Graham Darke

Had two clear nights in a row this weekend at my caravan in Cumbria. Here’s the haul from Friday and Saturday night. All images through the TS71quad with ASI071MC Pro and just an IR/UV cut filter. Gain was set at 150 and cooling to 0C. All guided and captured with ASI Air. Stacking was in Deep Sky Stacker and processing was done in StarTools. First up was The Iris Nebula - 25 x 5 minutes Then M33 - 16 x 3 minutes Then Barnard 111 in Scutum - 29 x 3 minutes Finally a cheeky little Double Cluster - 20 x 2 minutes

Very nice. I like the subtlety of the colours. I was imaging this target last night too but only got 2 hours on it and subtlety of processing isn’t my strong point...

Phone them and speak to someone. The website always says it’s full.

Did you phone them or try to book on the website?

Very nice indeed, as usual...

Narrowband from a mono camera can be false colour if the channels are mapped differently to the wavelength that each filter captures in, Hubble palette for instance. Both images above are true colour, full spectrum for the first and narrowband for the second. Taken with a colour camera the narrow bands are mapped straight to the colour channels that the camera’s matrix captured them albeit “narrowly”. I take the “less is more” point though, these are a bit loud.

I’m not sure that the channels are very well aligned. That may be causing issues.

Gave that a try. The result came out a bit strange. It looked great after the first Auto Dev, Bin, Crop and Wipe, but after the second Dev and particularly after the Colour module it all went a bit weird. Green blotches all over the image and no colour to the stars. It will be something I’m doing wrong...

I had thought about doing that but had no idea how to do it. My processing skills are pretty basic but I will have a look at the Compose module now. Thanks Ivo!

It was just an experiment really to see the difference that a narrowband filter makes as against no filter in a dark sky. In terms of nebula captured, I agree that this L-eXtreme filter is going to be a winner. Next clear night (whenever that is!) I will try and get a few hours hours time in and also do proper calibration frames too. I like both images for the different things that each show. I love the star colours in the first one. The nebula is a bit shocking pink though!

These images were taken about ten days ago from the Lake District in England. Bortle 3 site. Interesting comparison to see what a OSC camera can do in about half an hour from a decent site at full spectrum and narrow band. The images were taken with the same exposure time and same scope and camera but with different filters. The first image is taken through an IR/UV cut filter so basically the full visual spectrum. I live in a Bortle 9 site so couldn't contemplate 1 minute long exposures never mind 5 minutes. The second image was taken through an Optolong L-eXtreme filter which passes just 7nm of Hydrogen Alpha and 7nm of O III. Equipment: TS71 quad apo, ZWO ASI 071 MC-Pro camera, AZEQ6-GT mount guided with Astro Essentials 32mm F4 guide scope with a ZWO ASI120mm mini all controlled via ASI Air. Image 1: 7x 5 minutes at gain 150, temperature set at 0 degrees C. ZWO IR/UV cut filter. Seven darks. Stacked in DSS and processed in Startools. Image 2: 5x5minutes with all other settings the same.

This 5 x 300s subs taken last night through the TS71q and ASI 071 camera through my new Optolong L-eXtreme narrow band filter. Processed in Startools. Just the light frames, no darks or flats. Bortle 3 site. Looks promising.

It is.

I have the 12mm Delos and it’s currently my favourite eyepiece. I wear specs and find it perfect with or without.

Awesome Michael!