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Ice Breaker

  • Your name
  • Have you done any astrophotography? What kind?
  • 3 Things you would bring to the International Space Station

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Specifications

  • 1520mm focal length 400mm dia. f/3.8
  • QHY600 cooled full frame mono CMOS camera
  • Filter wheel (lum, red, green, blue, Ha, Oiii, Sii)
  • Rotator focuser
  • Field of view of 1.3x0.9 degrees
  • Full coverage of night sky (down to 15 ish degrees)

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What can you pick for a target?

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Nebula - Emission nebula / star forming

Trifid Nebula

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Nebula - Reflection

Matariki

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Nebula - Planetary Nebula

Helix Nebula NGC7293

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Nebula - Supernova Remnants

Vela SNR 2

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Galaxies - Spiral

NGC6744

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Galaxies - Irregular

NGC4038

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Galaxies - Elliptical

M87 - external image

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Star Clusters - Open Clusters

Wishing Well Cluster

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Star Clusters - Globular Clusters

NGC 104

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Comets

C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

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Asteroids

(4) Vesta - external image

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What we can not image

  • Wide field eg milkyway core (too big)
  • Planets (too small)
  • Sun (too bright)
  • Fast moving objects eg satellites (too fast)*

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*note the ISS might be possible but is also quite small!

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Position in Sky

  • Best imagine when object is high up
  • Image when higher than 45 degrees is best
  • Can go down to 15 or 20 degrees if really needed
  • Parts of the sky south circumpolar region, northern sky (stars rise and set), North circumpolar region (we cannot see)

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Things to consider when selecting targets

  • Magnitude
    • The bigger the number the fainter the object

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Things to consider when selecting targets

  • Angular size
    • How big the object is on the sky
    • Telescopes field of view is 1.3x0.9 degrees
    • If a target is bigger than that mosaic is an option
    • Framing/rotation
  • Timing
    • Best time of year
    • Best time of night
    • Moon phase
    • How many exposures?

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How to send in your target and get data

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How to send in your target and get data

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When is the target above 40 degrees?

Stars rise and set like the Sun, so will have different heights in the sky at different times of night and year.

Ideally want target about 40 or 45 degrees for best imaging results.

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How to send in your target and get data

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What data to request

Narrow band Emission filters - good for getting detail in nebula

Shorter Red green blue exposures - stars subject

Faint target - longer imaging time for same results

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More Resourcing

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More Resourcing

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How to send in your target

Send the centre of frame and rotation to : curator@was.org.nz

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Workshop Cheat sheet - where to look

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https://www.garyimm.com/compendium

https://telescopius.com/

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Workshop Cheat sheet

Specifications

  • 1520mm focal length
  • QHY600 full frame camera
  • field of view of 1.3x0.9 degrees

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curator@was.org.nz

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Links Cheat Sheet

Telescopius: https://telescopius.com/

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Cretney target selection instruction vids

part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWUeVwW9JqQ

part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ghNIkVl0ls

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Compendium of deep sky targets: https://www.garyimm.com/compendium

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Field of view calculator: https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

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Matt's Astro Bin: https://app.astrobin.com/u/mbalkham

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How to send in your targets

Send the centre of frame and rotation to: curator@was.org.nz

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