Wesley's Tool-Box

With the recent purchase of Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer (as mentioned in The Toon-Box) and the fine-tuning of the secondary mirror collimation, I've been quite eager to do some deep sky photography. Alas, the autumn sky at Naju has not been very cooperative.

For some reason, the days without clouds experienced thick fogs (and possibly smogs) and the days without fogs experienced cloudy sky. As the former at least provided some visibility near the zenith and because the constellation of Andromeda is currently very high up in the evening, the Andromeda Galaxy became the obvious target when the opportunity came.

The best three photos from the shooting session were manually stacked and processed, resulting in what you see above. It seems that the fog blocked much of the structural details of the galaxy, but you can still see a bit of it near the core. Also, the satellite galaxy known as Messier 32 (M32) are clearly visible in the bottom as well. I'll be trying on the Moon & Skyglow filter under a better weather condition to see if I can improve upon this.

(Note: M32 was misidentified as M110 earlier, and has now been corrected)

Telescope: Celestron NexStar 6SE + f/6.3 focal reducer
Device: Sony A5000 (prime focus)
Settings: (945mm) - ISO 1000 - 30s - (f/6.3)
Filters: None
Time: 2015-11-03 20:25-20:45 KST
Location: Naju, Korea
3 photos stacked

With my company's relocation, I've moved from Suwon to Naju. This city is about 300km south of Seoul, and has less than 100 thousand inhabitants. So the night sky is somewhat more favourable to stargazing. It isn't a dramatic improvement, but I'm happy to be able to continue doing astrophotography. To celebrate the arrival, I did a 10-minute exposure just outside the apartment window. The star trails came out nicely.


The following night, I tried taking a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. It was to be expected, but the background had less light, in spite of the Moon shining brightly nearby. The resulting photo came out looking better than anything I've tried in Suwon. I have some high hopes for taking some good photos during the new Moon phase. But for now, I'm hoping to get some good view of the lunar eclipse happening in two days.

Device: Canon SX50 HS
Settings #1: 24mm (17% size) - ISO 80 - 600s - f/3.4
Settings #2: 263mm (26% size) - ISO 160 - 300s - f/5.6
Filters: None
Time #1: 2014-10-05 01:25 KST
Time #2: 2014-10-05 23:35 KST
Location: Naju, Korea

On the second attempt to photograph Bode's Galaxy (M81) and Cigar Galaxy (M82), I managed to put the lens hood on. The sky itself wasn't really darker - in fact, quarter moon was up in the sky - but this seem to have reduced the background red glare from the street lights. I should have thought of this sooner.

Anyways, the images now have blacker background, making the galaxies look more clear and natural. Taking multiple shots and stacking them improved the looks even further. Click on the image to see the version in original resolution.

Device: Canon SX50 HS
Settings: 484mm (70% size) - ISO 100 - 300s - f/5.6
Filters: None
Time: 2014-05-06 23:29 to 2014-05-07 00:15 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea
8 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8

Using the iOptron SkyTracker equatorial mount, tracking the galaxies for photographing became somewhat better, despite a murky city sky. While photographing Vesta and Ceres, I also pointed the camera to where Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81) and Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) were located just below constellation Ursa Major. Although they were fairly dim (magnitude 6.9 and 8.4, respectively), I hoped that it would at least show up in the picture faintly.

After much fiddling with the camera settings and post-processing, the best result I got out of it is the one you see here. Both galaxies' shapes are recognizable, despite this being just a single-frame 5-minute exposure. When the weather becomes favourable again, I'll attempt multiple shots with the same camera settings and see if this will help out further.

Device: Canon SX50 HS
Settings: 484mm (80% size) - ISO 100 - 300s - f/5.6
Filters: None
Time: 2014-04-25 00:40 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea

City lights and lack of star tracker doesn't mean I couldn't try harder. Zooming in four times more, extreme ISO setting with shorter shutter speed was used to counteract the movements of the stars. Stacking more photos also helped.

In the end, the Andromeda Galaxy became definitely more visible. It now vaguely looks like an ellipse instead of a faint blob.

Settings: Canon SX50 HS - 192mm - ISO 6400 - 5s - f/5.6
Time: 2013-12-15 22:09 - 22:14 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea
18 photos stacked with RegiStax 6.1.0.8