Instagram Astrophotography

[orly_andico]

I call it "instagram" because these are 1- or 2-minute unguided subs, lots of them, from the balcony.

Planetary nebs and globs are easy, it turns out, and remarkably resistant to light pollution, no need for filtration.

Ring Nebula, M57, 48 x 1 minute


Eskimo/Clownfish (NGC2392), 12 x 2 minutes


M13, 58 x 1 minute

[kimo]

Hi orly, nice pics. hope to see colour version.

[PETER LOO]

Nice shots Orly, good contrast, high degree of clarity (sign of good SNR), your shots are getting better & better

[orly_andico]

Sorry guys, no color version as I don't have the requisite filter wheel and filters.

I am debating whether to get the FW5-8300 or abandon SBIG land altogether. Condensation control on the ST8300 (non-F) is a royal PITA.

[Airconvent]

These are great Orly! I prefer to call them "classic" instead of "instagram" though. They look like photographic plates from a past era...

[Gary]

Nice! Balcony with a view is the next best thing to a rooftop observatory!

[MooEy]

I am debating whether to get the FW5-8300 or abandon SBIG land altogether. Condensation control on the ST8300 (non-F) is a royal PITA.

mine is pretty dry, you probably got a defective unit. check with sbig if you can get the desiccant changed.

~MooEy~

[orly_andico]

It was actually OK for about 3 months, then when the existing desiccant got exhausted all my troubles began. I can't get decent desiccant anywhere. It has peeved me to the extent that I'm thinking of bailing on the SBIG system. I already checked with SBIG. They are supposed to get back to me with desiccant and a new O-ring but I haven't heard from them. Pretty annoying customer support.

The other thing is - how often do you run your ST8300M? I'm a big fan of the method of exhaustion so on a clear night I can have it running for 4+ hours or more. So in 3 months I probably racked up 50 hours on it..

The other option is to send it back to SBIG for servicing. That's about $50 shipping each way and $125 for the actual servicing. Which is OK, but I would be without a camera for well-nigh a month or even more if I'm unlucky. And, what happens when the desiccant gets exhausted again...

"should have bought a QHY9"

and the SBIG TEC is kind of weak. Single stage, it struggles to maintain -5 Celsius...

[orly_andico]

Here's a color version of M13. Turns out I had some scary 1.25" RGB filters from my old Meade DSI Pro. I also had a couple 1.25" filter holders for my Gerd Neumann filter drawer. The amount of vignetting with 1.25" filters is eye-wateringly bad..

So.. I took the other nights 58x60s L, and added 15x60s R, 12x60s G, and 15x60s B. Due to incorrect spacing between the flattener and the CCD (due to the thickness of the Gerd Neumann filter drawer) the registration between the L and RGB isn't perfect.



Frankly, due to my red/green color blindness I don't really see much difference between this ostensibly color image, and the L image.