Anthony's Astrophotography

Hi Everyone,

August being one of the coldest months of the year for us in South East QLD it really is our best opportunity for imaging and viewing for the year. This night in particular was a little special as I couldn’t take the time off work to attend the 2013 QLD Astrofest and I really wanted to get my monthly fix of Astro Imaging in.

I popped up to Blackbutt in August with some friends and had a very pleasant evening as usual with one little difference, the night was a 10 out of 10 for viewing “all night” with pristine clear skies and no clouds to be seen at all. It really was a ripper. The whole week was a great week but I won’t dwell on the fact I missed most of it.

Anyway, I managed to get a nice shot of the Andromeda Galaxy on my new camera and am really pleased with the results, Josh also managed to get a lovely wide field shot of Scorpius.

Taken with an EQ6 Mount, Megrez 90 APO Refractor, Central DS600D and Guided with a Zenith Star 70mm APO and Loadstar guider. 56 Minutes of data at ISO 400.

Taken with a Standard Canon EOS 600D, on a Vixen (I think its a Super Polaris Mount) with RA Drive, and the Standard 18-55mm Canon lens at 18mm. 84 Minutes of data at ISO 800

For anyone interested in a comparison of the Cantral DS Image of Andromeda to a Standard Canon EOS 600D, here is the old image I took last year (2012), and I will admit my processing skills are better now. I still know the result on the Central DS camera are that much better to work with.

I hope you enjoyed the images.

Cheers

Anthony

 

Hi Everyone,

I got back from Astro Pete’s a short while ago after helping set up and play with the new SkyWatcher EQ8 mount. So where do I begin? As I mentioned earlier today I cannot comment on the “actual” performance of the mount yet as I have not been present with one running and imaging but I will share what I have found with today’s experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Everyone,

An exciting week here in Australia as the long awaited SkyWatcher EQ8 has finally hit the shores and many who ordered one have taken delivery already. There are many new pictures (of various quality) can be found of the mount and it does look like the images I have posted earlier in the year just prior to release were pretty close to the final product. These newer images can be found here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=108249  Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Everyone,

I wasn’t sure how this weekend was going to be in South East Queensland as all the weather reports said there was rain and cloud, however Skippy Sky said all would be clear for the first half of the evening so I thought I would give it a go. Well I am glad I did as I was blessed with a clear night, this time I had some company of a work colleague that wanted to come along and see what all the fuss was about. It was his first time seeing through a telescope and had a good look at Saturn and instantly became hooked, this promptly followed by how much do you think it would cost to gat a scope and mount etc. etc.???? It was great to see he had a good time.

As we enjoyed a good clear night, several Bundy Rum’s and good conversation we managed to squeeze in some imaging as well, this time I was keen to get some images of the night sky in wide field (thanks to Chris for lending me his 10-22mm Canon Lens) and think they came out quite well.

I hope you enjoy the next round of images, some are repeats but I think I am getting better as I go.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

I finally got an opportunity to get out to Blackbutt and do some imaging, this was not the new moon weekend so I had to wait for the moon to set around 12:30 AM but once it set the night really opened up and was one of the best I have seen before.

This evening I was testing out some new equipment I have purchased recently (GSO RC8 Astrograph and the Orion Deluxe Off Axis Guider, as we well as the Central DS CDS-600D), these have been sitting at my house since earlier in the year not getting any use. When I get a chance I will do a write up, but in the mean time here are some images I managed to take:

M20 (Trifid Nebula)

M8 (Lagoon Nebula)

M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy)

Last but not least I took some time lapse shots on my standard DSLR with a Canon 10-22mm Lens.

Time_Lapse_C-E-Complete_1

I hope you enjoy.

Cheers

Anthony

 

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a while since I have had time to post much and definitely not much happening in the Astrophotography area at the moment due to the almost constant rain we have had here in Brisbane Australia.

However one thing I did manage to do earlier in March after I got my Central DS CDS-600D camera was to take a snap of the Rosette Nebula. This was more of a test than anything else as it was from my backyard and the moon was out if memory serves me correctly. I really just wanted to see how much better at capturing Ha the CDS was over a standard EOS Canon.

The good thing about this comparison is they are essentially the same camera; a Canon EOS 600D, one standard the other modified by Central DS so it gives you a good comparison of the difference a filter mod can make to a camera (Note these were taken via the same telescope on the same mount etc.).

