tomato

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.

When I read the title I assumed you had got bored with the clouds and programmed a slewing sequence into your mount so it played a tune. I was so looking forward to watching and listening to the video…

There is a bit of a story behind this one: When I first started AP back in the 1980's the Holy Grail was to capture an image of the Horsehead Nebula after seeing a photo taken with the with the 48" Schimdt telescope at Siding Springs. I did eventually succeed but it was truly awful. Nowadays, it makes me smile that a Seestar will give you a vastly superior image with the absolute minimum of effort. Fast forward to 2016 and my return to the hobby focused on galaxy imaging and I was again blown away when I came across an image of NGC 1365, surely the most photogenic barred spiral galaxy in the entire sky. Capturing my own version would, however, be significantly more challenging. For a start, it is so southerly it is impossible to image from the UK and even from southern Spain it is a bit of a challenge. With little opportunity to image in the UK due to the permacloud, my thoughts have returned to this target. The only option for now was to process an existing third party dataset, so after looking around I took a punt and purchased a 8.67 hr RGB dataset from Starbase for $20. It was captured with a 12.5" RC and SBIG ST1100 CCD from Chile. TBH, the data was a little disappointing, quite a colour gradient across the combined image and several hot columns in the individual 10 minute subs. Still I took it through my usual workflow. Although I have an image of it now in my collection, the process has been oddly unsatisfying. It does make me wonder if I would feel the same sense of dissatisfaction if I was to get data directly from a remote site, but unless I put my dual rig over my shoulder and get on a plane, I don't have much of an option. There is a 27 hr dataset available for £50 through the Society for Popular Astronomy, I'm not sure...

Tilt adjustment is a chore but is it $695 worth of a chore? It may not be for the purists, but I’m happy with fixing it in processing if it’s not too bad.

Thanks, a 2 hour (becomes 4 with the dual rig☺️) window is forecast for tomorrow, I could sneak in another session before the moon gets too obtrusive.

Sorry to hear that your enthusiasm for imaging has taken a tumble. I try to apply some reverse psychology to the UK weather and get a buzz from extracting any image, regardless of quality, from this almost permanently cloud covered island. It’s adding to your equipment list but if “big AP” is getting you down, why not buy a Seestar? It’s hassle free imaging and the owners who post on here are some of the most enthusiastic on SGL. And you have the added advantage that if your mojo returns you won’t have to decide what next level of kit to buy.

This is a pair of interacting galaxies, NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 in Virgo, some 130 million light years distant. There is some speculation that this interaction is not dissimilar to that which our own Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will experience in around 5 billion years time. This capture was on the ragged edge for me, culmination occurs at only 31 degrees altitude at my location so I needed to start imaging as soon as it cleared the lower edge of the dome aperture. All was well to start with then the stars started to disappear from the subs and I realised that although the target was clear of my neighbour's garage it was being temporarily obscured behind the taller obstruction of the adjoining house. I had to wait patiently for around 35 minutes before it reappeared. I managed to get 77 x 2 mins Lum and 75 x 2 mins RGB with the Esprit 150/QHY268 dual rig. It really needs at least twice that but yet another front has blown in and the moon will soon be making an appearance. Having said all that, I'm quite pleased with the result given the adverse capture conditions. Thanks for looking.

Thanks very much Dave for your complimentary feedback. I must be out of my mind but I’m going to try and image Arp 271 tonight, I supposedly have a clear but breezy 4 hour window…

Inspired by the 62.5 hr, Deep Sky West, TOA-130 image of the Eyes, which @gorann recently posted a link to, I thought I would see what detail I could tease out from my 8.5 hrs from Soggy Shropshire. This is a close crop of the original Esprit 150/QHY268 image, I tried to add in another couple of hours from data collected from the same rig in 2022, but the colour processing was problematic, so I've stayed with just the recent data. It can't hold a candle to the colour and detail extravaganza image that inspired me to have a go, but it is interesting how much of a crop you can get away with with the Esprit 150/IMX571 sensor combination. Thanks for looking.

Excellent detail, and subtle processing of the colour. I'm always tempted and usually succumb to overdoing the saturation on this galaxy. I agree with Olly that there is a hint of green overall on my monitor, but it's not much.

If ever an image demonstrated that a large refractor can nail an image of a small galaxy, this must be it. But 62.5 hrs from Deep Sky West helps.

Only this? I guess it depends on your point of view, on the one hand you have a lot of featureless “faint fuzzies” but on the other those distant galaxies provide tangible markers on the otherwise incomprehensible depth of space that resides in your excellent image, each one an island universe in its own right. Complimenting these multiple galaxies of all shape and sizes, there are a myriad of super sized black holes, a plasma jet, each patch of diffuse light is made up of countless suns harbouring equally countless planetary systems perhaps some with life on them including civilisations, some maybe hundreds of thousands years older than ours and others which have no doubt turned back to sand. I therefore propose that your image knocks any bit of photogenic gas and dust into a cocked hat, but that’s just my opinion.😉

It will go back on if required, but definitely on an independent power source.