Does anyone else do Astrophotography?

[HansBlitz]

Did this shot of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) back in September at a dark site, with the this setup (the closeup pic), the cabin one of the group owns, and the last pic is a group shot of the several of the scopes there.

 

It is a HaLRGB shot (Hydrogen Alpha, Luminance , Red, Green, and Blue). I end up having to toss out a few of the subframes due to wind jiggled the scope/mount below is what I combined for the final pic. The Luminance (clear IR blocker & UV blocker) shots are so short as so not to saturate the pixels in those. The Ha filter is a 6 nm wide bandpass that passes 90% of the light centered on the Ha wavelength and blocks 90% outside that 6 nm window.

 Ha   =   20 x 2 min
 Lum = 195 x 30 sec
 Red =  21 x 2 min
 Green = 15 x 2 min
 Blue = 16 x 2 min

 

That's a 61mm F4.5 scope tube and 16 mp mono camera (has a peltier for cooling and I run the sensor @ -10 C, even in the summer). There's a mini pc velcro'ed to the mount leg, that runs all the software. I RDP into that mini through a router which was on that cabin's porch, with 10" Android tablet (or at home use another PC in the house). That mini is running NINA as the software that points the mount, runs the stepper motor for the scope focus, the filterwheel, and the imaging camera, the steps of the imaging sequence, and also runs PHD2 software for the guide camera (guide cam & scope on top of the imaging scope) and sending guiding corrections to the mount.

 

NINA and PHD2 are open source free software. I did buy PixInsight for the calibration/aligning/stacking of all the subframes and the rest of the post processing.

 

Those 2 scopes in the background of the group pic owned by others in that group -- a 10" F8 RC and a 8" F2 RASA.

 

I likely have too many hobbies, as astrophoto stuff and sim flying are only two of them.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by HansBlitz
oops had attached the wrong pic of the galaxy - the LRGB instead of the HaLRGB

[Wardog5711]

Very impressive  picture. 

[HansBlitz]

Thank you. I really do enjoy doing all that.

 

I still fight some gremlins some nights (little technical things sometime don't go right), although that doesn't happen as much now. I've been doing stuff like this for almost 20 yrs and one of the things I like about it is that I'm still learning/getting better at it.

 

I've done shots of Andromeda before but had wanted to get a wider field one like this for a long time (the others ran out of the FOV in the corners). Was nice to get to check one off my Really Want to Do list.

 

The only down side is that when I get a real good final image on something, it just makes me want to more and more. I'll never have enough clear sky and hours of dark to do all that I'd like to. I use 3 different scope tubes -- is like changing lens on SLR camera for different FOV. I have so many galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters that I'd like to do. There is a lot of good stuff on the internet but is quite satisfying to get a shot like that myself.

 

It's been quite amazing how much better the cameras and other equipment have gotten in the past 20 yrs -- and the software too. That software slews to a target, takes a short test pic, finds the stars in that pic to compare against the charts, if outside of the tolerance set then repeats. With my setup normally in two slews to target, gets pointed within 1 arc minute of the target coordinates. That repeatable accuracy makes it a lot easier to gather data across multi nights (a lot less to crop off the edges from being slightly off the previous night's frame center point). The longest run I've done was with narrowband filters like that Ha, and was a total of 23.5 hrs of 3 minute subframes across 4 nights -- Sulfur II, Ha, and OIII filters.

[CanadaOne]

Wow! Gorgeous shot and gorgeous equipment. I admit to being a bit envious. 

 

I like the cruise the stars but I'm very informal about it. My telescopes were always cheap and ended up being neglected and thrown out. Finally I bought a "good" pair of astronomy binoculars and I have a lot of fun with them. It's far more my style. As much as what you're doing is really cool, more people should be aware of how much you can see with even a cheap pair of binoculars. With a decent set, it's actually stunning.

 

 

 

 

[HansBlitz]

I agree that more people should try looking at the night sky with binoculars, away from the glow of city lights. 

