Astro Photos

[birdboy]

Re: Astro Photos

I am no expert on this Mark, but I suspect that warm nights might not be so good due to atmospheric haze. I gather from an astro friend that clear cold nights are best - so get investing in those thermals!

John

Generally speaking for astrophotography cold nights are much better because the sensor temperature will be lower, and its the heat in the sensor that makes the noise generally. The longer you keep the shutter open the worst it gets. I have found with Olympus sensors if you keep the exposure time to 60 secs or less sensor heat noise is less of a problem, above 60secs dark frame subtraction helps.

Atmospheric haze or seeing is another problem there are websites that you can find that tell you what visibility you can expect. I sometimes use https://www.goodtostargaze.com/. But nothing beats having a good look yourself.

So for milky way images with shorter exposures warm night should be ok.

[wornish]

Re: Astro Photos

If you use Startools for processing your Astro images you might be interested to know it's just been updated this week. Apparently is a major update so worth a look.

[birdboy]

Re: Astro Photos

Thanks for heads up on this Dave. It took some searching on the startools forum. Not sure how much of an update this is as still trying to find out whats improved.

[wornish]

Re: Astro Photos

The developer posted this on another forum.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...ls-15-out-now/

He says its 4 years work so pretty major.

[wornish]

Re: Astro Photos

First time out with scope for months.
10 x 300sec shots in mono. ( Luminance filter)

Andromeda Galaxy M31

[birdboy]

Re: Astro Photos

The developer posted this on another forum.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...ls-15-out-now/

He says its 4 years work so pretty major.

Thanks Dave I did see this on the Startools forum hidden away but I think the major improvements are in the LRGB processing side. I am not at that stage yet so most of my Olympus processing is done much the same in the previous versions. There are some small changes in layout that I like however.

[birdboy]

Re: Astro Photos

First time out with scope for months.
10 x 300sec shots in mono. ( Luminance filter)

Andromeda Galaxy M31

Good detail in mono are you planning on doing the RGB as well?

We have had 4 or 5 nights of clear skies I am in need of sleep as I have been doing 4hrs + of images per night!

[birdboy]

Re: Astro Photos

Had some really good clear nights recently.

The Bubble Nebula NGC7635 represents the limit I think for my current set up using the OMD EM1 MKII and RC6 telescope It is a magnitude 10 (dim light) for a f9 telescope. I have taken about 13hrs worth of images using on board NR. I was hoping for more detail of the bubble but I guess that will only come with narrowband imaging.

NGC 7635 is about 10,000 light years away. The star is about four million years old, and in 10 million to 20 million years, it will likely detonate as a supernova. (Wikipedia)

[Phill D]

Re: Astro Photos

It looks fabulous to me John I can only ogle in awe. What a talented guy you are

[wornish]

Re: Astro Photos

John your Bubble Nebula is fantastic. I think Olympus would very pleased to see that image, it just goes to show what a great camera in the right hands can deliver. Your new scope and mount certainly are working well.

I haven't got the stamina to do 13 hours over 4 nights. I have been out for two nights but the first was spoilt by too many clouds, and I packed it in after midnight. Last night I did another couple of hours and got my first Luminance data. I plan on adding R, G, B and Ha in the near future.

[MJ224]

Re: Astro Photos

It looks fabulous to me John I can only ogle in awe. What a talented guy you are

Ditto, cannot any better comment. great photo and hard work...

[wornish]

Re: Astro Photos

Managed to get a few frames of RGB last night and added them to the Luminance I posted earlier.

Slightly different alignment so top left and bottom right corners clipped off when stars aligned.