These images, were taken by my brother here in Michigan who's fallen into Astronomy and Astrophotography in a big way. He's actually taking these images with a 14" dobsonian and ASI224MC camera. The dob is NOT driven, so he takes the image by letting it drift across the frame. And then he uses a program called PIPP to do initial centering and then the same programs everyone uses (Autostakkert and Registax).
Very nice, Terri and brother! I hope your pockets are deep!
Wow, his image is comparable to or better than the best we have been able to get. Would never guess this was from a non-tracking scope. By the way there are more details in the images that more aggressive processing will bring out before processing artifacts start creeping in.
Goes to show what technology can do. Also shows how a large telescope with an inherently larger image scale (focal length) can produce a better image given good seeing. Just as with deep sky imaging a high signal to noise ratio (S/N) is important to clean images. You don't mention whether his used a Barlow or not. But assuming he used only a 2X Barlow and his scope is f/4.5 his f/ration for the image is only f/9 compared to something like f/20-f/45 for a smaller scope which are 5-25 times dimmer. I am operating my 10" f/5.6 at f/32 using eyepiece projection which makes my image 12.6 times dimmer. He can shoot at much lower exposure times and lower gain settings.
Thanks Paul, I passed you comments on to my brother.. he's pretty happy with the results as well. He was over my dad's last night and I processed his latest data using astrosurface.. The latest data is even better. And as soon as he sends me his final image (it was on his laptop) I'll post it. It has more detail than I've been able to get in Vermont. So what I don't understand, is that I keep on hearing why Vermont seeing is so bad, and that's because of the jet stream. But the jet stream also passes through this area in Michigan just as often it seems (just dong a brief look). So then why can we get such good seeing in Michigan, while it eludes us in Vermont??
My brother Gene is using an Orion 14" dob, on a manual mount. His stacks are like 10 seconds long at most due to how quickly the planet flies across his small FOV. I know it's all about the seeing, but why is Michigan seeing better given they seem to be under the jet stream just as much as us? Is there another factor that causes the bad seeing?
He's using a 2X power mate on the scope, which is F4.9 and an ASI224MC camera (same as I use).
Terri
Well, I don't know much about the Jet Stream other than that it is associated with poor seeing. I have seen that on https://www.astrospheric.com/ if you click on the map, you get the option to select the Jet Stream overlay. Checking that out for this weekend, I see that there seems to be poor correlation between the Jet Stream and the seeing predictions, but then one probably should compare them only when there are no clouds.
There are a lot of other sources that create poor seeing, the Jet Stream is at the higher levels of the atmosphere. Poor seeing can come from any level of the atmosphere and warm air rising from a nearby road, parking lot, one's own paved driveway, houses (especially if looking low over them), heat coming off you own body (when showing people the planets I pay attention to the wind direction and often ask people to change where they are standing or when imaging planets move myself if I can) and from the scope itself. If one racks the focuser out (focusing on closer to the scope) while viewing one can get an idea of where some of the bad seeing is coming from. You can even see warm air currents in the tube of the telescope when they exist.
Now that I have more time to observe, I have been surprised by how often the seeing is above average, that is, times I get the best views the planets using magnifications of 200x or more. That's my personal criteria for above average seeing. I usually don't even try imaging the planets unless the best views are at 250-300x.
Does your brother stack frames from just one 10 sec sequence or several? He can stack frames from each sequence and then stack the stacks.
Well, I don't know much about the Jet Stream other than that it is associated with poor seeing. I have seen that on https://www.astrospheric.com/ if you click on the map, you get the option to select the Jet Stream overlay. Checking that out for this weekend, I see that there seems to be poor correlation between the Jet Stream and the seeing predictions, but then one probably should compare them only when there are no clouds.
There are a lot of other sources that create poor seeing, the Jet Stream is at the higher levels of the atmosphere. Poor seeing can come from any level of the atmosphere and warm air rising from a nearby road, parking lot, one's own paved driveway, houses (especially if looking low over them), heat coming off you own body (when showing people the planets I pay attention to the wind direction and often ask people to change where they are standing or when imaging planets move myself if I can) and from the scope itself. If one racks the focuser out (focusing on closer to the scope) while viewing one can get an idea of where some of the bad seeing is coming from. You can even see warm air currents in the tube of the telescope when they exist.
Now that I have more time to observe, I have been surprised by how often the seeing is above average, that is, times I get the best views the planets using magnifications of 200x or more. That's my personal criteria for above average seeing. I usually don't even try imaging the planets unless the best views are at 250-300x.
Does your brother stack frames from just one 10 sec sequence or several? He can stack frames from each sequence and then stack the stacks.
Hi Paul, he typically adds numerous videos of <10seconds each (say a whole 1-2 minutes worth). So like us, he tries to limit a stack to a minute or two. Then he uses that catenated video (using PIPP). I'd never heard of PIPP until from him. As you can expect, there's a huge Astronomy presence in Michigan (given the population).. so he has many people around here to draw from. I'd like to give him access to our forum. Do you have any issue? He's a good guy, he's my brother. He's a builder by trade. There are multiple dark sky preserves in Michigan as well. There's a huge one up west of Mackinaw city which I didn't know of. I think this next year I'll be bringing a telescope with me on my summer vacation to Michigan.
Give it a try with your big Meade dob! I'm dying to try my 'fixed' C11. It came back to Vermont on Wednesday but since I'm in Michigan for another week, it sits untested.
Terri
We only require a good reason to register non-VAS members on our forum. That's a good reason. Send his email address directly to me and I'll register him.
The latest images are even better. Some great seeing nights. To be honest, he said this is the best seeing he's ever had.. so it's not always like this
