Thank you for the shout out David. Great video. I will be doing a video on collimation techniques soon and will be going over the various methods. Thank you again Luis from NY
Great video, enjoyed it. If you feel oversampled I highly recommend binning even OSC data in post when the image is still linear (after crop, background extraction and color calibration). The gain in SNR is quite significant, after processing you will get a brighter image without the noise becoming an issue.
Good tip - will need to investigate software binning of OSC data - I have not experimented with that technique. The 2400MC is my first OSC camera. I have always shot mono, so there is much for me to learn. I do enjoy the convenience, and in the case of this camera, the larger pixel size for longer focal lengths. Thank you for the comment!
It is so funny how we are easily influenced by the documented "do and don't" and the "can and can't" of astrophotography. In the end, we have equipment that can be configured in so many different ways, why not try? What is the worst that can happen? A bad session? Its worth the experience IMHO. Glad you enjoyed!
@@AstroDNAObservatory Being an astrophotographer and struggling from a Bortle 9 location, I can only agree :-) We need to dare do things and experiment with things! :)
Always good to watch your videos David. I've been thinking of investing in an SCT ( probably something like a C8 ) next year, though I really think some quality 3nm narrow band filters should be my priority at the moment. Some great images there, really like the Pacman Nebula.
Cheers Kevin! Filters are very important (and expensive). It is amazing how we can easily wrap our heads around saving and spending thousands of a telescope - only to be frozen in our tracks when in comes to the cost of filters. Given that filters can be used across all rigs, we should be less hesitant! I hope your are enjoying your refractor - I will be traveling with mine in early October. There are always bargains on 8" SCTs in the CloudyNights forums!
Wonderful images. I mainly use my larger focal length 8” cassegrain for imaging planets, but your video gives me inspiration to tackle other targets. I use the asi air for its simplicity but it can’t polar align with my planetary camera unless I use my reducer. Once the fl gets to about 1500 mm it will polar align and track okay (with guiding). I recently purchased a zwo 533 mc cooled camera. At this years NEAF, one the zwo UA-camrs said that the pixel size on that camera should allow for polar aligning without a reducer. Hopefully that is the case.
Nice - do it! I use SharpCap for my polar alignment through the main OTA. I have not found it more or less difficult with different cameras. I have even polar aligned with a guide scope. Generally speaking, a good mount with a good guiding system will address misalignments up to an arc-minute - at least that was my experience prior to the permanent pier. Keep us posted on your C8 f/10 DSO endeavors!
Great video, great topic! It would be interesting to understand if you use your prime focus (2800mm) to find and plate solve an object? I have given up and use my very well aligned finder scope, in the beginning of the session, for polar alignment, finding and centring the object via plate solving (in NINA). Guiding I do via a OAG.
Thanks for the comment, and the question. I use NINA for my session management and for all other rigs I use ASTAP - it is fast and has always worked. But when I deployed the C11 using the much smaller planetary sensors, ASTAP simply could not platesolve for me. This has to do with the very small FOV that these tiny sensors yield with the 2800mm focal length. I switched over to PlateSolve3 and had more success. With the 2400MC Pro sensor the field of view is much larger (.75degx.5deg) and I have had no trouble. I did not switch back to ASTAP to test though - I may do that just to see how it performs. What sensor are you using with your main OTA? Cheers.
I use a C8, 2032mm and 1442 with my Starizona focal reducer and use a Celestron OAG with ASI174mm mini guide camera. I haven't done much if any 2032mm imaging yet. Still trying to get the guiding sorted out with my AVX mount. What exposure length and time were used on the planetary nebulas. Good tip on the autofocus. I'll try that in my NINA set up. How did you manage to shoot so many targets is so short of time. A clear night is getting rare here in the midwest. Thanks
We had a ridiculous stretch of clear nights and I had a bunch of these sequences ready to go. It was THE MOST productive September in many years. It was really serendipitous because I was going to switch out to my planetary camera, but decided to see what I could do with a full frame OSC at prime focus. When I saw the results the first night (Ring and Crescent) I decided to keep going. Certainly glad I did. Having the observatory and all of my automation really helps. I would never have been able to do this if nightly setup and tear-down were part of the workflow. Thanks for the comment!
