Thanks alot!! It is hot here in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert is at a lower elevation, so temps can get to 118+ in the summers.. good thing is, it is cooling off right now.. clear skies.
Enjoyed the video Jason and nice image of the Iris nebula at the end. Gosh what difference it makes with these dark nebula to get to a dark sky place (comparing your two images). Wow, 42 degrees, too hot for me - we complain here when it hits 30!
Hey Logan, so true.... True darkness is an astrophotographers best friend. We are planning to go out again this weekend (weather permitting of course) Good thing around here is the temps are coming down! Soon I'll be able to get my camera down to -10 or -15 C. Clear skies my friend.
It was suppose to be a bit milder (104) and should have cooled off a bit more, but the Arizona desert wouldn't allow it. She has a mind of her own.. Hopefully it will start to cool off... Thanks for watching Nathan.
@@AZ4Runner I just had the opposite experience. Went out Saturday night to test my new guide scope. Was supposed to be low 60's at night. But instead it got down to 31!
Really nice shot of the Iris there. Nice delay on the reveal. Also nice music @Ollie. Don't let that heat chase you guys away.. you're just a little warmer than central TX :)
Hey Jason, Awesome Video....I haven't tried the Iris Nebula yet, its on my list though.... I am from Phoenix and Often Shoot north of Lake Pleasant in The BLM .... Its Bortle 3/4 ....I would love a chance to visit Alpha Scorpii and Image....I'd love to meet you guys....I'm not on your level yet, but I'm working on it..LOL.....
I think we are planning to go out in the next 2 or 3 weeks (close to new moon). Come on down, we'd love to have you. There is no level requirement at Alpha Scorpii. we've had others out there so you are more than welcome. PM me on Instagram if you have it "AzDesertAstro" and we can make it happen.
Hey Jason super video, man I can relate to some of those temps in Summer it gets pretty crazy here especially central Australia which looks similar landscape to you guys. Wow could really see those clouds in that Bortle 1 version looked awesome. Thanks mate for the shoutout so cool to see you guys using the music, looked so cool with that sunset. That issue was weird, I assume no breeze ? Cheers man 👍
Thanks Ollie, Not sure what my issue was but stacking did an amazing job getting everything fixed. the wind was crazy for about half the night, so that may have been part of the issue. but in the end, I still managed to get a decent image. And my timelapse did not do the Milky Way justice..
Yo Brother, just came over this morning after AstroBackyard's video today. Sooo looking forward to having a dark sky night out north of Flagstaff and have been watching your vids to get more familiar with AZ stargazing. I'm in about a class 7/8 sky area so this will be huge for me. picked a spot up by Robinson crater that looks like a class 1 with no significant light pollution east or west for over a hundred miles. (new sub, so looking forward to watching more vids) I'll wave from the FJ when we pass Yuma! hehe
you're gonna love the Arizona skies!! that's gonna be some dark skies!! If your every in my neck of the woods, drop by Alpha Scorpii.. Skies are pretty dark and skies are usually clear. FJ's are awesome little beasts!!
@@AZ4Runner I'm really hoping the weather cooperates for our trip but yeah, so ready to have a DS night. i'll never get rid of my FJ. :) i'll have to plan a trip to AS (probably next year sometime) but i'll hit you up when i do, maybe we can meet up. your set ups are insane! i'm using a borrowed scope right now but the budget office (lol) has cleared funds for a much better scope. until then i'll keep following and enjoying your vids. stay cool (lol)
Funny you should say that because I have been looking into an OAG..Might be my next purchase.. anywho, Thanks for taking the time to comment and watching my nights journey... clear skies.
Great video Jason! So glad to see you and Isaac back out imaging again! Loving that final image, I may take that as my next target before the moon comes back again.
