rdm<p>Next, on the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> I targeted the same thing - <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> again, but this time with an <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OIII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OIII</span></a> / <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SII</span></a> dualband filter. </p><p>The result is quite a surprise. I was not expecting the level of intensity in the outer layers. The H-a really wipes it out normally. </p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackYardAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackYardAstronomy</span></a></p>
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#dwarf3
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rdm<p>Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.</p><p>First up let's look at what I got the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfII</span></a> to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> . What I got surprised me greatly. </p><p>Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OIII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OIII</span></a> / <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HII</span></a> filter. </p><p>Both were post processed in the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/StellarStudio" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StellarStudio</span></a> and finished in <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> . </p><p>I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackYardAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackYardAstronomy</span></a></p>
Dr David Mills<p>This was ~7h on a <a href="https://8bitorbust.info/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> telescope in automatic mode, 15sec exposures. Bortel 7-8 skies in early May 2025.</p>
Stefan Schmidt-Bilkenroth<p>M 20 - Trifid Nebel<br>In zwei Nächten insgesamt gut 3 Stunden Belichtungszeit (~400 Einzelaufnahmen) mit meinem <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> gesammelt. Nachbearbeitet mit <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/siril" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>siril</span></a> und <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/graxpert" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>graxpert</span></a> - beide <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/opensource" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>opensource</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://gruene.social/tags/astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/nature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nature</span></a> <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/photography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>photography</span></a></p>
Chad - x :mstdn:<p>C20, or the North America Nebula.</p><p>Captured over 1 hour using the <a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> in Bortle 8.</p><p>No post processing.</p><p><a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/nebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nebula</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/space" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>space</span></a></p>
Stefan Schmidt-Bilkenroth<p>Wo Sterne geboren werden…</p><p>M 16 „Adlernebel“ mit den „Säulen der Schöpfung“</p><p>Ca. 180 Aufnahmen mit je 30s Belichtungszeit von meinem <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> .<br>Nachbearbeitung mit <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/siril" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>siril</span></a> und <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/graxpert" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>graxpert</span></a> .</p><p><a href="https://gruene.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://gruene.social/tags/nature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nature</span></a></p>
Paul Williams<p>Oh dear I seem to have started an addiction. I just found myself looking at multiple thousand $ telescopes online and then thinking ‘I wonder if there is any room left at that La Grange Point? 🤪🤪</p><p><a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/beingSilly" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>beingSilly</span></a><br><a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a></p><p>Here’s a pic of some galaxies (NGC 7599) (96x15s@60)</p>
rdm<p>Over the last three nights - a break in the weather for us here in <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Boorloo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Boorloo</span></a> ( <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PerthWA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PerthWA</span></a> ) - I've been targeting the same target after midnight and through to astronomical twilight. It is another target that is familiar to me - <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> or <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> sometimes known as the Eye of Sauron Nebula or the Eye of God Nebula. </p><p>This is the largest planetary nebula visible to us, only about 200 parsecs away, and is about 2.8 light years across, making it about 22 arcminutes across for the main body, and is about 6500 years old. </p><p>So back to the making of this image. Each night I got about five hours of shooting in with my <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> , for about fifteen hours total. I had to ditch a bunch of frames as they had dodgy data (atmospheric distortions, musktrails, and, in one case, a passing jet), which brought me down to thirteen hours and thirty-six minutes (816x60s@80). These I restacked using the "Megastack" function of the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfLab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfLab</span></a> app (about 3 hours - executed entirely within the telescope), and then passed the result to the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/StellarStudio" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StellarStudio</span></a> part of the app (running in the cloud) to optimize the FITS file and run a star removal.</p><p>I then exported a PNG of each version, and started post-processing. This consisted of passing the starless image into <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> and boosting the saturation, darkening shadows and so on. Then I took the optimized version and took the shadows to maximum darkness, and reduced the overall brightness somewhat, leaving me with a reduced star version, with almost no nebula visible. Lastly, in Snapseed again, I used the double exposure tool to stack the two parts together. </p><p>And here is the result. </p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a></p>