Great setup, but I think it would have made much more sense with going with a F4 10" or even 12" as the mount can easily carry those, then with a 1600MM or 2600MM with theit smaller Pixels you cam compromise that smaller FL and still have roughly the same resolution. If you want the higher resolution you still could go with a 12" f5 which is faster and has a bigger appeture But still. awesome setup I really admire you
Thank you for the comment - indeed, the mount affords a ton of rig flexibility. I really enjoy the 2800mm of focal length and the magnified field of view. I also enjoy wider fields of view with my refractors. One day a large aperture wide-field astrograph will make its way to the observatory - I'm sure!
I’ve taken a few of these objects with my 8inch Meade (mostly using the 0.63 reducer) and they’ve come out very well even just riding on an EQ5 mount with no guiding. However, specifically about your rendering and processing of the galaxies you showed, especially the Fireworks galaxy: How did you achieve the effects on the video and giving the image an almost 3D effect?
Thanks for the comment and question. I actually introduced a touch of tilt into the rotation - it was a happy accident that I decided to run with. It gives the image depth and breathes life into these awesome targets. I use Camtasia for my video editing and it has built-in animation effects including rotate and tilt. There may be free software out there to do this as well. Thank you for noticing - I am glad it was impactful.
Great work! I doing c8 on avx mount, 6.3 reducer, 50 ed skywatcher as a guider and canon d1000 selfastromodded and d600 FS. Pixel size 5.7 on both(I have two same c8 setups i dont even know why) Selftuned avx mount giving 0.9-1.2 total rms guiding error and im still trying to get it better but its hard. I feel the obstacles u had to overcome, trust me, i really do. But when you finally make it, its worth;) Cheers
Thank you for the shout out David. Great video. I will be doing a video on collimation techniques soon and will be going over the various methods. Thank you again
Luis from NY
Sounds great! All the best, Luis!
Thank you. You've given me the courage to try f10 with my celestron 8". Fingers crossed.
Awesome - go for it! Keep me posted...
Great video, enjoyed it. If you feel oversampled I highly recommend binning even OSC data in post when the image is still linear (after crop, background extraction and color calibration). The gain in SNR is quite significant, after processing you will get a brighter image without the noise becoming an issue.
Good tip - will need to investigate software binning of OSC data - I have not experimented with that technique. The 2400MC is my first OSC camera. I have always shot mono, so there is much for me to learn. I do enjoy the convenience, and in the case of this camera, the larger pixel size for longer focal lengths. Thank you for the comment!
Thanks
That is one of my setups
C11 2600mc pro
This is very helpful
I'm glad someone finally did this :-) I'm on the verge of a Edge HD8 and wanna do some DSO's with that other than "just" RASA
It is so funny how we are easily influenced by the documented "do and don't" and the "can and can't" of astrophotography. In the end, we have equipment that can be configured in so many different ways, why not try? What is the worst that can happen? A bad session? Its worth the experience IMHO. Glad you enjoyed!
@@AstroDNAObservatory Being an astrophotographer and struggling from a Bortle 9 location, I can only agree :-)
We need to dare do things and experiment with things! :)
Nice shooting, love NGC 6946.
Thanks, Larry! Hope all is well on your end. Cheers!
Great work, thanks for your time
My pleasure! Had a nice streak of clear nights, and despite some moon shine - captured some fair data. All the best, and thanks for commenting!
Great video as usual.
Thank you! Its always awesome to receive feedback. Best!
Always good to watch your videos David. I've been thinking of investing in an SCT ( probably something like a C8 ) next year, though I really think some quality 3nm narrow band filters should be my priority at the moment. Some great images there, really like the Pacman Nebula.
Cheers Kevin! Filters are very important (and expensive). It is amazing how we can easily wrap our heads around saving and spending thousands of a telescope - only to be frozen in our tracks when in comes to the cost of filters. Given that filters can be used across all rigs, we should be less hesitant! I hope your are enjoying your refractor - I will be traveling with mine in early October. There are always bargains on 8" SCTs in the CloudyNights forums!
