly to get going with, even the 8mm is ambitious. You need something that gives nice wide low powered views to get everything set up. You also need to ensure the finder scope is aligned to the telescope otherwise you could be pointing well wide of the intended target.

If you want to try and get it working then I would suggest buying the 25mm version of this eyepiece. It will run you to £16 + p&p and is certainly good enough for what you need.

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-super-ma-eyepieces-125.html

Then, during the day try and find a distant house with a TV aerial or a church spire or something and bring the scope to focus. Once you have done this look through the finder scope – can you see the object you have the main scope pointing at? If not you need to adjust the finder scope until you can.

Then at night wait until the moon is up and give the 25mm a go on that – should give yo some nice views. Once you’ve got all of that nailed down then you can try the 8mm but I suspect a few more longer focal length eyepieces would be more useful – a 20mm, 16mm and 12mm say.

Note to work out the magnification you divide the focal length of your scope (in your case 70mm) by the focal length of the eyepiece. So a 10mm eyepiece will give you 70x magnification. People get sucked into wanting really high magnifications when actually most often, less is more 🙂

Any questions let me know.

Edit: well that didn’t work, working on it 😉
Edit 2: nope, 15 mins wasn’t enough to fix that, oh well, I’ll try and post in a bit *rolls eyes*

Ooooh! Me me! Pick me! Here’s a few of my favourites from the last couple of years since I got into AP. IG handle is @dobberastro if interested 😉

@munkster – as soon as I can get Insta working I will take a look :). I have been trying to get some decent imaging done since around 2019 however I have really struggled to get everything properly working.

I have had the odd success but not nearly enough to justify the stupid amounts of money I have invested in gear. Hence this year I am really making a push 🙂

@dannybgoode sounds familiar. I think I’m at a pretty stable point now, will read the rest of the thread when I get a chance. Planning to try some planetary imaging this year, so that’ll be a whole other world of pain I’m sure!

Thanks for the tips Danny, really appreciate it, I’ll give it a go with a 25mm.
Just one thing, and at the risk of sounding like a complete numpty, is it imperative that we have to be outside?

Try again…

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Jeez, that was an effort! I’m sure I’ve posted images from my webspace on here many times over the c.20 years I’ve been on STW 😀

@munkster cracking photo.

@munkster – yeah they’re really nice. What kit do you use? I have just ordered a mini PC to run NINA on. I have been using Astroberry/KStars which is fundamentally very nice however it just feels a bit flakey and does not work 100% of the time. It may just be me needing to spend more time fine tuning but NINA last night, once I had got over a few one time setup hurdles, was pretty much flawless.

I also jumped in at the deep end with a full mono CCD, filter wheel etc and for eg the filter wheel needed a new USB socket as it was intermittent but just tracking down the issue took time. But now I do feel there are photons at the end of the tunnel and I can make a start on some decent stuff I hope.

@augustuswindsock – no, no need to be outside but it generally helps when setting up as you have more freedom to swing the scope around and try a few different targets.

@dannybgoode – current set up is a Skywatcher 200PDS reflector on NEQ6 Pro mount and either a ASI533MC-Pro or ASI183MM-Pro if I want to do mono narrowband. I use NINA these days now I’ve cracked the autofocusing, and Pixinsight for processing but that’s a very long road!!

I use a mini PC attached to the leg of the tripod for acquisition, and have resisted ASIAir simply because I don’t like the proprietary nature of that, and am pretty comfortable with the individual apps (PHD2, Polemaster etc).

I do say “current set up” since clearly I’ve been through three telescopes (and three or four cameras!) in two years trying to work out what I really want. I also have a Samyang 135mm f2 lens which is nice for widefield stuff (see below)…

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@Munkster – nice. Yeah I use PixInsight, really like it a lot although some of the new AP tools in Affinity Photo look very interesting and somewhat more accessible 🙂

As well as the TMB I’ve posted pics of on the previous page I use a Starlight Xpress SX674 mono and SX filter wheel and an Altair Astro guide scope and cam.

I too have finally got my autofocuser to work reliably – a Pegasus Astro FocusCube v2. I also highly recommend the Pegasus Astro Pocket PowerBox Advance too. Not cheap but makes cabling etc trivial.

Yep, I won’t go near the ASIAir. Much prefer being in control of such things 🙂

Sounds like some nice kit there, I’m definitely invested in the ZWO world so sticking with that aside from ASIAir… Yeah I’ve got a PPBA after starting out with a PPB. The Advance is great as is anything that means “one less box” on the rig!

Are you on any of the FB astro groups? There’s only one or two I bother with these days.

