The Astro-Imaging Thread

[_Augustus_]

22 minutes ago, FokkerAce said:

what about doing a comet sweep? it would cover lots of the sky, and be interesting

We wouldn't find a comet. Even if we did, some automated survey would beat us to it.

Edited June 19, 2017 by _Augustus_

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

8 minutes ago, _Augustus_ said:

We wouldn't find a comet. Even if we did, some automated survey would beat us to it.

true... It should probably be some kind of nebula of we`re doing deep sky, as they are pretty/kind of active, that or a galaxy

Edited June 19, 2017 by FokkerAce

[_Augustus_]

21 minutes ago, FokkerAce said:

It should probably be some kind of nebula of we`re doing deep sky, as they are pretty/kind of active

What are you talking about? 

[Epox75]

When this thing will start, I don't see how it may benefit from a dedicated thread on KSP forum. Email / Skype contact will be more suitable I think, there will be topics to discuss and I believe that a post on a forum, with a delayed reply or easily accessible by anyone not involved, won't help. The amount of information we will have to share with the other members of the project will require a more direct way of communication. 

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

1 hour ago, _Augustus_ said:

What are you talking about? 

As a viewing thing

 

15 minutes ago, Epox75 said:

When this thing will start, I don't see how it may benefit from a dedicated thread on KSP forum. Email / Skype contact will be more suitable I think, there will be topics to discuss and I believe that a post on a forum, with a delayed reply or easily accessible by anyone not involved, won't help. The amount of information we will have to share with the other members of the project will require a more direct way of communication. 

yeah, that would be a good idea

Edited June 19, 2017 by FokkerAce

[munlander1]

1 hour ago, _Augustus_ said:

What are you talking about? 

We are thinking about doing a group astrophoto thing. Everyone will send in lights with calibrations then it will all be stacked.

Could we address the problem of the different fov's first? If that's possible would we stack all of our frames and send in a final image? Or send everything? Who should process them? What target are we going to choose?

Edited June 19, 2017 by munlander1

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

1 hour ago, _Augustus_ said:

What are you talking about? 

I got confused for a moment

12 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

We are thinking about doing a group astrophoto thing. Everyone will send in lights with calibrations then it will all be stacked.

Could we address the problem of the different fov's first? If that's possible would we stack all of our frames and send in a final image? Or send everything? Who should process them? What target are we going to choose?

 

12 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

We are thinking about doing a group astrophoto thing. Everyone will send in lights with calibrations then it will all be stacked.

Could we address the problem of the different fov's first? If that's possible would we stack all of our frames and send in a final image? Or send everything? Who should process them? What target are we going to choose?

maybe we could set a FOV beforehand, between the largest and the smallest?

[munlander1]

4 minutes ago, FokkerAce said:

maybe we could set a FOV beforehand, between the largest and the smallest?

Don't know. Good night! 

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

Just now, munlander1 said:

Don't know. Good night! 

night!

[Green Baron]

3 hours ago, FokkerAce said:

I got confused for a moment

 

maybe we could set a FOV beforehand, between the largest and the smallest?

This is not possible. fov is the outcome of the telescope's focal length/aperture and the camera chip's size. Different telescopes have different distortions and errors, the more of it the farther away from the center of the image. Some here can switch focal lengths through the help of optical compressors or expanders (aka reducer or barlow-lens) or by using different foci of the telescope (primary/cassegrain).

In any case images from different systems must be rectified and aligned, that was what @kurja pointed to. These problems can only be solved by algorithms. Many here use the software PixInsight, which is, as far is i know, the most sophisticated for astroimaging.

 

We only have to agree on an object that should then be put in the center of the image, to keep the different kinds of off axis aberrations as little as possible.

Edit: images of larger fovs (like you guys with the f4 newtons) will simply have to be cropped to the fov of the images of the f/7 refractor users. This is not a problem in the ages of 8mp-cameras. And after all, we are not far away from each other when refractor- and schmidt-cassegrain-users mount their reducers. I think overall it's between f/4 and f/6 then. I think that's between 1 and 2 degrees fov in the sky. Take the moon as a reference. Andromeda galaxy will be a challenge for the project as for me there is nothing left to crop, it fits just well.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Green Baron

[munlander1]

So I guess the next question is a target. Are there any limitations to any of your views of the sky (Houses, trees, etc.)?

[Epox75]

Please call me a moron: I had a consistent plane tilt on my Newton and I just realized it now. I mean was I somewhat alarmed by the primary mirror cell not being aligned with the tube when collimated? No! Was I alarmed by the uneven vignetting I could see stretching my pictures? No! Was I alarmed by the reflection of my focuser tube being in my flats? No! I can go on with at least three or four more examples. Conclusions... i am a moron 

I had to unscrew the secondary mirror main screw for different millimeters before getting it right. And now my thoughts go to the coma corrector, I wonder how much this influenced its efficiency. 

 

[Green Baron]

Morons don't analyse and do away with problems. Request rejected :-)

You mean the primary mirror was not reflecting parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tube ?

Could the uneven vignetting be the result of the secondary not being offset (set off ?) ?

Or, as you mention the corrector, could the weight of the queue of corrector, adapters and camera warp the focuser or tube ? That for example makes my newton difficult to use for photography, but is has only a plastic tube (carbon fibre design, very trendy *rolleyes*).

Do you use this for collimation ? It is done in seconds if your main mirror has a centre marker ...

 

I do see a slight chance that there is an open sky tonight. Will aim at M81 in preparation of our project if this is the case.

