tomato

I guess the “too ill to go out” occasions come into the term Ffr, fraction of free nights? Based on my own circumstances as an imager, with 36% of the nights clear to date and I go out regardless of moon phase, wind (dome) or temperature(warm room) and after 8 years operation my set up is quite reliable, assuming the fraction of clear nights holds🤞I get: N= 365x 0.36 x 1.0 x 0.9 x 1.0 x 1.0 x 0.9 = 106. Looks like I need another hard drive….

On the dual rig, with mono cameras and filters, I collect LRGB in the ratio 3:1:1:1, sometimes I’ll start a target with both scopes on Lum so this channel gets pushed higher. It’s probably my inexpert manipulation of the respective software packages but with this ratio of channels I get lots of colour from StarTools, less with APP, but it’s like getting blood out of a stone with Pixinsight.

My optical imaging scale is 0.47” per pixel for small targets but I bin this 2x2. I imaged HCG 61 in Leo for the competition. You are right though, a lot of the groups are tiny and need imaging conditions beyond what is available in the damp UK if any meaningful detail is going to be captured.

+1 for MyPicture, I think they are reasonably good value and generally do a decent job on astro images.

That’s an interesting exercise. I wonder if the HST has imaged the same star at some point, it would be good to compare the JWST star test image with a longer integration from Hubble to see how many of those distant galaxies were picked up in the visible wavelengths.

Here is my effort processed in APP using the Remove light pollution tool at the linear stage and then the background removal tool in Affinity Photo on the stretched image.

Not up to Olly’s quality standard, but I used the MyPicture.co.uk offer of a small photo album, 26 pages, cost about £15 if I recall correctly. Not great, but it’s nice to turn a printed page.

It looks good to me too. I’m not on my imaging PC, but I’m sure APP has an option to combine Ha with LRGB in the combine RGB tool.

Thanks, and yes, you never know when Vlaiv is looking…😉

Yes, @wimvb is spot on with the short exposures, my integrated version got the GCs but the jet was more distinct on a single sub.

Great result! I think there is always something interesting to try imaging in Lum, if the moon is killing deep LRGB imaging. If you go a bit deeper and probably on a moonless night you will pick up some of the super massive globular clusters associated with this galaxy.

Having been convinced that combining data from previous historic sessions is a standard way to achieving better images, here is 14 hrs of integration from this year and last year on NGC 3938, in Ursa Major. All captured with the Esprit 150/ASI 178 dual rig, all data binned 2x2 so running at 0.94 arcsec per pixel. I have settled on 2 minute subs this year but took 3 minute subs last year, combined as follows: L 88 x 2 mins + 97 x 3 mins, RGB 29 x 2 mins + 26 x 3mins each channel. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in StarTools, AP and GIMP. For some reason I orientated the cameras 90 degrees away from their current positions last year so a hefty crop was required. Apart from some additional depth and detail that double digit integration times deliver I really like that images in this part of the sky reveal a liberal sprinkling of distant galaxies in the background. The fact that each of those few illuminated pixels is an island universe in it's own right, some no doubt larger than the Milky Way, never fails to impress me.

Not sure where you are located but both seeing and transparency were poor from Shropshire last night, not often that both are bad. I could see a lot of slow moving hazy high cloud on the All Sky Cam, FWHM numbers were well off par until late on, despite frequent refocus routines.

My favourite is still Scooby Doo, better known as the Fish Head Nebula.

This is HCG 61 in Leo otherwise known as "The Box". Captured with the dual Esprit150/ASI 178 dual rig, 10 hrs of integration made up of 165 x 2 mins L, 45 x 2 mins each RGB all binned 2x2. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP.

Thanks for the replies, which are along the lines of what I expected. I suppose I have been at this game long enough now to start to move into the realms of combining historic data, and by that I mean data 2, 3 or more years old, rather than that captured during the current season, which as folks have pointed out, is standard practice. I'm still surprised that that long integration images are not more common place on this forum, given how long digital imaging has been around and how easy it is to combine data of different pedigrees these days.

Last night I couldn’t image my planned new target because of a persistent cloud bank so I went for a galaxy that I had imaged last year and got around 6 hrs of data, not enough to do it justice. However, I have around 7 hrs of subs from this time last year so planned to combine them, but somehow I feel this might be cheating a little? Technically I don’t think there is a problem, any detail visible on the galaxy won’t have changed, and modern software will easily deal with changes in the background, but if this is a common practice why don’t I see lots of images of 20+ hours from imagers who have been doing this for while?

Doesn’t the reference image have a smiley face in the circled region?🙂 Great Cigar Galaxy for 4 hrs integration.👍

Starlink satellite being selectively affected by the gravitational pull of M81?😉 Seriously though, it's an intriguing image.

If it was a windows update issue, would it not work right from the off rather than stop once it had been working OK for while?

Mrs Tomato gave me a little astronomer’s observing notebook at Christmas and I have been diligently filling it in for every session this year. I noted last night that the book is now about a third full and I counted the pages and found I have been out 26 nights so far this year, that’s a 36% hit rate! I know I will no doubt regret this post as the year progresses, but if it keeps up a Planewave ODK makes more and more sense in my back garden.☺️

Brilliant M1!👍

Based on the attendance at the recent Practical Astronomy Show, I think both visual and imaging is rapidly becoming a senior citizen pastime, but maybe the old timers (I’m in that category) like the hands on experience and face to face contact? As regards post counts, I think it is quite easy to post an image with details of how it was captured and processed, but writing a good visual session report is quite a skill IMHO, not something everyone can do. For those newcomers that want a Hubble style visual experience, then I think EEVA is the answer, and this arm of the hobby would really take off, if only the kit was a bit more affordable.

Yes, I won’t be joining the fully remote brigade, I like getting one over the UK weather every now and again, and I like the hands on aspect too much.

Great image, lots of fainter regions visible and the Ha really complements it.👍