#autoguider

[spacettf]

Dumbbell Nebula by homcavobservatory Via Flickr: The Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) - is a 'planetary nebula' (i.e. a star in the process of dying) lying approximately 1350 light-years from Earth and spanning about 3 light-years in diameter, One of the larger and brighter planetary nebulae, it can be found in the constellation of Vulpecula. The first planetary nebula ever discovered (by Charles Messier in 1764), the central star is the largest white dwarf known and among those with the highest surface temperature (i.e. 85,000 K (as opposd to 5,778 K for our Sun)). Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory using a (1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion reflector, connected to a Celestron coma corrector and Canon 700D DSLR; riding on a Losmandy G-11 dual-axis drive mount autoguided using an Orion Starshoot thru an 80 MM Celestron short-tube refractor, controlled by PhD 2.0. This image is our first test using this autoguided system and has been resized down here to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered from 16 to 8 bits per channel to reduce the file size.

[astrofensch-blog]

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven’t posted for a little while but I finally had some imaging time this month. My birthday was this past June 9th and for a present to myself I imaged in the backyard until 2 am! I was super fortunate to have clear skies on my birthday.

I decided to have a little fun and not just image one target. Instead I was going to spend about 5-10 minutes on as many targets as I could get in before going to bed. I was able to hit up 7 globular clusters and then spent my final 40 minutes on M57 the Ring Nebula. All of the images were shot at the same focal length and then cropped the same. So when I put them side by side in one photo their various sizes could be compared. I really like how it turned out. They are not great quality, but even though I only stacked 5-7 images of each object they turned out remarkably nice. I plan to keep going through more Messier objects and adding to this photo until I can print it as a poster! So look for updates to be added here.

I used my Celestron CG5 Mount and polar aligned it. I had my 6.3 reducer on my 6in schmitt scope which brought my focal length to 945mm f/6.3. Only used my Orion Auto Guider for M57 since it is much darker. I needed to do 4 minute exposures with that target. Most exposures for the globulars were either 30 seconds or 1 minute and about 7 images were taken of each for stacking to help reduce noise a bit. Camera was my Canon 60D set to RAW. Used deep sky stacker to do the stacking. Then edited each photo in Lightroom and Photoshop. No light pollution filters were used.

[astrofanatic]

Astrofanatic Imaging Upgrade

Purchased an Orion Starshoot Solitaire autoguider this weekend and a Orion ST80 scope for the guiding. Initial tests are extremely encouraging!! 5 min exposures are no problem for it, i think i could in fact do 10 mins with no issues. Later this week my astro modded Canon 750D will arrive so keep an eye out for a considerable improvement in my images (i hope!) 

[meigsqzy-blog]

Orion Awesome Autoguider Refractor Telescope Package

Orion Awesome Autoguider Refractor Telescope Package We can guide you to better quality astro-images, literally, with our Awesome Autoguider package. No matter what telescope you're using for long-exposure image capture, precise guiding is an absolute requirement to get pinpoint star images. This exclusive package makes autoguiding easy, and its price is easy on your wallet. Package includes Orion ShortTube 80 refractor, StarShoot AutoGuider, 1.25" Extension tube (for focus), Guide scope rings and Guide scope ring mounting bar. If you aspire to be an awesome astro-imager, get the affordabel Awesome Autoguider package today!