Various Astrophotographs

jhphotoguy · Jul 5, 2011

Here's a selection of astrophotographs I have taken over the past year. I've been into the photography aspect of astronomy for 2 years now so I'm still somewhat of a beginner, but I have noticed a marked improvement from when i first started out to where I am now.

M81 & M82
ISO 1000, 48 mins
Edited in LR3 & CS3, stacked in DeepSkyStacker

M20 - Trifid Nebula
ISO 1000, 22mins
Edited in LR3 & CS3, stacked in DeepSkyStacker

M42 - The Orion Nebula
ISO 1600, 32 mins
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker & edited in CS3

Lunar Eclipse - December 21, 2010

All photos were taken with a Canon 50D through a Vixen ED80sf telescope. Will add more as I go through my catalog of images.

OrionsByte · Jul 5, 2011

Were you using a motorized equatorial mount, or were you hand-tracking using a guide star?

jhphotoguy · Jul 5, 2011

I used a computerized Atlas EQ-G mount from Orion for all the pictures. For the M81, M82 & M20 shots I used an LVI II autoguider system and let the computer handle all the tracking issues.

OrionsByte · Jul 5, 2011

I have a Celestron 4.5" Newtonian scope that I'd love to connect my D7000 to, but the equatorial mount I have wouldn't support the extra weight and still allow for smooth movement, and I can't motorize it (I tried once, and now the east-west worm gear has way too much play in it). I'd have to upgrade the mount to be able to do it, and unfortunately the mount is the expensive part.

My telescope, along with all the lenses and accessories I accumulated for it, have all been sitting in the closet for at least the past four years or so. I really ought to get that out and tune it up some.

jhphotoguy · Jul 5, 2011

Yeah that's the thing with astrophotography is that the mount is the most important part of your setup. I always tell people to spend as much as they possibly can on the mount as everything else is just secondary. You could have one of the best optical systems in the world but if your mount cant track smoothly than everything else is pretty much useless.

The good thing is that in the 15 years I've been active in amateur astronomy, the price of everything has dropped significantly. You can now get a decent mount that will yield good results for under $500. Actually you can get complete telescope packages that are computerized for around that price now.

The only problem with some newtonians is that depending on the focuser, they don't have enough inward focus to bring the image into focus on the imaging chip of the DSLR so you would have to swap out the focuser for a low-profile one.

Aloicious · Jul 6, 2011

nice, they all turned out pretty clean. how do you like your scope?

I have an 8" newtonian scope, but it only tracks on one plane rather than 2 so tracking DSO's is practically impossible with my current mount, currently looking for another compact scope and mount that won't require so much work to move. probably some kind of 8-10" SCT, or similar.

StringThing · Jul 8, 2011

Absolutely stunning images! Well done.

jhphotoguy · Jul 28, 2011

Thanks. I liked the 80mm quite a bit. I just ended up selling it though in favour of the Explore Scientific 152mm Mak-Newt so I should have that a couple of weeks. Also did a major upgrade on my imaging equipment so should be able to pull in some really amazing shots in the near future.

Honestly if you want to focus primarily on AP, then an 80mm APO is the way to start out. They're relativity cheap (~$500) and give a wide enough field that they are quite forgiveable of tracking errors. And the image quality is rather quite good too.

flea77 · Jul 28, 2011

jhphotoguy,

I hate to hijack your thread but these are awesome images and I have been wanting to get into doing some of these so I have some questions.

1) I have been thinking of this kit Orion Telescopes: Orion Stars & Solar System Astrophotography Telescope Bundle would this allow me to get roughly the same type of images you posted? Or do you have another suggestion?

2) I notice the kit I am looking at does not have eyepieces, do I need them? (I have an older newt 6" which I have some 1.25" eyepieces for)

3) I will assume that I need a 12V power source and a Nikon DSLR adapter, is there anything else I would need?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide!

Allan

jhphotoguy · Jul 28, 2011

It really depends on how much you're willing to spend. It seems like a good kit but I don't have any experience with that mount so I can't give you a good answer on that. I would suggest taking a look at the Orion Sirius or if you want a mount that will last you years and allow to to put some pretty big cannons on it spring for the Atlas EQ-G. I have one at love it. But start off with a fast 80mm scope which will give you the least amount of headaches and then you can upgrade later on once you get everything figured out.

Eyepieces again are really up to you. Currently I only have a 12.5mm illuminated reticule eyepiece which I use for fine-tuning my alignment and then the camera goes on the scope. I'm not much for visual anymore. But also if you don't want to get a bunch of eyepiece, look into getting a zoom. The Baader Hyperion Zoom is a really really good eyepiece for the price and that has you covered over a wide-range of focal lengths. A barlow will also be useful.

Power source I use a ordinary jump-start battery (actually 2) and those power my mount, camera, laptop, dew control system and autoguider system. If you can afford it, go for a deep-cycle battery. A lot of people seem to be having great success using those rechargeable wheelchair batteries. I'm going to be upgrading to a custom battery pack so I don't have top lug all that stuff out into the field.

You will also need a t-ring adapter for the camera and depending if you want to do prime focus (using the telescope as a lens) you will need a prime focus adapter, or if you want to in case the magnification by putting an eyepiece in the imaging train you can buy an adapter that you drop the eyepiece into, screw on the t-ring and put that in the telescope. If you go for the Baader zoom you just need to by the t-ring adapter for it and you can screw that directly into the t-ring.

I just picked up a 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM II for my 5d MkII so I can't wait to get out and do some wide-field imaging with that. You can also buy an adapter to mount your DSLR directly onto the telescope mount so you can do long-exposure tracked images or a piggyback adapter and mount the camera + lens on the back of the scope.

Aloicious · Jul 30, 2011

yeah, I've done a little bit of astrophotography, I've actually been upgrading recently too I want to be able to do some DSO's but my old meade scope mount doesn't track at all so I'm pretty limited with it. So over the past few months I've ended up getting the Atlas EQ-G, as well as an 8" ritchey-chretien imaging scope, with an 80mm guidescope and an autoguider. I've been doing imaging with my D90, but I've also got an older Olympus E510 that I recently opened up and removed the IR cut filter on and have been altering that for a nebula camera. I want to do some tuning on the atlas mount, but that'll probably have to wait for a little bit.

jhphotoguy · Aug 2, 2011

Nice setup, and I saw your shots over on AF.net, very nice. The 8" RC should provide some really good images. Make sure to get a good colliminator for it. Hotech SCA is what I used on my old SCT and it worked quite well. The Atlas is a workhorse of a mount and should be able to handle that kind of setup fine. The general rule of thumb is not to exceed 2/3's of your mounts capacity for astrophotography. if you find that setup a bit too heavy for the mount, drop the 80mm guidescope and go for one of those 50mm finderscope style guidescopes and that cuts down on the weight quite a bit and work just as well as the 80mm.

Aloicious · Aug 2, 2011

thats a good idea with the 50mm one, I think the 80ST will be okay, but we'll see when I get to take it out at try everything. I'll look into that colliminator, I need to get a decent one...