Beautiful image Jason! 👍👍 The central star is not blown-out, so you've captured some nice detail in there. 👍👍 I'm glad that your concerns regarding wind & guiding turned out to be less of a problem than you anticipated. Also, it goes to show that astrophotography is like real-estate...location, location, location!....especially when imaging reflection nebulae & dark nebulae! 👍👍 A few questions: (a) Are you using a focal reducer with the R.C. scope? 🤔 (b) Do you get a lot of clear nights in October & November (when, I assume, the temperatures at night start to cool)? 🤔 (b) How close is Alpha Scorpii to the Mexican border? Do you ever get a visit from border patrol, curious government helicopters, etc?🤔
Thanks for watching and I couldn't have said it better myself. location is key. (a) I am not using a focal reducer yet. so I'm shooting at 1600mm f/8 (b) Yuma, AZ and the surronding area get a upwards of 300+ clear days/nights a year. so yes we usually have plenty of clear nights when it cools off and all year round. (c) The border is probably around 60 miles south of AS, not much traffic out there. There are tracks but I have never seen another person or vehicle. We do see planes/choppers ocassionally but nothing out of the norm for the area.
@@AZ4Runner Thanks for taking the time to reply Jason. Much appreciated! 😀 (a) Given that you felt that your guiding was dicey, I wonder if you should consider getting a 0.75x focal reducer/corrector to use, especially when not imaging from your home observatory. It would bring your focal length down to 1200mm, which would give you the ability to fit in many more objects, but you'd still have a lot of focal length to capture details. Also, it would be less demanding on the mount & noticeably reduce exposure times (especially important if there is some wind and/or imaging through filters), so you could end up with fewer problematic subs. Finally, given the small pixels in your camera, adding a focal reducer/corrector would alter the system from significantly oversampling objects (0.43" per pixel) to a tolerable level of oversampling (0.65' per pixel).🤔 (b) Wow! 300 clear nights per year? That's amazing! 😮 Up here (near Toronto, in Canada), I'd say that clouds would either prevent imaging or cut short imaging sessions about 300 nights per year! lol 🙄😂 (c) I'm glad that observing in a location near to the YSA/Mexico border does not create any hassles for you & Isaac. 👍👍
A focal reducer is definatley on my list to purchase.. as you said, it will bring my Focal length and focal ratio down. I never considered the pixel ratio/image scale would also improve with the reducer as well.. a triple win! I do have an old APS-C CCD camera with 7.8 micron pixels and if I paired that up to the 8"RC gives me an image scale of 1. So I'm very tempted to give that camera a try. It still produces some outstanding images.
@@AZ4Runner Supposedly, 2" per pixel is optimum for deep sky imaging under average seeing conditions, however many great images have been taken with camera/telescope combinations that deliver anywhere between 0.5" per pixel to 4" per pixel. I would think that 1" per pixel or less would be especially advantageous for globular star clusters & reasonably bright nebulae that have a lot of detail. So, I wonder which would be better...the old CCD camera with larger pixels & less over-sampling, or your CMOS camera, which I suspect would be much more sensitive, but over-samples more. My guess is that your new CMOS camera would get better results, as the sensor is much more sensitive & the oversampling is not much higher than the CCD camera. One way or the other, a focal reducer will definitely be helpful! Just make sure that it is a high quality one that has excellent colour correction from blue to deep into the red end of the spectrum, so you don't have problems with star bloating, etc.
I loved the final image. There is no problem with the guidance
Thanks alot Jesus, I tend to agree, I may have been overthinking, in anticpation of a bad session.. But everything worked out.. Clear skies.
Great to see the difference between the bortle 5/6 and 1/2 images! Wow!!!
Thanks Marc..... the dark unpolluted skies sure did make a difference this time.. Clear skies.
Ah that's a beauty that. Brilliant Iris Nebula one of the best I've seen.
Wow Paul, thanks a bunch!! Really appreciate the comment. Thanks for watching.
Fantastic Iris shot Jason, love the detail and dust. Would love to venture out like that one day, you and Isaac rock.
Thanks Glenn, sometimes getting away is just what is needed. Seeing the Milky Way out there was truley breathtaking.. clear skies my friend.
Awesome Image of Iris Nebula!
Thanks alot!! the dark desert skies did not dissapoint..
Looks like you had a rough night, but the effort appears to have been worth it. GREAT IMAGE!!!
Thanks Eliot, It was a little rough, but well worth it.. Next month should be alot better.
Great place. Amazing photo! It is really hot here in Arizona and I only went to high elevations in the summer. Fantastic work.
Thanks alot!! It is hot here in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert is at a lower elevation, so temps can get to 118+ in the summers.. good thing is, it is cooling off right now.. clear skies.
