tomato

That's an interesting and for me, a reassuring comment. After viewing your and Paul's image I revisited my Markarian's Chain mosaic and applied the XT suite of tools to it. I was able to improve the colour although still short of your result. I then realised each panel was just 2 hrs integration from my Bortle 5/6 location so I think I should be satisfied with the result, there is only so much blood you can squeeze out of a stone.

Would that be in miles or light years?☺️

I don’t know of such an app, but here is a video of how to create an horizon file for Stellarium which I found useful. If you want to make an accurate model, I used a spotting scope mounted on an alt az tripod and a digital inclinometer like this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trend-DLB-Digital-Level-Black/dp/B01HF9FJJU/ref=asc_df_B01HF9FJJU/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232122755890&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4730213805337759166&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007072&hvtargid=pla-421592053330&psc=1&th=1&psc=1 They are also useful on Dobsonian scopes to give you an easy reading of altitude.

Thanks Tony. I think it really helps if you pick a subject with high elevation, but fortunately there dozens of galaxies in this size category so you can always find one that is well placed.

A stunning mosaic, a real testament to your patience and dedication. How does your processing PC cope with an image of this size? I would imagine StarXterminator takes a while?

An amazing result for 3 hrs integration. However, @George Sinanis, thanks to modern sensitive CMOS cameras and processing software advances, you can capture IFN from the UK under poor conditions, you just need a reasonable aperture and longer integration times.

It would indeed be a challenge with the RASA. The light gathering capability of the system could also be counter productive, on my Esprit150/Asi178 set up, it was much easier to see on a single 3 min sub rather than the 72 min stack.

Outstanding! I needed a 4 panel mosaic with the Esprit150/IMX571OSC to get this FOV and I didn't get anything like the intensity of colour. What was your integration time? I zoomed in on M87 to see if you have a hint of the plasma jet which would have been outrageous with an F2 scope but I couldn't see it so that has restored my faith in optical theory to some extent.

This one is a little off the beaten track but is currently well placed to get data at a high elevation. It is 180 million light years away and is the largest member of a group of 10 galaxies. The irregular form earned it an ARP classification but there is no indication of an interaction. The upper most spiral arm has a concentration of hot blue stars and large HII regions whereas on the opposite side there is a more conventional arrangement of faint spiral arms. Captured with the Esprit150/ASI178 dual rig as follows: L 228 x 2 mins R 67x 2 mins G 60 x 2 mins B 69 x 2 mins All data binned 2x2 so imaging at 0.94" per pixel, 14.1 hrs integration. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in PI, with BXT/SXT/NXT utilised. I tried SPCC but CSC in APP seemed to give a better colour result, at least to my eye. Thanks for looking.

Yes, a great image of a challenging galaxy👍🏼

Super sharp, well done!👍

Congratulations to the worthy winners and thanks for setting the challenge, it generated a lot of entries, all to a high standard IMHO.

Most of the stuff that shows up as dust motes on the flat is on the camera sensor window, so subtle changes in focus won’t affect this or any vignetting either. I’m fortunate to have a permanent setup so if I need to, I take the flats the following morning, using the last in focus position from the night before. When I had to take down after the imaging session I took them at the end of the imaging run.

How many panels do you need before you can add on your Orion vista? You now it makes sense.😉

Great image, especially on just 2 hrs integration.👍

I don’t dither with my dual rig set up, it wastes too much time and I generate a bad pixel map in APP from the calibration frames so I don’t see the benefit. I used to see a significant blip (but not massive) in the guide graph when dithering, it was moving around 3-5 pixels from memory.

I sorted out the calibration frames for the Esprit data today so was able to take that image a bit further. All hail NoiseXterminator, you can image want it looked like, stretched to within an inch of it's life before NXT was applied.

You are being way too hard on yourself. You have framed the comet with a bright star, and you have a registered comet and fixed stars in the background. Imaging fast moving comets is like on page 986 of the Astrophotography manual.👍

And it shows…👍

I’ve had an Esprit 150 on an EQR-6 pro and it performed admirably, 0.6” total RMS guiding error. I wouldn’t base your decision on one negative experience post. I know of at least one person who wouldn’t go near a Mesu 200…

Man, this object is fainter than the faintest thing ever! I got 300 minutes with the Esprit150/QHY268/NBZ combination last night but it was barely visible, I could see no trace of it on a 3 minute sub, even with the mono camera. So I combined this with some historic RASA8/NBZ data which on it's own was not great, but at least now it can be seen in the image. The FOVs are vastly different which is why the object is somewhat brighter than the surrounding nebulosity. The stars are all from NBZ data so are very bland. Total integration time is around 7 hrs, I reckon it needs four times that from my location to do it justice. Thanks for looking.

Superb colours and dust detail. The 10 year old then and now images that Adam Block has on his channel are almost unrecognisable, there is so much more faint nebulosity and detail.

I think NINA puts a guiding settle time in the sequence as a default, but no doubt you can disable it. I see it at the start of a sequence or if guiding has been disabled for a refocus. It runs for a predetermined time to check that oscillations are within set limits before starting the exposure. It looks like the guiding deviation is exceeding the timeout period and hence why NINA is returning the errors. I occasionally get a healthy blip in the guiding but it only lasts a couple of guiding cycles then it settles down again. My cable management is almost non existent so I put it down to that or a freak convection current if I am pointing over the neighbour's wood burning fire chimney stack.

Great result on a challenging target, it looks like the option of presenting comets against a fixed star field is gaining in popularity. Does the forward facing tail move round as the comet progresses on it’s orbit? I’ve seen other images where there appears to be an asymmetric flare at roughly 90 degrees to the main tail and I’m wondering if this is the start of the forward facing tail.

A lot of the Imaging big hitters have embraced the RC tools, and they know how to do it the hard way, so that says a lot. For the same reasons as you guys I would happily use the "EffortXterminator" tool if Russ Croman ever releases one. If the AI doubters want to tag their images with "Processed without using the Xterminator tools", that's fine by me, but they should take a look at Adam Block's then and now images at the end of the interview, I couldn't let that level of improvement pass me by.