Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Hankmeister3
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Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

#1

Post by Hankmeister3 »


I finally got a weather break (of sorts) on 3/24/20 but I had to travel west of where I live here in central Illinois to the small town of Farmer City and quickly locate a site to set up my equipment. This impromptu arrangement was made necessary by the fact the clear weather front was still hours out to the west and wouldn't have reached my normal viewing locations until around 10:00pm which would have put Orion and Canis Major out of play. As it was banks of fog put everything out of play by 9:00 anyway.

Having never set-up near this small rural town before, I was fortunate enough to find some abandoned silos off a country road four miles north of the small town which also provided a windbreak. By the time I had assembled my equipment in a record time of 15 minutes, Polaris was now shining brightly. I loaded my viewing site's new coordinates in the controller after consulting my Polar alignment app and was polar-aligned in another three minutes after touching up the image in the polar scope. Two minutes later I had my sidereal alignment using the one-star alignment mode and I was tracking in PPEC. The ground was a bit spongey so I wasn't sure how long the polar alignment would hold after several hours of settling in. But that soon become irrelevant.

Long and short, after attempting to re-collimate my Orion Newtonian's optics, I noted the primary mirror was beginning to fog because I had removed the shower cap to access the screw adjustments. However, once collimated I shot a few frames of M42 and noted the haloes around the brighter stars. Drats, the primary mirror was just a bit too fogged. Shutting that camera down, I went to the Meade 70mm piggy-back scope and noted its front objective was still clear and decided that was my only option for the evening. The humidity was already off the charts and my equipment was already sweating even before the fog began to roll in 45 minutes later. At that point the wind/breeze was less than 3 to 4 mph on the lee side of the silos, the air was remarkably steady - probably close to a Pickering 6 - the sunset afterglow was gone and the sky was about a Bortle 3 to 4. Given the wretched levels of humidity, transparency was actually quite respoectable and the Milky Way running through the Orion region was clearly visible.

I was able to capture a string of about twenty images of M42 before I sat back in my viewing chair and noted the surrounding sky was going away really fast. I then noted all the farm lights on the horizon had totally disappeared because of fog banks rolling in. Drats, foiled again! I quickly reviewed my last few frames and noted the haloes around the brighter stars. Yep, my night was done! Though directly overhead at zenith, the view was still acceptable, I decided it wasn't worth it so I tore everything down and loaded up. Of course, by the time I finished and looked around, the fog had cleared out, or it had cleared where I was. Should I? Nope, I was done. And good thing I made that decision because as I was driving back to the Interstate I drove through several other fog banks. Yeah, same ol' story, Nature 1 … Hank 0.

However, the next morning I did manage to salvage some useable images captured with the Meade 70mm, enough to generate a not-so-spectacular single-frame of M42 and an okay Stakker-Lite version using six frames/lights. If what started out as a somewhat spectacular evening had held and my Orion 6-inch was still available for imaging, I think it would have turned out to be a nice night, especially since I was going to try to image a series of galaxies that evening like M106, M101 and other galaxies which members here had somewhat recently posted.

If nothing else, I guess what these images are really a testament to is Meade's 70mm f/4 quadruplet's ability to image in far less than ideal circumstances. It delivered when my other main scope could not, so all was not lost. And now I have opportunity to try again tonight though winds will be twenty mph plus! I recently bought a windbreak setup (six foot tall and 12 foot wide) from Amazon.com. I guess I'll find out if this thing is worth the $90 I paid for it. It appears to be a very nice and hardy set-up.

Actually, upon further review, the single-frame appears to be superficially better than the Stakker-Lite image, but there are subtle differences which argue otherwise … I think.

Meade 70mm f/5 Quadruplet astrograph
SW EQ6-R Pro, PPEC tracking only
Canon EOS 77D DSLR unmodified
Single-frame … 90 seconds, ISO 1000
Stakker Lite … six frames/lights, total data - 207 seconds
No filters

First image - single-frame, full frame
Second image - single-frame, 3X crop
Third image - Stakker-Lite full frame
Fourth Frame - Stakker-Lite, 3X crop
Attachments
IMG_4859_NEW.jpg
IMG_4859_NEW 1.jpg
M42 Orion Nebula  6-stack Meade70mm f5 (2)_NEW.jpg
M42 Orion Nebula  6-stack Meade70mm f5 (2)_NEW1.jpg
Telescopes: Meade LX90 10-inch f/10 UHC Coma-free SCT; Explore Scientific 127mm f/7.5 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 80mm f/6 APO ED triplet refractor; Skywatcher 72mm f/6 ED Schott doublet refractor; Meade 70mm f/5 APO quadruplet astrograph refractor; Skywatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Orion 6-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Skywatcher SkyMax 180mm f/15 Maksutov; iOptron 150mm f/12 Maksutov; Orion f/9 Ritchey-Chretien RC astrograph
Eyepieces: Set of 7 Baader Hyperion eyepieces, 3 Meade 5000 glass handgrenades; 1970s era Japanese manufactured Meade 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and too many other eclectic eyepieces to list
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro mount; Orion Atlas EQ-G mount
Post-production Software: Not good enough … oh, okay ... Canon's proprietary CanoScan ArcSoft 9000F photoshop suite
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

