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M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:32 am
by turfpit
Chronicle - "an account of events arranged chronologically without analysis or interpretation".

When I started out, I had no background in astronomy or photography and I didn't know my 'alt' from my 'az' :lol:

Posted in the hope it will encourage others to persevere.

2016-11-08
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2017-01-05
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2017-10-31
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2018-02-03
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Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:09 pm
by admin
Hi Dave,

those pictures really show progress - the last one has much sharper focus than the others which makes a big difference. Same equipment throughout or have you been upgrading?

cheers,

Robin

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:43 pm
by turfpit
Thanks Robin.

Celestron C8 scope throughout. 1st & 2nd images same camera - what happened in between those dates was the Gary Palmer Deep Sky Imaging workshop (6 hours and a 300 mile round trip). 3rd and 4th images 2 different cameras but these see the introduction of a Bahtinov mask and JMI Motorised focuser plus greater understanding of the use of the histogram and the interaction of exposure, gain and offset/black level/brightness.

I suppose I should revisit with the first camera and post back for comparison.

Dave

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:21 am
by turfpit
2018-10-10

Orion-100x15s-g200-bl50.jpg
Orion-100x15s-g200-bl50.jpg (94.59 KiB) Viewed 7751 times
Not a bad return for an investment in 25 minutes of time (+ the 30 minutes of mount alignment, polar alignment, focusing, checking the histogram of a single frame in FITs Liberator).

Dave

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:47 am
by turfpit
2018-12-13
M42-60x60s.jpg
M42-60x60s.jpg (122.15 KiB) Viewed 7535 times
Dave

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 4:59 am
by oopfan
Dave,

Your images are improving at an exponential rate. Like you say, discipline and organization are the keys to success. "Art" is for those who leave things to chance.

Brian

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:09 am
by turfpit
Cheers Brian. Focus was with a Bahtinov Mask, the 60s frames were unguided, shot through intermittent thin cloud which resulted in 50% of the frames being rejected. Still a good return on 30 frames.

Dave

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 3:35 pm
by BlackWikkett
Hi,

Nice image, which camera is this? Did you use darks and flats? Was this live stacked or captured raw then stacked outside of SC?

-Wikkett

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:43 pm
by turfpit
Thanks Wickett.

Traditional capture of RAW files with darks, flats and bias frames. Processed In SiriL and GIMP. Because of the cloud I did apply some noise reduction in GIMP.

This thread is more about the journey and to try to get over to beginners that my improvement is about mount alignment, polar alignment, focusing, checking the histogram of a single frame in FITs Liberator rather than equipment.

Dave

Re: M42 chronicles

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:58 pm
by psy1280
Wow! Your M42 is inspiring as is your encouragement to all us beginners.

Much thanks,
Joe