Enjoyed the video Jason and nice image of the Iris nebula at the end. Gosh what difference it makes with these dark nebula to get to a dark sky place (comparing your two images). Wow, 42 degrees, too hot for me - we complain here when it hits 30!
Hey Logan, so true.... True darkness is an astrophotographers best friend. We are planning to go out again this weekend (weather permitting of course) Good thing around here is the temps are coming down! Soon I'll be able to get my camera down to -10 or -15 C. Clear skies my friend.
Just found yalls channels...new fan 😎
Thanks Greg. Hope you enjoyed the video and thanks for being a new fan!! :)
I have been checking the temps out there and you guys are brave! Hopefully this is the last heat wave before things become more manageable. Nice work!
It was suppose to be a bit milder (104) and should have cooled off a bit more, but the Arizona desert wouldn't allow it. She has a mind of her own.. Hopefully it will start to cool off... Thanks for watching Nathan.
@@AZ4Runner I just had the opposite experience. Went out Saturday night to test my new guide scope. Was supposed to be low 60's at night. But instead it got down to 31!
I think I prefer the heat over the cold. I'm not much of a cold weather guy. Hope all went well...
Really nice shot of the Iris there. Nice delay on the reveal. Also nice music @Ollie. Don't let that heat chase you guys away.. you're just a little warmer than central TX :)
Thanks James, Been getting out a little more now that the monsoons are less frequent..
Hey Jason, Awesome Video....I haven't tried the Iris Nebula yet, its on my list though.... I am from Phoenix and Often Shoot north of Lake Pleasant in The BLM .... Its Bortle 3/4 ....I would love a chance to visit Alpha Scorpii and Image....I'd love to meet you guys....I'm not on your level yet, but I'm working on it..LOL.....
I think we are planning to go out in the next 2 or 3 weeks (close to new moon). Come on down, we'd love to have you. There is no level requirement at Alpha Scorpii. we've had others out there so you are more than welcome. PM me on Instagram if you have it "AzDesertAstro" and we can make it happen.
Hey Jason super video, man I can relate to some of those temps in Summer it gets pretty crazy here especially central Australia which looks similar landscape to you guys. Wow could really see those clouds in that Bortle 1 version looked awesome. Thanks mate for the shoutout so cool to see you guys using the music, looked so cool with that sunset. That issue was weird, I assume no breeze ? Cheers man 👍
Thanks Ollie, Not sure what my issue was but stacking did an amazing job getting everything fixed. the wind was crazy for about half the night, so that may have been part of the issue. but in the end, I still managed to get a decent image. And my timelapse did not do the Milky Way justice..
Yo Brother, just came over this morning after AstroBackyard's video today. Sooo looking forward to having a dark sky night out north of Flagstaff and have been watching your vids to get more familiar with AZ stargazing. I'm in about a class 7/8 sky area so this will be huge for me. picked a spot up by Robinson crater that looks like a class 1 with no significant light pollution east or west for over a hundred miles.
(new sub, so looking forward to watching more vids)
I'll wave from the FJ when we pass Yuma! hehe
you're gonna love the Arizona skies!! that's gonna be some dark skies!! If your every in my neck of the woods, drop by Alpha Scorpii.. Skies are pretty dark and skies are usually clear. FJ's are awesome little beasts!!
@@AZ4Runner I'm really hoping the weather cooperates for our trip but yeah, so ready to have a DS night.
i'll never get rid of my FJ. :)
i'll have to plan a trip to AS (probably next year sometime) but i'll hit you up when i do, maybe we can meet up. your set ups are insane!
i'm using a borrowed scope right now but the budget office (lol) has cleared funds for a much better scope.
until then i'll keep following and enjoying your vids.
stay cool (lol)
Sure thing, just let me know when you can make it to AS. that'll give you some time to get new scope up and running when you get it.
Final image looks awesome but if you continue to have issues with elongated stars on your subs it might be beneficial to switch to an off axis guider.
Funny you should say that because I have been looking into an OAG..Might be my next purchase.. anywho, Thanks for taking the time to comment and watching my nights journey... clear skies.