#2

Post by STEVE333 »


Quite an epic adventure Henry. I was tired just reading about it :auto-swerve: . That was a lot of effort to capture the few frames. Hats off to your perseverance.

I like the richer colors of the stacked image, but, the faint nebulosity of the single frame. The stacked image also loses the faint blue around the core. Always so many tradeoffs when processing these images. Still, both images are nice in their own way.

Cheers,
Steve
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Hankmeister3 »


Thanks, Steve. I concur with you on all points. Yeah, and I was really tired just living what I described … heh!

In the end I determined foggy bottom astrophotography won't make it onto any of my future AP plans! Hopefully this was just a one-off experience.
Telescopes: Meade LX90 10-inch f/10 UHC Coma-free SCT; Explore Scientific 127mm f/7.5 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 80mm f/6 APO ED triplet refractor; Skywatcher 72mm f/6 ED Schott doublet refractor; Meade 70mm f/5 APO quadruplet astrograph refractor; Skywatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Orion 6-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Skywatcher SkyMax 180mm f/15 Maksutov; iOptron 150mm f/12 Maksutov; Orion f/9 Ritchey-Chretien RC astrograph
Eyepieces: Set of 7 Baader Hyperion eyepieces, 3 Meade 5000 glass handgrenades; 1970s era Japanese manufactured Meade 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and too many other eclectic eyepieces to list
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro mount; Orion Atlas EQ-G mount
Post-production Software: Not good enough … oh, okay ... Canon's proprietary CanoScan ArcSoft 9000F photoshop suite
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Mac »


Thanks for the run-down Henry. I love reading your posts.

We share some of the same luck or maybe it is just all of us APers. Good captures with what you had to work with. I hope your wind-shields work well. If my scope was setup now it would be blowing away.
Steve

Scopes : Explore Scientific ED102 Triplet APO - Radian Raptor Triplet APO - Orion 50mm
Mount : AVX EQ | Software : KStars - EKOS - Stellar OS | Cameras : ZWO ASI533MC ASI1600MM ASI120MM-mini
CPU : Mac Studio, iMac - Kstars-Ekos on Raspberry Rpi4/RPi5 | Misc : Thousand Oaks dew controller - DewNot straps - Optolong L-enhance - ZWO EAF
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Makuser »


Hello Henry. A great post thread from you. You came away with several nice M42 images. Some nice nebulosity details and pretty color. Thanks for the views Henry, and also your fine report.
Marshall
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Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
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Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Hankmeister3 »


Thanks, Mac. Given we both live in flyover country, Ohio and Illinois often share the same weather patterns as you well know. How's that saying go, "If you live in the Midwest and you don't like the weather, wait a half hour and it will change." And that was the story of my life last night, too! Another post coming this evening or tomorrow.
Telescopes: Meade LX90 10-inch f/10 UHC Coma-free SCT; Explore Scientific 127mm f/7.5 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 80mm f/6 APO ED triplet refractor; Skywatcher 72mm f/6 ED Schott doublet refractor; Meade 70mm f/5 APO quadruplet astrograph refractor; Skywatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Orion 6-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Skywatcher SkyMax 180mm f/15 Maksutov; iOptron 150mm f/12 Maksutov; Orion f/9 Ritchey-Chretien RC astrograph
Eyepieces: Set of 7 Baader Hyperion eyepieces, 3 Meade 5000 glass handgrenades; 1970s era Japanese manufactured Meade 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and too many other eclectic eyepieces to list
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro mount; Orion Atlas EQ-G mount
Post-production Software: Not good enough … oh, okay ... Canon's proprietary CanoScan ArcSoft 9000F photoshop suite
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Mac »


Hankmeister3 wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 2:52 pm Thanks, Mac. Given we both live in flyover country, Ohio and Illinois often share the same weather patterns as you well know. How's that saying go, "If you live in the Midwest and you don't like the weather, wait a half hour and it will change." And that was the story of my life last night, too! Another post coming this evening or tomorrow.
This weekend is looking really good with 3 nights of clear, mostly clear. Let's hope it isn't an April's fools joke.

