ASTRO: M16 quickshot

During my recent visit to country skies I was waiting for dawn to get dark
enough to start imaging when it occured to me that I could pass some time by
taking a snapshot of M16 (which I can only image in a gap between two houses
from home).
I took a 2 minute exposure with 2x2 binning which gave me an incentive to
take some longer exposures. M16 was already past meridian when I started the
series, but while it descended in the sky the sky was getting darker, so all
exposures had a similar depth.

Taken from the village of Münchehofe with an 8" GSO RC at 1025mm focal
length on a G11 mount, Atik 383L+ camera.
First picture 2 minutes Ha, second picture 5x10 minutes.

Stefan

That's going low for your location. Stars look excellent for that low
in the sky. That's a lot of signal for only 2 minutes. The first shot
looks to me to be the 5 by 10 minutes rather than a single 2 minute shot
as it is much smoother.

I need 30 minute subs with Ha to keep read noise at bay. 8300 must be
much better in that department than my 11K chip. It certainly has far
better response at the Ha wave length.

I'm out of imaging until the new dew controller arrives. Kendrick says
they can't repair the older one as it wasn't designed for a 14" dew
strip. Odd they sold both to me in the same order 7 years ago. Anyway
I went with a 1000 Oaks controller as it is rated at 10 amps not 3 of
the old controller so should handle the load which I measured today to
be 3.5 amps at 12.6 volts. So it was overloading the old controller on
the power supply I was using (home made from a partly dead 10 amp
battery charger -- circuit to monitor charge level was dead, transformer
and diodes were fine) That is regulated at 12.6 volts and had been used
with a 2 meter ham radio until I put it to use with the dew heater. Of
course I ordered it with 2 day shipping -- one day isn't available here
in the boonies. Now the forecast changed to rain through Saturday. New
gear curse hits even before the gear arrives! If I'd have gone with the
free 8 to 10 day shipping (always takes the maximum here in the boonies)
then the forecast for clear weather would have been right the way my
imaging luck has worked of late.

Rick

On 9/30/2013 3:54 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
During my recent visit to country skies I was waiting for dawn to get
dark enough to start imaging when it occured to me that I could pass
some time by taking a snapshot of M16 (which I can only image in a gap
between two houses from home).
I took a 2 minute exposure with 2x2 binning which gave me an incentive
to take some longer exposures. M16 was already past meridian when I
started the series, but while it descended in the sky the sky was
getting darker, so all exposures had a similar depth.

Taken from the village of Münchehofe with an 8" GSO RC at 1025mm focal
length on a G11 mount, Atik 383L+ camera.
First picture 2 minutes Ha, second picture 5x10 minutes.

Stefan


--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

Rick,

the order of the images seems to have changed somewhere between Berlin and
the internet.
Actually even with 20m exposures and 2x2 binning at f/5 I am not background
limited through a Ha filter under dark skies.
Even under city skies 20m exposures are markedly better than 10m.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the new dew controller has arrived and
brought clear nights with it...

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
.com...

That's going low for your location. Stars look excellent for that low
in the sky. That's a lot of signal for only 2 minutes. The first shot
looks to me to be the 5 by 10 minutes rather than a single 2 minute shot
as it is much smoother.

I need 30 minute subs with Ha to keep read noise at bay. 8300 must be
much better in that department than my 11K chip. It certainly has far
better response at the Ha wave length.

I'm out of imaging until the new dew controller arrives. Kendrick says
they can't repair the older one as it wasn't designed for a 14" dew
strip. Odd they sold both to me in the same order 7 years ago. Anyway
I went with a 1000 Oaks controller as it is rated at 10 amps not 3 of
the old controller so should handle the load which I measured today to
be 3.5 amps at 12.6 volts. So it was overloading the old controller on
the power supply I was using (home made from a partly dead 10 amp
battery charger -- circuit to monitor charge level was dead, transformer
and diodes were fine) That is regulated at 12.6 volts and had been used
with a 2 meter ham radio until I put it to use with the dew heater. Of
course I ordered it with 2 day shipping -- one day isn't available here
in the boonies. Now the forecast changed to rain through Saturday. New
gear curse hits even before the gear arrives! If I'd have gone with the
free 8 to 10 day shipping (always takes the maximum here in the boonies)
then the forecast for clear weather would have been right the way my
imaging luck has worked of late.

Rick

On 9/30/2013 3:54 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
During my recent visit to country skies I was waiting for dawn to get
dark enough to start imaging when it occured to me that I could pass
some time by taking a snapshot of M16 (which I can only image in a gap
between two houses from home).
I took a 2 minute exposure with 2x2 binning which gave me an incentive
to take some longer exposures. M16 was already past meridian when I
started the series, but while it descended in the sky the sky was
getting darker, so all exposures had a similar depth.

Taken from the village of Münchehofe with an 8" GSO RC at 1025mm focal
length on a G11 mount, Atik 383L+ camera.
First picture 2 minutes Ha, second picture 5x10 minutes.

Stefan


--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net