tomato

You can enter your scope and camera details into Stellarium to project your FOV onto the sky. The software will also display scaled images of many DSOs.

Have a look at Telescopius, configurable to your location, objects classified by type and can be ordered or filtered by a host of different parameters. Your imaging parameters can be entered so you get a FOV view of the object. It’s free software.

This is not a scientific approach which is what I would recommend, but this is after gradient removal in Astro Pixel Processor and adjustment in Startools and Affinity Photo. The usual fixes for colour adjustment in PI (Photometric colour calibration) and APP (Calibrate star colours) did not work on the image. The adjustments were made in AP with the HSL tool, Channel Mixer and selective colour. I have posted the AP screenshots so you can see the changes to the Histograms. Original Modified

I’m primarily an imager, but I do have a 16” SW flextube Dobsonian for the rare occasions when the imaging kit looks after itself, and yes, the views from under a dark sky are worth the hassle of setting it up. But a truss tube Dob wouldn’t make much of a ship’s funnel.

Nice, and it comes already flocked.😉

Exactly, it’s a celebration of complex engineering. I’m sorry but when I see a white refractor it always reminds of these:😊

Great job on 2 hrs integration👍🏼

That red cord isn’t just a bungee holding them together?😉

I think all white refractors look just plain and ordinary (and I’ve got three of them). If I wanted a scope for the visual wow factor it would be one of these:

Thanks, that is it for this image, now looking for another broadband target that suits the FOV.

And finally, the 7.7 hrs version. The extra integration has added a tiny bit more definition to some of the distant galaxies and there may be a hint of a tidal tail on one of them, but then again it may just be an iffy background. What was very frustrating was that the middle session comprising about 3 hrs of data was way better on FWHM values, it's a good job we need the atmosphere to breath because it is a total pain for galaxy imaging. Tidal tail on barred spiral?

A fine M33, great definition and I think the silvery blue for the spiral arms is spot on. I would agree that the luminosity extending out in the corners is from the galaxy, it seems to have a more diffuse structure that a lot of spiral galaxies.

That would be my next-door neighbour. I just do Astrophotography.

I agree that you shouldn’t be too concerned. I had to get permission from the builder (new estate) to put mine up as there was a clause in the covenants about outbuildings but have never had any comment from the neighbours. With it being green my main concern was that somebody would chuck a load of empty bottles in there if I left the shutter open during the day.☺️

Really nice, wonderful crisp detail on the dust lanes. Your images kill the adage that you can’t image broadband from a light polluted location, you just need your level of patience and dedication.

Thanks, I should be able to take it out to the 8 hr mark tonight then will call it a day (or night!) on this one.

Yes, a Risingcam OSC purchased 12 months ago from AliExpress. NINA does indeed recognise that it has a built in window heater but I suffered from fogging until I fitted the ZWO heater.

Wow, these Touptek clones are sprouting like mushrooms, not sure why some images show a round sensor window, maybe it’s just the CAD drawing?

As promised, after Friday night here is the 3.6 hr integration version. Is it worth the extra time? In my view yes, superficially it might not be much different but zoom in and there are plenty of galaxies on the edge of visibility coming through. It's worth one more decent session I reckon.

The reverse tilt adjustment is a nice idea, will go down well with RASA owners.

Yes, I have overdone the star reduction a bit. I’d never post a starless image, it would be like fish without the chips.😊

I’ve seen some huge mosaics on APP’s website but I think they have been taken with a wide angle lens and a DSLR so probably comprise no more than your 35 maximum. I presume all sky surveys are never stitched together, the panels are referenced based on their sky co-ordinates?

OK, so this is well off topic but frustrated at not being able to find the original CCD data, I have found a set of similar vintage of NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet, around 2.5 hrs of data taken with the AA 102 mm APO/G2-8300 LRGB. The first image is my 2018 processing effort and the second a quick run through using my current workflow using StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator. The noise and star reduction are not surprisingly the big differences.

Alas, I can only find two subs of each LRGB channel from 2017, so much for my archiving of data. It would have been an interesting exercise to put the data through my current workflow. The OSC IMX571 has ~90% QE vs ~50% for the mono KAF 8300, so that's a big difference and the OSC is on a scope with over twice the aperture area of the 102 mm APO which also helps a lot.

Thanks, if I can find it, I'll put the CCD data through my current processing workflow and see how it comes out.