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Canon 1100D First Alt-Az Light

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Dec 012013

UPDATE: Ivo of Star Tools showed me how to process my FITS files and here is his take on my M42 below. He used Star Tools’s Repair module to turn my arrowhead stars into points – not bad for an alt-az mount.

M42 rework by Ivo of Star Tools

I just tried out my new 1100D with a Canon 75-300 zoom on some deep sky objects. The camera was mounted on a Nexstar 4SE mount in alt-az mode aligned using 1 star with no guiding. My location is in a heavily light polluted city. Capture was by the Canon EOS utility program which captured around 30 shots at 30 seconds and 1600 ISO for each object. Stacking was done in DeepSkyStacker and post processing in Star Tools.

Still getting the hang of the software but I am pretty pleased with my first efforts at deep sky. I am still trying to figure why the stars are little triangles – vibration or lens distortion? Click on any image to view the original frame.

M42

M81 and M82

M45

AstroKam v4 Released

CHDK AstroKam Comments Off

Nov 222013

AstroKam v4 is now available from the link at right. The main change is that you can now edit your automatic capture plans in-programme before you capture.

The Image Sort module can also now handle Canon .CR2 and .CRW raw files.

AstroKam M37

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Nov 162013

Another shot of M37 taken with a Canon A810 and Nexstar 4SE (alt-az). Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Star Tools.

Alt-Az Messier 42

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Nov 132013

AstroKam was used in a 2 hour capture session using my Canon A810 mounted on my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode.

I used AstroKam’s new Sort routine to pick out the best captures which were stacked in DeepSkyStacker. Star Tools then brought out the details and colors to produce this image. Pretty good for a £50 camera?

AstroKam Trial Images 2013-11-05

CHDK AstroKam Comments Off

Nov 102013

Below are the first trial overnight auto-survey images using AstroKam to control my Canon A810 and Nexstar alt-az mount. Still getting the hang of things but I am pretty pleased considering the camera only cost £50. Click on each detail image to see the original widefield shot. All images stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Star Tools. Note that these images were taken using just the camera lens – no telescope was involved.

M45 Detail

M42

Comet Ison 2013-11-5

M37

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Nov 102013

Here is my latest capture using AstroKam with my Canon A810 looking thru the eyepiece of my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode. Stacking in Deep Sky Stacker and processing in Star Tools.

The sky was patchy so I only got 11x 10s lights, 2 darks and 2 biases.

Possible forum security breach

News Comments Off

Jul 282013

I had to close down the forum and foto sharing site because of a possible security breach and constant spam attacks.

The Yahoo user group has therefore been reborn and is available here

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/window_sill_observatory/

Lunar Flypass with Canon A810

CHDK AstroKam, Moon Comments Off

May 052013

This is a movie I made with my £50 Canon A810 hooked up to my Nexstar 4SE. Best viewed in full screen.

Canon A810 Moon

CHDK AstroKam, Moon Comments Off

May 032013

I have been trying out my £50 Canon A810 camera for astro work. An early trial was to connect it to my Nexstar 4SE scope with a Skywatcher digiscoping bracket and the results were pretty good.

Here is a sample and you can see more of the image by clicking on it.

Banish Newton’s Rings

Tutorials Comments Off

Sep 272012

We had a good discussion on my old Yahoo user group about how to remove Netwon’s Rings from your h-alpha setups. I have condensed the results of our discussion here to help others with this problem.

Newton’s rings are caused by interference arising from internal reflections in your imaging train and look like this.

Newton’s Rings

User Robert suggested that the rings could be eliminated by slightly tilting the camera. I came up with a simple design sketch like so.

Daves Tiltometer Mk II

Users Robert, Mike and Jack then built test versions which seem to work very well. Jack’s version was used to re-image the above view to give this which is a dramatic improvement.