 

Here's some links to The Astronomical League's site and their lists of different things to observe. Even if someone isn't interested in doing all the requirements for the certifications, those ones listed for binocular would give you a list of good objects as targets for viewing with binoculars. The first link is the first appendix from their Binocular Messier Program and lists Messier objects as Easy, Tougher, and Challenge binocular objects. The second one is to the page for all of their lists for observing.

 

Binocular Messier Program - Appendix A; 7x35, 7x50, and 10x50 Binoculars

https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/binomess/binomesa.html

 

Their whole list of Observing Programs and Awards (alphabetical)

https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/AlphabeticObservingClubs.html

 

I'm not in an official astronomy club for quite a while now (had been and was observing coordinator then club president for a while). Those others that had scopes in that group pic I met in that club but currently none of us are members of that club, we are just an informal group.

 

When I was in that club, I did complete the the first level of the Astronomical League Messier Observing Program (70 of them visually using a telescope). I never got around to completing the second level of that (all 110 Messier objects). Not that I've not seen them, just wasn't good at writing down the info needed to submit for that.

 

My interest in astronomy got started when my Grandfather got some lens from an army surplus store and built a homemade telescope when I was about 8 years old (I have that scope now as the rest of the family thought I should have it when he passed away) -- Looking through his scope, got me hooked and I saved up for a year, and bought my own - a cheap small telescope at a pawn shop. I've already been showing my grandkids the pictures I take and will be getting them looking through the eyepiece on some of my scopes as they get closer to the age I started.  I had their mothers (my twins) involved when they were kids. One of them found/logged 6 Messier objects at nine yrs old and the other did 9 that same night. They took turns, looking at the charts, pointed the scope themselves, then asked me and the club's observing coordinator to verify they had it in the FOV. It was real good times and we still talk about it.

 

 

[Gingerwelsh]

Astro navigation, introduced me, years ago, to an interest generally in the stars, but what stayed with me, was the ease in which you can see M31.

 

2.5 million light years away and on a dark night, from your back garden, you can see it with the naked eye.

With a pair of binoculars you can see the elipse.

 

Fascinating.

..

[CanadaOne]

5 hours ago, HansBlitz said:

I agree that more people should try looking at the night sky with binoculars, away from the glow of city lights. 

 

 

It does has the advantage of being both easy and satisfying. Not to mention you can use the binoculars for terrestrial viewing.

 

I got into binocular viewing after my buddy lent me a pair of cheap but decent 12x50s. I used them on his deck, which was pretty good, but he let me take them home and I found a great spot out in a field, either lying on the grass or in a plastic lawn chair. They were good enough to turn 1000 naked eye stars into a nearly infinite ocean of lights. Ended up buying a nice set of 15x70s, and though you can't hand hold them, too shaky, if you have a rest of some sort they offer a beautiful image. Also have (had?) one of those apps on my tablet that lets you hold the tablet up to the sky and it tells you what everything is. That is just amazing.

 

Very cool that you have your grandfathers handmade telescope. That stuff is priceless. ?

 

My binocs.

 

 

[HansBlitz]

I use some 10x50s for my binocular observing. I've looked through some like your video shows, and those were real nice.

 

When I was in that club we found that binoculars were a good way to help with the public outreach stuff we did (in addition to letting them look through our scopes). What we did was layout several tarps on the ground and have a handful of people lay on those with some 10x50s. Then one of us would use a green laser pointer to point to a deep sky object like M31 or M42 (orion nebula), then tell them to find that laser beam and tell us when they found the end of it. Once they did, we would stop the laser and we had all of them looking at the object. We did that sort of thing multiple times for people at some of the State Parks.

[CanadaOne]

24 minutes ago, HansBlitz said:

I use some 10x50s for my binocular observing. I've looked through some like your video shows, and those were real nice.

 

I watched and read a ton of reviews before I bought the Resolux. Good bang for the buck for those of us who can't afford a great big pair of Swarovski or Zeiss.

 

I had a paid of 7x35 or 7x50 Steiners - can't remember which lens size - that I ended up leaving with a friend in Central America. The glass was sooo nice on those things. 

