D5100 testing

[willcarney]

I did some more D5100 testing using BackyardNikon.  Here's two images that were taken the other night.  The NorthAmerican Nebula had 38 lights only 45 seconds each.  I'm limited right now because of the mount.  BYN took everything except the flats.

[s3igell]

You know that BYN can produce the Flats, too...  Just select Flats Image Type, and set your Shutter to Av and lower your ISO to 100 (unless your Image Processing Workflow requires Flats at ISO Matching your Lights).  If you wish, set your Camera's Exposure Offset to "+2" (per a discussion initiated earlier this year by Phil Leigh and ultimately accepted by a goodly number of us - look up Phil's posts on this Forum for details).  Then set your desired Exposure Count and press "Start Capture".  (Oh, and remember to disable PHD Dither - no need to Dither and Settle between Flats - even if your still have PHD and your AutoGuider running...)

 

Of course, BYN isn't as fast at this as simply setting up in Av and holding down the Shutter Button and allowing the Camera to store Images to the SD Card at Max Frame Rate until the Frame Buffer fills - because BYN has to Download each Image across USB2.  (But then with the NIKON SDK Issues with Start-up Cataloging of SD Card Contents, you likely no longer keep an SD Card in your D5100 during your Imaging Sessions...)

[willcarney]

If I am using a telescope then I use BYN to do flats.  If I'm using a Nikon lens I prefer to unplug and stick the memory card back in and make them directly.  Then I'll take the card back out and do all the others as needed.  Those two images were taken with a Nikon 55-200 lens.  Right now my Atlas mount is in CA, been there since last November so I don't use PHD or telescope control.   I only have an old C8 forkmount to use.  The North American Nebula had 40 45sec lights, 20 bias, 20 darks, 21 dark flats, and 29 flats.  I always shoot the flats with same ISO as lights.  In fact everything is shot with the same ISO.  BYN performed perfect without issues.  Considering I had quite a bit of trouble getting it to work at first it's working great now.