Bodes and Cigar Galaxies

[poker_jake]

M81-PI by Jacob Clausnitzer, on Flickr

 

[Raj_55555]

Amazing!

 

[Southbound33]

So cool! May I ask what it takes to achieve such an image?

 

[poker_jake]

So cool! May I ask what it takes to achieve such an image?

Thanks guys.

I hooked up my DSLR to my 8" telescope and took 10 3min exposures at 800ISO (lights). I then took calibration frames. 10 3min photos with the telescope cap on (darks), 12 normal exposure with white cover over telescope opening to show vignetting and dust (Flats), then 10 shots at 1/8000sec and same ISO as the others (biases). Combine all the calibration frames to form a master low noise image that accounts for vignetting and sensor patterns. Align and combine all the light frames and subtract the master calibration image. This is my first image manually combining them all in the program PixInsight (very powerful program).

 

[Southbound33]

Sounds like quite a process! Shows a lot of dedication on your part and honestly I had to read that a few times to basically understand what you are saying lol. This may be a dumb question but why take 10 3 minute exposures vs longer intervals? Too much light? Stars will be blurry?

 

[poker_jake]

Sounds like quite a process! Shows a lot of dedication on your part and honestly I had to read that a few times to basically understand what you are saying lol. This may be a dumb question but why take 10 3 minute exposures vs longer intervals? Too much light? Stars will be blurry?

The stars start to trail and you can see (even in this image) the stars are ovals and not round. I have an autoguider which uses a small webcam type camera and a small finder scope to lock onto a star with a computer program. That assists the mounts regular tracking for higher accuracy but was inoperative due to dew forming on the finderscope lens. With the autoguider I can get up to 20 min exposures but usually stop at 10min since the extra stop isn't really worth it when a new exposure could be started and finished in that time. I'm still a novice so my explanations may be missing things. But it's fun and combines photography and astronomy, two great hobbies.

 

[Southbound33]

Sounds like quite a process! Shows a lot of dedication on your part and honestly I had to read that a few times to basically understand what you are saying lol. This may be a dumb question but why take 10 3 minute exposures vs longer intervals? Too much light? Stars will be blurry?

The stars start to trail and you can see (even in this image) the stars are ovals and not round. I have an autoguider which uses a small webcam type camera and a small finder scope to lock onto a star with a computer program. That assists the mounts regular tracking for higher accuracy but was inoperative due to dew forming on the finderscope lens. With the autoguider I can get up to 20 min exposures but usually stop at 10min since the extra stop isn't really worth it when a new exposure could be started and finished in that time. I'm still a novice so my explanations may be missing things. But it's fun and combines photography and astronomy, two great hobbies.

That makes perfect sense and was the answer I was expecting. The autoguider sounds like a pretty handy piece of equipment when working properly, where can I see more of your space pics?

 

[poker_jake]

Jacob Clausnitzer Flickr - Photo Sharing

 

[Southbound33]

Jacob Clausnitzer Flickr - Photo Sharing

Wow... All I can say is that is one AMAZING collection of photos. Looks like you get to travel quite a bit also, something I need to do more of. Very nice

 

[Southbound33]

Heres something you might like. Its amusing if anything

Space miniaturized with Tilt-Shift - Album on Imgur

 

[poker_jake]

Heres something you might like. Its amusing if anything

Space miniaturized with Tilt-Shift - Album on Imgur

Those look awesome, I may have to try it.