M27 Dumbbell Nebula – Various 5-15 sec exposures at various gain settings. Sony IMX224 and TV-85 at F/5.6.
On this night, after dusting off all the equipment and finding out what still worked and updating my laptop the night before, I decided to play around with a new version of ToupSky I just installed while updating all the hardware drivers and astro software I use.
The version date was Oct 11, 2018, the same day I downloaded and installed it. They’ve included lots more with this version than they did previously. ToupSky still lacks 16-bit support for most file formats, however, which is why I still use SharpCap 2.9.
Dark subtraction and flat field correction is now in the public release as well as a number of other bonuses. Before, you would get these features only with software included with a camera from various companies who resell the ToupTech cameras (like RisingSky.)
Anyway, this image was created with various Live Stack images I did while testing this new ToupSky version. It is good for beginners, but the lack of 16-bit support for TIFF and other formats that can do 16-bit really degrades from the usefulness of the package for serious imaging.
M15 Globular – 181×1 sec, Sony IMX224, TV-85 at F/5.6.M2 Globular Cluster. 75×4 sec, Sony IMX224, TV-85 at F/5.6.NGC 7789 Open Cluster. 157×4 sec, Sony IMX224, TV-85 at F/5.6.
First appreciable cold front with clear skies came through, finally. I managed to get some scope time to do a shake-down imaging session to test equipment. This was on the night of Oct 11, 2018 and I was shooting from a Bortle Red zone in the city. I shot a few things playing around and these were the best three pictures of the bunch. Not the prettiest astro images , but at least I got to see what stuff still works and what did not after not imaging since March 2018.
My USB hub and some cables probably need replacing. The hub has seen better days. There is lots of corrosion inside the connectors. These connection problems precipitated other problems with the laptop and my EQMOD settings got trashed. I had to delete the AppData/Roaming/EQMOD folder to fix it. That required me to redo all the location settings, guide speeds, etc. Could have been worse, I guess.
I managed to update drivers and the astro-related software on the laptop, which was a good thing. My Toupcam IM224 had a batch of new drivers released the very same day as the imaging session. I could not have timed it better. lol
Oh, and my dew strap for the TV-85 was not working, either. The wire broke inside the strip, so I just tossed it. Oh, well. Luckily, it was so dry this night I did not have to worry about any dew.
Omega Centauri. 3×300 sec @ ISO 1600, 42-180 sec @ ISO 400, TV-85 at F/5.6, Canon T3, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD.
My last two sessions of Omega Centauri were combined and reworked into one image and here are the results. Both sets were taken with my TV-85. One set was taken from a dark sky site and the other was taken from an LP polluted site during moonlight.
M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Taken in May of 2008, revamped in May of 2018. 7×300 @ ISO 800, Canon XT, TV-85 at F/5.6
One of my favorite galaxies. I like all edge-on galaxies and this one has a uniqueness to it that makes it special. The original had a splotchy background and the color was muted and dull. I increased saturation and shifted the color balance to be more bluish. I used the add noise PS filters to get the background to look smoother.
Jupiter on March 23, 2018. 25 best frames out of 291. RT Sony IMX224, Orion 6in, F/8 with a Televue 2X Barlow.
An image of Jupiter, finally! Its been ages since I shot it with a high-res setup. The 6 inch, F/8 Newt I used was barely up to the task, but it did produce a usable image. Seeing was poor, but otherwise it was a beautiful morning with beautiful and very transparent skies.
Plato and the Alpine Valley, Feb 26, 2018. RT Sony IMX224, 6 inch, F/8 with Televue 2x Barlow (F/16.). Best 25 out of 100 frames.
For this imaging session of the Moon, I wanted to try shooting at 2400 mm focal length using a 2x Barlow with my 6 inch, F/8 Newtonian scope and Sony IMX224 eyepiece cam. This was done in preparation to get some shots of Jupiter I’ve been meaning to do. Conditions for this session were marginal, at best, however.
I had clouds galore and seeing was very poor. I only managed three captures before the clouds came in force and shut me down. At least I got a chance to try the rig on something easy before I attempt capturing Jupiter with it.
I left the mount setup outside and took in the scope and laptop, thinking that I could get Jupiter when I woke up the following morning. Unfortunately, the skies were no better than the night before and although I could see Jupiter, clouds were coming and going over it. So, no luck with getting Jupiter, just yet. Maybe next time…
Tycho Crater – Feb 26 2018. Best 25 frames of 100. RT Sony IMX224, 6 in, F/8 Newt.
A view of Tycho crater on the Moon taken Feb 26, 2018. It was taken with a 6 inch, F/8 Newtonian and a RT Sony IMX224 eyepiece cam. Best 25 frames out of 100.
Northern area of the Moon taken on Feb 26, 2018. RT Sony IMX224, 6in, F/8 Newt, best 16 frames of 100.
First of 3 videos of the moon captured towards the end of February, 2018. Poor conditions, but I was just testing a rather long 6 inch, F/8 Newtonian on the Atlas EQ-G mount. Pretty shaky rig, but usable for moon and planetary imaging.
M67 Open Cluster. Orion 6 inch, F/8 and RT Sony IMX224 eyepiece camera. 201 x 2 sec at gain 2650. Up-scaled 200% in processing.
I purchased some rings and an extra-long dovetail bar for my Orion 6 inch, F/8 dobsonian and mounted it on the Atlas EQ-G. It has a really narrow view with a Sony IMX224 chip camera, but its sharp and there was not much distortion throughout the entire field.
The newt lets you shoot with no filters and you pick up everything, including IR, with the standard clear filter that Rising Tech cameras ship with. That’s great for galaxies. Although this first test shot was not a galaxy, I hope to try it out on some, soon.
The rig is sensitive to balance and wind being the tube is so long and is also very sensitive to vibrations. Since I was imaging next to a busy parking lot, I noticed lots of rejected frames in the SharpCap stacking program when the activity there increased. Even loud noises would disturb it. LoL.
Although conditions were not the best and the red zone light pollution I imaged through kept me from getting really deep, I did manage to do a few test shots before conditions deteriorated,
The above image was actually the second shot of the night, the first one being this unknown star field below that I shot to test the tracking. It was a little difficult to dial-in a star to get a 3-star alignment on the mount, so I just went with seeing how long I could track with PHD2 Guiding at the same old settings I used with the TV-85 on a random star field. 8 sec exposures yielded too many rejected frames, so I went with 4 sec for this one.
Unknown star field. 70×4 sec @ Gain 2067, RT Sony IMX224 cam, 6″, F/8 newt, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD, PHD2 guiding w/Orion Ultra-mini and StarShoot.
Before the clouds came back and ruined my session, I was able to get 60×4 sec sub-images at the relatively high gain of 3108 of this open cluster in Gemini, called IC 2157:
IC 2157. 60×4 sec @ 3108 gain, RT Sony IMX224, 6 inch, F/8 Newt, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD.
Anyway, if I can get the tracking to get me up to 8 seconds of exposure, I will be able to shoot some of those tiny galaxies that my Televue TV-85 just can’t do justice to.
Images of Comets, Nebulae, Galaxies and Star Clusters
