M81 (Bode’s) and M82 (Cigar) galaxies can be imaged all year round from the northern sky, but are highest in the sky in early spring. This is my first effort with the Nikon true black current hack enabled. It is doing an amazing job and I can finaly properly subtract dust motes out of my […]
Monthly Archives: November 2016
Nikon True Dark Current Hack
I’m having some difficulty with my flats. After integrading the masterflat and stacking using DeepSkyStacker, I noticed two dust motes even more pronounced than in the original light frames. After some helpful insight from cloudynights (https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/556028-trouble-with-flats-that-overcorrect-my-lights/), I was finally steered in the right direction. It appears quite a few Nikon cameras including my D3200 do […]
First astroimaging session with Guiding
My first astrophotography with guiding. Its incredible how drastic the improvement is. By exposing longer, not only do you get so much more detail, but you eliminate any tracking issues that cause star trails. HDR image consisting of: 10 subs x 180 seconds8 subs x 60 seconds Stacked 9 subs x 180 seconds in DSS […]
Fixing Field Curvature using Reducer Corrector
I purchased a second hand reducer corrector for my ED80. It cost almost as much as the refractor itself, but its worth it To flatten the field and also to increase your f/ratio, the ED80 offers a dedicated Reducer/Corrector 0.85x. Not only does it lower the f/ratio of the scope from f7.5 to f6.3, but […]