AndrewSingleton
The Double Cluster in Perseus
About 12-13 million years old and about 7,500 light years from earth. Clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 can be scene with the naked eye from a dark sky site and with cheap binoculars elsewhere, just use the second line in the W of Cassiopeia to point to the left, it will appear as 2 faint smudges. Also known as Caldwell 14.
According to Wikipedia these clusters are blue shifted which means we are getting closer to them.
There are a good variety of star colours in this region, hopefully I have processed it OK to demonstrate this.
183x30s (about 1.5 hours) with flats and bias. Dithered every 4 frames. Taken 20/12/2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 800. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G. Used whilst gaining focus, for flats and for bias.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the PC.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools.
Moon: 38% Waxing Crescent
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester. Different websites tell me different things about this. It all depends on the time of night and which way I am pointing. At this time of year, with all the Christmas lights it is pushing 8 and above.
Weather: - A good clear spell of about 5-6 hours, as always at this time of year things start to get damp relatively quickly. Still low pressure, we have not had a run of high pressure since September.
Notes: - I was having problems with my
cheap laptop, the connection to the Wi-Fi SD card kept cutting out and its slow, especially at plate solving. I have relatively good PC with usb3 port, lots of RAM and solid-state drive so I have decided to make the switch to that. To do this I have had to buy a 20-meter usb3 extender cable.
First light with new PC was 12th December, this was the first moonless clear night for months. To say I was underprepared was an understatement. I spent several hours installing the required software to get things going and had forgotten how much work was involved in this. Eventually I got everything going apart from the guide camera which needed a major Windows update that I did the following day. To add to my problems the piece of metal on my mount that works with the azimuth screws to go left and right was loose. Stupidly I ignored this and ploughed on, polar alignment was tough, in SharpCap it would just jump about from one extreme to the other. I also still had my light pollution filter out. It was not a successful night, I had eggy starts and unworkable gradients. Too much of an effort to fix in star tools. I have since made sure this metal bit is connected properly.
So, on the 20th December I was much more prepared. Having marvelled at the great conjunction from my loft I set about working, this time with guiding and with the light pollution filter. (I know most people would have been working on the planets, but I do not have the right view to able to get it, too many houses and trees are in the way; sometimes I am happy enough with my eyes and cheap bino’s)
Polar alignment worked much better; the error was less than 1” so that makes me happy! The plate solving was amazing, its instantaneous which is great. The Wi-Fi connection to the SD card remained and it seems to transfer the files a bit quicker too. The Wi-Fi/SD combination is still not perfect as there is a 20s wait between subs, but at least it works.
Going forward I am reverting to 400 ISO and perhaps 1-minute subs. I am still convinced by Robin Glovers lecture but the D3100 is so noisy, the jump from 400 to 800 seems too much. I would love to know the read noise calculations for this camera so I could be more precise with my exposure times. One day it will be side lined for a better camera.
On a personal note, in January, I should become a Dad for the first time, this should be fantastic but will probably mean less time for this hobby. Let us see what happens!
The Double Cluster in Perseus
About 12-13 million years old and about 7,500 light years from earth. Clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 can be scene with the naked eye from a dark sky site and with cheap binoculars elsewhere, just use the second line in the W of Cassiopeia to point to the left, it will appear as 2 faint smudges. Also known as Caldwell 14.
According to Wikipedia these clusters are blue shifted which means we are getting closer to them.
There are a good variety of star colours in this region, hopefully I have processed it OK to demonstrate this.
183x30s (about 1.5 hours) with flats and bias. Dithered every 4 frames. Taken 20/12/2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 800. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G. Used whilst gaining focus, for flats and for bias.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the PC.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools.
Moon: 38% Waxing Crescent
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester. Different websites tell me different things about this. It all depends on the time of night and which way I am pointing. At this time of year, with all the Christmas lights it is pushing 8 and above.
Weather: - A good clear spell of about 5-6 hours, as always at this time of year things start to get damp relatively quickly. Still low pressure, we have not had a run of high pressure since September.
Notes: - I was having problems with my
cheap laptop, the connection to the Wi-Fi SD card kept cutting out and its slow, especially at plate solving. I have relatively good PC with usb3 port, lots of RAM and solid-state drive so I have decided to make the switch to that. To do this I have had to buy a 20-meter usb3 extender cable.
First light with new PC was 12th December, this was the first moonless clear night for months. To say I was underprepared was an understatement. I spent several hours installing the required software to get things going and had forgotten how much work was involved in this. Eventually I got everything going apart from the guide camera which needed a major Windows update that I did the following day. To add to my problems the piece of metal on my mount that works with the azimuth screws to go left and right was loose. Stupidly I ignored this and ploughed on, polar alignment was tough, in SharpCap it would just jump about from one extreme to the other. I also still had my light pollution filter out. It was not a successful night, I had eggy starts and unworkable gradients. Too much of an effort to fix in star tools. I have since made sure this metal bit is connected properly.
So, on the 20th December I was much more prepared. Having marvelled at the great conjunction from my loft I set about working, this time with guiding and with the light pollution filter. (I know most people would have been working on the planets, but I do not have the right view to able to get it, too many houses and trees are in the way; sometimes I am happy enough with my eyes and cheap bino’s)
Polar alignment worked much better; the error was less than 1” so that makes me happy! The plate solving was amazing, its instantaneous which is great. The Wi-Fi connection to the SD card remained and it seems to transfer the files a bit quicker too. The Wi-Fi/SD combination is still not perfect as there is a 20s wait between subs, but at least it works.
Going forward I am reverting to 400 ISO and perhaps 1-minute subs. I am still convinced by Robin Glovers lecture but the D3100 is so noisy, the jump from 400 to 800 seems too much. I would love to know the read noise calculations for this camera so I could be more precise with my exposure times. One day it will be side lined for a better camera.
On a personal note, in January, I should become a Dad for the first time, this should be fantastic but will probably mean less time for this hobby. Let us see what happens!