Wonderful images. I mainly use my larger focal length 8” cassegrain for imaging planets, but your video gives me inspiration to tackle other targets. I use the asi air for its simplicity but it can’t polar align with my planetary camera unless I use my reducer. Once the fl gets to about 1500 mm it will polar align and track okay (with guiding). I recently purchased a zwo 533 mc cooled camera. At this years NEAF, one the zwo UA-camrs said that the pixel size on that camera should allow for polar aligning without a reducer. Hopefully that is the case.
Nice - do it! I use SharpCap for my polar alignment through the main OTA. I have not found it more or less difficult with different cameras. I have even polar aligned with a guide scope. Generally speaking, a good mount with a good guiding system will address misalignments up to an arc-minute - at least that was my experience prior to the permanent pier. Keep us posted on your C8 f/10 DSO endeavors!
Nice.
No issues for me with a C-14
Ahhhh, the C14 - some day...
Great video, great topic! It would be interesting to understand if you use your prime focus (2800mm) to find and plate solve an object?
I have given up and use my very well aligned finder scope, in the beginning of the session, for polar alignment, finding and centring the object via plate solving (in NINA). Guiding I do via a OAG.
Thanks for the comment, and the question. I use NINA for my session management and for all other rigs I use ASTAP - it is fast and has always worked. But when I deployed the C11 using the much smaller planetary sensors, ASTAP simply could not platesolve for me. This has to do with the very small FOV that these tiny sensors yield with the 2800mm focal length. I switched over to PlateSolve3 and had more success. With the 2400MC Pro sensor the field of view is much larger (.75degx.5deg) and I have had no trouble. I did not switch back to ASTAP to test though - I may do that just to see how it performs. What sensor are you using with your main OTA? Cheers.
I use a C8, 2032mm and 1442 with my Starizona focal reducer and use a Celestron OAG with ASI174mm mini guide camera. I haven't done much if any 2032mm imaging yet. Still trying to get the guiding sorted out with my AVX mount. What exposure length and time were used on the planetary nebulas. Good tip on the autofocus. I'll try that in my NINA set up. How did you manage to shoot so many targets is so short of time. A clear night is getting rare here in the midwest. Thanks
We had a ridiculous stretch of clear nights and I had a bunch of these sequences ready to go. It was THE MOST productive September in many years. It was really serendipitous because I was going to switch out to my planetary camera, but decided to see what I could do with a full frame OSC at prime focus. When I saw the results the first night (Ring and Crescent) I decided to keep going. Certainly glad I did. Having the observatory and all of my automation really helps. I would never have been able to do this if nightly setup and tear-down were part of the workflow. Thanks for the comment!
Great setup, but I think it would have made much more sense with going with a F4 10" or even 12" as the mount can easily carry those, then with a 1600MM or 2600MM with theit smaller Pixels you cam compromise that smaller FL and still have roughly the same resolution. If you want the higher resolution you still could go with a 12" f5 which is faster and has a bigger appeture
But still. awesome setup I really admire you
Thank you for the comment - indeed, the mount affords a ton of rig flexibility. I really enjoy the 2800mm of focal length and the magnified field of view. I also enjoy wider fields of view with my refractors. One day a large aperture wide-field astrograph will make its way to the observatory - I'm sure!
I’ve taken a few of these objects with my 8inch Meade (mostly using the 0.63 reducer) and they’ve come out very well even just riding on an EQ5 mount with no guiding. However, specifically about your rendering and processing of the galaxies you showed, especially the Fireworks galaxy: How did you achieve the effects on the video and giving the image an almost 3D effect?
Thanks for the comment and question. I actually introduced a touch of tilt into the rotation - it was a happy accident that I decided to run with. It gives the image depth and breathes life into these awesome targets. I use Camtasia for my video editing and it has built-in animation effects including rotate and tilt. There may be free software out there to do this as well. Thank you for noticing - I am glad it was impactful.
Great work!
I doing c8 on avx mount, 6.3 reducer, 50 ed skywatcher as a guider and canon d1000 selfastromodded and d600 FS. Pixel size 5.7 on both(I have two same c8 setups i dont even know why)
Selftuned avx mount giving 0.9-1.2 total rms guiding error and im still trying to get it better but its hard.
I feel the obstacles u had to overcome, trust me, i really do.
But when you finally make it, its worth;)
Cheers
I agree completely. If it were easy - I am not sure we'd love doing it as much. Thank you for the comment and enjoy your rigs!