AndrewSingleton
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a/NGC 6194) and M51b/NGC5195 and lots of other galaxies taken on the 2 nights of 13th/14th April and 15th/16th April 2020.
5 hours and 25 minutes of exposures. About half were 4 minutes (240s) exposures taken on night 1 and the other half are 5 minute (300s) exposures on night 2.
Camera: - Nikon D3100.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box. Used Bias frames too.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software:- Stellarium Scope, Stellarium, Poth Hub, EQMOD, All Sky Plate Solver, PHD Guiding 2 and PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Star Tools.
Moon: - Came up right at the end of work on night 1 and was not present in night 2.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Seeing: - Goodish
I think I’m getting better at this, having read quite a lot of topics on darks in astronomy forums I decided to ditch them. Its going from 20c in the day to about 2c at night which is far too much of a difference without having a cooled camera. It’s probably doing more harm than good. I decided to use dithering instead using the PHD Dither timer addon which I have to say seemed to work quite well.
I purchased Sharpcap Pro to try and improve my polar alignment. For some reason I would get it to read ‘Excellent’ and then when I did it again it went to ‘Good’, perhaps I’m not quite pointing it in the right direction or not turning it exactly 90 degrees. Will try and get better but not sure if I need to.
I am learning more about Star Tools, this is about my 5th process of this picture. I’m colour blind and struggle to see green. In my last picture I was asked ‘Why is it green?’ to which my response was ‘Is it?’. I’ve done some reading on this and apparently things being too green is a thing too. Something to do with the green pixels in a colour DSLR and maybe a bit to do with the light polution. This happened on one of my earlier process attempts of this picture, I thought it was good but was informed by why wife that it was green again! Again I read up on the colour module and think this is better. Maybe its too yellow in parts but maybe this is OK.
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a/NGC 6194) and M51b/NGC5195 and lots of other galaxies taken on the 2 nights of 13th/14th April and 15th/16th April 2020.
5 hours and 25 minutes of exposures. About half were 4 minutes (240s) exposures taken on night 1 and the other half are 5 minute (300s) exposures on night 2.
Camera: - Nikon D3100.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box. Used Bias frames too.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software:- Stellarium Scope, Stellarium, Poth Hub, EQMOD, All Sky Plate Solver, PHD Guiding 2 and PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Star Tools.
Moon: - Came up right at the end of work on night 1 and was not present in night 2.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Seeing: - Goodish
I think I’m getting better at this, having read quite a lot of topics on darks in astronomy forums I decided to ditch them. Its going from 20c in the day to about 2c at night which is far too much of a difference without having a cooled camera. It’s probably doing more harm than good. I decided to use dithering instead using the PHD Dither timer addon which I have to say seemed to work quite well.
I purchased Sharpcap Pro to try and improve my polar alignment. For some reason I would get it to read ‘Excellent’ and then when I did it again it went to ‘Good’, perhaps I’m not quite pointing it in the right direction or not turning it exactly 90 degrees. Will try and get better but not sure if I need to.
I am learning more about Star Tools, this is about my 5th process of this picture. I’m colour blind and struggle to see green. In my last picture I was asked ‘Why is it green?’ to which my response was ‘Is it?’. I’ve done some reading on this and apparently things being too green is a thing too. Something to do with the green pixels in a colour DSLR and maybe a bit to do with the light polution. This happened on one of my earlier process attempts of this picture, I thought it was good but was informed by why wife that it was green again! Again I read up on the colour module and think this is better. Maybe its too yellow in parts but maybe this is OK.