Anyway to show the comparison here are two shots, the first one was 1.2 hours of data (7 * 10 minute subs) on a standard EOS 600D DSLR in a good dark sky site, the second image is 10 minutes (2 * 5 minutes subs) on the CDS-600D with an Astronomik CLS-CCD filter in Brisbane suburban light pollution. Needless to say I was stunned by the results.

Hope you enjoy and I hope this encourages readers to consider stepping into modded DSLR or dedicated Astro camera areas, the difference is amazing.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

Looks like the Sky Watcher EQ8 mount has been delayed till May 2013 in Australia, not sure if this is delayed by technical issues or what??? but hopefully for those that have ordered one they won’t be disappointed again come May, time will tell. I have on reasonably good authority that there have been 8 EQ8’s scheduled to reach Australia in May and all of these have now been ordered, I don’t unfortunately have any details about the second round of units being shipped??? so if you are looking to get one you may have a wait on your hands.

On a positive note I did fine a PEC recording from an EQ8 kindly posted by Tommy Nawratil of www.teleskop-austria.com. They also have some great video reviews (not in English of course) but still worth watching.

If I read this correct it appears to be quite good but I must admit I do not know what all of the details mean in the real world, from my estimate on the chart the Periodic Error for the EQ8 is around 7-8 arc seconds peak to peak. This is very good if it proves to be a smooth curve and no random jerks or bumps.

If anyone can comment on this I would be interested in their thoughts???

Cheers

Anthony

 

Hi Everyone,

I am sure a lot of you are keenly watching for any updates on the EQ8 mount from Skywatcher as we are getting ever closer to that elusive March 2013 release date. Well I just stumbled across this video from Astronomy and Nature TV who have done a great close up overview of the EQ8 Mount at the European Astrofest in London and thought I would share it with you.

Suggested in the video is the fact that the Visual Payload for the EQ8 is per the stated at 50 KG as released to date, however in this video they have also indicated the Astrophotography payload is more like 35 KG. I can’t verify this naturally but thought it note worthy at the least.

I also found it interesting that Astronomy and Nature TV have advised there is no indication on pricing, I do have to wonder then how the Australian distributors have set prices for the EQ8 if this has not been set by the manufacturer already and wonder if there is something else going on here????

Seems strange to me as you should be able to look at a price and perform a simple currency conversion to get a reasonably close guestimate of what to expect for pricing. Given Bintel in Australia have these for $4,449.00 you should be able to get a good idea on price for your country.

Anyway here is the video:

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

For those that don’t know, I was invited to do a presentation for SEQAS last night during their OGM, To all the SEQAS members that were there; a very big thanks for the invitation and I hope my presentation on Autoguiding was of benefit to you all and starts you off in the right direction for your Autoguiding choices. As promised the presentation can be downloaded here. Also a big thanks for the bottle of wine, I will certainly enjoy this over the weekend :).

If any of you would like further information or have any questions please feel free to leave a post on the blog and I will get back to you soon.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

As I posted earlier I have purchased a Central DS CDS-600D camera, well this arrived on Friday so I could not wait to give it a test run. As always as soon as you buy a new toy the clouds roll in and ruin your fun. Instead I decided to do a dark frame comparison of two of the same model camera (one modded and one standard).

I have done two tests: one at ISO 1600 and the other at ISO 400 both for 10 minutes, the Central DS Camera had the cooler running naturally and the Standard 600D Camera was just that! running standard, the ambient temperature was the same for both tests as I had the Air Conditioning running at 23’C so the house could be considered a constant.

I have taken the images and blown them up to 200% and taken a copy and pasted them side by side for comparison and labelled accordingly (No stretching or manipulation at all of the image these are what came direct off the camera).

One thing not so obvious is the temp increase on the standard camera, I did the ISO1600 and then straight away the ISO 400 tests on a camera so the ISO 400 shot was after the camera had been running for 10 minutes already, the temp sensor in the Central DS Camera added only 1’C after 20 minutes continuous exposing, the EOS 600D added 7’C after the 20 minutes exposure time.

Anyway I think the images attached speak for themselves, I was very please to see the difference and cannot wait to get the camera under the sky and take some images. Cheers Anthony