# Portion of the Milky Way



## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

Finally got some clear skies tonight for some testing. Managed to get a 10 minute unguided shot. It was hardly readable but I could see a few stars and they were nice and round. Background noise was too high for that length of exposure here. Took a few of sections of the Milky way. Wide angle shots 40mm STM f2.8 lens. 200 sec this is a single image no stack.










Griz


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## SwampRat (Jul 30, 2004)

Breathtaking.

Shoot, I was happy to see a single satellite from my light polluted backyard last night.

Great pic.


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## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

*Nice and dark here*

Its nice and dark except to the east (Marble Falls). And if I want it dark in that direction its not far to Inks Lake. Austin Astro Society has a dark site there. It was so nice to see that pic after working on this thing for over a month now. This stuff is what got me interested in photography in the first place. And this rig is much easier to use and works much better. When I bought my Nexstar 11" SCT they had just came out. Goto scopes were just coming on the scene. Big mistake. It took them a few years to get all the problems ironed out. When you consider that a telescope with optical quality equal too or better than a Canon L series lens is going to cost you dearly doing it this way makes a lot more sense to me. Using 1000mm or less of focal length makes it much easier to get good shots. The software is better too. BackyardEOS is awesome. Especially the focus and frame section. Since you can't see the stars in the viewfinder usually and in liveview its hard to tell when they are focused. But with a histogram and numeric display of where you are as far as focus is concerned its easy. The program uses the Full Width Half Maximum to determine when focus is achieved. Another one of those things having to do with the airy disk and diffraction. Sure does work well for focus.

All in all it was a great evening playing with my new toy. The encoder hardware will be here next week. Then finding stuff will be easy too. Although I didn't have any problems finding anything last night. The red dot sight in the hotshoe is a keeper.

Griz


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## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

Very Nice indeed!


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

That is a neat shot Griz.


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Great shot!


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## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

There is a lot more there. That dark region should be much darker and more pronounced and the colors are off just a bit. Ps just isn't up to this kind of stuff you need more specialized software. I'm checking out pixinsight and imagemagic right now. Wish I still had MaxImDL I know that one pretty well but its probably the most expensive running around 600 bucks. So I'll probably go with one of the other two since they are more reasonable but still kinda high at around 200 bucks. Looks like clouds etc for the next few days. No biggie my encoders should be here this week and I need some time to modify them to work with the StarLapse. Hopefully by the next clear stretch I'll be all computerized and can spend the night shooting instead of looking.

Griz


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## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

*Reworked with IM*

Checking out a couple of astro photo specific image processing programs. PixInsight and ImagesPlus. I reprocessed the Milky Way image using one of the ImagesPlus tutorials. Came out a lot better. Not quite as much to learn with these as say Photoshop but they are fairly complicated. Amazing how they bring out the detail and color though. And get rid of the noise. Working on another tut today that is all about getting the background right with no artifacts and the right color. Looks like its going to be cloudy for a few days so its a good time to play with these two programs and see which one I want to buy.










Griz


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## DA REEL DADDY (Jun 7, 2005)

Man that looks like eternity. Beautiful. Thanks.


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## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

Getting to work on the computerized pointing now. Installed the encoder on the RA axis. The DEC axis is going to be more trouble than I expected. I was hoping to be able to just turn the other encoder cover over and attach that to the camera mounting arm. But its center hole is too wide. So much for an easy fix  No biggie though found the same disk but in a smaller version that will fit and allow the reader to be mounted on something besides thin air. Ordered the other disk but its a 1-3 week lead so I'm going to be using the red dot for a few more weeks. Just takes me me too long to find stuff. Doesn't help that much to know where in the sky stuff is. The field of view is so small you could be right by something you want to image and never see it. Go all around it then see the thing in one of the photos you missed. Frustrating and I hate frustration. Looks like I'm going to get a couple of days to play this weekend. Although the moon will be up and that pretty much kills any nebula photos. Lots of star clusters to go for though. I'd like to get M13 before it disappears for the winter. Wanted to get some r/c photos this weekend but looks like its going to be too muddy for the scooter. I managed to get it stuck trying to get it in the car yesterday  Oh well I'm not going to complain about the rain we need it big time.










The encoder module is at the end of the axis. The circular cover just in front of the clutch nut. You have to use their encoders as the design of the axis has a porter slip ring clutch and so 6 steel pins go through the encoder disk to allow the clutch nut to work. A little tricky to get installed and aligned but once you have it done its not going to move or change in any way.

Griz


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