Deep Space Photography Part 3

 

California Nebula 300-seconds x 12  (1-hour)

If you’ve been following us either here, Face Book or Instagram you know we’ve begun a trip down the rabbit hole regarding astrophotography or deep space photography.

Our journey began late last year several months from my last chemo treatment. I wanted to get back to photography which I had missed during my illness and treatment. Our normal form of photography is a combination of landscape, nature and wildlife. We had experimented with astrophotography some years back, but it never took hold. As we have written before, the older equipment was a beast, both in physical and weight.

                      Christmas Tree Cluster  300-seconds x 144 (12-hours) 3-nights                          

The introduction of the ZWO Seestar S50 got our astro juices flowing again and it was off to the races. We replaced the S50 with a combination of a ZWO AN3 mount, ZWO tripod, a ZWO ASI 2600MC Air camera, and an Askar SQA55mm telescope using a ZWO EAF (electronic auto focuser). We’re nearing the end of March (2025) and will shortly be adding a new Askar SQA70mm telescope as a replacement to the 55mm. The SQA55 and has focal length of 264 while the SQA70 has 336mm approximately 25% improvement in focal length.

We continue to use a combination of Pixinsight for primary stacking and processing as well as Photoshop and in some cases Topaz Labs that include Topaz Photo AI.

 Orion, Running Man & Horsehead Nebuls (300-seconds x 36 for 3-hours)

                        

We’re learning quite a lot as we stumble along. The moon phases play a significate role in how we photograph at night. While the period running to and behind a new moon is significant, there are days at a time that the moon while near full may be visible during the day and not at night. Likewise, there are periods of time that the moon doesn’t raise until midnight giving a window between sunset and moonrise for dark skies. We’ve also learned that we need to wait no less than 45 to 60-minutes after sunset to begin capturing our target for the night.

Speaking of capturing. The better the guiding the longer you can capture; we generally set the capture time at 300-seconds (5-minutes) times the number of captures which can be anywhere from 36 to 48 in length depending on the night skies.

Running Man Nebula 300-seconds x 36 (3-hours)

Also of note is the total number of captures for a single image. We’ve decided that the minimum number of nights is 2 while going up to 4 nights. Two nights might give is 72-frames and 4 in excess of 140. Multiple nights of capturing need not be one after another as we have successfully stacked 4-nights from different months.

We’ve been very pleased using the Askar SQA55 f/4.8 which is a Quintuplet Air-Spaced SD Glass Petzval Astrograph telescope with a focal length of 264.  Askar has recently released a SQA70 f/4.8 Quintuplet Petzval Refractor telescope with a focal length of 336mm.  The SQA55 has aperture of 55mm while the SQA70 has 70mm.  The SQA70 will give us about 22% larger aperture and focal length.  Yes, we have one on order. 

Till next time, wishing you clear skies...

Sandy & Don

Update:  The ZWO CAA has arrived and the SQA70 should be here within a couple of days. Just in time for a planned trip to a very dark area in northern Arizona.