 

[Epox75]

40 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

Morons don't analyse and do away with problems. Request rejected :-)

You mean the primary mirror was not reflecting parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tube ?

Could the uneven vignetting be the result of the secondary not being offset (set off ?) ?

Or, as you mention the corrector, could the weight of the queue of corrector, adapters and camera warp the focuser or tube ? That for example makes my newton difficult to use for photography, but is has only a plastic tube (carbon fibre design, very trendy *rolleyes*).

Do you use this for collimation ? It is done in seconds if your main mirror has a centre marker ...

 

I do see a slight chance that there is an open sky tonight. Will aim at M81 in preparation of our project if this is the case.

 

Heheh yeah I know I am hard on myself . The secondary mirror wasn't in line with the focuser tube and it had to be moved towards the primary. The best part of my scope is the focuser, the scope tube is aluminum so quite sturdy, then there's a steel base plate and the focuser over it. Moreover i use a four element coma corrector, a quite long solid tube, I believe it even helps making the whole structure of the focuser thicker and less prone to bending. 

Basically yeah I was sending a very non parallel light to the secondary and consequentially to my coma corrector. I mean I could actually see the offsett of my cell, on one side was completely in on another was coming out of the tube of some millimeter. 

Yes I do have a laser collimation tool I also have a cap with a hole in the middle and to be honest when I used that I always seen the offset so I tried to adjust the screws of the arms holding my secondary but not seeing much improvement I just scratched my head... until I realized the hard truth

I am glad you chance of no clouds! I also have a nice night (3rd in a row) and I am not decided yet. There's the Crescent Nebula, The Cocoon Nebula or the Iris Nebula.. which I used for a distance experiment with the corrector. A very distorted picture and just one hour exposure. What do you think I should try?

 

 

[Adstri]

One thing we could do is monitor the position of a specific asteroid that isn't looked at and studied very much but is bright enough to be seen in most telescopes. We can observe things such as parallax at different latitudes, and based on its path we can further study and confirm its orbital properties. We can also further determine physical properties through occultations of stars.

[Green Baron]

Ok, one of the nebulae it is then. Is the swan up already ? Man, time flies ... also think i saw Scorpius' tail a few days ago when driving. So Sagittarius is not far. The galactic centre rises 40° high here ...

It starts to condensate now, so probably no night shift tonight. But i saw on the charts that in a few days the month long phase of westerly winds might end and give way to the usual tradewinds, which puts me on lee side with a much greater chance of clear nights.

Ateriods ... hm ... i am more inclined towards deep sky, that's what my stuff is best suited for. I would expect one does it easier with a 50cm or larger aperture (roids are dark companions), corrected and even field and several consecutive nights for obtaining orbital elements. But i am not sure ...

[kurja]

This time a little different picture of the night sky (at 0:08 o'clock).

Polaris should be just above the tree on the right.

[Epox75]

5 hours ago, Green Baron said:

Ok, one of the nebulae it is then. Is the swan up already ? Man, time flies ... also think i saw Scorpius' tail a few days ago when driving. So Sagittarius is not far. The galactic centre rises 40° high here ...

It starts to condensate now, so probably no night shift tonight. But i saw on the charts that in a few days the month long phase of westerly winds might end and give way to the usual tradewinds, which puts me on lee side with a much greater chance of clear nights.

Ateriods ... hm ... i am more inclined towards deep sky, that's what my stuff is best suited for. I would expect one does it easier with a 50cm or larger aperture (roids are dark companions), corrected and even field and several consecutive nights for obtaining orbital elements. But i am not sure ...

Swan not up here. I listed all the possible targets for me. I am on the Crescent at the moment.... edit: I'm on Iris Nebula again, I didn't like path that the crescent was taking. Too close to a tree in my garden. Got some frame thou, good to see how the lumicon deep sky filter performs on it

 

 

Edited June 20, 2017 by Epox75

[Epox75]

1 hour ago, kurja said:

This time a little different picture of the night sky (at 0:08 o'clock).

Polaris should be just above the tree on the right.

Looks like you are quite north too... UK?

Edited June 19, 2017 by Epox75

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

35 minutes ago, Epox75 said:

Looks like you are quite north too... UK?

i`m at 40 degrees north

10 hours ago, munlander1 said:

So I guess the next question is a target. Are there any limitations to any of your views of the sky (Houses, trees, etc.)?

I`m at 40 degrees north

sorry, only meant for munlander1

Edited June 19, 2017 by FokkerAce

[munlander1]

7 hours ago, Epox75 said:

I listed all the possible targets for me. 

 

 

Where is this list you speak of?

[kurja]

7 hours ago, Epox75 said:

Looks like you are quite north too... UK?

Nordics, >60 degrees north.

[Green Baron]

Are we exchanging positions ? 28N/18W.

As to Epox' suggestions:

13 hours ago, Epox75 said:

snip

I am glad you chance of no clouds! I also have a nice night (3rd in a row) and I am not decided yet. There's the Crescent Nebula, The Cocoon Nebula or the Iris Nebula.. which I used for a distance experiment with the corrector. A very distorted picture and just one hour exposure. What do you think I should try?

snip

I am fine with those, only if they are too hig h in the sky exposure time will be limited as the camera might hit the leg of the mount.

[Epox75]

Here it is: 347x30sec - Lumicon Deep Sky

I can prepare a rar file either with all the lights + calibration frames or I can share the frames already calibrated.. 

Edited June 20, 2017 by Epox75

[munlander1]

Any objections to the ring nebula in Lyra?