DaveS

Thanks folks. There's one more I forgot, Melotte 15 in the heart of the Heart. This is one I've been struggling with for some months, finally producing a NHO rendition, after binning my first attempts, back in July (I think). This was done at the end of November / beginning of December. Not really up to the standard of the others but I'm including it for completeness. Again this is another project for next year, when I hope to be able explore the [SII] signal. which is very weak, so will need a long integration.

Although I moved from my old home in SQI 18.25 Ruislip to SQI 21.66 Bride Valley during December 2018, it was only in January 2019 that I started imaging using my Star Adventurer and old SLR lenses. Since then I have managed to get my telescope set up for "proper" DSO imaging. So, with no more ado, on to the images The first image was a wide field of Orion with a 35mm f/2.8 Leitz Elmarit-R and ASI1600, in HRGB Unfortunately I didn't see a fine telephone cable that ran through my field, giving huge star spikes. Stil, it's the first I did so here it is. Pleased to have picked up Barnard's Loop. Then swapped lenses for a 180mm f/3.4 Leitz Apo-Telyt-R, and went for a close up of the Sword and Flame in HaLRGB. Unfortunately I accidentally turned the aperture ring when focusing for the L so it was at f/5.6 instead of full aperture, giving huge spikes. Exposures in these cases were, I think, 90 seconds to avoid trailing, with gain at 0. There was then a long gap until the beginning of May while I set up the HEQ5 and Megrez 90 for imaging with a 0.79X reducer and ASI1600, in time (Just) for Galaxy Season, managing to image Markarian's Chain. I had tried this from Ruislip, but the results were rubbish. This is a basic LRGB image, no point adding HII as there isn't any to speak of. I just managed to include M87 in the lower left corner. Then yet another long gap until the beginning of August, when I had the main rig of TS 130mm f/7 Apo with SX694 on DDM 60 set up on the platform I had built for it. My target was now the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. After chasing blind alleys with [NII] (I thought, as a WR object there might have been significant signal) I ended up with a HOO rendition, blending HII and [OIII] for the green channel. This gave what I consider to be best rendition, though not scientifically accurate. Then into September and revisiting one of the first NB targets I had tried, M27, the Dumbell, back in 2014. This was another HOO, due to running out of time. I hope to be able to add [NII] next year as I know this target has a strong signal. I just managed to pick up some of the outer shells. Another project for next year. I then left the local nebulae for something a bit further away, the Deer Lick group and Stephan's Quintet, which would just fit on the SX694 sensor. This was a long run, managing to gather 17 1/2 hours data in LRGB, my longest to date. Again I had tried this from Ruislip but the results were so bad that I binned them. My last image (Phew!) was just into this year when I had another go at M33, the Triangulum Spiral. This has quite a low surface brightness so is more difficult than the nominal magnitude might suggest. For this I added 2 hours HII in 10 minute subs. I had swapped cameras for the ASI1600 again, and put a 0.75X reducer in the train. This is 10 hours of HaLRGB as 2 hour stacks of 10 min subs. So there we have it, a somewhat mixed bad of seven images over the year. What I have found is that there really is no substitute for a dark site, as even NB imaging is much easier and rewarding, and for LRGB there is no contest. C&C welcome as always, and I will try to provide more information if I can.

Took the opportunity yesterday to assemble the sole plate and screw the angle brackets in. Just been out before and after lunch to finish the corner screws, two in each direction, and the top corner pieces. Now given it a good jollop of Creocote while the weather's sunny and not too cold. Still got to screw it down to the stone work base and pack mortar in. Photos when there's been enough progress, probably when I have the first uprights on.

No point, it'll be clouded out.

For anyone with a roll-off roof, make sure it's locked down securely. I remember @Gina losing the roof of hers a few years back.

Putting these in order, First a wide field of Orion, HRGB, 35mm f/2.8 Leitz Elmarit-R, ASI1600 Star Adventurer. This is the first image from my Bortle 4 location. The huge spikes are from an unseen telephone wire. And a close up of the Sword and Flame. 180mm f/3.4 Leitz Apo-Telyt-R, again with ASI1600, HLRGB Markarian's Chain. the only image I managed during "Galaxy Season". WO Megrez 90, 0.79x reducer, ASI1600 on HEQ5. There are a few trails that I couldn't get rid of. Then a long gap until August, and the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. HOO mapped H>red, H+O>green. O>blue. TS Photoline triplet apo, SX694, Astrodon 3nm NB filters. And lastly the Deer Lick group with Stephan's Quintet. Again the TS apo with Baader LRGB and Astrodon H-alpha, 17.5 hours total. And that's it. Unfortunately I cannot include my image of M33, as that was the beginning of January this year.