Great video Jason! So glad to see you and Isaac back out imaging again! Loving that final image, I may take that as my next target before the moon comes back again.
Thanks Joe, Feels good to be back in dark skies. You should definatley shoot the Iris I'd love to see what you can do. Clear skies sir!!
Beautiful image Jason! 👍👍 The central star is not blown-out, so you've captured some nice detail in there. 👍👍 I'm glad that your concerns regarding wind & guiding turned out to be less of a problem than you anticipated. Also, it goes to show that astrophotography is like real-estate...location, location, location!....especially when imaging reflection nebulae & dark nebulae! 👍👍
A few questions:
(a) Are you using a focal reducer with the R.C. scope? 🤔
(b) Do you get a lot of clear nights in October & November (when, I assume, the temperatures at night start to cool)? 🤔
(b) How close is Alpha Scorpii to the Mexican border? Do you ever get a visit from border patrol, curious government helicopters, etc?🤔
Thanks for watching and I couldn't have said it better myself. location is key.
(a) I am not using a focal reducer yet. so I'm shooting at 1600mm f/8
(b) Yuma, AZ and the surronding area get a upwards of 300+ clear days/nights a year. so yes we usually have plenty of clear nights when it cools off and all year round.
(c) The border is probably around 60 miles south of AS, not much traffic out there. There are tracks but I have never seen another person or vehicle. We do see planes/choppers ocassionally but nothing out of the norm for the area.
@@AZ4Runner Thanks for taking the time to reply Jason. Much appreciated! 😀
(a) Given that you felt that your guiding was dicey, I wonder if you should consider getting a 0.75x focal reducer/corrector to use, especially when not imaging from your home observatory. It would bring your focal length down to 1200mm, which would give you the ability to fit in many more objects, but you'd still have a lot of focal length to capture details. Also, it would be less demanding on the mount & noticeably reduce exposure times (especially important if there is some wind and/or imaging through filters), so you could end up with fewer problematic subs. Finally, given the small pixels in your camera, adding a focal reducer/corrector would alter the system from significantly oversampling objects (0.43" per pixel) to a tolerable level of oversampling (0.65' per pixel).🤔
(b) Wow! 300 clear nights per year? That's amazing! 😮 Up here (near Toronto, in Canada), I'd say that clouds would either prevent imaging or cut short imaging sessions about 300 nights per year! lol 🙄😂
(c) I'm glad that observing in a location near to the YSA/Mexico border does not create any hassles for you & Isaac. 👍👍
A focal reducer is definatley on my list to purchase.. as you said, it will bring my Focal length and focal ratio down. I never considered the pixel ratio/image scale would also improve with the reducer as well.. a triple win! I do have an old APS-C CCD camera with 7.8 micron pixels and if I paired that up to the 8"RC gives me an image scale of 1. So I'm very tempted to give that camera a try. It still produces some outstanding images.
@@AZ4Runner Supposedly, 2" per pixel is optimum for deep sky imaging under average seeing conditions, however many great images have been taken with camera/telescope combinations that deliver anywhere between 0.5" per pixel to 4" per pixel. I would think that 1" per pixel or less would be especially advantageous for globular star clusters & reasonably bright nebulae that have a lot of detail. So, I wonder which would be better...the old CCD camera with larger pixels & less over-sampling, or your CMOS camera, which I suspect would be much more sensitive, but over-samples more. My guess is that your new CMOS camera would get better results, as the sensor is much more sensitive & the oversampling is not much higher than the CCD camera. One way or the other, a focal reducer will definitely be helpful! Just make sure that it is a high quality one that has excellent colour correction from blue to deep into the red end of the spectrum, so you don't have problems with star bloating, etc.
How many miles do you travel from your home to the remote site? Beautiful place
We travel about 60 miles to the remote site.. So it usually takes about an hour to get there.. Thanks for watching and clear skies..
How do I do astrophotography?
Step 1: visit favorite TH-camr channel
Step 2: skip to the end of the video
Step 3: voila!
Living vicariously through your favorite YT channel.. sounds good.
@@AZ4Runner Yes, but it's not going to last. The more I watch you guys, the closer I get to buying my first rig! Thanks for your inspiring work.
Thanks... got to start somewhere. IT is a very rewarding hobby...