leece<p>Last night's effort, with some <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> and Google photos editing with advice from <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@rdm" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>rdm</span></a></span> for OCl 999.0 with Prawn Nebula.</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfIII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfIII</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfLab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfLab</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SouthernHemisphereAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SouthernHemisphereAstronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DrivewayAstrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DrivewayAstrophotography</span></a></p>
rdm<p>Last night one of my targets was an old favourite - C77, the Hamburger Galaxy or Centaurus A.</p><p>This galaxy has an incredibly strong radio source at it's core, and this stunning dust cloud in front of it.</p><p>Dwarf3, 245x60s@80. Postprocessing in Stellar Studio and Snapseed.</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C77" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C77</span></a></p>
Paul Williams<p>I’m over the moon! Left my <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> telescope out all night for the first time and ran a schedule of 12 different nebulae. Thanks to <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@leece" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>leece</span></a></span> and <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@rdm" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>rdm</span></a></span> for tips! I’m still learning and I realise now, I need to be more aware of the size of things! They may look awesome in Hubble but a little backyard telescope ‘ain’t gonna see so much!’ So some of the photos are just very impressive star fields but I did get my favourite nebula. Helix, which is very pretty. <br>So amazed at the clarity of such a ‘toy’! </p><p><a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a></p>
Paul Williams<p>Did some <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> last night when I noticed the rain clouds had passed and we had clear skies. Unfortunately didn't get too long before the clouds returned, but did get a couple of shots. A couple of nebulae I've never taken before. The dark wolf Nebula - which just looks like a dark patch in the sky! - and the Eagle Nebula, home of the Pillars of Creation, but you can't see that at this resolution! 😛 <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a></p>
leece<p>Hello everybody and I hope you’ve been getting some clear skies for your telescoping if you’re into it. If you’re not into it, that’s cool, this may not be of interest to you. </p><p>It’s clagged over for me, but before it did, I was very busy with the sky indeed. Let me take you on a journey - the journey of the Leece’s ClusterFudge.</p><p>People who are familiar with my astronomy writings may remember that once I had a telescope of the smart persuasion I found I liked hunting Nebulae.</p><p>I thought they were beautiful and cool and interesting, and really gave one the impression of 3 dimensionality in the night sky, that space was indeed filled with vast depths. </p><p>Clusters, I said, especially Globular Clusters were not very interesting. They all look the same, I said, and they’re not really going to be on my dance card.</p><p>So I set my Dwarf II and Dwarf III for long periods to capture all sorts of nebulae and was happy over the course of a year and a half, during which time we volunteered at the Perth Astrofest and showed thousands of people how cool smart telescopes were, and I won an astrophotography prize.</p><p>We got Covid 19 and got great comfort from being able to put our telescopes out by barely leaving our recovery room, and watching the images build. I found by accident while chasing nebulae that some open clusters were quite interesting and beautiful, although nebulae were still where it was at for me.</p><p>We visited the Gravity Discovery Centre for one of their Astronomy Nights, and listened to the Chief Astronomer talk about globular clusters, and how some people thought that they all looked the same. </p><p>Yep that’s me I thought, but I listened and his enthusiasm touched me. Hmm, yes okay I thought, maybe I’ll take a look. Great tour, by the way, recommended. </p><p>So I had a look, and something started ticking away in my mind thoughtfully. These clusters sure are bright I thought. I bet they don’t need much time. Maybe if I lined up a lot of Globular Clusters next to each other, I could see the differences and develop an appreciation of them. </p><p>It might be fun to see just how many clusters I can take in a period of darkness. I’ll have to fudge together a schedule. And thus the inception of the LCF Catalogue- the Leece’s ClusterFudge Catalogue.</p><p> I started testing as to what the shortest period my telescopes could be set for during a scheduled shoot. </p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SouthernHemisphereAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SouthernHemisphereAstronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfLab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfLab</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf2</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a></p>
rdm<p>A couple of days ago I posted about the new <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> astro mosaic mode.</p><p>That night I tried it out again, this time on the Carinae Nebulae region. This time I got 160 minutes of data across the four quadrants, made up of 30s subframes.</p><p>I then identified a bunch of dud frames, stripped them out, and reprocessed them using the inbuilt Stellar Studio service. One pass of this was to de-star the image, and the other to generate a clean mosaic, which I then upped the contrast and darkened the shadows on.</p><p>Finally I combined those two images to create a reduced star version.</p><p> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackYardAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackYardAstronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a></p>