UKAI, UK Astrophotography and Astrophotography. Also on SGL of course :). I am lucky that Rother Valley Optics is just up the road from me so have easy access to expensive kit 😀

I am tempted by one of their own ED60 or ED72 scopes for something more widefield, or I may invest in another camera with a larger sensor. I try and stay loyal to Starlight Xpress – yes their kit is very expensive however their service is just brilliant. Truly exceptional really. They have an SX814 in their clearance section which is very very tempting!

Gents, my youngest (13), seems to have an interest in astronomy. She’s been reading about it for the last year and Santa brought her a celestron travel scope 70. Obviously just a beginner scope, however the reviews I’ve read aren’t promising.
Is it worth keeping that scope or maybe going for something better? Maybe something like the Sky-Watcher Heritage-130P FlexTube Parabolic Dobsonian Telescope?
Ease of you/setup and compact size is important. We live in a busy town with light pollution, so will be driving out to use.
I don’t want her enthusiasm to wane based on having a poor scope that is difficult to use.

@w00dster – the 130P is a fine fine scope and will, from darkish skies, show an awful lot. The number one thing to consider though is that a dob is a manual push to system and it can be hard at first to locate an object and then keep it in view. It is very manageable as well – easy to transport and easy for a kid to use.

£ for £ dobs are by far the best value route into astronomy. That said, the 70 is not truly hideous and it is at least worth trying out particular on the moon. It will still give some impressive sights.

If budget allows though I would perhaps suggest going for the 150P. Not a much bigger scope physically but the extra inch on the mirror makes a fair difference. I love my 150 – perfect all round scope.

I would also recommend a book called Turn Left at Orion (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp/1108457568/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YMY9QGE1EIT2&keywords=turn+left+at+orion&qid=1641139043&sprefix=turn+left+a%2Caps%2C55&sr=8-1) – pretty much the go to book for learning the night sky.

So here we have the full 2 or so hours of hydrogen alpha data on the Horsehead Nebula. You can see just how much more detail and how much less noise there is when compared to the single 5 minute sub frame a few posts up.

Really pleased with how this is turning out. Tomorrow looks like it could be cloud free also so will hopefully get the red channel completed also.

When I get chance I will pop some details up of how to get started in astrophotography. You can do an awful lot for not a huge amount of money and of course if you get bored of sinking proper money into e-bikes and Audis then this is the hobby for you ::

I’m wanting to join in….

Now live in a dark sky Park.

After a good beginners scope. I’d like a motor control one as I think I’d find it easier and it gives me more options especially for pictures.

I’m going to go the local club if it’s running but does anyone have any scope suggestions. Not adverse to spending a few hundred quid on a scope.

@duncancallum – not at all jealous of your location! The demands on the mount in particular and to some extent the telescope are much lower for visual astronomy than they are for astrophotography however that does not mean a half competent setup is out of reach for a sub £1k budget.

I would suggest something like this as an good all-round starter package. The mount will GoTo and track (although note setting these things up can be a lesson in frustration and it is not always a case that you will be whizzing round the sky finding objects) and it will also work in EQ mode – something of a prerequisite for longer exposure astrophotography.

The scope is very good – one of the best starter scopes going and you would be able to mount a dSLR to it to get going in astrophotography and you could also mount the camera with a normal lens on it also and take photos that way.

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-explorer-130ps-az-gti-wifi-telescope.html

So here we have my image of IC 434 – Horsehead Nebula. My red data was pretty bad from last night – I tried taking it when it was still relatively low in the sky and the neighbour’s security camera causes funny artefacts until the scope is pointing higher so I only got 4 usable subs.

So I used the Ha data for the red channel and then merged the R G B and Ha stacks to form a ‘super luminance’ stack. So in PI I merged Ha, G and B and got that right then brought in the super lum stack.

More tweaking in PI before some final work in Affinity Photo which now has some awesome AP routines built in…

Not my best image by any means but this is from some data I captured last March and to be honest I didn’t think there was much there. However I decided to try processing it yesterday and there was enough of a result to do something with.

Focusing is a little off but I didn’t have a mask or autofocus then and it is shot in narrowband and only 50 mins per channel and really I need at least double that but for old data that I didn’t thing would scrub up I am happy enough.

IC 1795 – Fish Head Nebula

With the moon getting fuller the sky is a little washed out for deep space imaging so I decided to give lunar imaging a go. Surprisingly tricky as you are focussed tight in and can see the atmosphere moving which means it is like viewing the moon from under water and makes getting good focus difficult.

You then basically film the moon for a few minutes and then use software to select the best frames from the footage and stack them as a single file. These two images are the best 20% from 3000 frames each.

Nearly all the craters have names. This is Plato

And this is Copernicus (the larger one) and Erasthenes

Nice photos, the Horsehead particularly.

Really enjoying this thread, always had a strong interest in the night sky and last year unexpectedly received a birthday Skywatcher 130m.

