Pac-Man goes gobbling stars
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drja...@aol.com
Jan 8, 2026, 9:50:04 AM (6 days ago) Jan 8
to croydo...@googlegroups.com
This is my first light with a Dwarf 3 smart telescope, cropped to a quirky anthropomorphic twist. The PacMan Nebula is in Cassiopeia, and some 10,000 light years away.
250 x 60 second images over three nights with an unhelpful full moon, stacked duo Ha and O3 filter images at gain 60. A first but not especially successful try at the Foraxx palette using Pixinsight. More to do there. Others do far better than I have and something to aspire to.
PacMan's visible black eye is a Bok Globule, formed of isolated dense cosmic dust and gas that can be an active star formation region. The globules were first identified by Bart Bok, an astronomer best known, according to Wikipedia, for his work on the evolution of the Milky Way.
I succumbed to recent generous dealer discounts on the new Dwarf version 3, together with a growing antipathy to lugging my equipment out on increasingly rare clearish nights, and then being increasingly clouded out as well.
As a 35mm objective lens uncooled one shot colour camera at 150mm and max 120 sec exposures it's always going to have its limitations. But it's easy to set up in equatorial mode. I find its claim to be true, that it's both an entry level telescope, or one that more experienced astronomers can squeeze a lot out of by varying settings and gathering many short exposures and processing.
250 exposures was reasonably painless for a first try out finding my way on the phone app that controls it. 600 frames is a common goal among experienced astronomers it seems.
Duo narrowband and LP filters are built in, and a clip on solar filter allows white light photos. It's has go-to, accurate auto focus and very good pointing accuracy. It sits on a simple photo tripod and it just goes and gets things done. Processing of fits frames is still in your own hands, though the camera will stack and processes too if you wish.
It has both a wide angle and telephoto lens and will happily track and photograph moving wild birds/animals and perform any other terrestrial work. It weighs just over 1kg.
James
250 x 60 second images over three nights with an unhelpful full moon, stacked duo Ha and O3 filter images at gain 60. A first but not especially successful try at the Foraxx palette using Pixinsight. More to do there. Others do far better than I have and something to aspire to.
PacMan's visible black eye is a Bok Globule, formed of isolated dense cosmic dust and gas that can be an active star formation region. The globules were first identified by Bart Bok, an astronomer best known, according to Wikipedia, for his work on the evolution of the Milky Way.
I succumbed to recent generous dealer discounts on the new Dwarf version 3, together with a growing antipathy to lugging my equipment out on increasingly rare clearish nights, and then being increasingly clouded out as well.
As a 35mm objective lens uncooled one shot colour camera at 150mm and max 120 sec exposures it's always going to have its limitations. But it's easy to set up in equatorial mode. I find its claim to be true, that it's both an entry level telescope, or one that more experienced astronomers can squeeze a lot out of by varying settings and gathering many short exposures and processing.
250 exposures was reasonably painless for a first try out finding my way on the phone app that controls it. 600 frames is a common goal among experienced astronomers it seems.
Duo narrowband and LP filters are built in, and a clip on solar filter allows white light photos. It's has go-to, accurate auto focus and very good pointing accuracy. It sits on a simple photo tripod and it just goes and gets things done. Processing of fits frames is still in your own hands, though the camera will stack and processes too if you wish.
It has both a wide angle and telephoto lens and will happily track and photograph moving wild birds/animals and perform any other terrestrial work. It weighs just over 1kg.
James
trevsie7
Jan 8, 2026, 5:05:57 PM (6 days ago) Jan 8
to 'J R' via croydonastro
James, that's an impressive image, especially for a first attempt. Like you, lugging my equipment outside and spending a half hour setting up and aligning can get quite frustrating, especially when it subsequently clouds over without warning. These "all-in-one" astrophotography scopes do seem to be becoming very popular and I can see why.
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drja...@aol.com
Jan 10, 2026, 1:43:30 AM (5 days ago) Jan 10
to croydo...@googlegroups.com
Thanks very much Trevor.
I am looking forward to trying out all the capabilities of the Dwarf. So easy to get set up and it brings back the joy and excitement as you see an image emerging on your phone screen, with each new frame cumulatively stacked by the camera.
James
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