rdm<p>So a couple of days ago <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarflab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarflab</span></a> dropped a new update for the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a>. This one added the ability to shoot a 2x2 (well 1.8x1.8 allowing for overlap) mosaic in Astro mode.</p><p>This comes with a couple of limitations - you must be in equatorial mode, and I don't think you can schedule a shoot. You can specify how many stacks, and you can combine sessions, so it is not all bad news. </p><p>Last night I tried it out on the reflection nebula region around Rho Ophiuchus. In these shots we have: <br>IC4603/4604/4605 NGC6093 (M80) and some more significant stars.</p><p>The results are interesting. Dwarf still have a little bit of work to do on equalising the exposures, but this region is particularly challenging in that respect. Post processing tends to bring out these issues, and I'm sure that manually processing the subs in Siril would completely remove them.</p><p>The new update also includes a watermarking feature, which is neat, but could stand to have the RA/Dec data included.</p><p>All-in-all a really useful update!</p><p>Note: Edited to remove limitations on exposure and gain -- they can be set to up to 120s/frame and whatever gain level you want.</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackyardAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackyardAstronomy</span></a></p>
rdm<p>I am officially impressed.</p><p>As you all know, I own a bunch of Dwarflab telescopes along with <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@leece" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>leece</span></a></span> .</p><p>Two years ago, Dwarflab made the DwarfII available to the general public after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Last year, they released an updated version, the Dwarf3. </p><p>Since then they have been releasing updates to the Dwarf3's firmware roughly once a month. Cool.</p><p>What has impressed me more is that roughly every two or three months, they have been releasing many of the same updates for the DwarfII.</p><p>Today I noticed that DwarfII had an update pending - this time they added the post-processing and multi-session stacking features, giving it almost the same feature set as the newer telescope. </p><p>This level support for a discontinued product is amazing in this day and age, so kudos to Dwarflab!</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfII</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarflab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarflab</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a></p>
Paul Williams<p>Ping <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@rdm" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>rdm</span></a></span> </p><p>(I said I’d let you know when it arrived - thank you for the inspiration!) <br><a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a></p>
Paul Williams<p>So yesterday a <a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> telescope arrived and I was disappointed because it was cloudy and raining but I poked my head out at about 10pm and saw stars so I thought I’d give it a try. Easy to set up and in minutes I was finding stars. Took my first photo of the Lagoon Nebula and I’m thrilled! Then the clouds returned. So hopefully next weekend I’ll get some good ones. <br>Here is my Lagoon Nebula photo. 40x15s photos stacked up and then processed to reduce noise. </p><p><a href="https://eigenmagic.net/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a></p>
leece<p>We have been blessed/cursed by a very dry Djeran / Autumn period. Cursed because no rain after a long, hot Bunuru( Second Summer) and blessed because the nights are cold, and very clear.</p><p>This and <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@rdm" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>rdm</span></a></span> having to be on Munich time for a few days prompted some enthusiastic astrophotography sessions ahead of the news that the clouds were finally coming to us with some rain. </p><p>We figured that we'd do a lot of astrophotography, and then write it up and share photos during the rainy cloudy bits to keep us going.</p><p>So here we are - this is my first post about it, and it's about the last day of the clear sky.</p><p>We have here NGC 4945 or Caldwell 83 - also known as the Tweezers Galaxy (I personally think it looks more like an orange peeler). </p><p>I was leafing through Astronomy Australia 2025 and found it as a target for May. I hadn't come across this galaxy before, and was thrilled to find a galaxy that's a big enough apparent size to suit my <a href="https://aus.social/tags/dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>dwarf3</span></a> </p><p>These are great books and the last of this great almanac that they'll publish, after 30 years - so get yours today - <a href="https://quasarastronomy.com.au/product/astronomy-2025/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">quasarastronomy.com.au/product</span><span class="invisible">/astronomy-2025/</span></a> even though it's a yearbook it's still going to be useful down the track. If you're in Australia or close enough. <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SouthernHemisphereAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SouthernHemisphereAstronomy</span></a> folks. I grabbed some of their back catalogue - incredibly cheap and plenty of interesting stuff in there, if only historically. 🙂 </p><p>So, anyway, back to the galaxy - I plonked the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> on the roof later in the evening so it's only a few hours exposure. Gain was 80, exposure was 60. Got a few hundred frames in two sessions as I belatedly realised that I should get the telescope to shut down before the closest Sun made itself apparent.</p><p>So then, in the morning <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://aus.social/@rdm" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>rdm</span></a></span> ran me through the Mega Stack and Stellar Studio provided through Infinity Lab within the telescope, which was super easy, and then I did some cropping in Snapseed.</p><p>And this is the result, I hope you enjoy!</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackyardAstrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackyardAstrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DrivewayAstrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DrivewayAstrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Galaxy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Galaxy</span></a></p>
rdm<p>What should I target this evening with my <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> ?</p><p>Southern hemisphere , of course</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a></p>
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