Simeis 147 in Ha

[Gina]

Once the clouds cleared I've been imaging Simeis 147 tonight using my Atik 314L+ mono CCD camera with Asahi Takumar 105mm f2.8 lens stopped down to f4. Here is the first single sub of 20m stretched to near breaking point in PS

[Gina]

It's dropped out of view now. 3 x 20m subs captured, stacked in DSS and processed in PS. That's it for tonight - may try for more data tomorrow night if the weather co-operates

[Ibbo!]

A nice start to the spaghetti neb hope you manage load smore

my other 1/2 has just said is it mine

I wish

Steve

[fwm891]

Great start Gina, must have a look at this - been shooting PanSTARRS the last couple of clear nights

[Mark72]

Nice work Gina,

I wish I could get something like this, good luck with more data.

Mark

[kingboya]

Very good start Gina

[Coco]

How did you find it? short subs doesnt reveal it easy does it.. Nice image

[Keiran]

Those extra subs made a big difference, looking ver nice so far

[Gina]

Thank you for all your comments everyone

It is difficult to find. What I did was to check my slewing accuracy by going to a neraby bright star (in CdC) and seeing where that came up on the screen. Then slewed to Simeis 147 and took a 5m sub. That was just sufficient to see it when stretched in PS. It was about half a frame up and to the right with a nice bright star in view (this can be seen in the single sub above). So using a loop of a few seconds I moved the star down and to the left from the middle to near the bottom left. That placed the object nicely in the frame. That same star appeared in my guide frame and made a great guide star providing good guiding with PHD. I would have lost it from guiding if I had moved it further left otherwise I would have put Simeis 147 more central - but it's all in anyway so good enough. Now I have the image in the right place I should be able to use AstroTortilla to put it back again next session.

[ultranova]

Nice Catch Gina, I had a go at this one a couple of months back, it took me a age to actually work out if I

had it frame or not as with a typical 6 minute slr shot there was no sign of it at all ,

so going by that well done, hope you get a chance to add more data, as its really starting to take shape.

Paul

[sloz1664]

Hi Gina,

That's another great image you have collected there. But, you have faith in your ability and it's showing through with flying colour(s) - excuse the pun.

With my fickle skies and what limited time I can muster at the scope, searching for a blind object, to me would be mission impossible. Setting-up everything & tearing down everything

polar aligning etc... is now becoming a race against time. I really envy you with your obsy & it is the one thing high on my agenda, once I have redeveloped the garden, remove trees etc...

Still only 5 years to retirement.

Steve

[Gina]

Nice Catch Gina, I had a go at this one a couple of months back, it took me a age to actually work out if I

had it frame or not as with a typical 6 minute slr shot there was no sign of it at all ,

so going by that well done, hope you get a chance to add more data, as its really starting to take shape.

Paul

Thank you Paul It is a very faint object. I did have a try at this last year I think when I used a modded and cooled DSLR with Astronimik 12nm Ha filter - no chance! It's still a difficult oine with the most sensitive and low noise astro mono CCD camera and Astrodon 5nm Ha filter but I love a challenge It just isn't visible above the background without an Ha filter.

[Gina]

Hi Gina,

That's another great image you have collected there. But, you have faith in your ability and it's showing through with flying colour(s) - excuse the pun.

With my fickle skies and what limited time I can muster at the scope, searching for a blind object, to me would be mission impossible. Setting-up everything & tearing down everything

polar aligning etc... is now becoming a race against time. I really envy you with your obsy & it is the one thing high on my agenda, once I have redeveloped the garden, remove trees etc...

Still only 5 years to retirement.

Steve

Thank you Steve I have always taken the view the you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and you have the physical ability to do it. I did have a go for some time setting up and taking down with a tripod on the lawn. I decided that wasn't viable - I liked my creature comforts too much, and decided if I was going to continue I needed an observatory. We had the space and somewhere with an adequate view of the sky so I gradually built one as the funds became available and weather permitted. The build took an enormous amount of effort and very hard work plus no small amount of money but the result has been well worth it.

[Epicycle]

Great capture! More subs will certainly make it smoother.

[JohnC64]

very nice on a very faint object. I'm thinking of getting a second hand atik(if i can find one) and with seeing pictures like yours, its more and more making my mind up.

[Gina]

Great capture! More subs will certainly make it smoother.

Thank you Hoping the forecast clear sky tonight will actually materialise so that i can add another hour or two. Trouble is, it already starts well to the west and drops out of view quite early.

[Gina]

very nice on a very faint object. I'm thinking of getting a second hand atik(if i can find one) and with seeing pictures like yours, its more and more making my mind up.

Thank you John Yes, I can most certainly recommend the Atik 314L+ mono CCD camera Extremely sensitive and the noise is so low you don't need darks. The supplied software is great too. Wish I'd gone for one earlier but I was too determined to get as much as I could out of a modded and super-cooled DSLR

[Gina]

It may help others if I spell out the use of AstroTortilla to continue a session from one night to the next.

Having framed up the object sucessfully and captured some images, the first thing I do is go online to nova.astronometry.net (http://nova.astrometry.net) and upload an image sub just as captured (no processing). This tells me exactly the arcsecs per pixel (app) I'm actually using. This will confirm any calculations. Then I can set AT to just below and just above, to limit the number of index files used and speed up solving. Next step is to use my local AT software to plate solve this image and check all's well. This is shown in the screen capture.

Now when I go out to image next time we get clear skies I can start everything up and in AT use the menu item Tools > Goto Image. I will then choose the image file I got AT to solve before (so I know it works). With the "Telescope" connected ie. AT connected via ASCOM to the mount, AT now slews the scope to the right area of sky. This may not be precise so next step is to capture an image with the same settings as the previous session (a shorter exposure though) eg. same binning etc. (having ticked the boxes in the "Actions" box on the right of the AT window) then when done choose the latest image file from the file chooser box that AT is now showing. AT will solve this and slew the scope to the exact position to match the previous image. Usually this is spot on but if not (ie. if not within the specified accuracy) AT will ask for another capture and you repeat the capture, solve and slew.

Hope that makes sense but please ask any questions and I'll try to help

[sologuitarist61]

Great image!

[Gina]

Thank you Richard

[stellawolf]

That s a very nice image & up to your high standards Gina well done will you be adding any colour too it?

[Gina]

Thank you Stella Yes, I'm planning to take RGB weather permitting as well as some more Ha.

[astro mick]

All the above.

Well done Gina.

Mick.

[Gina]

Thank you Mick

[melsky]

Excellent image Gina, I'll have to have a pop at this with the DSLR (I like a challenge)

Mel