tomato

True to form, here is me posting another rendition, hopefully with an improved background.

Wow guys! Surely galaxies as prominent as these ones have been catalogued somewhere? I get how tenuous nebulosity may not have been categorised, but galaxies are distinct objects, much easier to identify and label. @gorann, it has had a dose of NoiseXterminator already, at 70% Noise reduction, 40% detail. I think what has created the horrible mottled coloured background is me boosting the Chrominance level after the noise reduction was applied, in an effort to improve the appearance of the galaxy when zoomed in, in hindsight not a good idea. I have got to the bottom of what went wrong with the dome aperture tracking, I took a measurement of the Azimuth change in Stellarium at about 20:00 hrs, with this object being so close to the celestial pole later in the night the Az motion stops and then goes retrograde...oops. Looks like I will be modifying the dome control software to accommodate this.

There won’t be many imagers who can say I’ve got everything I need, the technology keeps changing and improving too much.

Thanks, there does look to be some ‘fuzziness’ running at 45 degrees to the core, which is what made me think it was a galaxy. It’s quite large though, so I would have thought it would feature in the more prominent catalogues.

Last night I was trying to image away from a 93% illuminated moon so had a go at an interesting looking galaxy NGC 2146 in Camelopardalis. This 156 x 2 mins with the Esprit150/IMX571c dual rig. I set out to capture twice this amount of data but for some reason my usually reliable method of setting the dome rotation rate to keep the scopes aligned with the open aperture went awry after a couple of hours, so I imaged the inside of the dome for half the session. The annotation script in PI did not identify the object circled in purple. It looks like a galaxy but has two bright cores, I presume one is a faint foreground star. Thanks for looking

Total respect for getting over halfway, I think I have about 30 although some I have imaged many, many times. Below is a link to an intrepid US imager who attempted to image the entire catalogue in a single night, how crazy is that?!

I think mono CCD cameras outsold their OSC equivalents by quite a margin for the reasons outlined above, but (and this is purely anecdotal based on the posts here on SGL) I think the reverse is true for the latest mid format CMOS cameras based on the IMX571 sensor. I can only put this down to the perceived convenience of using a OSC camera in the UK and the savings made on filters etc. Also the results obtained with fast optics and the latest OSC CMOS cameras have also made quite an impression. The mono 383 is a fine camera btw, and has delivered many award winning astro images both in LRGB and NB.

Would something like this work, no bespoke machining required: https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/fasteners/square-washers/square-taper-washer-8%-metric-steel-grade-hv10-din-434/f/56445

The only way I would describe the moon as as useful is that if you image faint nebulae with and without the moon present it will help you appreciate it’s absence! Having said that, if all you have is a moonlit sky, don’t be afraid to have a go. Choose a brighter target positioned well away from the moon if possible. Take a look at this thread to have some idea of what is possible, although bear in mind some of the better results have been obtained with sensitive CMOS cameras and large scopes.

Maybe, but this is the first time I haven't seen a single copy of either title on display. The magazine aisle is only about 75% of normal size due to the relocation, so that's what made me think they have been a bit selective on what to offer over Christmas.

During the weekly shop if it's Tesco's turn I spend 10 minutes browsing the astronomy magazines, they usually stock AN and SatN. However today, with the magazines being relocated to make way for Christmas stuff, they were nowhere to be seen. There were still plenty of motoring, hunting/shooting/fishing publications (very popular around these parts) but the astro titles have definitely not made the cut. Is this just peculiar to Shrewsbury, or is it Tesco's policy nationwide, I wonder?

Outstanding work. To borrow from JTK, you’ve boldly gone where no amateur imager has gone before.👍

I use Sharpcap’s PA tool, I’m not sure if Robin makes changes to it between versions. It does make sense then to check the PA regularly even if you have a permanent setup, although the giveaway is seeing the guiding performance change.

Ok, sorry I misunderstood. Users of 3D printers have come up with numerous ingenious items to aid this hobby, the filter adapters you describe being one of them. You are right though, to date I haven’t seen many 3D printed optical train screw together adapters…

Folks on here into 3D printing will answer that one, but I think FLO still send a lot of metal screwed adapters out the door… Just be aware you will have an expensive camera, filters and filter wheel hanging off a few mm of fine thread and personally I would prefer them to be made out of metal rather than a thermopolymer.

My green Pulsar 2.2m dome was purchased second hand and it is the best piece of Astro kit I have by far. With the substantial rig I have inside means I struggle to move around in there but then I’m a 100% imager so it’s not a problem. Does it shout ‘expensive kit inside’? Maybe, but it has a sophisticated alarm system and non Astro minded folks who have seen it have described it has an oversized heating oil tank, portaloo or bottle bank. Having set up and took down every session for 5 years before I retired I wouldn’t be without it now.

Just out of interest, I noted that my guiding performance has dropped off over the summer, so I did a SharpCap PA and it was ‘poor’ about 10’ adrift. Now I have a permanent setup with a steel pier securely bolted to a cubic metre of reinforced concrete so what’s going on? Has the block shifted in the ground after a very dry summer? I have bumped into the scopes a couple of times, but I wouldn’t have thought that would shift the PA by that much.

I do get a buzz from attempting to image objects on the the limit of my equipment’s capabilities. The images will of course, never match those from million (or even billion) dollar professional equipment, but just the fact that some photons from objects and events which are on unimaginable time and distance scales can be captured on kit residing in my back garden never fails to amaze me.

@Tomatobro sourced a Nissei DPS-300GL 30A linear PS for my dual rig set up. Like he says, its big, heavy and a bit noisy and the waste heat it throws off helps keep the warm room warm. But more to the point, I have never had any power supply issues to the equipment, with up to 8 eight items drawing power from it.

Here is an image of M87 when I was attempting to capture the plasma jet emanating from the central black hole. I think I picked up some of the huge globular clusters that surround the galaxy.

Yes, you could light a street up with the amp glow from the ASI178, but it all calibrates out with a dark frame.

I’ve used an Atik 383 with 1.25” filters on a F7 Esprit 150 with no issues, but Goran has a point regarding the future proofing of your set up. Having said that, a lot of folks go with the OSC version of the CMOS IMX571 sensor, and you would only need to purchase two 2” filters to use with it to cover both RGB and Narrowband. So many choices…

Nice one, I managed something with a RASA8 and an IMX571c from my Bortle 5/6 location but imaging the shark with same kit from a Bortle 3 site was literally a revelation, a better result with only 25% of the integration time.

I was finding that flats taken at a significant delta T(~30 deg C) were not calibrating the lights correctly. I run the IMX571 cameras at -10 so it’s no big deal to have them at this temp during the daytime when taking the flat frames.

Having experienced horizontal banding on a QHY268c (same sensor as the IMX571C) here are my findings: 1. Increase the USB Traffic value from zero to +40. 2. Use a good quality USB 3 lead. 3. I have found it is important to take flats/dark flats at the same temperature as your lights/darks.