 

 

24 minutes ago, HansBlitz said:

When I was in that club we found that binoculars were a good way to help with the public outreach stuff we did (in addition to letting them look through our scopes). What we did was layout several tarps on the ground and have a handful of people lay on those with some 10x50s. Then one of us would use a green laser pointer to point to a deep sky object like M31 or M42 (orion nebula), then tell them to find that laser beam and tell us when they found the end of it. Once they did, we would stop the laser and we had all of them looking at the object. We did that sort of thing multiple times for people at some of the State Parks.

 

It's a great way to get people interested.

 

When my daughter came home with her boyfriend (a city boy) years ago, I had him come out and lie on the grass with the binoculars and look up. He was mesmerized. He was a really smart guy, but he had no idea the heavens looked like that. 

 

To see it on a documentary is one thing. To see it yourself can just blow your mind.

[Guest deleted@83466]

Hans is awesome.  I’ve seen a couple more of his photos and it just blows the mind.  Some of these photos you’d think were taken by the Hubble.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by SeaSerpent

[HansBlitz]

The deep sky stuff like the M31 above are done with long exposure subframes that are calibrated/aligned/stacked/processed for a final image that is a long total exposure. Planetary imaging is done with shooting video frames, lots of those, and at a high frame rate. The planetary image processing software rates the frames and then aligns & stacks the best frames (% of total that you tell it to use - trying to isolate the still/stead moments in the atmosphere). Jupiter you can get a 3 minute video before it's rotation will start to blur details, on Saturn you can get 6 minute runs on, Mars rotates much slower so that isn't the issue like it is for Jupiter & Saturn. Every time you square the number of frames stacked, you cut the image noise in half, so try to get enough to stack the best and have enough to clean up the image noise when it is stacked & processed.

 

The most Oh Wow's & Ah's, I've had people say when looking through the scope I use for visual observing is when I've had it pointed at Saturn. For some reason people more amazed and some have a harder time believing that is really what they are seeing looking though the scope -- have even had some kids state that they thought there was just a picture mounted inside the telescope.

 

This Saturn was taken Aug 14th with ASI224mc camera, through a 6" F9.0 RC scope tube, 2x barlow which made that F18.0 and between 2600mm & 2700mm focal length. It is a stack of the best 4800 video frames (15%) from the 32,000 frames taken in that 6 minute video. 

 

This Jupiter was done the same night and equipment config. The red spot had just rotated out of view on Jupiter (while I had been pointed at Saturn). It is a stack of 4050 (25%) frames out of 16,200 from a 3 minute video.

 

These both were stacked/processed using AstroSurface (another free program). To get more detail, I'd need a larger diameter scope but I don't do that much planetary imaging. I do much more deep sky stuff and that is more of just throw more total exposure time at the dimmer stuff, than the size of the scope.

 

I had some issues with settings that night, as that camera can do higher frame rates, but I was happy with the result on both of these.

 

 

 

[HansBlitz]

I can't do what the people using stuff like Celestron C14 scope tubes can. If you want to see some really good planetary stuff, check out these two guys sites.

 

http://astro.christone.net/  Christopher Go is in Cebu City, Philippines

 

https://momilika.net/WebPages/AstroIntro.htm   Darryl Milika is in Australia.

 

I always look for Darryl's stuff on the astronomy forums

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by HansBlitz

[CanadaOne]

19 hours ago, HansBlitz said:

 

 

The most Oh Wow's & Ah's, I've had people say when looking through the scope I use for visual observing is when I've had it pointed at Saturn. For some reason people more amazed and some have a harder time believing that is really what they are seeing looking though the scope -- have even had some kids state that they thought there was just a picture mounted inside the telescope.

 

That's exactly the thing. Pictures and documentaries are great, but when you're out at night, in the elements, and you look through the telescope or the binoculars and you see that bloody thing just hanging there way way out in the sky, it's a transcendent moment. You don't just feel like an observer, you feel like you're talking part in the cosmos. 

 

The first time I found Saturn through my standard grocery store telescope back in the day, I'm quite sure I uttered a very long and somewhat humble expletive while squinting through the eyepiece.

