smr's Astrophotography

smr

smr

smr

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Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
8,753
Location
Leicestershire
Hi,

Thought I'd create a thread with my astrophotography images. Hope you enjoy.

Update - I now have a Youtube channel which I created for a bit of fun about my Astrophotography. If interested you can watch here (and subscribe if you want to!)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCptfsKNzgPrxE4SA3CKPmSQ/

Eastern Veil Nebula

Eastern Veil Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Rosette Nebula

Rosette Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Bodes and Cigar Galaxy

Bodes and Cigar Galaxy by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

The Great Orion Nebula (and Running Man Nebula)

The Great Orion (M42) and Running Man (M43) Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Horsehead and Flame Nebula

HH & Flame Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Pleaides (Seven Sisters) Star Cluster

The Pleiades by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Cygnus, Milky Way

Cygnus by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Double Cluster

Double Cluster by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Messier 31 - The Andromeda Galaxy

Messier 31 - Andromeda Galaxy by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Pinwheel Galaxy

Pinwheel Galaxy by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

The Witches Broom Nebula

The Witches Broom Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

The California Nebula

California Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

NGC 6992 - Eastern Veil Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr
 
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Yeah I'd like to see more info on the gear, software and technique!

I've a small telescope I've been meaning to buy an adapter for but it also needs a mount as it was a cheap job and the mount doesn't work correctly :(
 
I had a look at this for starting a hobby. Look at a book called 'making every photon count' which goes through a lot.

Without going mad I was looking at approx 2k. This was for a half decent scope, the mount (tracking one), a finder scope and then using my 7100 in bulb mode. Alas too much light where I am and an exposure can take 6 hours+ per night. Getting that in summer is hard, winter hobby.

You could bring that figure down with second hand stuff, the main expense is actually the mount. Do you want a self calibrating one or prefer the faff of doing it all yourself from the north star?
 
DB_SamX said:
Fantastic photos - a lot of detail; is your equipment rather specialist?
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes some of the equipment I use is dedicated to astronomy. I use a Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro mount which tracks the sky's rotation. Optics wise I have a William Optics Zenithstar 73 refractor telescope which is 430mm focal length, quite a wide view on some celestial targets but some fit nicely in the frame with my Canon 80D, which is my imaging camera. You can get them astromodified but I won't. Instead I want to buy a dedicated astronomy camera which has set point cooling, so less thermal noise, and is more sensitive to Hydrogen Alpha. On top top of my telescope I also have another smaller 50mm scope which is a guidescope. That enables me to take 5-10 minute or longer exposures by locking onto a star and sending impulses to my mount if it drifts during an exposure.

AHarvey said:
Yeah I'd like to see more info on the gear, software and technique!

I've a small telescope I've been meaning to buy an adapter for but it also needs a mount as it was a cheap job and the mount doesn't work correctly :(
Click to expand...

Thanks. See above :)

Zirax said:
I had a look at this for starting a hobby. Look at a book called 'making every photon count' which goes through a lot.

Without going mad I was looking at approx 2k. This was for a half decent scope, the mount (tracking one), a finder scope and then using my 7100 in bulb mode. Alas too much light where I am and an exposure can take 6 hours+ per night. Getting that in summer is hard, winter hobby.

You could bring that figure down with second hand stuff, the main expense is actually the mount. Do you want a self calibrating one or prefer the faff of doing it all yourself from the north star?
Click to expand...

Thanks, that book is very good and was one of my first purchases. Definitely recommended if you are thinking about getting into astrophotography as it can be an expensive hobby, the book will guide you on what to expect.

My mount was in perfect condition second hand, they usually retail for £800 but I got mine for £450 or thereabouts. That's the most important thing to begin with, investing as much as you can into the mount. Camera wise I use a Canon 80D, and my telescope cost about £550.
 
A photo I took last week of the great Andromeda Galaxy, one of my favourite Deep Sky objects, the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31. The only galaxy visible with the naked eye under dark enough skies.

This is a spiral galaxy much like how our own galaxy is purported to look like if we could zoom out and see ourselves from a bird's eye view.

Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away from Earth and is on a collision course with our own galaxy, the Milky Way, travelling to us through Space and time at 140,000 kilometers per second. The collision will occur 4.5 billion years from now. The result will be a giant elliptical galaxy.

The spiral arms are being distorted by gravitational interactions with the two visible companion galaxies, M32 and M110.

5 hours worth of 3, 4 and 5 minute photos stacked together. Acquired with; Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Mod, Canon 80D, William Optics Zenithstar 73 Telescope, ASI 120MM Mini guiding camera, 50mm Starwave Guidecam, PHD2 and APT.

Processed in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31 by Joel Spencer, on Flickr
 
Very nice and the amount of time required to process those images is not small.

I'm still interested, how much light pollution is there from where you setup your kit?
 
Thanks very much guys.

A lot of time does go into getting these images, the longest data wise so far has been the Bodes and Cigar Galaxy which took 7 hours to photograph. Processing wise Andromeda, my latest version, took two days to finish.

Light pollution wise at home I have Bortle 5 skies, so semi-urban skies in a village. Where I took my latest Andromeda image was last week on Holiday, under Bortle 4 skies.

bortle-scale.jpeg
 
Light wise at home I have #5 skies. I wished I had found astrophotography in my old grandparents place. That was a solid 2 and had great skies. The old farm was even better, though I was too young. The skies back then were stunning.
 
#4 at home getting to #2 an hour or so West but I'm up on Mull in a few weeks the majority of which is #1 (21.99 where I'm stopping).

Great photography smr.
 
Interesting but I’m not sure I trust the accuracy of that site (assuming I’m using it right). Even though there’s obvious differences in the colours on that map it shows my location in rural Rutland at 4 and the middle of both Leicester and Nottingham also a 4
 
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