tomato

How do visual only astronomers feel about the Pegasus product? Would you embrace it or do you feel that it introduces a disconnect between you, the optics and the heavens?

I made a start a few years back with a 4 panel mosaic of the Chain, but it was only a couple of hours per panel.

It’s a great image and an ideal FOV for this region. I would love to cover this area with my Esprit 150 rig but I’d need at least 12 panels…

Any sign of the Skywatcher HAC125 at the show?

So this one has two hours of Ha, using NBZ dual band filters with the mono and OSC cameras. Total integration is now 20.3 hrs. I'll stop posting these now until I have 30+ hrs, assuming that's possible this side of losing astro darkness.

I had a cooling control issue which I raised with QHY, I got a reply the next day.

If it is Astro Pixel Processor’s sub analysis quality score, I think the numbers are relative to the data being analysed in that session. Recently the numbers have been in the 300-400 for 2 minute subs under a moonlit sky.

Thanks for that, your figure of 20.43 makes quite a difference! I'll be on it again tonight, albeit with a 92% illuminated moon.😟I might try to capture some Ha instead.🙂

This is Abell 2151, the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, centred on NGC 6045. 116 x 2mins Lum, 110 x 2 mins RGB captured with the Esprit 150/QHY268 dual rig. Annotated images are being posted so I've included one.

My Moravian 8300 CCD doesn’t get any telescope time now, but seeing that it won’t even fetch a third of what I paid for it on the used Astro camera market, I’m keeping it as an imaging camera back up, in case I fry a CMOS camera (which I have done once already). They are obviously still capable of capturing quality data, but for the reasons already outlined, it requires a bit more effort.

So I have obtained an SQM figure of 19.83 from ASTAP, but that was with with a sub captured about 40 degrees way from an 70% illuminated moon, but all of my recent M101 data was similarly moon affected. I'm assuming all of your data was collected on moonless nights so assuming your SQM was 20 and if I was to image under the same moonlit conditions, I would need 1.425 times the integration time so around 35 hrs, about double what I already have. Now I know why I went for a dual rig.😉

Much as I like imaging small, little known galaxy targets, I can't let the season go by without having a go at one of the blockbusters. Inspired by @ONIKKINEN's wonderfully deep and detailed M101, I have collected 102 x 2 mins Lum and 94x 2 mins RGB over the last couple of nights to add to 352 x 2 mins RGB from Feb 2022, all captured with the Esprit 150/IMX571 dual rig, captured at 0.74" per pixel. So at 18.25 hrs integration I might have thought that was enough, but if you compare it to Oskari's 25 hr image, it's found wanting. For a start the lack of Ha data is a big minus, I don't have a Ha filter for the mono camera but I could try and get some hours with the OSC and the NBZ dual band. Also, the faint outer spiral arms are less distinct and small objects are lacking in detail. For example, the tiny barred spiral galaxy that I admired is a just a mangled blob in my image. Now some of this may be due to the different OTAs used to gather the data, and my heavy handed processing, or my sky conditions are inferior, but I'm hoping that 18 hrs is just not enough.

Possibly a first on Astrobin, that’s quite an achievement.👍

5 minutes before breakfast, nice one👍. I left my rig running unattended last night till 03:45 and it seems to have behaved itself!

Nice, but I would need two…😉

As M101 images go it’s up there with the best, deep and detailed.👍 I love the background galaxies too, like this barred spiral:

I have managed to get another session on this before the moon gets too intrusive, taking it out to 9.2 hrs of integration. Although the galaxies are estimated to be about 5 million LY apart so close enough for some interaction, I'm now inclined to agree with Gary Imm's view that the apparent bridge of star stuff joining the galaxies is merely a line of sight effect and actually is part of the left hand galaxy NGC 5426's spiral arm structure. Edit: My original post used images with PI's SPCC. I have since tried APP's csc tool and to my mind this has produced superior results, so these are now posted. Crop

I’m not sure what the setting actually does, but I do know increasing it helped to eliminate a horizontal banding issue I was experiencing with IMX571 sensor cameras.

Yet another field where the RASA’s abilities can be utilised!👍 Its not in the same location, but does the structure in the top RH corner fit with @BrendanC’s image posted recently? I was imaging M51 with a RASA8 and an ASI678 last night but it was more to emulate how the Celestron Origin might perform rather than going really deep. Still, about 4 hrs is a start…

The better business model could be hosting remote imaging sites or selling quality datasets to processing enthusiasts. However, there must be big start up and on going running costs but a number of these ventures have appeared in recent years. Or invent a cloud gun that really works, you’ll make a fortune.

Thanks Wim, I have seen images with the expected Ha regions in the spiral arms. The 27 hr dataset available through the Society for Popular Astronomy has some Ha data, I need to investigate this further.

40 euros for the whole night, on a 17" CDK, that looks like a good rate!👍

Sorry I can’t help with that, but I have loads of experience of spending money to take Astrophotography shots.☺️

Yes, that’s the other possibility, if I liquidate my Astro gear I could hire one of FLO’s set ups in Spain for a few years, then there is no problem disposing of any assets when I peg it. I’ve heard that folks who set up their own rig in Chile find it is so expensive to bring it back home they finally end up selling it for a song in situ or donating it to a school or University.

Thanks for the feedback, the psychology towards just processing data is fascinating. On the IKI data I was more in a learning and I suppose a competition mindset, and I could compare my efforts to others, so I was OK with that. I think the problem is I get fired up about galaxies and I once I have chosen a target I kind of form an attachment that starts with planning an imaging session and finishes when I post the ‘final’ processed image. The problem with NGC 1365 is the frustration of not being able to personally fulfil the data capture part of the process, I suppose our friends in the Southern hemisphere could feel the same way about M31 and M81/82? Anyway, I ought to get used to just processing data, as the day will come, if I’m still here, when I’m not able to lift the scopes on and off the mount so then it will have to be either a Seestar or third part data.