DaveS

Ooh yes, very nice. Lovely colours.

I've found the Zoom talks to be the highlight of my Sunday evening. Only skipped two, the astro sketching / artwork (Due to having zero drawing skills) and the latest PI talk as it looked PI specific and I don't use PI. But that's just me.

Well, I'll risk posting this. If it disappears then I'll know I've transgressed. When I posted the version above I thought I wouldn't get any more data, but since then I managed to get another hour Blue plus 4 1/2 hours Luminance. And new accurate calibration frames so: NGC 3718 in LRGB from the ODK rig in my sig. 15 x 600 sec Red and Green 27 x 600 sec Blue (For a bodged G2v calibration) 31 x 600 sec Luminance. Best 90% stacked in DSS with full calibration and saved as 32 bit FITS. In AstroArt 7 Initial linear stretch then DDP. Multiple iterations of gradient removal. In addition the Luminance was given a masked unsharp mask just for the galaxies. The RGB stacks were coregistered to the Luminance before RGB assembly. Another gradient removal before LRGB synthesis, then Denoise with masks over the galaxies to preserve the detail. There's a couple of colour balance iterations along the line plus a saturation boost. There's a light streak in th etop right from a star just outside th eframe which I've left in as it's genuine. Think I've pushed this about as far as it will go. I have several version on the PC, and TBH not sure which one is the "best" for a given value of best.

In that case the deepest object(s) I've targeted (Though a secondary target) would be Hickson 56 at a paltry 425 MLY. Previous would be Stephan's Quintet at 300-ish MLY

I did have another go at this, but while I think I've brought a bit of colour into the tidal tails the alignment looks worse. I can see a touch of orange / green gradient in the brighter stars, but am having trouble getting rid of it. Possible the saturation is too high.

I had another go since geoflewis pointed out a slight misalignment. I also put a mask over the galaxies and gave the background a denoise to clean it up a bit. Not sure how much difference it's made.

I've been fighting this for a couple of weeks now, but feel able to post I took 15 subs of Red and Green, plus 27 Blue and 31 Luminance each of 10 mins. Stacked in DSS with full calibration then imported into AstroArt for assorted Histogram stretches, DDP, and Gradient Removal. The Luminance was also given a masked Unsharp Mark for the galaxies. There is a streak of light from a bright-ish star just outside the frame which I've deliberately left in. It's nowhere near perfect but will do until I can get proper G2v calibrated data next year, this had to make do with more subs, rather than the longer ones which would have been better.

@MartinB I am now in a quandary. Since my initial posting of NGC 3718 I have managed to get more Blue, plus Luminance (Which I didn't have before), and crucially, correct flat frames for Blue, Green and Luminance Therefore I would like to update my entry to the latest version, which will probably be the last given the weather and vanishing astro dark. However Since my initial offering attracted some "Likes", simply editing to replace the image would make the likes invalid. So Can I post the new version (Which isn't simply a reprocess) and mark the original as not to be judged? I'm putting this in the open forum as others may be affected by, and interested in, the decision.

Well it's no more complicated than any other mount / 'scope / camera set up. A bit more expensive than most perhaps. In some ways it's simpler as there's no guide camera / 'scope or OAG involved. But flattening the subs is doing my head in.

At the moment I'm fighting stupidly bad flat calibration, and running out of ideas. You'd think that with the kit in my sig it would be easy, but it's been anything but.

Those tidal tails around NGC 3718 are *very* faint, need a lot of data from dark skies. I've been fighting 13 hours or so of data from a SQI 21.66 (Est) location and it' proving to be a real fight.

Pretty good for just 2 hours, NGC 3718 is a real swine to image. BTW that little group of 5 galaxies to the right is Hickson 56, at 425 MLY!

Last year during "summer" (for want of a better word) I managed some H-alpha imaging (3nm helps) and a couple of the brighter globs (M13 and M5 I think). It can also be a time to refine your PA that you've always been meaning to do (Points finger at self lol).

RT, Radio Times. Watching it on catch-up.

RT says making a vinyl turntable?

No, second mortgage lol

I solved my problems by turning the camera OFF! It will stay off until I have printed a light shield for the camera, though I don't know how effective it will be since I cannot block the cooling vents which is where the light is getting in;.

+10 for Astrograph. When I bought my first ASA mount Rupert delivered it himself (Having just come from another customer) and didn't leave until it was on the pier, at least roughly aligned and up and running, As I recall it was 7.30 before he left. He's a top bloke.

That's very nice Tony. Started on this a couple of months ago, but went on to M106 instead. Maybe next year if we get a few more clear nights.

Indeed, but the more involved the undertaking the more opportunity to stuff it up. Not something you'd want to do at those prices.

Gods, that's the most involved filter wheel to set up. Have to dismantle the entire thing to put the filters in. No thanks.

In last month's Astronomy Now there was a five page spread about observing the Caldwell Catalogue, which just rubbed salt into the wounds for an imager like me.

That's really lovely. Beautiful colours in M106, and fine detail too.

I'm not much of an observer, but M33 is fairly easy in my 10x50 bins, would be edging naked eye if my eyes were 40-50 years younger. M13 is borderline naked eye for me, depending on sky clarity and altitude. I have seen M65 / 66 looking like a pair of headlights in my 180 Mak-Cass before now. According to CO my location is dark end of Bortle 4, SQI 21.66.

Well, S/N goes as the square root of integration time, so you are definitely into diminishing returns. Having said which, I have several images / projects with more than 20 hours, and a couple with more than 30. Always a temptation to add just another few hours.