Also have a 50D to mount on it.

Very much still getting to grips with alignment, tracking and focus etc. Hope to move on from the moon and planets this year.

Thanks for the inspiration.

@alchiltern – what mount do you have for the scope.

To help with focusing look at Bahtinov masks. You put them over the end of your scope and point at a star. It causes diffraction spikes and you alter focus until the two central spikes go right through the middle of the star. You are then in focus. Very simply, very clever and very accurate.

Just remember to take it off before you start imaging!

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/bahtinov-masks.html

For lunar imaging try filming the moon instead of taking a single photo and then use Autostakkert (free) to stack the best frames using what is called lucky imaging.

I was out looking at the moon the night before last…there is something fascinating about looking at it….especially the ridges and peaks going off the edge.

especially the ridges and peaks going off the edge

I never get bored of looking at the moon and when it is too bright for proper imaging I often start the night off by having half an hour on it visually. The dark edge of the moon is the terminator and that is where the real detail can be seen and day after day it reveals a little bit more until full moon and then repeats as the moon wanes.

The Lunar 100 is well worth attempting if you have an interest in lunar obs

The Lunar 100

@DBG

Many thanks for the info, will get hold of one as doing ‘by eye’ has been a touch challenging at times.

On the mounts, just the battery powered one it came with, looks identical to the one listed on the rother Valley site. It’ll track in a simplistic fashion, only if the alignment is correct. Definitely still learning.

I’d love a fully motorised and programable one, but probably need to develop core abilities first.

Nice little scope that. Some good deep space targets for something like that are M42, M13, M45, M31 etc – nice bright targets and take lots of short exposures and stack them using something like Deep Sky Stacker (http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html)

The reason for short exposures is that the mount will not track sufficiently accurately for long periods and cannot (I don’t think) be guided. I take exposures of up to 5 mins long and image a single object for hours but on a nice bright target you could take say 30s exposures and do that for a hour and have lots of frames to stack and end up with something reasonable. It takes a lot of time and practise to get confident though.

If you are local-ish to RVO I’d be happy to meet up and show you the basics of how to set up a cheap imaging computer etc.

Thread Resurrection!!

I thought some of you might want to give this a follow. Lee “The Starsmith” used to frequent these parts and is a former MNPR regular (if there ever was such a thing) and is setting off on a journey around the UK’s dark sky areas in search of the best Astrophotography images (and no doubt he’ll be spending a gazillion pounds in the process).

Nice to see this thread brought back. I’ve been enjoying my astronomy this winter. Just naked eye stuff but have a significant birthday next year so will be pushing for a telescope as a present.

<p>I’ve just read about this, a new supernova in the Pinwheel galaxy, that’s visible with a decent backyard telescope:</p><p>https://www.iflscience.com/a-supernova-just-exploded-so-close-a-backyard-telescope-can-see-it-69026</p>

Thread resurrection 2!  I know two things about telescopes, bugger all and nowt! So as retirement beckons ive found myself getting interested in the night skies and I’ve decided to treat my self to a telescope. Can someone recommend what to get, looking at £400ish and I ve seen that you can fit a smart phone I’m guessing to take photos, if so that would be good. Tia

Be prepared to spend more.

Sorry I should say more.   £400 wine m won’t go far buying new.   Or could get some decent gear used.   Don’t skimp on the tripod,  mount or eyepieces,  unfortunately most bundles skimp on all those.

As for type of scope etc,  it fronds depends what you want to look at and from where.

Where ever you start,  if you get tucked, be prepared to spend more!

I’ve just upgraded my refractor so have one to move on. It’s within your budget,  and you’d have some to go toward eyepieces and a mount and tripod.   I won’t push it but if you want to know what it is I can give some details.

Coggle I’ve sent you a reply and now get ‘you’ve reached your limit for sending messages’  I’ve deleted several from my inbox but no change, so if you want more info it might be best to send me your email.  Then again perhaps this place will allow more tomorrow?

Blimey, quite the thread resurrection (again!) – not being one to brag (oh alright maybe I am) but I entered the International category of the Skywatcher Australia Astrophotographer of the Year competition. I bagged a bronze medal. Which was nice. (Except I didn’t actually “win” anything, just the recognition). Clear skies everyone, which is a very big ask these days!!

And here’s my “best of 2024”, pretty slim pickings this year, frankly…

Stunning photos!  I take my hat off to any and all astrophotographers, I find visual observing tricky enough!

TBF having failed fairly miserably at visual, once you’ve gone through the (guaranteed) heartache of getting an astrophotography setup singing to your tune, it’s pretty easy to capture the photons, weather permitting. Where the next level comes from is getting anywhere close to feeling like you’re “mastering” processing of whatever your camera has given you…