 

 "Holy ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!"

[Irishratticus72]

53 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

 

That's exactly the thing. Pictures and documentaries are great, but when you're out at night, in the elements, and you look through the telescope or the binoculars and you see that bloody thing just hanging there way way out in the sky, it's a transcendent moment. You don't just feel like an observer, you feel like you're talking part in the cosmos. 

 

The first time I found Saturn through my standard grocery store telescope back in the day, I'm quite sure I uttered a very long and somewhat humble expletive while squinting through the eyepiece.

 

 "Holy ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!"

Lol, ?????

[HansBlitz]

If you've never seen a total solar eclipse -- all I can say is find a way to do that. There simply aren't words that would do justice to seeing that live.

 

I drove across a couple of states to go a bit west of Casper, Wyoming in 2017 and that sure was worth the effort. Had planned on going somewhere closer but the weather forecast was crap for the closer places I'd thought about going.

 

Being there and seeing that it is easy to understand why people in the past thought the world might be ending.

 

It was pretty flat area and we could see the shadow coming from the west, once we were in totality it looked like a 360 degree sunset due to the edge of the shadow.

 

The next one here in the US is April 8th 2024. Here's a link to maps that the path with be at.

https://nationaleclipse.com/maps.html

 

The one in 2017 was 2 min 24 sec of totality were I was at. In 2024, the Moon will be some lower in it's orbit, so the shadow will be larger, so it will last longer. " Totality during the 2024 eclipse will last up to 4 minutes and 26 seconds at its maximum duration, which will occur over central Texas around roughly 1:30 p.m. local time." - from https://www.space.com/great-north-american-eclipse-2024-two-years-away

 

I've not looked into other eclipses that would be in other countries, so can say much on when those would be.

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by HansBlitz

[Guest deleted@83466]

Still marveling at the Saturn and Jupiter pictures, showed it around to friends, in fact.  I saw the rings around Saturn once, if I squinted in the monocle enough, in some amateur guy’s backyard.  Just a shaky little dot, that I could barely make out.  Your photos are extraordinary.

[HansBlitz]

That's part of why I like doing the astrophoto stuff -- you get more details (it is more work though).

 

Even through a large scope, visually you just don't get to see as much detail. You can see some of the cloud bands on Jupiter and the red spot when that is rotated into view, but thru my 8" F8 reflector I do my visual observing with, I can't see details like those small whitish oval storms in that show near the bottom of Jupiter in that pic above . On Saturn, I can see the Cassini division in the rings but none of the smaller divisions in the rings.

 

Visual on nebula and galaxies, you don't get color on hardly any of those. They just look like smokey smudges, although I can see some of the dust lanes in some galaxies. There are a few planetary nebula that show color -- Like the Blue Snowball (NGC7662) shows blue in my 8" F8.

 

It isn't mine but this scope is a 25 in. F4.5. The base swivels and the scope pivots up and down (dobsonian style mount - doesn't track so is for visual observing). Even in such a large scope, you don't see much color. That's due to your eyes can't store photons like film or digital sensor and aren't getting enough in real time for the color to be obvious. The Orion Nebula thru that 25" would show some red/pinkish due to that being such a bright nebula and that scope gathering so much light. Through that scope, galaxies and nebula details show much better, but still not like in photos.

 

That 25" mirror is about 3" thick at the edge -- quite an impressive/heavy piece of glass. The guy that owns that scope still has it but that scope hasn't been setup in about 10 yrs due to him having a bad knee and he can't climb that ladder anymore. The last time he brought it out and set it up, was due to one of my daughters going to be there that night, about the time she graduated college. He set it up and let her point it/play with it for hours. He could only look at the stuff that was near the horizion, so that he didn't have to use that ladder and could just stand on the ground.

 

For a long time Kevin's was the largest amateur scope in the state but one of the astronomy clubs now has a 30" F3.0.

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by HansBlitz

[Lusekofte]

Fantastic pictures , bravo

[CanadaOne]

If I win the lottery, I'm going to have a serious setup like that on my own very dark mountain.