New Equipment
Earlier this year I bought a Starizona Hyperstar lens for my Celestron 8” telescope which produces a wider field of view and changes my f/10 telescope to about f/2. I also purchased a MallinCam DS10c video astronomy camera that uses a larger chip format (almost 22mm) than my previous cameras. It has no amp glow, uses an ultra low noise sensor and has a HCG (high conversion gain) mode that increases sensitivity. Unfortunately the weather at home and my schedule this year have kept me from being able to do any serious observing with this new equipment.
I finally got a chance to use my DS10c on my Celestron 8” with the Hyperstar reducer lens! Recently while I was in Crossing Creeks RV Park in Georgia, I had two consecutive days to fall in love with this equipment combination. In some cases I was able to use 1 second exposures. Yep, 1 second! Since there is no amp glow with the DS10c, I did not have to use darks, and the short exposure time minimizes effects of warm pixels. I did use MallinCamSky's live average stacking of 10 frames to reduce noise and smooth the image. I also used 2 and 3 second exposures in a similar manner as well. I was able to see results very quickly (1-3 seconds), and before turning on averaging, I tweaked the histogram in near real time like I was used to with the MallinCam Xtreme/Xterminator. Of course the field of view was much larger than the Xterminator, and I could zoom in on the targets of interest within the DS10c images with good detail.
I used a USB3 powered extension cable to extend the camera control to a “remote” location under a camper awning (which kept the dew off the laptop). I should also note that I used my more portable Celestron Evolution Alt-Az mount with my Celestron StarSense Auto Align device and hand controller for these evenings. I controlled the Evolution mount over Wi-Fi using SkyFi at the mount and SkySafari on my iPhone under the awning.
Two Viewing Sessions
All image captures were with HCG on and gain at 80 (the midpoint). Hue was set to 13 and saturation at 181 for most images. All images were captured with live average stacking of 10 frames. The object, exposure time and histogram settings at the time of capture are noted. All other settings are at default values. I used Video mode (rather than looping mode) for these images since all exposure times were less than 5 seconds. After adjusting the settings for the best image, I then turned on live frame averaging and enjoyed viewing the target details!
In the following images, the one on the left is what I saw on the screen (no post processing) updating every 1-3 seconds depending upon the exposure setting, and I could zoom the image to see more detail. The image on the right is cropped (like a zoom) from the left image and is a slightly enhanced image of the target of interest (I spent less than two minutes of “post processing” later using only Microsoft Photos Edit/Enhance/Adjust to produce the image on the right to show up better on the web).
M27 Dumbbell Nebula, 1 second exposure, histogram 50-150
Earlier this year I bought a Starizona Hyperstar lens for my Celestron 8” telescope which produces a wider field of view and changes my f/10 telescope to about f/2. I also purchased a MallinCam DS10c video astronomy camera that uses a larger chip format (almost 22mm) than my previous cameras. It has no amp glow, uses an ultra low noise sensor and has a HCG (high conversion gain) mode that increases sensitivity. Unfortunately the weather at home and my schedule this year have kept me from being able to do any serious observing with this new equipment.
I finally got a chance to use my DS10c on my Celestron 8” with the Hyperstar reducer lens! Recently while I was in Crossing Creeks RV Park in Georgia, I had two consecutive days to fall in love with this equipment combination. In some cases I was able to use 1 second exposures. Yep, 1 second! Since there is no amp glow with the DS10c, I did not have to use darks, and the short exposure time minimizes effects of warm pixels. I did use MallinCamSky's live average stacking of 10 frames to reduce noise and smooth the image. I also used 2 and 3 second exposures in a similar manner as well. I was able to see results very quickly (1-3 seconds), and before turning on averaging, I tweaked the histogram in near real time like I was used to with the MallinCam Xtreme/Xterminator. Of course the field of view was much larger than the Xterminator, and I could zoom in on the targets of interest within the DS10c images with good detail.
I used a USB3 powered extension cable to extend the camera control to a “remote” location under a camper awning (which kept the dew off the laptop). I should also note that I used my more portable Celestron Evolution Alt-Az mount with my Celestron StarSense Auto Align device and hand controller for these evenings. I controlled the Evolution mount over Wi-Fi using SkyFi at the mount and SkySafari on my iPhone under the awning.
Two Viewing Sessions
All image captures were with HCG on and gain at 80 (the midpoint). Hue was set to 13 and saturation at 181 for most images. All images were captured with live average stacking of 10 frames. The object, exposure time and histogram settings at the time of capture are noted. All other settings are at default values. I used Video mode (rather than looping mode) for these images since all exposure times were less than 5 seconds. After adjusting the settings for the best image, I then turned on live frame averaging and enjoyed viewing the target details!
In the following images, the one on the left is what I saw on the screen (no post processing) updating every 1-3 seconds depending upon the exposure setting, and I could zoom the image to see more detail. The image on the right is cropped (like a zoom) from the left image and is a slightly enhanced image of the target of interest (I spent less than two minutes of “post processing” later using only Microsoft Photos Edit/Enhance/Adjust to produce the image on the right to show up better on the web).
M27 Dumbbell Nebula, 1 second exposure, histogram 50-150
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M33 Triangulum Galaxy, 3 second exposure, histogram 50-150
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NGC891 Spiral Galaxy (edge-on), 3 second exposure, histogram 50-150
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M8 Lagoon Nebula (with M20 Trifid Nebula at top right), 1 second exposure, histogram 35-150
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M16 Eagle Nebula, 1 second exposure, histogram 35-150
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M82 Cigar Galaxy (with Bode’s M81 below it), 1 second exposure, histogram 35-150
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M17 Omega Nebula, 1 second exposure, histogram 35-150
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NGC6888 Crescent Nebula, 3 second exposure, histogram 50-255
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NGC7293 Helix Nebula, 3 second exposure, histogram 38-255
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NGC253 Sculptor Galaxy, 1 second exposure, histogram 20-200
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FYI: These next three objects were so large it almost didn’t make sense to “zoom” in any. But I did anyway.
M45 Pleiades, 3 second exposure, histogram 96-25
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NGC7000 North America Nebula, 3 second exposure, histogram 70-150
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M31 Andromeda Galaxy (with M110 above it), 2 second exposure, histogram 30-175
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Viewing Fun
Some portions of each night were clearer than others and there was occasional ground fog to contend with, but all in all it was great fun seeing these objects with my new equipment in very near real time! Viewing night sky objects through an eyepiece in “real time” is still a great experience, but you are limited by what the human eye can see at night. I remember when I first discovered video astronomy it opened up a whole new viewing experience for me, seeing objects through my telescope in color using a camera in a way I couldn’t possible see in an eyepiece. I feel like this new equipment combination which has a very star-rich wide field of view enabling less than 5 second exposures has taken video astronomy to another level for me. As I have said before, video astronomy is like a viewing session. It is not about capturing perfect pictures --- it’s about seeing many amazing images of night sky objects appear on your screen in near real time. And you can capture images like these to remind you of what you saw, and later have more fun looking at details you may have missed.
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