I think I'd have got more than just the hump over that.

Wow, that's deep! Don't often see the Rosette connected to the rest of the HII regions.

My garden also slopes down from the observing position, but the logical place for the trees is closer to the top of the slope, but I think anything under 12' or so should be OK, perhaps more if I can put the trees lower. I have a reasonable (But not expert) knowledge of rootstocks, and which ones might work in my situation.

Thanks Alan. Beating the birds is why I'll be setting up a fruit cage for the cherries and soft fruit, I was a bit nieve and lost all my blackcurrants, goosgogs and raspberries to the damn blasted pigeons that I'm not allowed to blast with a shotgun. I think the apples and plums should be OK. Will have to choose rootstocks with care to keep the heights down.

Ooh, that's very nice indeed. I'd be delighted if I managed anything anywhere near that from my Bortle 4-3 location, nevermind anywhere afflicted with the horrid orange goo.

Just to clarify, not planetary, but planetary nebulae. M27, for instance has a very strong [NII] signal. Unfortunately I stuffed up the focus when I was trying to image it, then ran out of time due to the run of rubbish weather.

Urk, that doesn't look good. I had problems with a SX FW some years ago that turned out to be a missing centre block, though the contacts were still there. Sent it off to SX for repair and everything was OK afterwards.

I'll add that I'm not being a total thug in taking down the tree, as the area freed up will be planted as a small orchard of dwarf / semi-dwarf fruit trees, plus a fruit-cage of soft fruit an a couple of fan-trained cherries. Hopefully I'll also be able to grow veg in the same general area.

A couple of photos without the tree. First from the small platform looking west to north west And a panorama from the observatory platform, looking from south around to north-west.

I have the 0.75x APM-Riccardi for my 130 f/7 'frac, and yes, it is very good.

Did Widescreen really have Baader 3.5 H-alpha? I've been waiting for @FLO to deliver mine since forever. Got my [OIII] and [SII], but no sign of the HII .

I've just seen a fuzzy brightening of the horizon to horizon cloud,

Doesn't your focuser have a rotator built in? The one on my 130 apo has two, so I can orientate the focuser itself, and the camera.

I thought Topic had peanuts in it. Can you tell it's cloudy?

Petition signed.

I've had several updates since I had the software playing nicely with no problems. It was only when trying to work out what happened when I looked at the update log and saw a couple that happened the day before when I wasn't imaging. I'll see what happens when I have the real focuser installed.

Yes, I'll be running the power and ethernet in at a high level from poles. I couldn't decide exactly where I wanted the power to come up, plus there was the matter of preventing ingress of critters.

As far as I can tell, there was nothing odd in my settings. I had everything working smoothly after ASA has sorted out a problem in Sequence due to a software bug that meant it needed a focuser of some kind, in my case I was running the ASCOM simulator. Then Micro-$-Oft did a sneaky security update that stuffed my ASCOM platform so that neither Cartes du Ciel nor Maxim could connect to the mount through ASCOM. I ended up having to reinstall the ASCOM platform, and thought everything was back to normal, but Sequence went off doing a pre-sequence focus which it had never done before and getting into an infinite loop as it couldn't see a movement in the focuser. So now I've been unable to use Sequence to its full potential, having to do the slew and synch in C du C, missing the automatic meridian flip and re-synch. The only thing still working was MLPT fortunately, so the mount could still guide on its encodes and sky model. As a result of all this I've been forced into buying a real autofocuser before I wanted to, and have the 'scope on my dining room table while I fix it up. I'll likely be doing some rough calibration of the focuser tomorrow, I hope.

Yep, very good Bubble. When I process the data from my SX 694 (Same sensor) I to find calibrating with Bias and Flat only works much better than adding Dark as well, something that Terry at SX notes in the user manual.