Look forward to your next post.
Screen Shot 2020-03-30 at 8.57.46 AM.png
Steve

Scopes : Explore Scientific ED102 Triplet APO - Radian Raptor Triplet APO - Orion 50mm
Mount : AVX EQ | Software : KStars - EKOS - Stellar OS | Cameras : ZWO ASI533MC ASI1600MM ASI120MM-mini
CPU : Mac Studio, iMac - Kstars-Ekos on Raspberry Rpi4/RPi5 | Misc : Thousand Oaks dew controller - DewNot straps - Optolong L-enhance - ZWO EAF
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Juno16 »


Great report Henry!

You gave it a really good shot and got tossed around a bit by the weather. All of us have been shut down before. Especially when you take extra steps to avoid the weather. It sometimes just chases you down!

In spite of the weather, you pulled off some really nice images. That Meade 70 is a keeper!

Great work and a fine effort!
Jim

Scopes: Explore Scientific ED102 APO, Sharpstar 61 EDPH II APO, Samyang 135 F2 (still on the Nikon).
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Camera/Filters/Software: ASI 533 mc pro, ASI 120mm mini, Orion SSAG, IDAS LPS D-1, Optolong L-Enhance, ZWO UV/IR Cut, N.I.N.A., Green Swamp Server, PHD2, Adobe Photoshop CC, Pixinsight.
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

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Post by Hankmeister3 »


Thank you Makuser, Very kind words for very marginal results on my part! At least it wasn't a total loss. Dewy, foggy, cloudy or any other weather phenomenon that ends in a "y" really sucks when it comes to AP. Not that I didn't know that from day one. (whine mode/off).

During these difficult times for many people, sometimes a bit of (dark) humor can go a long ways. I can't remember where I saw this observation, but someone who wasn't an amateur astronomer was commenting on the "social distancing" which is now going on during the COVID-19 scourge. Of course, some more sensitive souls have taken exception to the term "social distancing" and would rather have it called "physical distancing" … sigh, whatever. But the observational humor this one national American commentator made that I thought was funny was, "This would be a fine time to take up astronomy or astrophotography!"

Yep, been there and am doing that, sir! Heh!

Not that I'm an anti-social person because actually I like mixing with friends or at celebrations. But being retired my daily routine hasn't really changed all that much even now. Of course my semi-retired wife has to put up with me more around the house but so far so good … so far.
Telescopes: Meade LX90 10-inch f/10 UHC Coma-free SCT; Explore Scientific 127mm f/7.5 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 80mm f/6 APO ED triplet refractor; Skywatcher 72mm f/6 ED Schott doublet refractor; Meade 70mm f/5 APO quadruplet astrograph refractor; Skywatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Orion 6-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Skywatcher SkyMax 180mm f/15 Maksutov; iOptron 150mm f/12 Maksutov; Orion f/9 Ritchey-Chretien RC astrograph
Eyepieces: Set of 7 Baader Hyperion eyepieces, 3 Meade 5000 glass handgrenades; 1970s era Japanese manufactured Meade 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and too many other eclectic eyepieces to list
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro mount; Orion Atlas EQ-G mount
Post-production Software: Not good enough … oh, okay ... Canon's proprietary CanoScan ArcSoft 9000F photoshop suite
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Re: Foggy Bottom Astrophotography

#10

Post by Hankmeister3 »


Thanks again, Jim and Mac. I'll be posting a few of the images I was able to grab last night before the forecast went bust.
Telescopes: Meade LX90 10-inch f/10 UHC Coma-free SCT; Explore Scientific 127mm f/7.5 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO ED triplet refractor; Explore Scientific 80mm f/6 APO ED triplet refractor; Skywatcher 72mm f/6 ED Schott doublet refractor; Meade 70mm f/5 APO quadruplet astrograph refractor; Skywatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Orion 6-inch f/4 Newtonian astrograph; Skywatcher SkyMax 180mm f/15 Maksutov; iOptron 150mm f/12 Maksutov; Orion f/9 Ritchey-Chretien RC astrograph
Eyepieces: Set of 7 Baader Hyperion eyepieces, 3 Meade 5000 glass handgrenades; 1970s era Japanese manufactured Meade 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and too many other eclectic eyepieces to list
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro mount; Orion Atlas EQ-G mount
Post-production Software: Not good enough … oh, okay ... Canon's proprietary CanoScan ArcSoft 9000F photoshop suite
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