The Orion nebula with a low cost SVBONY SV305 camera, AstroDMx Capture and an f/4.5, 102mm ED refractor

The SVBONY SV305 is a very stable, low cost camera that is ideal for Deep Sky, and Solar system astrophotography.

The SVBONY SV305 camera is now implemented in AstroDMx Capture for Linux. Nicola has released Version 0.66.1 of AstroDMx Capture for Linux as .deb; .rpm and manual installers. Which can be downloaded from https://www.linux-astro-imaging.uk/

A motor-focuser-adapted Bresser Messier AR 102xs f/4.5 ED refractor was mounted on a Celestron AVX GOTO mount and a SVBONY SV305 camera, fitted with a light-pollution filter, was placed at the prime focus. AstroDMx Capture for Linux, running on an Ubuntu Linux laptop was used to capture 12 bit data into 16 bit Tiff files at three exposures (5s x 20; 14s x 30; 40s x 10) with matching dark-frames. Each set of images was stacked in Registax 5.1 and the resulting images were themselves stacked in Registax and also combined in Andrew Sprott's Flexible Image Combine. The final result was post processed in Glimpse (a fork of the Gimp), Fitswork, FastStone and Neat Image.

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Linux capturing data on the Orion nebula with the SV305

The Orion nebula captured by the SV305 with AstroDMx Capture for Linux

The data were captured in haste in a clear sky that according to the weather forecast, was supposed to be dense clouds. The clear patch lasted just long enough to gather the data using the equipment that was closest to hand. Further tests will be done with a Newtonian reflector.

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin