It’s been slim pickin’s for decent weather to shoot so far this summer. Not to mention we’re well into the long days here up North as well. However, some quality astrophotography time was on the menu this evening. I reckon it had been about a month since I last got out for some quick tracker testing – but I’ll leave that for another time. Three solid hours of imaging time from 23:00 – 2:00 is what I managed to log for shooting the Veil Nebula on this pleasant summer night.
How’s N.I.N.A. Treating Me?
Before I get to the Veil Nebula, I think it’s worth mentioning that I’m still working with, and loving N.I.N.A. But there is one little niggle that I’ve had. For whatever reason, sometimes N.I.N.A. loses the connection to my Canon EoS 250D. A photo will trigger, and then the shutter will never close. Both the camera and the program are left in unrecoverable states. So I need to disconnect the power source for the camera and hard crash the N.I.N.A. application. And this happens about 3 or 4 times a session. This isn’t a problem when I’m enjoying being outdoors, but who wants to babysit their camera for 3 plus hours during a session? This is a big problem and I’m not sure what’s causing it.
So for this session, I decided not to use the Canon driver during my N.I.N.A. session. Instead, I used the ASCOM DSLR driver to run the camera. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use all the camera features this way. But if it runs without a hitch, what I gain is far more valuable to me than what I lose. The good news is, I went the whole evening without a crash of either the camera or the software. Brilliant! But I did have to adjust my routine a little bit.
ASCOM DSLR doesn’t let me use the live view with the camera. So framing my target was a bit more difficult. And then there was the file management. Both fits and RAW files were stored in different places on my drive. I suppose neither of these issues was overly bothersome. It was just nice to build up some confidence that things weren’t going to go catastrophically sideways at any given moment.
Onto the Veil!
It has been a year since I seriously tried to target the Veil Nebula (NGC 6960). And as it’s currently floating up to the zenith from the East, it’s hard to ignore. Now, I didn’t set my expectations too high. The moon would be chasing my target early in the morning and the light pollution where I am is always pretty bad. But it’s good to be outside again. After using N.I.N.A. to get focused and polar aligned, I was ready to go.
Using my Gamma Star Tracker, I shot the target at f/4 and an ISO of 800 for 30 seconds. I ended up with just North of 300 snaps for the evening along with 50 dark frames. Then I used N.I.N.A. flat wizard to rip off 25 flat frames. It’s worth noting that this is the first time I successfully used the flat wizard without crashing the program and the camera. Further evidence that N.I.N.A. just isn’t playing well with the Canon driver. Stacked and processed in SIRIL.
Not bad for 81 minutes of integration time! I ended up using some more of SIRIL’s new features to process this photo and I basically only used GIMP to scale the final image. Some of SIRIL’s features are less than intuitive to get the hang of. So during my YouTube adventures, I stumbled across the channel Deep Space Astro where there are a number of excellent tutorials on how to best use all of the new goodies in SIRIL’s 1.2.0-rc1 version. So all in all, with a little help, a very successful and satisfying night’s work.
Other Bits and Bobs
Needless to say, I’m still struggling with my new tracker design. I’ll only say that I’ve abandoned the compound split ring planetary and cycloidal design attempts. They both work to varying degrees, but the transmission error in both of my designs renders them rather useless. I’m going back to the drawing board and doing a little more research. Maybe I’m just a perfectionist, but I’m determined to get a new design done that works to my specifications.
I’ll keep plugging away at it, but I’m not in a big hurry as Gamma is giving me what I need to enjoy my time outside. I was thinking it would be nice to get my hands on a commercial star tracker so I could see how much differently my designs perform. But oh well, I’m not really going to spend the money on one. Besides, maybe it’s best that I don’t know what I may be missing ;).