tomato

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.👍

Great post. I bought my first visual scope last year, (a 16” SW flextube Dob, on a if some is good, more is better, approach to visual) and yes, I have fallen foul of the big scope, a pain to set up, syndrome. As an imager I find I want to use it more when the lighter evenings are here as I have more time to set it up rather than rush to get the imaging rig going, and then I don’t want to start moving it and setting it up in the dark. I know that doesn’t stand up to logical scrutiny, but that’s the mindset I have got into.

With regard to dithering, I had really bad walking noise when using an Esprit 150/ASI 178 combination which dithering eliminated. However when I moved to a dual rig dithering was a bit more difficult to implement but was possible with NINA, but I still lost some imaging time so I experimented with no dithering and found that walking noise was much less of an issue. I wonder if that is because I am combining a roughly equal number of subs from two optical sources which are not perfectly aligned and have different fixed noise patterns?

Well, there were a lot binos on display and the superbly engineered Rowan mounts are aimed at visual astronomers? The well engineered scope trolleys on display are also aimed primarily at big Dob owners. Robin in his talk on PA spent some time on Drift Alignment which I know from experience is a very accurate visual method of PA, so all in all I don't think it was exclusively an imager's show. Peter Shah seemed to be receiving quite a bit of interest in a remote imaging facility, so maybe in 5 years time the imagers will all be glued to a laptop screen in the house. Having said that, another 3 nights this week predicted to be clear in my locality, with the moon getting out of the way, awesome...

It has indeed been a challenge trying to find a galaxy cluster away from the moon over this recent spell of clear nights. This is Abell 426 in Perseus centered on NGC 1272. Imaged over 3 nights before it set below the roof of my house. Captured with the Esprit 150/ASI 178 dual rig, L 147 x 2 mins, RGB 46 x 2 mins each, all binned 2x2, best 80% of the subs captured have been processed. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP.

Nice first light, roughly the same FOV as my ASI178 4 panel mosaic but yours has a much more even background.

Yes indeed, there have been a number of excellent images involving collaborations of this kind posted recently in the Deep Sky Imaging section. Software such as APP make this reasonably straightforward, although one difficulty combing data from more than one reflector is aligning the diffraction spikes on the stars, but I think these can be removed in software so it’s not a show stopper.

Who attempts a 4 panel mosaic of M101 at 1" per pixel when there is an 88% illuminated moon at the zenith? Guilty as charged m'lord. I wanted to get a wider FOV for this galaxy than the Esprit 150/ASI 178 can deliver in a single image so I went for 4 panels capturing 30 x 2 mins L and 10 x 2 mins each on RGB. As you might expect the quality was not great, especially the first panel which shows itself in the bottom RH quarter of the image. I boosted most of the galaxy with 10 hrs of historic Luminance captured on the same set up with the galaxy centered. Still as noisy as hell, as usual with my efforts, but at least I have some clear sky around most of the galaxy. Calibrated and stacked in APP, mosaic combined in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP. Thanks for looking.

Picking up distant galaxies on a star test, now that’s what I call a light bucket!!!