What did I get?

[BF Hammer]

From a personal perspective, a focus point for this style of photography is irrelevant to taking the photos. Metering exposure is manual and focus is also. I do make use of a focus point to zoom in the live view on a star when I do the focusing. I also center the focus point and use that as my target as I polar-align my tracker.

But focus point plays no function of my taking photos or post processing astronomy subjects.

 

[blackstar]

Well, I think you misunderstood my stating of "fix the focusing point." What I meant was to lock the focus. AW, time to experiment again.

 

[Dawg Pics]

Hey blackstar,
I made a mark-up of your first image showing various stars and where the NAN is located. Do you want me to post it?

 

[blackstar]

Hey blackstar,
I made a mark-up of your first image showing various stars and where the NAN is located. Do you want me to post it?

Sure, it will help. But I am curious that NAN would actually be included in my shot. At most, I can only imagine that NAN was partially included. Thanks

 

[Dawg Pics]

Sure, it will help. But I am curious that NAN would actually be included in my shot. At most, I can only imagine that NAN was partially included. Thanks

You can't see the nebula, just the stars in it.

 

[Dawg Pics]

This is your first image.

You can see the star pattern where the NAN is located. You won't see the nebula in an image like this because it is too dim. I don't know how many minutes of exposure it takes to make it visible. Anyway, you were in the right area.

You have it in your second image as well. It is up near the top of the frame towards the center.

 

[blackstar]

This is your first image.

You can see the star pattern where the NAN is located. You won't see the nebula in an image like this because it is too dim. I don't know how many minutes of exposure it takes to make it visible. Anyway, you were in the right area.

You have it in your second image as well. It is up near the top of the frame towards the center.

View attachment 413347

How do you ID all the stars and the nebulae? Assuming your marks are legit, I see my second image has "Deneb" moved to the frame center, and as you mentioned, NAN moved to the upper. So my original proposal wrongly indicated that Cygnus was the center part of my images, and the bright star was Sadr instead of Deneb? I rechecked with Stellarium and see Deneb is below NAN, confirming your marking. These days, in our area, the sky is all muggy and cloudy. Give me no chance for night imaging.

 

[Dawg Pics]

How do you ID all the stars and the nebulae? Assuming your marks are legit, I see my second image has "Deneb" moved to the frame center, and as you mentioned, NAN moved to the upper. So my original proposal wrongly indicated that Cygnus was the center part of my images, and the bright star was Sadr instead of Deneb? I rechecked with Stellarium and see Deneb is below NAN, confirming your marking. These days, in our area, the sky is all muggy and cloudy. Give me no chance for night imaging.

(Sorry, for the long response.)
It was a challenge, mainly because I was on my iPad and had to go back and forth between Stellarium and your image. I used M39 to start because it was obvious, from there, I star-hopped and confirmed using the smaller magnitude star patterns. When looking at maps like that, I also kind of sketch out the star patterns to help locate things. That part of the sky is difficult IMO because there aren't a bunch of large star clusters or other things that are obvious. Your image helped me because I haven't been familiar with that area. I am now.

When the Teapot and Scorpius start rising, there are lots of obvious targets in that region, and they show up easily with a single long exposure. I attached an image, which isn't great, that I took a while ago from my back yard. It should have been a longer exposure. I don't remember if I posted it on here. When I get a decent tripod head, I will set up my tracker and take some long exposures of that area.

As far as you question about what you caught in your images, I think when you processed your image you got amplified noise and bloated stars. Your initial image has a nebulous bright center, and I think when you used curves and levels to brighten the stars and darken the background, you got a bunch of artifact. There is a glob in the image I attached, M22, it is a small, dim, fuzzy object.

Anyway, I hope this helps you out. What I find frustrating is that there aren't many images of large star-fields to show people what they are looking at or what to expect to see in a landscape image. I have a book that rates objects and describes what they will appear as in binoculars and telescopes. It has been my go-to reference.

Clear skies.

 

[blackstar]

(Sorry, for the long response.)
It was a challenge, mainly because I was on my iPad and had to go back and forth between Stellarium and your image. I used M39 to start because it was obvious, from there, I star-hopped and confirmed using the smaller magnitude star patterns. When looking at maps like that, I also kind of sketch out the star patterns to help locate things. That part of the sky is difficult IMO because there aren't a bunch of large star clusters or other things that are obvious. Your image helped me because I haven't been familiar with that area. I am now.

When the Teapot and Scorpius start rising, there are lots of obvious targets in that region, and they show up easily with a single long exposure. I attached an image, which isn't great, that I took a while ago from my back yard. It should have been a longer exposure. I don't remember if I posted it on here. When I get a decent tripod head, I will set up my tracker and take some long exposures of that area.

As far as you question about what you caught in your images, I think when you processed your image you got amplified noise and bloated stars. Your initial image has a nebulous bright center, and I think when you used curves and levels to brighten the stars and darken the background, you got a bunch of artifact. There is a glob in the image I attached, M22, it is a small, dim, fuzzy object.

Anyway, I hope this helps you out. What I find frustrating is that there aren't many images of large star-fields to show people what they are looking at or what to expect to see in a landscape image. I have a book that rates objects and describes what they will appear as in binoculars and telescopes. It has been my go-to reference.

Clear skies.
View attachment 413370

Thanks so much, Dawg. I need to investigate this a little more for my AP adventure. Now, I have found that astronomical imaging with a digital camera and lens (even using a smart tracker) requires too much work (equipment and operation) to achieve good results. (I think) a better option (for me) is to play a high-end smart scope, which includes an Astro camera, telescope, tracker mount, and even a tripod. Using an advanced app, you can run the system from initialization, alignment, set/goto target, focus, setting exposure and imaging, live stacking and processing, to finalize great results all by automation! This is an amazing system, especially for my aging body parts (if not count its weight 41+ lb). The system is Celestron Origin.

 

[Dawg Pics]

Thanks so much, Dawg. I need to investigate this a little more for my AP adventure. Now, I have found that astronomical imaging with a digital camera and lens (even using a smart tracker) requires too much work (equipment and operation) to achieve good results. (I think) a better option (for me) is to play a high-end smart scope, which includes an Astro camera, telescope, tracker mount, and even a tripod. Using an advanced app, you can run the system from initialization, alignment, set/goto target, focus, setting exposure and imaging, live stacking and processing, to finalize great results all by automation! This is an amazing system, especially for my aging body parts (if not count its weight 41+ lb). The system is Celestron Origin.

No worries. I love astronomy, but it is very complicated to get really great imaging of deep sky objects.
Yes, the automated scope is the way if you have the scratch to do it. You can also send all of your equipment to a dark site and run it via computer from your home. I can get a link if you are interested in something like that.

Since you were interested in Sadr. You have it in that second image. It only took a glance to find and verify it. If you enlarge it a bit, you can see a smudge to its right. That smudge is the Inchworm Cluster. I love finding dim, fuzzy objects. I am pretty confident on my observation, but you might want to enlarge and look at the star patterns to make sure.

 

[blackstar]

Ok, I see Sadr now. Thank you for the tip. I may try cropping into the Sadr/inchworm cluster region and "level" it to see if any details can be revealed.