NEQ6 Pro Sky-Watcher & EQM 35 GOTO Sky-Watcher

Just a plain star field @ 500mm this is 16 shots @ 5 min each. We finally managed to find the problem with the program . This come from the seconds night of guiding with a good sized moon shedding light,

Taking from the computer what works and forgetting what does not work can I take a photo of the night sky on my own in the dark. At this stage I am waiting for my 120AH 12V battery so I can run the Laptop all night long. new moon next month I will be out on the farm. I only got 26 shots 5 min/Guided each 27th the house made it into the frame but very happy with the detail in the very small Nebula. From now On I will be adding the Astronomy number for each new deep space object So you can look it up as well if you wish. In the shot below you can just see the Cats Paw Nebula to the left in the Black part of the shot.

This is in the area of Scorpio's tail. The Nebula at the top Right Is The Lobster NGC 6357 yet to be taken.

I had only a short time before the moon came up After programing failures, glitches and computer hang ups in the program took what little time I had away. after a number of restarts of the computer I just rewrote the sequence from scratch, this is just 7 shot @5 min each. A shot for my friend Ko as I told him I have not see a Galaxy or shot one , first try. A very faint Galaxy but the only one that is even close to try out, there are much smaller ones well beyond my current range. this is a huge crop of the photo to see this small amount of detail. this will get another look on a night with no moon and city night pollution.. open the link for a much better view. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_300

You think things come easy . Computer programs are not always what they seem BUT 3 hours later a whole new computer. The sequence ran as it should now tonight the real test on my own at home. I for the very first time have real faith. Carlos was totally unaware this was being taken. Enjoy Clear skies but filled with burn off smoke. Now I have files I have never used or have programs to edit.......

In the background my Mentors new Scope my Set up with his old Scope. Skywatcher EQ6 Pro mount and 800mm Scope Back Skywatcher EQM 35 Pro mount and 600mm Scope Front. Both have dedicated Astro Camera's that are Cooled to -10 c

I was given this stacked shot to edit so I had a good look at the scope and Camera before I bought it. 50 shots 4 min tracked and guided. Shot with a whole set of spectrum filters, this is a ZWO camera cooled to -10 staggeringly noise free. Now it learn how to use and edit "Fits" files nothing any of us has ever seen or used so a whole new learning curve. Hope like me you agree a good choice. my shot shows a 600mm full frame View but this shows a 900mm view from the 600mm scope and a 1.5 crop factor camera.

First Night on my own I have yet to create the Back files that go with these photos. The mount and program performed flawlessly. 600MM skywatcher telescope. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptor_Galaxy

This was a test to see how well the computer program worked on its own. I had to wait for Orion to rise at 11pm so I could start this 3 hours and a bit imaging and then the all important Darks. It was set up and go to bed set the alarm for 2:45 in the morning to put the lens cap on the lens for the Dark's then go back to bed. This had to happen before the sun started to rise at 4 am in the morning. When I got up at 6 am it was all on computer just as it was programed Looks like we have tamed a few of those dragons. Taken with D810 and 300mm D prime lens. This will be visited again out on the farm in the real dark. Enjoy the first night that Fully went to plan and computer lived up to what it was suppose to do. Cant wait for Orion to rise sooner to get more images. PIP the first look on the Star adventurer.

This was taken over two nights and with the Skywatcher scope ED80 and an Auto focuser. Tracked guided 10min shots 28 shots in total. one night in moon light one night no moonlight but all taken in the city lights. this is just above Orion nebula in the southern hemisphere so it would be below in the northern hemisphere. Added data gave me some thing I tried to kill but in the end best to leave the Bight light of Rigel to shine on the Witch as a spot light. I have only cropped out the edges that show the stacking. enjoy the Witch.

This is the result Of shooting three nights in a Row with out a moon or clouds. In total 68 shots or 11 1/2 hours shot time I had the trees one side and the house the other so limited my number of shot to 30odd a night. The shots guided with PHD2 Dev3 which proved very good at guiding. For the first time editing done in Pix Insight, Photoshop and Finished out in Light room. This is the Skywatcher ED 80 scope at work with the D810 the extra detail that came out with each night photos added made this worth while. Action shot from the third night.

The Nebula is named as it looks like a Seagull flying with wings both sides of the head. I was looking for a new target to try out while there was no moon and I was able to get two nights cloud free, this is Just below Sirius in the Milky way. We see in Summer its mostly only stars in the bow not a lot of colour or dust clouds. I have added to the shot below all the targets shot this year. This is 8h 20 min worth of shots 10 min each over two nights no moon & no clouds. the starless version may give you the shape better.

My very first ever attempt of deep space some two years ago was Carina as it is so bight you can see it with your naked eye if you are out of the city light plume. Three consecutive nights of shots in the city light area some with moon light some with no moon. 118 shots 10 min ISO 200 Guided PHD2 Dev3. Shot DSLR Nikon D810 FF using a Skywatcher ED80 telescope In this case it's a 510mm view of the sky above. This was a case of set and let it auto start in SGP each night in the end close to 20 hours of shot time in total. First time all of this has gone without a hitch all in auto mode starting and stopping by itself. Most of this editing was stretching very little colour edit as much as possible as shot. I wanted all the colour that is around the nebula as well as the nebula. Only very small crop to remove stacking artifacts. The detail in this shot is quite staggering will be a very long time it comes down from my computer screen. Please note I went back and looked at the first edit and have redone with what I know in 2024 as a result of a much better photo and still one of my fav shots.

Even now I still can not see any chicken or why it was called so. Part of the Milky way and Just below the very large Carina Nebula at the moment Just rising in the Southern Skies. Read the link below and look at the second photo you can see the same Chicken shape. www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11444109/nasa-running-chicken-nebula-photo-light-years-space-astronomy This as 3 night shooting 119 shots 10Min Subs just short of 20hours . the sad part is a lot of this is moon efected. But much better than my first try at this strange nebula.

my first solo night with the CCD camera(red in the PIP) I chose some thing the Northern Hemisphere would know and was not too complicated for me. This is the Southern equivalent. This is my first time dealing with Fits files not the normal photo file most would ever see a pure Astro file. Apart from a glitch that turned the whole computer off when I first went inside at 9 pm. the 33 shot 10min 5.5 hours worth. Guided shots that make this up after midnight When I got up to watch over the flip. Camera is running at -10c no not your normal camera as there is no shutter on a CCD there is no sounds just the turning of the gears on the mount. I will add the shot from my phone so you can see why I was watching the flip, camera came within 1 1/2" of the leg of the mount. this is why I watched the flip.

This is the same data as the above shot but edited first in PixInsight and just finished off in Ps. The Use of PixInsight brings to the shot a far better amount of nebulocity and a far simpler way to edit the photo. Still learning I hope you agree much better and clearer.

The top prize in the Perth Astro Frest 2021 Deep Space was Taken out by my mentor and Friend Carlos with his stunning photo of the Dragons Starless.. I have huge boots to fill and only had my phone. Saturday 6 of March Due to Covid related concerns it was kept to a very small Affair but will we hope be opened up to the full show in November this year.

This is a look at the same data from the first shot but using PixInsight processing first up. All the dust clouds show up that is around the two nebula's not see in the Ps edit. this was only ever a look see and trial only 28 shots. Even the very faint Nebula NGC 1999 shows up. One for the end of the year and out on the farm with horizon to horizon views all night long. This was shot with Nikon D300mm F4 lens and 1.4 converter on the D810 all Nikon. I will retry with the 600mm Skywatcher ED80 and D810 latter months of the year.